Report Writing

Four important parts of a report are content, context, impact and emotion. Readers need to know the facts and who or what may be affected by them. The background information make up the context and the emotional parts of the story show the human side of it.

RULES
Facts: The facts will answer the: who, what, when, where, why, and how of the event. A writer has a responsibility to make sure his facts are accurate. If you have to write a report before you get all the facts, then say that in the report. Style: Make short, concise sentences with action verbs. Your language needs to be simple and not have extra words that dont really contribute to the focus of the report. For example, the weather or how someone is dressed doesnt need to be included unless it has a bearing on the overall report. While you are writing, try to anticipate any questions a reader might have while reading your report.

RULES
Words should not be too long or complicated. A REPORT is not the place to try and impress people with your intelligence or your command of the English language. Pick your words carefully so they are concise and you will use fewer words overall. Make sure your sentences are under 25 words and contain only one idea. Use a simple subject verb object form and dont use too many commas. Paragraphs need to say something new and, like sentences, be short and to the point.

Introduction
What is the setting of the problem? This is, in other words, the background. In some cases, this may be implicit, and in some cases, merged with the motivation below. What exactly is the problem you are trying to solve? This is the problem statement. Why is the problem important to solve? This is the motivation. In some cases, it may be implicit in the background, or the problem statement itself. Is the problem still unsolved? The constitutes the statement of past/related work crisply. Why is the problem difficult to solve? This is the statement of challenges. In some cases, it may be implicit in the problem statement. In others, you may have to say explicitly as to why the problem is worthy of a BTech/MTech/PhD, or a semester project, as the case may be. How have you solved the problem? Here you state the essence of your approach. This is of course expanded upon later, but it must be stated explicitly here. What are the conditions under which your solution is applicable? This is a statement of assumptions. What are the main results? You have to present the main summary of the results here. What is the summary of your contributions? This in some cases may be implicit in the rest of the introduction. Sometimes it helps to state contributions explicitly. How is the rest of the report organized? Here you include a paragraph on the flow of ideas in the rest of the report. For any report beyond 4-5 pages, this is a must.

FORMAT
Body - This is the main section of the report. There needs to be several facts and ideas. Information is usually arranged in order of importance with the most important information coming first. Conclusion - This is where everything comes together. Keep this section free of jargon as most people will read the Summary and Conclusion. Recommendations - This is what needs to be done. In plain English, explain your recommendations, putting them in order of priority.