For a student who is pursuing his academic career, it is most common that he would be provided with the task on How to write a report. Although it seems to be a piece of cake there are certain parameters to focussed upon while drafting it. By a large community of students, the task of drafting a report is perceived as a meaningless and unbeneficial waste of time. It should be understood by the student that the task of How to write a report would enable them in evolving the skills to express your ideologies and viewpoints, endurance in pursuing a single aim, perseverance in making efforts to dig out some innovative aspects, the way to complete a task successfully, and avoiding the mistake you have conducting through your previous tasks.

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Roughly saying, the task of How to write a report is meant to display a peculiar set of accurate data obtained by extensive research and analysis. Whether it is the stream of science or business, the major ground for finding the relevant solutions and decisions regarding the focusing problem could be attained through the tools of reports. As on the length and the volume of the report, it could be specifically classified into memos and long reports. In the stream of academic career, the students are mostly asked to carry on with the task of long reports.

By the means of How to write a report task, the writer could transmit his ideas and observations in a very terse and utmost convincing way in the area of an academic stream. The absence of any biased perspective and observations by the author is the major factor that would set it apart from other assignments. Only the unbiased and relevant data is provided in an academic report. The presence of some major components like data in the tabular and graphical form makes the article unique from other forms of literature. Though there are a lot of formats available for a report, you should strictly follow the format mentioned in your requirement file. While going through the requirement file, you should also keep an eye on the word count of the cast, since it is given high significance by the assignment evaluator.

Principle of drafting an effective report.
It is to convey a specific purpose that a report is drafted in an organized manner. While drafting the report, the student should keep in mind the aim and the requirement mentioned in the required file on how to write a report. The process of assigning the task of How to write a report would bring a sense of responsibility, quest to acquire more skills in the process of strategy formulation, acquiring knowledge in the aspect of organizational learning, and most importantly enhance the communication skill of the student. To make the drafted report very effective and relevant, you could ensure that the below-given parameters on how to write a report are being entailed in it.

• The context serves the purpose: To ascertain that this parameter is followed, make sure that the conclusion and the recommendations made are collinear with the topic selected.
• The context meets the palate and expectation of the audience: The requirement and the level of knowledge possessed by the audience should be considered by the author to meet the expectations. The author should explore the background and the major trend followed by the mass portion of the audience.
• Make sure the facts used in the context are from authentic sources, that would ensure its accuracy and credibility.
• The logic and flow of the context should be maintained throughout the body.
• While following the format, it should be made special care that the headings and subheadings are very clear and concise in manner.

Processes to be followed while drafting a report
Apart from the linear and just quantitative approach of drafting taken in the case of normal assignment, a cyclic approach is taken while attending the task on how to write the report. Taking a cyclical approach would help in revealing out the significance of the correlation between the strategical approaches of contractors and the associated organizations. The whole effort of the report would go in vain if the content fails to provide intended information to the targeted stakeholders. The report must have the ability to make a valuable or positive impact on the strategy-making processes in the organization. Before the author starts with the process of drafting the report, he should contact the concerned stakeholder or contractor (tutor in case of an academic scenario) to know about their expectations and requirements. After acquiring the list of requirements, you should start immediately with the process of data collection. The whole progression should be in alliance with the topic you have selected for the task of How to write a report, thereby making the results and recommendations relevant for the intended audience.

Although it is the author who drafts the whole report, the liability or the responsibility to analyze the data provided in the context pertains to both the concerned stakeholder and the author. The author by juxtaposing all the data provides an integrated observation and recommendation in his report, which is later used by the audience to make substantial changes to alleviate the discussed issue or problem.

Basic principles to be followed on how to write a report
To end up with a report having a better framework a concise set of reporting principles should be followed by the author. To fulfill this parameter, the author should reckon with the deliverables mentioned in the required file. The principles which are mentioned in the below section of this report could be applied in any form of the report. It is very crucial to follow the reporting principles while drafting the assigned report so that a relevant reporting framework should be sustained in the literature. A valid framework would help the evaluator in analyzing each section and context of the proposed literature. The below-provided guidelines would help the author in drafting the report by keeping new grounds as the basis for development.

As a part of making the report relevant and concise to the point, the author could make the use of the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines while the drafting process. Apart from the above-mentioned context, the GRI guidelines are also utilized to simplify the approach of supporting the drafted report on the grounds of socials, environmental, and economic factors.

