A “report” is a very broad genre of writing, and you’ve probably heard the term report used in widely varying contexts. For instance, you’ve probably heard of book reports, police reports, and lab reports, to name a few, and we’re sure that you can think of others. If you look at those three examples, even if you’ve never seen one, you can likely imagine that they are very different. Yet they all include the word “report,” which indicates that they do have something in common. So, what is that commonality, and what is it you’re being asked to do when you’re tasked with writing a report?

A report is a genre of writing that records and conveys information – any report’s primary purpose is to inform. Your context, audience, and the type of information you are conveying will determine what kind of report you write.

Different types of reports can be thought of as sub-genres. A sub-genre is a smaller, more specific category within a broader genre. All sub-genres share some commonality with the primary genre grouping, but have some specific differences that make them what they are. Consider rock music as an example. Pretty much all contemporary rock music will feature guitar, bass guitar, and drums. But rock has many, many subgenres, such as grunge, punk, progressive, alternative, and indie, that have wide variations in tempo, lyrical themes, and song structures – but that all have at least those primary instruments as a common feature.

The same is true for reports. While all reports record and convey information, there are many different types of reports designed to address different situations and fulfill different purposes. This means that there can be very little standardization in what a report should look like or what it is called in one context or another. But despite their variety, they all present results of something. And, in general, any type of report will provide a description of a task, project, or research activity either at its completion or at some mid-point to recount and summarize your actions.

Reports are a very common genre across professions and academic disciplines, and it is extremely likely that you will have to write multiple reports of one kind or another after you leave this class. For that reason, it is a very important genre to learn, and it’s helpful to break reports down into three major types that have typical components, which will be our focus in this chapter.

Types of Reports

There are three major types of reports. The box below identifies the primary purposes of reports within each category and some of the sub-types or alternate names of reports classified in the three major categories are listed below each category heading.

Here are some examples:

• An informational progress report might provide information on the status or progress of a project – your instructor may ask you to submit progress reports for your group project in this class.
• An analytical empirical report might provide methods and data (results) and draw conclusions from an empirical research project (empirical means based on observation or experience)
• A recommendation feasibility report might provide a detailed analysis of a proposed project, draw conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the project, and then make a recommendation regarding the project’s feasibility, which means the possibility of it being accomplished

To illustrate the complexity and altering forms of reports, look closely at the examples above again. For each of the three major report categories, you will see the same type of report: evaluation. An evaluative report, in general, evaluates something or evaluates one thing in relation to another thing. You can have an evaluative report that only presents results, which would be informational. However, that report could also draw conclusions about those results and make recommendations based on them.

Informational Reports

Two of the most common types of informational reports are the progress report and the incident report. For our purposes in this class, we will focus on progress reports.

A progress report is a relatively informal document that describes progress you’ve made on a project over a certain period of time. The progress report keeps interested parties informed of the status of the project, what progress you have made, and what you have been doing with your time.

A progress report conveys the following information:

• What work has been done (and who’s done it)?
• What work is in progress (and who’s doing it)?
• What is left to be done (and who’s going to do it, as well as how you will you get it done)?
• What problems are you having and how are you dealing with them?

Progress reports have the main purpose of reassuring your audience that progress is being made on the project and that it will be completed on time. They are often used as an accountability document, and are used widely in many areas, both academic and professional. In a team setting, progress reports encourage communication and accountability, and serve to keep communication channels open in case of problems.

Analytical Reports

You have more experience writing reports than you may realize. We could think of a college research paper, such as you wrote if you took English 105, as a type of analytical report. After all, in a research paper, you’re presenting information and drawing conclusions based on that evidence.

Another type of analytical report that you may be asked to write in your college career is a lab report. Lab reports are meant to provide the results of an experiment and draw conclusions from those results, which means that they fall under the analytical report sub-types.

The second project in this class, English 115, is an analytical report. It asks you to provide information about something that you’ve researched and draw conclusions from that information. Keep in mind that those are your primary goals, and you should have a much easier time completing the project.

