Report Writing: Tammy's English Blog

Reports are basically written down as a result of something that may have happened in order to let people know what had happened, to what extent and the cause(s).

We have three (3) types of report:

• Periodic report.
• Progressive report.
• Investigative report.

Periodic Report

It is called periodic report because it is written at intervals, sometimes daily, monthly or annually.

Periodic report is a report written in an organisation where once a while or at some certain interval, it will be required that the management of the organisation knows what has been going on.

Progressive Report

Progressive report is job specific. It is based on a particular job like contracts. As the name implies, progressive report is a report written to know what has been done and what is yet to be done on a particular job. It has a time span.

Investigative Report

This type of report has to do with incidence that may have happened.

STRUCTURE OF A REPORT

A good report should follow this sequence in terms of structure:

1. Title

The title includes the subject matter, the names of those writing the report, names of the initiators of the report and the date of submission. For example: A report of December 25, 2015, on the End of Year Love Feast of the Port Harcourt Youth Forum(PYF), Written by Tammy Reuben as Directed by the President of the Forum, Mr Emmanuel Gogo.

2. Foreword

The foreword is usually written by someone who has indebt knowledge of the report. This person is different from the person writing the report.

3. Acknowledgement

Under acknowledgement, you acknowledge or recognise those persons that were helpful while compiling your report.

4. Table of Content

Here, the headings of the report are usually written and numbered as well, especially investigative reports which are normally bulky.

5. Table of Charts

This is different from the table of content. This is where if need be, you represent your report(s) in diagram and charts.

6. Abstracts

This is a very condensed summary of what is expected in the report. In other words, it is a condensed summary of the report.

7. Introduction

This is where you are going to write a brief history of what  you are reporting on; what led to the incidence; when the committee was formed and the terms of reference.

8. Procedure/Methodology

This tells your reader your method of data collection. In other words, it explains to your reader how you got the information on your report. Therefore, under procedure/methodology, you are expected  state how you went about your job and how you did it.

9. Findings

Your findings are what you discovered. You can also state your challenge(s) here.

10. Conclusion

The summary of what you've written so far.

11. Recommendation

After the conclusion, comes the recommendation. Recommendation has to do with the way forward.

12. Appendix

Appendix has to do with all of the documents, pictures, external papers that are not part of your report.

13. Bibliography

These are works cited (if any).

Note: The length of the report is determined by what you are writing.

FORMAT OF A REPORT

1. Schematic format

This takes the structure of the report discussed above. You are expected to put anything you are explaining in headings.

2. Letter format

In this format, it is only the title of the report that you should put in heading while others come in form of a letter.