Report Writing
Reports are a very important method of gaining and giving information. Many reports are
presented orally, for example, at a meeting, however; most are usually presented in writing.
Classification and Context:
Regular and Routine reports
Equipment and maintence report
Sales report
Progress report
Safety inspection report
Production report,etc.
Occational reports
Accident report
Disciplinary
Status report, etc
Especially commissioned reports
Investigatory report
Market-research report
Staff report(personnel)
Market forecasting report
Product diversification
Policy-changing report
For this course three types of reports will be looked at:
I. The Short Formal Report
II. The Short Informal Report
III. The Memo Report
Please Note: Reports are often presented under the following prescribed series of headings:
I. Headings – there should be two headigs, the name of the company and the the report
heading. The report heading should begin with: Report on. . . .
II. Terms of Reference- this section should state exactly why the report is being written.
Why are you writing the report? What was requested? Who requested it? When were you
asked to do it? A useful pattern for this section is:
To report on ________ (subject) as requested by _________ (name and title) on ______
(date)
III. Procedure – give a brief description of the methods used to collect the information.
Perhaps interveiws where to be held, visits made, questionnaires issued? Used numbered
points if appropriate.
IV. Findings- this will be the longest section of the report. Go through the procedure point by
point and use numbers and subheadings for this section. Under each heading state what
information was gathered with each stage.
V. Conclusions- no new facts must be introduced in this section. You must look at the
findings and state the logical implications of them. What can you infer or conclude from
the findings?
VI. Recommendations- again no new information must be introduced here. On the basis of
the information presented in the findings and conclusions, make some sugggestions for
action. Remember that the writer of a report cannot make decisions –he or she can only
suggest what action should be taken.
VII. Closing section- a report should be signed and there should be a name and a title shown
at the foot, plus the date the report was written.
The Short Formal Report
This format is used in formal reporting situations (mostly internally directed) where middle or
senior management reports to a senior or top management.
Layout
1.0 TITLE PAGE OR HEADING
2.0 TERMS OF REFERENCE
3.0 PROCEDURES
4.0 FINDINGS
4.1 Main Section Heading
4.2 Main Section Heading
4.3 Main Section Heading
5.0 CONCLUSIONS
6.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 First Main Recommendation
6.2 Second Main Recomendation
7.0 APPENDENCES (WHERE APPROPRIATE)
SAMPLE OF SHORT FORMAL REPORT
STANLEY’S HOLDING
REPORT ON COMPLAINTS ABOUT POOR SERVICE AND FOOD PROVIDED IN THE
STAFF RESTAURANT
TERMS OF REFERENCE
To investigate complaints about the poor service and food provided at the staff restaurant and to
make recommendations, as requested by Mr. Micheal Lee, Administration Director on March
14th 2020.
PROCEDURE
1. An interview was held with Miss Alice Newton, Restaurant Manageress on the 15th of
April.
2. Interviews were held with a cross section of staff (48) who used the restaurant between
the 15th and 20th of April.
FINDINGS
1. INTERVIEW WITH RESTAURANT MANAGERESS
1.1 STAFFING
Mrs. Newton has three fulltime assissstants. The youngest, Miss Lily Ng, attends day
Release classes at Southpoint College on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week
Week. She works between 2 -5 pm.
1.2 EQUIPMENT
A schedule of the current equipment and their year of purchase is attached. No problems
were reported. However, Mrs. Newton said that these additional equipment would be
useful.
1 microwave
1 slow cooker
1 rice cooker
2. INTERVIEWS WITH STAFF
Twenty staff from the 12- 2pm shift were interviewed, and 28 from the 1-4 pm sitting.
2.1 CHOICE
The food available is shown on the attached schedule. Sixty percent of the staff
interveiwed said they would prefer some if the cold meals to be provided. They said
they may make alternative lunch arrangements if the variety did not improve.
2.2 QUEUEING
Seventy percent of the staff took lunch from 12 to 1 pm as opposed to 30% from
The 1- 2 pm. This resulted in large queues forming at the first lunch sitting.
CONCLUSIONS
1. There are insufficient assistants to cope with the preparation of the food in the
morning and with the popular first lunch sitting.
2. The present equipment is insufficient.
3. The selection of the meals is not wide enough to cater for the staff requirements.
4. The ratio of staff to each sitting is not balanced.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. A new assistant should be should be recruited to work from the 12- 2 pm shift on
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
2. Mrs. Newton should be asked to investigate the prices and availibilty of the equipment
required.
3. Mrs. Newton should be asked to create some new dishes which also include cold dishes.
4. The number of staff attending each sitting should be reveiwed so that a balance can be
acheived.
___________________________________
Tan Lay Hong (Miss)
Business Administration Officer
25 April 2020
The Short Informal Report
The short informal report is used when the information is of lower status and less complex than
that of the short formal report. It is frequently used in subordinate reporting to department head
situations.
It is usually a three- part layout and less elaborately schematic in its organization.
Layout
INTRODUCTION
This opening section puts the report into context and briefly outlines the essential background
information needed to make the detailed information which follows more intelligible to the
reader.
FINDINGS
An analysis of the problem or situation, which displays systematically the detailed information
which has been collecteed by similar metheds to those identified in the procedure section of the
Short Formal Report.
