Some tasks/questions ask you draft a paper or a report rather than an essay, and learners are often confused about what that really means. When confronted with a request for a 'paper' or a ‘report’ to anyone, then many people struggle to know what to write.
What am I expected to do?
Start by reading the instructions in the assignment and interpreting the task. Interpreting the task is an essential part of the writing process as it will influence the quality and relevance of your writing.
When you write any paper or report you have to formulate a purpose, a question or a problem that you must answer based on the course literature and the literature that you are looking for. Papers or Reports often have a similar structure to a thesis.
Confusion often arises about the writing style, what to include, the language to use, the length of the document and other factors.
This next section aims to disentangle some of these elements, and provide you with some advice designed to help you to write a good report.
What is a Report?
In normal academic writing there is some overlap between Reports and Papers, and the two words are sometimes used interchangeably, but both are more likely to be needed for business, technical subjects, and for us, in the pensions workplace. Whereas an Paper presents arguments and reasoning, a Report concentrates on facts.
Essentially, a Report is a short, sharp, concise document which is written for a particular purpose and audience. It generally sets outs and analyses a situation or problem, often making recommendations for future action. It is a factual document and needs to be clear and well-structured. Reports may contain some or all of the following elements, so you should follow the guidelines given in the Communications Manual (here):
Not all of these elements will be essential in every report.
A paper is not too disimilar, but it will ask a question that asks you to reason out an argument, to compare and contrast or to evaluate, but essentially the layout will be the same.
Title of Report
The title summarises the main idea or ideas of your report. A good title contains the fewest possible words that adequately describe the contents and/or purpose of your paper. The title is without doubt the part of a paper that is read the most, and it is usually read first.
Sections and Numbering
A report is designed to lead people through the information in a structured way, but also to enable them to find the information that they want quickly and easily.
Reports usually, therefore, have numbered sections and subsections, and a clear and full contents page listing each heading. It follows that page numbering is important.
Report Writing
The structure of a report is very important to lead the reader through your thinking to a course of action and/or decision. It’s worth taking a bit of time to plan it out beforehand.
Step 1: Know your brief
You will usually receive a clear brief for a report, including what you are studying and for whom the report should be prepared. First of all, consider your brief very carefully (normally the paerticular question within the exam/assignment) and make sure that you are clear who the report is for and why you are writing it, as well as what you want the reader to do at the end of reading: make a decision or agree a recommendation, perhaps.
Step 2: Keep your brief in mind at all times
During your planning and writing, make sure that you keep your brief in mind, and as above, who are you writing for, and why are you writing it? All your thinking needs to be focused on that, which may require you to be ruthless in your reading and thinking. Anything irrelevant should be discarded. As you read and research, try to organise your work into sections by theme, a bit like writing a Literature Review.
Make sure that you keep track of your references, especially for academic work. Although referencing is perhaps less important in the workplace or for an examinaton question, it’s also important that you can substantiate any assertions that you make so it’s helpful to keep track of your sources of information.
The Skeleton Structure of a Report
Like the precise content, requirements for structure vary, so do check what’s set out in any guidance. However, as a rough guide, you should plan to include at the very least an executive summary, introduction, the main body of your report, and a section containing your conclusions and any recommendations.
The executive summary or abstract, for a scientific report, is a brief summary of the contents. It’s worth writing this last, when you know the key points to draw out. It should be no more than half a page to a page in length. Remember the executive summary is designed to give busy 'executives' a quick summary of the contents of the report.
The introduction sets out what you plan to say and provides a brief summary of the problem under discussion. It should also touch briefly on your conclusions.
The main body of the report should be carefully structured in a way that leads the reader through the issue. You should split it into sections using numbered sub-headings relating to themes or areas for consideration. For each theme, you should aim to set out clearly and concisely the main issue under discussion and any areas of difficulty or disagreement. It may also include experimental results. All the information that you present should be related back to the brief and the precise subject under discussion. If it’s not relevant, leave it out.
The conclusion sets out what inferences you draw from the information, including any experimental results. It may include recommendations, or these may be included in a separate section. Recommendations suggest how you think the situation could be improved, and should be specific, achievable and measurable.
If your recommendations have financial implications, you should set these out clearly, with estimated costs if possible.
A Word on Writing Style
When writing a report, your aim should be to be absolutely clear.
Above all, it should be easy to read and understand, even to someone with little knowledge of the subject area.
You should therefore aim for crisp, precise text, using plain English, and shorter words rather than longer, with short sentences. You should also avoid jargon. If you have to use specialist language, you should explain each word as you use it.
If you find that you’ve had to explain more than about five words, you’re probably using too much jargon, and need to replace some of it with simpler words.
Within your report you can also highlight where you would like to include a diagram/chart without being penailsed for formatting.
Consider your audience
If the report is designed to be written for a particular person, check whether you should be writing it to ‘you’ or perhaps in the third person to a job role: ‘The Chief Executive may like to consider…’, or ‘The minister is recommended to agree…’, for example.
A word on writing style
When writing your report, your aim shoud be to be absolutly clear. Above all, it should be easy and clear to read, even to someone who has little knowledge of the subject area.
You should therefore aim for crisp, precise text, using plain English, and shorter words rather than longer, with short sentences. You should also avoid jargon.
If you have to use specialist language you should explain each word as you use it.
If you find that you have had to explain more than about five words, then you are possibly using too much jargon and need to replce some of it with simpler words.
A Final Warning
As with any academic assignment, examination question or formal piece of writing, your work will benefit from being read over again and edited ruthlessly for sense and style.
Pay particular attention to whether all the information that you have included is relevant. Also remember to check tenses, which person you have written in, grammar and spelling.
It’s also worth one last check against any requirements on structure. For an academic assignment, make sure that you have referenced fully and correctly. As always, check that you have not inadvertently or deliberately plagiarised or copied anything without acknowledging it. Finally, ask yourself: “Does my report fulfil its purpose?” Only if the answer is a resounding ‘yes’ should you send it off to its intended recipient.