REPORT WRITING GUIDE

Claire Lewin

The ability to write a Business Report is vital for all managers or business professionals. It is
expected that managers will be able to succinctly and accurately communicate findings, and the
comparisons, recommendations and conclusions based on those findings in a professional and
logical format. One of the goals of the Business Report assignment is to provide students with
the opportunity to learn and refine their report writing skills before they enter the business
environment. Therefore students are encouraged to request assistance in writing this assignment
from the teaching staff after they have made a genuine attempt to complete this task.

Reports may differ in structure dependant on the needs of the end-users of the report but as a
general guide the report structure below covers the primary areas that must be addressed.

As these reports are developed in an academic environment it may be necessary to provide

additional documentation on your processes in developing the report. Where these may be
required is identified in italic and underlined text.

This is a general guide for the report and students are encouraged to discuss details and specific
requirements for subjects with their lecturer or unit coordinator and to undertake appropriate
research to further their skills in this area.

General Points to Note:

Deadlines: Business deadlines are just that – deadlines – miss them you're dead! If your boss
requests that the report is on his/her desk at 9am then 10am is not acceptable. This is the same
with business reports/assignments in the academic environment. If you ‘throw something
together’ the night before, it is identifiable as such and will be marked accordingly. Similarly
requests for extensions because of your workload, technical problems or lack of understanding is
not acceptable in the workplace nor is it so in the academic environment.

Accountability: If you are given a research/report assignment by your boss and you do not know
or understand all the aspects of it, your boss will expect you to find out how to do these things
without needing to hold your hand. This is also true in an academic assignment. If you do not
know how to write the report or undertake some of the research you are expected to find out for
yourself (at worst; ask the tutor or lecturer where to find out how to do it). Ignorance is not an
excuse. “You didn’t teach us that” is no excuse – not in business and not at college/university.

Format: Make your report visually pleasing and easy to understand. Use headings, sub
headings, section breaks, charts, tables, graphs and have plenty of white space. Reports should
always be typed and, unless requested otherwise, bound. Each major section should be on a new
page. Accurate spelling, grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure and tenses are vital. Many,
otherwise excellent, reports have not been read by the executives and managers for whom they
were written because failure in these areas above has indicated that “the report is not professional
and therefore the contents will not be valuable”. You will be marked according to your
professionalism.

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Presentation of content: Your writing should be logical, clear, concise and use appropriate
language. Use short clear statements – do not ‘waffle’. Statements, recommendations and
conclusions should be justified by the findings and the analysis of those findings. When making
recommendations you should refer back to the supporting findings. This is usually written in
brackets eg: (refer to pages 6,8,9 of the report). This demonstrates that the recommendation is
linked to the findings and analysis. Avoid ambiguity. The goal of the report is not to bring
problems but to bring solutions. Be clear in achieving this goal.

Audience: It is important to identify your audience and to structure and write your report to meet
the needs of this audience. In the academic report writing you need to write the report for
managers or executives of the company you are researching while addressing, within the report
and the appendices, your skills of research, analysis and work methodologies. This dual audience
can create problems in writing reports and if you find difficulties you should discuss the
expectations of the report with your lecturer.

Methodology: This section addresses how you undertook the research and analysis. Especially
for academic environments you need to indicate how you gained the raw data:
Field notes
Interviews
Artefacts
Observation
Participation
You also need to describe your processes of analysis of the data.

Referencing: It is vital that all quotes and graphics from any source are cited correctly. Failure
to do this is plagiarism – theft of someone else’s work. The Harvard style should be used unless
your lecturer specifies differently. It is your responsibility to research the Harvard referencing
style. As a rule, no more than 10 - 20% of the report should be quotes. You may be able to boost
your word count or save yourself work by quoting large sections from textbooks, websites or
journals but your lecturer not only knows most of these works but also can identify that you are
not the author by the spelling, grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure and your marks will
reflect this. Similarly employers can identify plagiarism (and the attitude of theft or laziness that
it infers).

Quoting from interviews or conversations undertaken during the research process are not counted
in the 20% identified above. The person’s position or the statement ‘field notes’ and the date
should be noted afterwards in parentheses ( ). In-house documents included as examples or for
clarification (usually in the appendices) should have the © (organisation) and either ‘used with
permission from…..’ or ‘courtesy of….’

