Effective Report Writing Guidelines: A Comprehensive Overview

1. Report Writing: Content and Context Dr. Shelley Thomas faculty.weber.edu/sthomas

2. Overview • Guidelines • Sections • Formatting

3. General Guidelines • Know your audience • Clearly define the report’s scope • Clearly define the report’s purpose

4. Report Elements • Front matter • Report body • End matter

5. Front Matter • Cover • Title page • Memo of transmittal • Table of contents • List of Illustrations

6. More Front Matter • Abstract • 100-200 words (but check the guidelines of your journal or assignment description) • Avoid technical jargon • Avoid acronyms (unless they are familiar to your audience) • Use paragraph format • Write this element last

7. Report Body • Introduction • Provides a context for your audience • Objective • Problem statement • Scope • Background • Overview of the report’s contents

8. More Report Body • Methodology • Answers “What did you do?” • Describes research • Describes what you did • Describes your rationale • Researchers could repeat what you did

9. More Report Body • Results • Answers “What did you find?” • Presents the data you found • Discusses a review of the literature • Saves interpretation for the discussion section

10. More Report Body • Discussion • Answers “What does it mean?” • Discusses implications of your research • Moves from facts to opinions • Demonstrates technical (or topical) expertise

11. More Report Body • Conclusions • Answers “What does this information mean to the larger conversation”? • Provides a well-researched to the question you addressed in the introduction • Discussed results • Provides direction for further research

12. Formatting • Use descriptive headings • Sample 1 • OR • Sample 1: Gathering Chicken Feathers • Use frequent headings and sub-headings • Use contrast to make your headings standout

13. Headings • Provide overview statements for sections that have sub-sections • Avoid stacked headings

14. Methodology To better understand why chickens behave as they do, I observed them for seven months. I also reviewed current issues of The Journal of Chicken Behavior and researched poultry on the USDA website. Observation I observed 46 chickens from January to July … Recent Research The The Journal of Chicken Behavior provided a basis …

15. End Matter • Glossary (if required) • List of Symbols (if required) • References/Bibliography/Works Cited • Appendix • Appendix A: Daily Chicken Diary • Appendix B: Title

16. Questions? Comments • No chickens were harmed in the creating of this presentation.