The guidelines under the GRI could be segregated into the below-mentioned divisions:-

• Arranging and juxtaposing the required elements in the framework of the proposed report. TO fulfill this criterion, the author should keep in mind to sustain some degree of factors like clarity, adherence to the topic, reference to the major expectation and requirements, and crystal-clear use of language.
• The context of the literature should be very apt and precise. To suffice this category the author should reckon with the parameter of adherence to the context, relevancy of the arguments made, impeccability, etc.
• Ensure the parameter of academic authenticity and dependability in the drafted body of the report. The author could ensure the completion of this parameter by maintaining the level of accuracy, unbiasedness, and reference to the sources in the related stream.
• Although this guideline is mentioned in the last, the parameter of providing valid access or address for the resources used should be given the highest preference. The referred data should be of high clarity and should display the utmost reliance.

It is by taking the ground of transparency and inclusiveness that the report making process is started by the author. By keeping these two parameters on a strong basis, the author has to consider other parameters to complete the whole process of report drafting in an authentic and relevant way. Let us consider each parameter in detail and discuss its significance in the process of drafting a report.

Transparency – The factor of transparency should be taken very seriously to introduce and sustain the feature of accountability in the report. The process of the research and the report drafting process should be revealed to the audience and readers. The hypothesis and the assumptions made in the research process should be revealed with utmost transparency so that the author could follow the whole development phase of the report.

Inclusiveness – The approach of the author should include the point of view of the stakeholders so the parameter of inclusiveness should be sustained in the context. If the perseverance to keep up the level of inclusiveness in the report is done, then the quality of the context would be much evident in the context.

As mentioned in the above set of GPI principles, the factor of conclusiveness, authenticity, and pertinence to the topic consists of the major parameters in drafting a report.

To meet the requirement of the conclusiveness or completeness, the data referred to in the report from the relevant areas should be disclosed efficiently. Although the authenticity or the requirement of relevancy could only be met if the et of data displayed in the report meets the expectation of the stakeholders. The extent to which the user data lies collinear with the assigns sections of the report determines the relevancy of the drafted piece of literature. The last parameter of adherence to the topic, which could also be termed as the quality of sustainability. If the piece of literature requires to be sustainable, then it should provide a detailed record of variations, dangers and the hidden opportunities present in the basic business environment and the macroeconomic factors.

Though we have discussed much the quantitative aspect of the report drafting process let us throw some light on the qualitative aspect of the process.

The term accuracy mentioned in the list of GPI guidelines signifies the level of precision in portraying the facts used in the report. This helps the author in persuading the audience to approve the arguments made by him regarding a certain topic. It should also be taken in special consideration by the author that the context and arguments made in the report should be very neutral. The data which are not correct and could imply a confusion among the readers. The data presented in the report should be provided after contemplating it with the data of other organizations in a similar market.

It is by checking the opportunistic intervention and lucidity of the content that the accessibility of the report is calculated. The major aim of the report should be to provide the stakeholder with the intended data in the provided set of times.

The author should consider the ideology of verifiability by including many relevant data from authentic sources. This would create the perception of a reliable and authentic touch to the stakeholders who are expecting a certain set of deliverables from the report.

Variants of reports
Though we have discussed the general features to be included in the report, its variations could be segregated into the sections as mentioned in the below section.

• Yearly report
• Research report
• Assessment report
• Proposal report
• Contractual or Votive report

Contractual report
Among all the divisions of the report, the drafting process of the contractual process is the most demanding and hard one. Normally the task of drafting the contractual report would be assigned to the person so that the performance and responsibility of the person should be ascertained. In most of the universities and the academic institutes, the most used tools for evaluating the academic and reasoning power of the student are assigning them with the contractual report. The task would aim at analyzing the person’s reasoning skills at the macro level. The level of performance displayed by a business institute is measured by keeping the parameter of result-based management as the foundation.

Though the contractual report is considered to be one of the most efficient tools in the academic stream, it consumes a lot of time nevertheless it provides very little benefits. This type of report rarely meets its intention since the audience of the literature is not properly classified and no strict framework or guidelines are used to frame a report. As mentioned in the posterior section of this article on how to write a report, the report is being drafted by examining the data available and the arguments derived from it. This aspect of the report drafting process would make a strong impact on the process of decision making and performance reporting.

It should be kept in mind by the student that the contractual report is not at all conclusive and hence could not be considered a final solution for any issue.

