How to Correctly Write a Report

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To know how to make a report, it is first important to clear up the doubts about what a report is. In general terms, the report is a text about a situation or an event in which the characteristics or development of the same are described. It is supported by observation and is ideal for presenting the reader with everything they need to know about what happened.

A report should be made with a clear language, precise, concrete and objective. You should avoid including personal appreciations by making use of verb forms such as: I believe, I think, I would like, I wish, etc., which should be replaced by others such as: it is observed, it has been analyzed, it proceeded, etc.

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There are different report types, and these can be expository, interpretive or demonstrative.

• The expository report It is a sequence of events narrated without analysis and interpretations of the author, it must contain antecedents that help to understand what is narrated, for example, the sale of products in commercial stores.
• The interpretive report analyzes the situations to draw conclusions and be able to give the appropriate recommendations. An example of this type of report would be conducting an evaluation of pedagogical practices in a school.
• The demonstrative report it is the one that arises after a study. This describes the steps followed and the conclusions obtained from the results. It is also called a scientist or technician. An example of scientific reports would be those that are made after carrying out an experiment.

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Specifically, the making a report It must have the following phases: setting the objective, selecting the information, analyzing it, evaluating and verifying it, structuring the report, and proceeding to work on it.

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For set the goalAsk yourself these questions: Who is the report for? What is it going to use it for? What do you want to know? What knowledge do you have on the subject? These questions are important to ask before you start writing your report.

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Define the preliminary phase of activities that you are going to carry out to achieve the proposed evaluation criteria. Determine the information sources, human resources and material resources to extract the data. Once extracted, analyze all the selected information, organize it and start making comparisons.

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Evaluate the data and proceeds to verify them, consolidate the information, organize and prepare the written report. The good reports They must say what is the source of a certain information, for this you must write down the source, you can do it by adding a number next to the data in question and in the footer or put it in an annex at the end of the document.

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The report structure It is divided into three main parts. Although all reports must have these sections, their content is not rigid and must be ordered according to the criteria of the editor or according to the subject to be presented.

The introduction

The introduction of a report is the first time that the reader will know of the situation to be dealt with. For this reason, you must answer the questions:

• What event or topic is covered in the report?
• Why has this situation been addressed?
• For what or for what purpose has this research been done?
• With what methods or tools has the research been carried out?

In addition, by the end of reading the introduction, the reader should also be clear about how the investigation has been organized and the order in which the facts will be presented.

The development

For its part, development is the most important part of the report. It can be divided into subsections that describe the most important aspects of the investigation. In addition, it should explain the methods that have been followed to obtain the results and how they have been used.

The conclusion

Finally, the conclusion, as in most studies, briefly analyzes the results, summarizing the research and suggesting courses of action based on the results obtained.

In addition, it is also very important to leave a section for the bibliography, where the sources of the research will be placed. Follow the instructions that we leave you in our articles How to cite a book and How to cite an Internet source.

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As general recommendations to apply to your report, we give you the following:

• Write the report in an objective way, subjectivity is not accepted. It limits itself to describing the observed facts without opinions.
• List all possible data.
• Be organized.
• Describe in detail each step followed.
• Cite the sources of information that you have consulted.
• Write short, clear, precise and concrete paragraphs.
• State the information accurately.

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Below you can see a report example with this scientific report. If you want to make the report bigger, click on it. The example is very simple and we hope it will serve as a basis for making a report.

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Here is an example of a psychological report that you can see larger if you click on it. Also, if you still have doubts about how to make a report, in OneHOWTO you can see how to write different types of reports depending on the area for which you need to prepare it:

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