A report is a document that aims to communicate and account for a situation from different perspectives, that is, something on which an exhaustive investigation is being carried out. A report can be requested in any field, be it work, student, university, commercial, etc., but to prepare them properly it is essential to take into account some important aspects of their writing.
At the end of the article, you will find two examples of correctly written reports: a scientific report and a psychological one. Discover in this OneHOWTO article how to write a report correctly.
what is a report
To know how a report is made, it is first important to clear up any doubts about what a report is. In general terms, the report is a text about a situation or a fact in which the characteristics or development of the same are described. It is based on observation and is ideal for presenting the reader with everything they need to know about what happened.
A correctly written report must be prepared with clear, precise, concrete, and objective language. Avoid including personal assessments using verbal forms such as I think, I think, I would like, I wish, etc., which should be replaced by others such: it is observed, it has been analyzed, it proceeded, etc.
Report Types
There are different types of reports, and these can be expository, interpretive, or demonstrative.
- The expository report is a sequence of events narrated without analysis and interpretations of the author, it must contain background information that helps to understand what is narrated, for example, the sale of products in commercial stores.
- The interpretive report analyzes the situations to draw conclusions and be able to make the appropriate recommendations. An example of this type of report would be an evaluation of pedagogical practices in a school.
- The demonstrative report is the one that arises after a study. This describes the steps followed and the conclusions obtained from the results. It is also called scientific or technical. An example of scientific reports would be those that are made after carrying out an experiment.
Steps to writing a report
Specifically, the preparation of a report must have the following phases: set the objective, select the information, analyze it, evaluate and verify it, structure the report, and proceed to work on it.
set a goal
To set the objective, ask yourself these questions: Who is the report for? What is the use that is going to be given to it? What do they want to know? What knowledge do they have of the subject? These questions are important to ask before you start writing your report.
Select the information
Define the preliminary phase of the activities that you are going to carry out to achieve the proposed evaluation criteria. Determine the sources of information, human resources, and material resources to extract the data. Once extracted, analyze all the selected information, organize it and start making comparisons.
Analyze, evaluate and verify
Evaluates the data and proceed to verify the same, consolidates the information, organize and prepare the written report. Good reports should say what the source of certain information is, for this you must write down the source, you can do it by adding a number next to the data in question and in the footer or put it in an annex at the end of the document.
Next, I will show you how the structure of a report should be so that you can proceed to work on it.
parts of a report
The structure of the report is divided into three main parts. Although all reports must have these sections, their content is not rigid and must be ordered according to the editor’s criteria or according to the topic to be presented.
The introduction
The introduction of a report is the first time that the reader will know about the situation to be treated. For this reason, he must answer the questions:
- What event or topic is covered in the report?
- Why has this situation been addressed?
- Why or with what objective has this research been carried out?
- With what methods or tools has the research been carried out?
Furthermore, by the end of the introduction, the reader should also be clear about how the investigation has been organized and the order in which the facts will be presented.
The development
For its part, development is the most important part of the report. It can be divided into subsections in which the most important aspects of the investigation are described. In addition, it must explain the methods that have been followed to obtain the results and how they have been used.
The conclusion
Finally, the conclusion, as in most works, briefly analyzes the results, summarizing the research and suggesting courses of action based on the results obtained.
In addition, it is also very important to leave a section for the bibliography, in which the sources of the research will be put. Follow the instructions that we leave you in our articles How to cite a book and How to cite an Internet source.
Tips for writing a report
As general recommendations to apply to your report, we give you the following:
- Write the report objectively, subjectivity is not accepted. It limits to describing the observed facts without opinions.
- List all possible data.
- Be organized.
- Describe each step in detail.
- Cite the sources of information you have consulted.
- Write short, clear, precise, and concrete paragraphs
- Expose the information accurately.
Example of how to write a report
Below, you can see an example of a report with this scientific report. If you want to make the report bigger, click on it. The example is very simple and we hope it will serve as the basis for a report.
Below you have an example of a psychological report that you can see larger if you click on it. Also, if you still have doubts about how to make a report, in a HOWTO you can see how to write different types of reports depending on the area for which you need to prepare it:
- How to make a management report .
- How to write a clinical report .
- How to prepare an analytical report.
- If you want to read more articles similar to How to write a report correctly, we recommend you visit our Training category.