Project or proposal report
This form of the report constitutes the major aspect of the closure of an authentic project. It is on behalf of the project manager that the project report is being drafted, who could provide an overall and authentic overview of the closure of the concerned assignment or the project. The major aim of drafting a project report is to record the periodic advancement of the assigned sub-targets along with the whole project. This report also provides the project manager an opportunity to reflect on the whole process and challenges faced in the whole progression. The process would help the whole management team to analyze and compare the expected and actual targets. By the means of the project proposals, the related stakeholders could deduct any persisting issues in the company. The team could analyze the ups and downs faced in the progression of the project and hence by using this type of report, the future tasks could be done perfectly. The strategies to sustain sustainability in the business processes of the institute could be drafted by referring to the observations displayed in the main context of the report. While drafting the project report, the author should take note that there should not be any special effort to arrange the data in chronological order. Apart from it, a special effort should be given in avoiding the repetitive set of data which could generate boredom among the audience. This would help the reader in conceiving the provided conclusion and recommendations authentically and genuinely.

In this classification of the report, a very strict framework should be followed by the author. This tool would be a very effective one while conducting the task of providing a very efficient summary. The context should mention the contribution made by the respective components and personals involved in the process.

Research reports
To make the research pieces of literature very attractive and user-friendly, the researchers of the Canadian Health service foundation have devised out a very efficient decision-making framework. The guidelines are majorly followed mostly by the academic institutions of Australia. The research specialized in decision making is majorly utilized in the field of health and medicals and hence it is rarely used in the academical stream. This format which was being mainly proposed in the country of Canada could also be termed as 1 : 3: 25. This ratio implies that the drafted report should provide the audience with one page of central memo or note. The second ratio signifies the executive summary which volumes up to three pages. The third ratio of 25 should be implied to the volume of the context which would display the major observations, findings, and analysis of the case. Special care should be taken in drafting the research reports in a very easy language so that the audience with mediocre ability should understand and analyze it.

The section of the main message should be drafted in the format of bullet points so that it could be conveyed to the audience in a very easy manner. The bullet points should convey the lessons learned while drafting the report and conveying the research. This section comprises of much significance than that of a mere summary and provides the audience with real motive of research.

If the reader is in a hurry or does not have much time and effort to read the whole report, he could make the maximum use of an efficiently written executive summary. To display a high level of authenticity and legibility, the executive summary should be written in the form of a newspaper report. The data with the best significance and relevance value should be provided at the initial portion of the literature.

If a researcher utilizes the format of 1 : 3: 25 in drafting the report, the summary of the whole process could be mentioned in a very systematic manner. It is being reviewed by academic professionals and students that this method would help in drafting an accurate and succinct form of literature.

If the report for academic purpose is considered in this context, the above-provided context could be used in drafting a very precise report in the stream of academic humanities. In this context, academic submissions represent theoretical journals.

Assessment Reports
In the corporate environment and the institutes working in the global market, the assessment report is majorly used to discuss the overall process of an ongoing project. This would ensure the timely completion of the targets along with recording the essential interventions taken to achieve it. This process would ensure that even minute discussions are provided in the report to portray the reasons for every happening in the system to the intended stakeholders.

In this sort of report, the author should take into consideration that the whole literature is systematically arranged for the facilitated and customized use for individual stakeholders. This type of report is majorly drafted by the officials either at the end of the project or in the midway course of the assignment. The major parameters like the efficacy, steadiness, effect, and other major factors of the processes followed in the system of the industry are analyzed by using this form of the report. Both the academical and business format is used in the classification of evaluation reports since the report is majorly intended to both the scholarly and corporeal audience.

Annual and Yearly Reports
The classification of annual reports is being extensively used by an inclusive range of instates, whether it is a small scale or multinational company. Among all other financial and marketing tools, the annual report bears the maximum significance. The annual report by the officials is created for a wide range of audience which could hardly be segregated. The audience may include external agents like funding bodies, independent clients, and other influential government organizations.

It is the ethical obligation and contractual liability of the company to provide its stakeholders with required financial data by the means of annual reports. Since the annual reports are being deducted by various sets of financial documents it requires a large effort. Unlike the report created for the creators, the annual reports have much more accountability to the public and hence have a wider range of audiences. The company which is non-corporate in nature drafts the annual report in a much different format than that of an institute in the corporate environment. It is the description section of the annual report that the context with higher relevance is included. The gradual targets accomplished by the company and the consequential achievements obtained by it. While drafting this type of report, the author should consider the total number of officials and other directors who may get affected by it. The author should display a high level of skill and accuracy while dealing with financial figures and statistics. The inward and outward flow of the money in the system of the company should be analyzed with utmost significance since it constitutes the major part of the annual financial report. The additional departments for sales and marketing are the major difference that makes the corporate annual reports different from that of the non-corporate report. This is why the reports and financial data like balance sheets and other income statements turn out to be a piece of very important information in this context. It is also the financial denominations like stock prices and debentures that make the simple classification in between the corporate and non-corporate annual reports. Other major aspects like address, subsidiaries, addition, and brands constitute the major components of corporate annual reports.