Recommendation Reports

Recommendation reports are probably the most popular form of reports. David McMurrey, in “Recommendation and Feasibility Reports,” categorizes them as follows:

• Feasibility report: Studies a situation (for example, a problem or opportunity) and a plan for doing something about it, and then determines whether that plan is “feasible”-which means determining whether it is possible and practical. Not only does it give a recommendation, it also provides the data and the reasoning behind that recommendation. Often, a feasibility report will study multiple options to determine the most feasible one.
• Recommendation report: Starts from a stated need, a selection of choices, or both, and then recommends one, some, or none. For example, a university might be looking at plagiarism-detection software and want a recommendation on which product is the best. As the report writer on this project, you would recommend an option based on a study of the market for this type of application. In this class, your “recommendation report” will take the form of a multimodal, public-facing recommendation (See Chapter 11 for more).
• Evaluation report: Provides an opinion or judgment rather than a yes-no answer or a recommendation. It provides a studied opinion on the value or worth of something. If your instructor asks you to perform a team evaluation at the end of this course, you might think of it as an evaluation report.

As you can see, these distinctions are fine, and sometimes overlap. These reports often combine, and you should always check with the person assigning the report exactly what the expectations and purposes are.

Parts of a Report

Following are the major parts of most reports, as well as possible topics within them. Note that many times, when you are assigned a report, you will be given what is called a report “brief.” The brief will outline exactly what is expected in the report, and no matter what you should always include any sections outlined in the brief. Think of the assignment pages in this class as your report briefs. Also, as an important note, in a report you should make liberal use of headings and subheadings for these sections.

Front Matter

The front matter provides the information necessary to use the report for its intended purpose. Front matter will most commonly be used in long, formal reports, and might include the following:

• Cover/Title Page: Preserves the report, reveals the title, and makes a positive visual impression on the reader if done well. Also provides bibliographic information.
• Table of contents, list of tables and figures: Locates all elements of the report and provides a key to the organization. The accuracy and accessibility of this material is vital.
• Executive Summary/Summary/Abstract: The name for this will vary by field, but each act as a summary of the report for all readers. This summary should be concise but comprehensive, and should be very specific and state findings, conclusions, recommendations, etc. Important: Do not consider the summary or abstract as part of the body of your report – which means you should never have any information that is included only in the summary or abstract.

Introduction

Introductions orient readers to the problem and state how the report deals with or solves the problem. It gives context and background to any readers who might be unfamiliar. Introductions will include overviews of the following:

• Problem – what issue is this report studying?
• Scope – What is included and what is not included?
• Purpose – What is the purpose of this report? You should state your purpose very specifically – use concrete phrases like “the purpose of this report is X.”

Body

The body of the report gives the readers the information that you gathered. Contents may include the following, but will vary based on the type of report and your field:

• Theoretical background
• Methods – What did you do?
• Evidence – What did you find?
• Results or Discussion – What does it mean?
  • Data
  • Meaning
  • Interpretations

Conclusion

This section offers your recommendations and/or conclusions, if you are making any. These must be logically and explicitly tied to the data and information you provided in the report. They should also include some explanation and reasoning.

End Matter

The end matter includes information that is important, but does not fit into the actual writing of the report. This material usually includes supplemental resources or data provided for readers who are interested in additional details or more depth. Some materials that you might include here are:

• Appendices – Supplemental resources such as gathered data, team member resumes, budgets, etc. For instance, if you did a survey to collect your data, you might include the full survey that was sent out as an appendix.
• Glossaries – A list of terms and definitions.
• References/Works Cited
• Index – A list of important subjects and page numbers where they are discussed (generally only used in very long reports).

Structure

Different types of reports often have different structures. While “reports” are a large genre, they often have different components, and all of those approaches are valid. Below are some examples of how different reports may be structured^[1].

The “right” way to write a report, then, depends on who asked for it, who it’s for, and what it’s supposed to do. As you are writing your report, keep in mind purpose, audience, and design above all else.

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