OBJECTIVES AND

STRUCTURES OF VARIOUS C

KINDS OF REPORTS
ENGLISH for ACADEMIC and PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
Quarter 2 – Week 4
KINDS OF REPORTS
What is
report?
REPORT
⮚a specific form of writing briefly identifying and examining issues,
events, or findings that have happened.
⮚involve presenting your investigation and analysis of information
or an issue, recommending actions, and making proposals.
1. Formal or Informal Reports
Formal reports
❖carefully structured which are
focused on objectivity and
organization, contained much
detail, and are written in a style
that tends to eliminate such
elements as personal pronouns.
Informal reports
❖usually short messages with
natural, casual use of
language. The internal
memorandum can generally
be described as an informal
report.
2. Informational or Analytical
Reports
Informational reports
❖annual reports, monthly financial reports, and reports on
personnel absenteeism carry objective information from one
area of an organization to another.
❖Generally simpler and direct

Analytical reports
❖scientific research, feasibility reports, and real-estate
appraisals present attempts to solve problems.
❖Longer and more formal, require in-depth research and
investigation, include conclusions and recommendations
3. Proposal Report
❖The proposal is a variation of problem-solving reports.
❖A proposal is a document prepared to describe how
one organization can meet the needs of another.
❖Most governmental agencies advertise their needs by
issuing “requests for proposal” or RFPs.
❖The RFP specifies a need and potential suppliers
prepare proposal reports telling how they can meet
that need.
4. Vertical or Lateral Reports
Vertical Report
❖This classification refers to the direction a report travels.
❖Reports that more upward or downward the hierarchy are
referred to as vertical reports such reports contribute to
management control.

Lateral reports
❖assist in coordination in the organization.
❖A report traveling between units of the same organization
level (production and finance departments) is an example of
lateral.
5. Internal or External Reports
Internal reports
❖travel within the organization

External reports
❖such as annual reports of companies, are prepared for
distribution outside the organization.
6. Periodic Reports
Periodic reports
❖issued on regularly scheduled dates.
❖They are generally upward directed and serve
management control.
❖Pre-printed forms and computer-generated data
contribute to uniformity of periodic reports.
7. Functional Reports
❖This classification includes accounting reports,
marketing reports, financial reports, and a variety of
other reports that take their designation from the
ultimate use of the report.
8. Survey Report
❖It is written after getting data from a survey and is done
to collect people’s responses or answers about a
particular issue or topic.
9. Laboratory or Scientific
Technical Report
❖It is commonly called lab
report and is written in a
formal and organized
manner which is written to
present results or findings
from experiments.
10. Field Report
❖It is sometimes called trip report and is written to
describe and analyze a systematic observation.
❖Reports are also classified on the basis of their format.
❖Remember that sometimes their definitions overlap with
the classification pattern described above
Pre-printed Form
❖It is also known as the
“fill in the blank report”
which is relatively short
(five or fewer pages)
and deal with routine
information, mainly
numerical and is used
when requested by the
person authorizing the
report.
Letter
❖It is a common report
consisting of five or fewer
pages that are directed to
outsiders. This include all the
normal parts of the letter,
but it may also have a
heading, footnote, table/s,
and figures. Personal
pronouns are used in this
type of report.
Memo
❖A memo is common for short
(fewer than ten pages)
informal reports distributed
within an organization.
❖The memo format of “Date,”
“To,” “From,” and “Subject” is
used. Like longer reports, they
often have internal headings
and sometimes have visual
aids.
❖Memos exceeding ten pages
are sometimes referred to as
memo reports to distinguish
them from shorter ones.
Manuscript
❖A manuscript is common for reports that run from a few
pages to several hundred pages and require a formal
approach.
❖As their length increases, reports in manuscript format
require more elements before and after the text of the
report.
❖a book, document, or piece
of music written by hand
rather than typed or printed
❖an author's text that has not
yet been published.
How to Structure a Report?
A simple report contains at least the following:
• Introduction, including aims and objectives
• Methodology - "'a contextual framework”
• Findings/results
• Discussion
• Conclusions and recommendations
• References
1. Introduction = State what your research/project/enquiry is
about. What are you writing about, why and for whom? What
are your objectives? What are you trying to show or prove (your
hypothesis)?
2. Methodology = State how you did your research/enquiry
and the methods you used. How did you collect your data? For
example, if you conducted a survey, say how many people
were included and how you selected them. Explain whether
you used interviews or questionnaires and how you analyzed
the data.
3. Findings/results = Give the results of your research. Do not,
at this stage, try to interpret the results – simply report them. This
section may include graphs, charts, diagrams etc. (clearly
labelled). Be very careful about copyright if you are using
published charts, tables, illustrations etc.
4. Discussion = Interpret your findings. What do they show?
Were they what you expected? Could your research have
been done in a better way?
5. Conclusions and recommendations = These should follow
on logically from the Findings and Discussion sections.
Summarize the key points of your findings and show whether
they prove or disprove your hypothesis. If you have been
asked to, you can make recommendations arising from your
research.
6. References = List all your sources in alphabetical order
using the appropriate University of style
Guidelines for Writing the Survey
Report
1. Value Communicated
Objective, accurate and honest presentation of facts and
results
2. Basic Content
a. May consist of eyewitness accounts of first – hand
information.
b. May contain facts, data, figures or statistics on or from
people, events, phenomena, structures, experiments,
questionnaires, interviews and library research.
c. May include materials and procedures or methods.
3. Modes of Ordering
a. Chronological or time order.
b. Geographical or space / spatial order.
c. Logical – Inductive and Deductive
d. Problem – Solution
e. Cause and Effect
f. Formal
g. Abstract – Introduction – Background – Statement of the problem
h. Materials – Method or Procedure – Results – Discussion –Summary
i. Conclusion and Recommendation
4. Basic Qualities of a Good Report
a. Objective, not subjective point of view.
b. Accurate, not sloppy presentation of facts ,
numbers, statistics and data
c. Honest, not false or incomplete details and results.
d. Brief and direct
How to Write a Survey Report?
1. Break the report into separate sections with heading.
Survey reports usually use headings for each section.
2. Write a 1-2 page executive summary paraphrasing the
report.
3. State the objectives of the survey in the background
section.
4. Provide background information by explaining
research and studies