Various styles of reporting
Different outlines to be adopted for the effective gathering and recording the appropriate data related to performance

It is a common issue that a valuable amount of time is being wasted on drafting the report which conclusively does not provide the stakeholders with the expected results. The depreciated value provided by the report often turns out to be a disaster and an utter waste of time. Let us take the instance of the report being prepared on any official meetings could turn out to be an irrelevant one if the individual contributions of each member are not referred. The insignificant display of performance information, below par discussion of either quantitative and qualitative data, and pitiable monitoring of the framework would make the author end up in value deprived reports. We have discussed the ideal framework for the report to present before a corporate and academic environment.

1. Balance scorecard management system: It was in the latter decades of the 20^th century that scholar Robert Kaplan from the Harvard Business School and another researcher David Norton had put forward the framework of Balanced Scorecard Management System. The major interventions and measures to be taken to maintain the equilibrium in the financial point of view by the higher officials of a company could be deduced from the approach of the balanced scorecard management system. The strategies developed by the directors’ panel or the management team could be made practical in a very efficient way by implying the balanced scorecard management system. The current progress ongoing in the outer and internal systems of the company could also be easily analyzed by the officials by the balanced scorecard management system.

The ideology of a balanced scorecard management system emphasizes on the impeccable completion and carrying out of each financial quarter. Although the results could get customized as to suffice the guidelines provided in the common set of goals. The scorecard prepared by the officials would display the positive factors if the company follows the strict policy of pacing towards the course of success. Mostly the framework and the context of the scorecard are personalized as per the business operation followed by the company so that it could get accustomed to the internal environment. The business scorecard would throw light on the specific regions which have the potential to affect the daily business processes of the intended institute which could be later focused on while preparing very crucial strategic decisions. If the officials of the organization would tend to create the business scorecards without considering these accessory factors by just keeping the task lenient towards a single goal, then the link in between them could not be stated. This move-in fact deludes the stakeholders from the prevailing imminent issues and other significant facts.

Preparing a very effective business scorecard is a very demanding task and if the organization is demanding one that could help in framing the organizational strategies, the whole process could take up to a whole financial year. The initial stage of the literature making process would get invested in understanding the expectation of the related stakeholders of the company on what parameters should be considered to measure the performance of the institute in the operating market. If some strict deadlines or short constraints are put over this process, the result would not provide any valuable inferences to the interested stakeholders. The correct and appropriate implementation of an apt business scorecard would help the management in balancing, arranging, linking, and drafting a very good strategic plan for the progress of the business. By the above-provided context in this article on how to write a report, you would have by now understood the significance of a business scorecard.

2. Bennett’s Hierarchy to be followed on how to write a report: The very logical and practical way to frame the performance information to conduct the activity of gathering, quantification, examination, and then moving on with the activity of drafting a report could be done by applying the model of Bennett’s Hierarchy. An elaborate explanation of seven steps is being done by stressing on the cause and effect chain conclusively in the approach of Bennett’s Hierarchy. In this approach, majorly the task which requires to perform an analysis demanding the collection of pieces of evidence could be framed in a very systematic and impressive way.

While following the process of Bennett’s Hierarchy, the author should conduct the process of collecting all the significant data in the initial stage. In the second stage of this approach, the accomplishments and undertakings associated with each source are identified. The third stage would and in the later stage of level three the individualistic components with distinct characteristics are pointed out. The reflection and experience of each component are being recorded in the level four of this approach that would have the potential to change the direction and magnitude of approaches, proficiencies, desire, and understanding in the fifth stage. By observing this change the components in the system would change the way the maleficent section of the system is working an is implemented in the sixth stage. In the last r the seventh stage it is ensured that the implied changes had brought changes in the factors and dynamics related to the field of social, environmental, and economic.

It is being observed in most of the cases in the corporate world that the whole process of performance reporting fails to reach the framework level of seven. Though most of the institutes find it very convenient to carry out the process from the first level to the third level in a very impeccable manner. For a long time, the institutions all over the world have implied Bennett’s Hierarchy for the purpose of providing a very formal framework for their report. For instance, governmental organizations like the Department of Primary Industries in Austria could be taken as a very good example that implemented Bennet’s Hierarchy system. The approach was majorly used by the above-mentioned institute to implement the target 10 programs. The major economists and the researchers have observed it that the organizations at the global level who have just implied this approach have reaped much of the profit from the changes it has made in their system. It has been however noticed that this process possesses the restriction of not providing the reader with the information on what impact has been caused by implementing certain actions. This is considered to be one of the major drawbacks by the scholars, though the approach strongly recommends the gradual progression of systematic hierarchy.

