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i 

 
ë You are directed by your
organization to visit a couple of
Primary Health Centres in Western
Afghanistan and report on the quality
of care being provided to rural
people.
ë You take the pains of going to
visit approximately 23 PHC
Centres in Western
Afghanistan and checked the
parameters like staff
attendance, drugs supply,
utilization, services being
delivered and their volume
and discuss the issues with
the local staff.
ë You are back in three weeks,
and now your Director asks
you to submit a written report
of your visits for onward
submission to the country
director of your organization.
Y
 
 
ë £ustas you will be judged by your
interpersonal skills and organization,
so you will be judged by your ability
to get the facts down accurately and
in a way that others can understand.
Ñ
 Y


ë nformational - contains facts/figures,

e.g. sales, production or accident
reports.
ë Analytical - written to solve
problems/situations, contains
recommendations.
Ñ  

ë A first mistake is to assume that you know what
the person who asked for the report wants. Often
they do not know what they want themselves.
They will never hesitate to tell you that what you
have written is not what they want!
ë Before starting insist on a thorough briefing from
the person who requested the report and identify:
· Îa) the purpose of the report
· Îb) the need for the report
· Îc) who is going to read the report
· Îd) the scope of the report
i   


ë Your director is basically interested

to know what the different indicators
are for various quality indicators of
PHC services and how they related
with the standards set for same
indicators and if there are any short
coming what are the reasons for
those short comings.
½!
ë Attendance Rate for staff
ë Drugs stock availability
ë Utilization Rates
ë Services currently being provided
along with its volume
ë Decide what you want the report to
achieve. Write to achieve that and
only that.
ë dentify your readers, their
motivations, needs and concerns.

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  Y

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ë 
 


 

  


  
¦
 Y

ë The purpose of a 
  is to inform the
reader. t is helpful, both to the reader and
to the writer, if the 
  is logically
organized. Over the years a standard
format for reports has been worked out.
Although there may be circumstances
when it is advisable to change the format
to fit a articular need, following the format
ensures that all the essential information
is included and that it is treated in a
logical way

ë The title is your readers¶ first contact with the

 . ts aim is to inform them of the 
 ¶s
contents. t should be brief, but it must contain
enough information to distinguish it from other,
similar report

ë title
ë writer
ë organisation
ë date
ë person/group who commissioned the report
i½ 
ë accurate, clear layout
ë section numbering system and
indentation
ë complete
ë page numbers
ë list of illustrations if applicable
"
ë The purpose of the summary is to give a brief
overview of the whole 
 , not just of the
conclusions and recommendations. Although it is
placed immediately after the title, it is written last,
after the rest of the 
  has been completed. t
is not necessary to give detailed information in
the summary - it is sufficient to give an indication
of the kind of information that can be found in the

 . For a short 
 , a summary of about 100-
150 words is enough
!
ë The purpose of the introduction is to set the
scene for your readers so that they know what to
expect from the 
 . t is important to
remember that the introduction introduces the

 . t does not introduce the subject.
ë You should leave any material facts until the main
body of the 
 . The introduction answers the
questions:

·  

 



·   

 


·  
 

 


· ë  

 


à
 
 à

ë t is important to set out your brief for the 
 .
You need to give the circumstances which made
the 
  necessary and what you hope to
achieve by  it. t may be necessary to give
some background information so that there is a
framework into which your readers can fit the
information you are presenting. Of course, you
need to use your judgment to decide how much
detail to include, and this will largely depend on
your assessment of the people who will be
reading the 
 .
à  
  
ë You need to give an indication of the
subject matter which you are dealing
with. t is often helpful to give the
scope of the information as well. For
example, you could say how detailed
or technical the information is going
to be. You might need to say what
kinds of information you are not
going to deal with.
à  
  
 
ë You need to say whether you are
dealing with the problem from a
theoretical or practical standpoint.
Give an outline of the methods you
used in your investigations.
ë
  

 

ë tis helpful to state whether you are
 for a technical or general
reader - or any other particular
group. This will help your potential
readers to decide whether it is
worthwhile reading the 
 . t will
also help you to judge the style,
language and degree of difficulty to
use in  the 
 .
Ñ! Y

ë Thisis where the real content of the

  is presented. t should be given
its own title, which describes the
subject matter. t is usual to present
the material in two sections: µHow
you collected the information¶ and
µFindings¶ Îor µEvidence¶).
ë
   

ë main headings indicating equal level of importance
ë all subheadings relating to section heading
ë choice of levels indicating hierarchy of importance
ë hierarchy of importance shown by careful and consistent use of
features such as capitals, different fonts, underlining, bold, italics
ë indenting
ë numbering/letter system
ë space between sections to enhance readability and layout
ë when using charts, statistics and illustrations check for suitability,
captions, reference in text and positioning
ë acknowledgement of all sources, including material referred to
indirectly, direct quotations, copied diagrams, tables, statistics
ë ensure a systematic link between references in the text and the
reference list and bibliography
ü 
   

ë This is the place where you present your
evidence. t should be organised logically
so that your conclusions arise naturally
from the facts you have written. t is
important to confine yourself to proven
facts here and to resist the temptation to
indulge in personal views. t is sometimes
helpful to use tables, diagrams or graphs
to make your information more easily
understood.
ü 
   

 

 
ë Always ask yourself if all the detail you
have given is necessary to understand the
main argument. f it is, then present it
within the text. f it is not, then the tables,
graphs and so on may be better placed in
an appendix. Do make sure that graphs
and diagrams are well constructed and
labelled so that they do, in fact, make the
information easier to understand. A badly
constructed diagram or graph can make
the information more confusing
ü 
   

 

 
ë Another point to remember is that it
is not enough simply to present a
graph or table and expect your
reader to pick out what is important.
t is your job to show the reader what
the main facts are and how they
relate to the subject you are
presenting. You must, therefore,
include some discussion of the facts.
½
ë The conclusions should arise naturally
from the evidence that is presented in the
previous sections. You might include, for
example, statements on what has
happened, what the situation is and what
might happen. You might also consider
further action that could be taken, and an
analysis of the advantages and
disadvantages of various courses of
action.
    
  
ë f appropriate, you should give your
opinion, in the light of your experience
and the evidence that you have presented,
what a preferred course of action would
be. f there are any gaps in your
knowledge which prevent you coming to a
decision, then you should make that clear
and perhaps outline what further
investigations would be necessary to
provide fuller information.
à      
ë You should not include any new
information that does not appear in
the main body of the 
 . You
should not make statements that you
cannot support from the evidence.
Y  !
ë Recommendations are not always
called for in a 
 , but if they are
included, they should follow on
logically from the conclusions.
Usually a brief statement of what
should or should not be done is
sufficient. t helps the reader if the
recommendations are set out as brief
statements.
"

!
ë Theappendix contains peripheral
matter which would overload your
main argument. Some of the kinds of
material that can be included are
G 


ë f you are presenting a technical 
  to
people who are not experts in the subject,
it is sometimes helpful to provide
explanations of the technical terms you
are using. The neatest way to do this is to
provide a glossary in the Appendix. You
list, in alphabetical order, the terms you
have used with a brief definition of their
meaning.


  
ë Youcan add supporting texts, like
specific forms, questionnaires, office
orders etc etc.
Y    
ë Harvard or Vancouver Style

ë Surname followed by initials of First

and middle Name. Article name.
£ournal Name followed by Volume
and issue no. ÎFor non journal
articles, names of publishing
authority, year and Page No¶s.