Guideline for Writing an Academic Report

When you are asked to write an academic report, you have to write it for a particular audience by addressing the particular issue with support of evidence and, applying your critical thinking and analytical ability. The entire report must be presented in a clearly defined format and must clearly demonstrate your knowledge and skill of analysing the topic or answering the questions as wanted by your instructor. Usually you will be getting guidelines from your instructor about the purpose of the report, what you are expected write, how the report should be structured and what should be the format of the report. Moreover there will also be specific guidelines as to the number of words within which the report must be limited as well as the time within which the report must be submitted.

Here we shall discuss some general guidelines about writing a quality report and about the general format that you have to follow when writing an academic report. However, you must remember that these are general guidelines and you have to modify the report strictly according to the instruction given by your guide of the academic assignment.

The reports are asked to write to check the depth of knowledge, you have acquired in the subject, to which the report assignment relates and to examine your presentation skill. One important fact you have bear in mind that, report writing is different from essay writing in the sense that academic reports are less descriptive and should be written economically and briefly.

Your academic report should reflect your capability to:

·     comprehend the purpose for which you have been asked to write the report

·     develop a suitable research methodology to search for the information and evidences

·      identify the relevant information

·    write the report properly depicting your critical thinking and logical reasoning

·    represent the report as a meaningful whole before the evaluators in brief, concise and professional manner

·   make the report free form any grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors

·      conform to the conditions, set by the guide, to write the report

·     to give a rationale and perfect conclusion depending upon the researched information and logical arguments

·       to give proper recommendation at the end of the report

The structure of the report should be in accordance with the following sequence:

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  Title Page: There should be a suitable title in few words to state what the report is all about.

  Abstract: Here a brief outline of the entire report should be given relating to the purpose of the report, what are the findings and what is the conclusion on the basis of those findings and why such conclusion is given.

  Table of Contents: The table of contents should be given to list out the chapters of the report indicating the page numbers of main headings and subheadings.

  Introduction: The introduction will form the background of the report on the basis of which the report will be constructed. In brief, the aim, the methodology used, the limitations of the findings and the scope of the report should be stated over here.

  Main Body: The report will go to the detailed analysis of what has been outlined in the abstract and the introduction phase. The analysis of the topic or the answers to the central question will be discussed in detail on the basis of which, the conclusion and the recommendation will be made by you. The entire main body should be divided into suitable number of paragraphs and there should be headings and subheadings for each vital point in discussing the topic or answering the research question. The paragraphs should follow a logical sequence and your analysis and the findings should be logically validated by your arguments and the evidences gathered from the research.

 Conclusion: In this page you have to write the findings and result of your research and investigation.

  Recommendation: Here, based on the entire foregoing discussion and analysis, you will be giving the decision addressing the issue of the report or the answers to the central question to which the report relates.

  Appendices: A list of the tables, graphs, pictures that has been used in your analysis should be given over here with the specific page numbers.

   References: The address of the source of the information should be provided as per the formats instructed by your guide. The references should be given in alphabetical order

  Acknowledgements: If you have taken assistance of any organisation or individual in preparing your report, provide the name of those organizations or the individuals acknowledging their contribution to the preparation of the academic report.

The above is the general guideline for the format or the structure of your report. There are some vital points that should be taken care of while writing your academic report.

Before writing the report you first try to understand the report topic and what issue you are expected to address and in which way. After getting the idea about the topic clearly, decide on the approach which you will follow to write the report. Here one very important point is the time management. You have to write the report and submit it within a stipulated period of time and hence planning on time management is very much important. For that, develop an initial structure of the report and prepare a schedule of time required to finish each phase, as per the structure, as well as, for the time required to research the information.

After deciding on the structure, ask yourself how to answer the question or how to discuss the topic so that you can decide on the kind of information required to write the report. A research methodology must be devised to find the information that you would require to accomplish your task perfectly.

Collecting and organizing the material as well as the information is of utmost importance. After this job is done, you read the materials and find the relevant information. At this stage you have to take notes of the important points, the information contained and also should record the references of the resources. However, information collection and taking notes of the questions came to your mind or the important points from the researched material, is an ongoing process and sometimes could be continued almost up to the end of your report writing process.

Before writing the first draft of the report look after the information you have gathered, analyse those material and check whether any more information is required by you to write the report by giving proper explanations and logical arguments in support of your answer you have thought about. Decide whether the evidences collected are sufficient to support your argument and whether there is any conflict in between the evidences collected.

After analysing the information and evidences collected and after deciding how to use the information to validate your arguments and what are the logical sequence of your arguments will be, start writing the first draft of the report, according to the format and structure decided at the initial stage.

After finishing the first draft, if possible get it read by your guide. However, you have to read the draft, to check whether the issue has been properly addressed and whether the entire report has been written with proper logical sequence depicting your analysis and critical thinking to validate your conclusion or answer.

The last, but one of the most important part, of the report writing is subjecting the same to expert online editing and proofreading process so as to make it free from any errors of grammar, spelling and wrong use of the key terms or excessive use of meaningless jargons or words. The proper editing and proofreading of the report is essential to ensure that the logical flow of the writing is perfect throughout the report and the report is presented in brief, concise and professional manner.