Again Harvard referencing identifies how to correctly reference these aspects of your report. The
UWS library site has links to Harvard referencing style guides.

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 Business Report Structure:
Section: Description:
Title Page The title of the report
Who is presenting the work (authors)
Date due/presented
Who is to receive the report

Executive This is a succinct summary of the report. It focuses on the findings,

Summary recommendations and conclusions and gives the basis of your reasoned argument.
If the top executives only get time to read this page they will have the overview of
the whole report. This is the first page of the report but is the last page written.

Table of Contents: This is a map to the report identifying the location of the various sections.
Electronic copies should link the heading to the appropriate section of the
document using the “Table of Contents” tool.
Purpose of the What is the research question or the purpose of the report?
Report What are the goals and objectives of the report?

Literature Literature Review A short introduction to the concepts included

Review in the focus of the report. (e.g. if the report is on the Information Systems of
business AAA – this section would identify what an Information System is.)

Methodology Methodology discusses how was the research undertaken.

What techniques were used to gather, process and analyse the data.

Research Site What is the research site – an overview of the department, business or organisation
researched. This introduces the context of the research.

Research Findings This is divided into 2 sections: It is the main body of the report.
and Analysis:
Findings 1) Identify, describe and give examples of the findings of the research.
2) This should be in a logical flow dictated by the process of the research, business
operation or decision making processes
This section may include charts, graphs, and/or tables to provide explanation,
clarification or examples of findings.

Analysis 1) This is the reasoned argument of the meaning of the research in terms of
application. This includes discussion, analysis and comparisons of the findings
of the research.
2) Where there are multiple options from which to make a choice the discussion
should compare and contrast the options to provide a basis for the final
decisions. This can include tables, charts, graphs to clarify discussion points.
3) The discussion should follow a logical format, which provides a basis and
explains the rationale for the decisions and recommendations made.

Recommendations The actions that should be taken based on the conclusions. This may also include
identification of areas and issues requiring further research or investigation

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Conclusion The logical conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis of the findings. The
reasoned argument about the focus/objectives of the report.

Glossary of Terms Define any terms that you may be using which may be unfamiliar to the readers.
(This may also be presented as a glossary of terms located in the Appendices)

References / 1) The list of all materials/resources used in researching and writing the report.
Bibliography 2) References are works quoted or cited in the report.
3) A Bibliography includes quoted and cited sources as well as the background
readings that provided information and understanding for the author of the
report.
4) This may include Websites, textbooks, journals or any other published (or
unpublished) material.
5) Referencing should be in the HARVARD style

Appendices There are 2 types of appendices you may use in the academic environment. It
is advisable to have a cover page and a contents page for this section especially if
there are several appendices.

The 1st type of appendices are included for clarification and validation of your
findings and analysis within the business report.
1) This includes all the material that provides insight or clarification of items,
findings or issues discussed in the report.
2) This may include in-house documentation or artefacts gathered during the
research process.
It is important to be selective in what is included in the appendices
and only relevant information required for clarification should be
included.

The 2nd type of appendices are included for validation of your work in an
academic environment.
1) These may include source data spreadsheets for charts included in the report,
minutes of meetings, progress reports, correspondence and/or journals of work.
2) These items must also be relevant to the report and the work
involved.

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Recommended Readings:

Bryant, Mary.(2000) Academic Report Writing Guide:

http://cadfl.uws.edu.au/management/essaywriting

Evans, David. (1995) How to Write a Better Thesis or Report. Melbourne University Press.

Summers,J. and Smith, B. 2002, Communications skills handbook: how to succeed in written and
oral communication, John Wiley and Sons

NSW, School of Employment Relations and Work. (2000) Essay Writing Guide and Report
Writing Guide. University of Western Sydney, University Press.

The Harvard Style of Referencing: A Guide for Students. University of Western Sydney Library,
University Press.

UWS; Voyager referencing site;

http://library.uws.edu.au/online/citing.phtml

Bibliography:

Bryant, Mary.(2000) Academic Report Writing Guide:

http://cadfl.uws.edu.au/management/essaywriting

Evans, David. (1995) How to Write a Better Thesis or Report. Melbourne University Press.

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