3. The narrative style of reporting: If the report is just drafted using some numerical values, tables, and a graphical representation, the audience would suddenly get bored since the calculations require a high level of concentration and attention from their behalf. To make the audience adherent with the whole context, the description of the facts should be done in a very interesting way. If the report much more informative data, the approach of strategic narrative could be adopted by the author. In the case of strategic planning, the approach of narrative reporting turns out to be a very effective tool since it makes the processes of arranging the events, display of hidden and important relationships, the major reason behind a variation, etc. very effortless. The ample reason behind the implementation of each strategy could be well justified by the narrative form of reporting. The effective and systematic use of bullet points and other tools could be utilized to conduct this task in a very impeccable way.

This tool seems to be more effective since it provides the touch of an old traditional style of storytelling. Though to imply this tool in a very effective manner, a thorough platform for the context and topic should be laid beforehand. The background could be laid by discussing the major points in a very insightful and coherent manner. Special care should be taken to stress the most important and vital points of the report that could cause major changes to the intended issue. Various problems and weak points which are drawing back the performance of a certain body or process could also be discussed while laying down the foundation. You should take care that all the intended issues would be mentioned before the report reaches its conclusion. The real challenge before the author who writes the narrative style report is to cover all the data in a very attractive manner.

Though if taken the instance of the report prepared by the officials in the corporate environment, a more narrative approach is taken rather than using the tools like bullet points. This is to sustain the feeling of excitement and to generate a level of imagination in the mind of the author. The major aim of drafting a narrative report is to provide an insight into existing issues in a system or institute and an efficient recommendation to alleviate the problem.

If you are assigned the task of preparing a report regarding business and strategic planning then without any confusion the method of narrative reporting should be adopted. The major characteristics which make this approach the most suitable one are the factors like the ability to display the major problems along with the wholesome goal in a systematic framework, and the comprehensive ability to provide and arrange the recommendations in a very professional way.

Effective Presentation tips for how to write a report
In the task of drafting an effective report, the element of the presentation is the most important one which the author should consider to end up with an impeccable piece of literature. To sustain high quality in the piece of literature the processes of strict formatting, proofreading, and essential editing should be followed. The language of the literature should possess some quality, and it should be understood that the better language doesn’t imply just the strict abidance of spelling, punctuations and the grammatical rules.

The task of how to write a report is considered to be incomplete if a valid and relevant Executive Summary is not provided. The executive summary often acts as the all in all summary for the officials who are in haste and have to understand all the context, observations, and recommendations entailed in the report. This section would be a concise summary of all the reports staring form the section of the introduction to the conclusion. The content mentioned in the section of the executive summary should be much clear, to the point, relevant, independent from any error, and comprehensive. The general notion followed in the academic stream for the executive summary is to draft it up to 15 % of the total volume of the report. The content should not address or refer to the external sources and hence should be drafted in the author’s language. To ensure that all the expectations form the executive summary is met, it would be better than the specific section is drafted after completing the whole report.

Unlike other sections, the executive summary should be drafted in a very attractive manner and thus should be understood by any person with mediocre intellect. As a part of a professional outlook, the report should contain an index which should point out specific sections along with its page number. To make the task much easier, the writer could also utilize an official framework for the report. The author is allowed to use different font styles like bold and italics along with bullet points to draw the attention of the audience. The mood and the tense of the context should be understood by the author and hence the same mood and background should be sustained in the whole report.

To increase the approach and attractiveness of the report could also be increased by including charts, various, diagrams, figures, etc. If the reports contain some numerical figures, the use of tables, graphs, and charts could be implemented for good practicability. While including these graphical representations, the author should provide the in-text citation with it. This would help in making the content a very approachable and attractive one.

Steps to be followed in how to write a report in future
In the due course of globalization and industrialization, the process of reporting has increased its significance in the corporate world, especially the section of the economy which deals with the health sector. The common notion of identifying and calculating the performance of a specific industry by just keeping the financial income as a parameter has been made obsolete by the correct format of reporting. The new advancements in the format of a new reporting style have been evolved by the competitive environment of the corporate world. Because of the high transparency in the new format of reporting, the context of the report has been more accessible and attractive to the layman with very mediocre ability. Thus, the expectations from the manufacturers have been increased because of high accessibility to the financial information. The framework and style of reporting is being evolving very fast pace because of the new parameters of information technology. Hence the report in hard copy is very hard to find and has acquired widely the digital platform. If viewed at the modern reporting style, it possesses a lot of variation in the style of drafting and language.

We hope that this article on how to write a report have solved all your queries and dilemmas. Good luck for your report assignments.