In Academic Settings
Short reports are written for teachers who want to
evaluate the accuracy and completeness of your work. You may be asked to
include some or all of these parts or others not included here:
- Introduction: the purpose, problem, and scope
- Apparatus: the equipment and/or tools used (This section is included only when needed because something beyond the usual apparatus is required.)
- Procedures: the methods (These are described in detail only if asked for or if unusual.)
- Body: the data obtained, discussed and evaluated
- Conclusions and recommendations
In Industry and Government
Short reports are written for readers who need to
know the results of your work so that they can make a decision. Include your
conclusions and recommendations only if they are specifically asked for. Be as
brief as possible, preferably one page or less.
Short Memo or Letter Reports
Heading:
Use either stationery with the company letterhead
or printed forms with standard headings such as To, From, Subject, Date, and
other information that a company may wish to include, for example, reference
numbers, names of people who receive carbon copies (cc:), and so on. State the
subject clearly and concisely, and put the most important words at the
beginning of the subject line in the heading.
Introductory
statement:
State the general problem first to give the reader
a context or “big picture.” Then explain the specific question or task arising
from that problem that you will be dealing with. Finally, explain why the
report is being submitted or what it is intended to do. This brief, but
crucially important overview should usually be no longer than two or three
sentences.
Findings
or results:
Present your findings clearly and concisely, in
whatever method is most appropriate (a list, a table, and so on, with adequate
explanation). Arrange your results so that the ones most important to the
project or the reader are placed first. Present the rest of your results in
descending order of importance. Since your findings are usually the major
reason for the memo, this section may be the longest part of the report.
Conclusions
and recommendations:
Determine and present the most significant
implications or recommendations for action. You may need to put this section
before the findings, or you may not need to include this section at all unless
it is requested. Company policy dictates whether or not this section is
included.
Format
considerations:
- Be brief.
- Use headings and mark your key points so that your readers can survey the contents and can quickly find what they want.
- Place your strongest arguments first when your purpose is to persuade.
Evaluating a Short Memo Report
When evaluating a short memo, the writer should
follow a very specific format to keep their document standard. This format
includes questions that the writer should ask themselves, the different parts
of the memo, headings that should be used as wells as arguments to add. These
aspects allow the creation of a short memo to be easy as the formatting will
eventually become second nature.
Listed below are the basic questions every report
writer should ask himself or herself before writing the report:
- Who will read the report?
- What do they want to know?
- How should the report be structured?
Heading: Lists information such as To, From, Subject, Date, and so on, and states
the subject clearly and concisely with the most important words at the
beginning of the subject line.
- Is all the relevant information included?
- Is the subject stated clearly and concisely?
- Are the important words first?
Introductory Statement: States the general problem first, then explains
the specific question or task being dealt with in the memo, and then explains
why the report is being submitted or what it is intended to do.
- Are all three parts of the introductory statement included and stated clearly?
Findings or Results: Presents the findings clearly and concisely with
the most important results first. Tables and other information not needed by
all readers are, of course, attached separately.
- Are the findings or results clearly indicated and easy to locate on the page?
Conclusions and Recommendations: Presents the significant implications and
recommendations for action (if—and only if—conclusions and recommendations have
been asked for).
- If the report contains conclusions and recommendations, are they clearly presented and easily located on the page?
Format Considerations: Make headings and to mark
your key points so that your readers can quickly survey the contents and find
what they want.
- Are the headings throughout the report adequate?
- Are key points marked?
- Are your strongest arguments first when writing a persuasive document?
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