CONCLUSION
In this last section the main points of the reports are summarised as conclusions and any actions
required, recommedations or the means of resolving a problem outlined. Therefore, the
CONCLUSIONS and RECOMMENDATIONS sections of the short formal report are combined.
NOTE: this final section may be set out in a paragraph(s) or may be itemised with main points in
a numbered list of sentences
Sample of The Short Informal Report
To Mrs K Pearson, Office Manager
From Christine Felows, Personal Assistant
Subject Wasteful use of Stationery
Date 12 August 2020
REPORT ON THE WASTEFUL USE OF STATIONARY AND REPROGRAPHIC SERVICES
1. INTRODUCTION
On Tuesday July 28th, I was asked to investigate the current wasteful use of stationery in
the department and to suggest ways in which it might be used more economically in the
future. To be submitted by Friday August 14, 2020.
2. FINDINGS
2.1 Stationary Use
The range of departmental stationery comprised: headed letter and memoranda note
paper, printing paper, fax paper and a range of envelopes in use.
2.2 Stationary Associated with Correspondence/Internal Mail
The suspected increase in wasteful practices was confirmed upon investigation. I
spoke to executive staff, who confirmed that, despite our extensive use of an error
detection software, a significant proportion of final copies were being returned
because of errors still present.
Observation and discussion with secretarial staff confirmed that clerical and executive
staffs in particular are using printed stationary and unused envelopes on occasion as
message pads.
No member of staff appears to be reusing envelopes. Also, despite the introduction of
the LAN, staff is still distributing paper-based memoranda and attached copy files
when multiple distributions could be achieved through the network with
commensurate cost saving on photocopying.
2.3 Photocopying Practices
The department copier is in need of servicing and staff is wasting extensive amounts
of copy paper because of a fault which creases the paper. Furthermore, departmental
staff continues to use our three single sheet copiers for batch copying instead of the
much cheaper departmental and company system copiers, despite requests not to do
so.
2.4 Increase to Stationary Costs
The stationary bill for the second quarter of this year is 30% higher than for the first
quarter (January –March).
3. CONCLUSIONS
The investigations justify the concerns raised about the excessive waste of office stationary and
reprographic services and its impact on the departmental expenses. The careless use of stationary
is not restricted to one section, but is found in various forms in all departments. If action is not
taken immediately, the department will not be able to remain in its administrative budget.
The following recommendations should be considered:
III.1 Meeting with Secretarial Staff
A meeting with senior staff should be held to discuss the gravity of the problem and
obtain their cooperation in improving both managerial and secretarial performance. A
refresher course could be undertaken by the training department.
III.2 Accountability for Stationary Use
The issuing of stationery should be tighted and measures put in place for accountability
for quarterly stationary usage.
III.3 Consideration should be given for centralizing all reprographic work carried out
in the
departments so as to ensure that cost-effective approaches are used.
III.4 Departmental policy on LAN emailing procedures and message routing should be
revised and all staff notified.
_________________________________________
Christine Felows
(Personal Assistant)
13 August 2010
The Memorandum Report
The Memorandum Report is used for internal reporting, especially within and between
departments. It’s extremely flexible, since the title information is contained in the memorandum
heading and space of the new sheet below “Subject” may be employed in a variety of ways to
display the content of the report.
Layout
To: Name and title (recipient)
From: Name and title (sender)
Subject: Brief description of the report
Date: Write out in full
Heading Should be specific and clear
Introduction
In a memo report , the first person can be used here
Mention date report was requested
State steps taken to gather information
Findings
Use sub-headings and numbered points for clarity
State results of your investigations
Use past tense, reported speech
Conclusions
State the logical implications of the findings
Recommendations
If requested, suggest an action
NOTE: The final paragraph goes back to the first person with a suitable close
SAMPLE OF MEMORANDUM REPORT
MEMORANDUM
To John Cleary, Office Manager
From Ian Fisher, Administrative Assistant
Subject Time Keeping of General Office Staff
Date 5 August 2020
REPORT ON TIME KEEPING OF GENERAL OFFICE STAFF
Based on our meeting on the 20th of June, I have investigated the complaints about time keeping
of the staff in the general office. An interveiw was held with each of the 12 employees
concerned. Their times of arrival over a two week period were noted.
1. PRIVATE TRANSPORT
Four members of the staff travel to work by car. These employyees were usually punctual and no
problems were noted.
2. PUBLIC TRANSPORT
2.1 Eight members of staff travel to work on public transport using the 16 bus from the to
The town centre. These staff were often up to 20 minutes late, arriving at work 9:20.
2.3 The 16 bus should stop at the office at 8:55, but was quite inconsistent in this respect.
Its arrival varied from 9:15 to 9:30 am. The previous 16 bus usually arrived outside
the office between 8:30 and 8:40.
3 CONCLUSIONS
The staff reying on public transport cannot be blamed for the late arrival of the 16 bus form
town. They also cannot be expected to arrive 30 minutes early each day to avoid being a few
minutes late for work. However changes in the office routine could help the problem, such as
changing office hours to 9:30 in the morning, and allowing workers to leave half an hour later in
the evening. Another recommendation is that the company seek private transportation for
workers so that they could arrive on time for work.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The staff who use the public transport should be given the option of starting work at 8:45 and
finishing 15 minutes earlier than usual..
I hope you find this report satisfactory. If you have any questions, please let me know.
_____________________________________________
