Get organized for a good report

BI Hao's manager has asked him to write a report about a recent project. Bi thinks that a detailed description of the whole process will be just fine. Well, actually, Bi, you're wrong.

Compiling and organizing data

After you have established the purpose of the report, you need to compile and organize the information needed to support it. The gathering of information may have given you a lot of materials, but you need to be a firm editor and retain only the essential data and throw out the rest.

Consider your readers, and think about how much background information they will need.

Writing the report

A report consists of five parts: title, introduction, findings, conclusion and recommendations.

1. Title

This should run no longer than one line.

2. Introduction

This tells the reader what the purpose and objective of the report are. It might also give the reader some background information on the subject.

The purpose/objective/aim of this report is to...

This report aims to/is intended to...

3. Findings

This is the main part of the report. It tells the reader what you have found in your information gathering.

It is important to differentiate between fact and opinion. Which of the following phrases report facts and which report opinions?

We found that... (could be both fact and opinion)

It clearly shows that... (fact)

It was found that...(fact)

We discovered that...(fact)

We observed that...(opinion)

There is evidence that...(fact)

4. Conclusion

This part tells the reader about the results of the report based on the findings.

It's concluded/decided/agreed/felt that...

It can be seen that...

In conclusion...

No conclusions were reached regarding?...(关于......一事未得出任何结论)

We can conclude that...

5. Recommendations

Finally, recommendations are made on what future actions need to be taken.

Based on our findings, we (would) recommend that...

It is recommend-ed/proposed/suggested that?...

It seems to me that...