REPORT WRITING
A report is a formal paper, it has to be concise and well-organized. You should use
bullet points and headings so that the reader can quickly find the information they
are looking for in your text.
A report:-
analyses a present situation and often has recommendations
is divided into sections and contains factual information
is written in a formal style and should be objective (avoid opinions / personal
viewpoints)
uses headings for each section
Structure:- Introduction
The purpose of this report
is to….
Subheading +
Paragraph
Give the relevant facts
Subheading +
Paragraph
Give the relevant facts
Conclusion
Make your
Example recommendations question :-
Last year a new sport and leisure centre opened in
your home town. You have recently received the following letter from the manager of
the centre:
I am writing to all members of the Active Leisure Club tgo thank you for your custom
over the last year. We want to make the facilities even better this year! Please send a
short report to us, telling us what you think are the best and worst aspects of the
club. We also want to hear your suggestions for new facilities…
Write your report to the manager of the club (between 140-190 words).
Model answer:-
Step 1: Find – key points, topic and target reader
You need to start writing your report by finding the key
points/information, the subject and the person to whom you are writing.
Topic: Active Leisure Club wants to improve their facilities
Main key points:
1. describe the best aspects of the club
2. describe the worst aspects of the club
3. suggest new facilities
Target reader: manager of the centre
Step 2: Think of a title for you report
Title: Report on Active Leisure Club facilities
Title: Active Leisure Club facilities: a report
Step 3: Introduction : state the purpose of your report and mention how you
collected the data
The purpose of this report is to outline the best and worst parts of our club, as
well as to recommend improvements to the facilities. The data for the report was
collected based on the opinions of club members.
Step 4: The body paragraphs (main content) : answer key points of the task
In the main content, you should answer the main key points that you discovered in
the task under suitable subheadings, and each is placed in a separate
section/paragraph.
The best aspects of the club
Most members seem to enjoy the swimming pool with its daily water exercise
classes and the opportunity to swim in 50-metre lanes. It also appears that offering a
child care programme is appreciated by the majority of our members since many of
them have families, but still would like to use the facilities of the club.
The worst aspects of the club
According to most of the members I have spoken to, the café does not meet their
expectations with below-average food and slow service. Another problem is the state
of the gymnasium which, in general, is avoided by many because of broken
equipment and a lack of staff during peak times.
Suggestions
Step 5: Conclusion: make suggestions and recommendations
After writing the entire content, we only have a summary where we can also include
our suggestions or recommendations – to do this we can use some specific
language that is there to persuade the manager of the centre to take up our idea
and implement it.
Suggestions & conclusions
In the final analysis, the best solutions seem to be to improve the quality of the menu
and the service at the café as well as the maintenance schedule and number of staff
at the gymnasium. If manager is decided to follow recommendations, the experience
of members would improve.
Further example:-
Your college has just published the first issue of the new college magazine. The
organisers are interested in knowing what students thought about it, so they have
asked you to write a report. In your report, you should talk about what the students
liked and disliked about the articles, the sports section and the news section. Then,
you should make suggestions on how to improve the magazine.
Write a report.
The New College Magazine
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to outline students’ opinions about the new college
magazine, and to make recommendations based on their views.
The articles
Most students thought the articles were interesting and well written. However, they
did not talk about modern topics, so some students found this part of the magazine a
little boring.
The sports section
It is thought that the sports section is good, but most articles were about football or
basketball. This is not a good thing because most of our sporty students play rugby,
not football or basketball.
The news section
Many students complained about the news section, because it only focused on news
about the college. These students were expecting to read some news about the city,
too.
Recommendations
In order to solve the problems above, I recommend taking some measures. Firstly,
article writers should focus more on technology and other modern issues. Secondly,
we should consider writing more about rugby and less about other sports. Finally, we
should include some news about our city. If we do these things, the magazine will be
more interesting to our students.
Practice questions:-
1. A group of students from Britain would like to visit your home town as part of an
exchange programme. Their leader has asked you to write a report describing
what there is to see and do in the town, and to describe some of the other
services and facilities that would be available to them.
Write your report.
2. You have just come back from a visit to a local museum organised by your
school the principal has asked you to write a report about the museum and what
you saw there, saying whether it is of interest for all age groups in the school.
Write a report for the Principal
3. You have just come back from a two-day study trip to a historic town. Your
teacher has asked you to write a report about your visit, saying what you saw
during the two days and whether you would recommend a similar visit for other
students.
Write your report
Useful Vocabulary:-
Introduction (the goal of the report)
The aim of this report is to
As requested, I am writing this report to
This report aims to outline/assess
The purpose behind this report is to
Development
The first observation to make concerns…
It has to been stressed that…
According to (the majority of respondents)…
In spite of (the fact that)…
Despite (the fact that)…
The outlook for …… is (far from) bright/optimistic/depressing/daunting
The future looks bleak/remains uncertain/is promising
This seems unlikely in the near/foreseeable future
Recommendations
I suggest/recommend
I would like to suggest/recommend
I therefore suggest
I advise you (not) to
I believe it would be beneficial
It would be advisable to
You may wish/want to consider
If you wish to…, you should
If we wish to…, we ought to
Conclusion
Provided that these recommendations are taken into consideration,…
In conclusion,…
From the research one can conclude that…
CAE REPORT WRITING
You have recently attended a week’s training course and on your return you
receive the following note from your boss:
Hope you enjoyed the training modules. We’re compiling a report to help us
evaluate our Staff Development programme. Please send me an outline of
what you did on the course, which modules were the most useful and your
opinion of how colleagues would benefit from attending in the future.
Thanks.
Model answer example:-
Report on the Staff Development Programme – a description of the training course
carried out to improve the performance of our staff at work.
Organisation of the training modules
I have recently attended the training course organised by the company in order to
workers get more information and develop some skills required in this activity.
I have to say that the information given in the course is hugely useful, but it should be
scheduled in other date. At this moment, everybody is really busy and workers find it
difficult to set aside time to not miss the course.
There is no point arguing that the sessions are too long and dense, what makes even
harder to get the most of the training.
Alternative course
I would recommend dividing the content is several shorter sessions according to the
main topics to deal with.
Perhaps, not everybody needs to receive the whole information. So, there can be
some specific sessions to people involved in that area, whereas who is not working on
that subject would only receive a short session just to get some knowledge.
Recommendations
I would like to make the following recommendations:
1.Schedule the training course in a less busy time.
2.Divide the sessions into shorter modules to ease people to attend.
3.Ensure the content is targeted to the people who are meant to attend them.
If these recommendations are implemented, the training programme will be much
more successful.
CAE questions:
You have been asked to write a report for the World Information Organisation on the
following topic:
What are the greatest threats to the environment in your country today?
What are the solutions?
Write your report
You have just completed six months in a new job. In preparation for a progress
meeting, you have been asked to write a report to your manager.
Your report should explain what you feel you have achieved in the job so far, describe
any problems you have had, and suggest any future training that would be suitable.
Write your report.
An international youth organisation is planning to publish a report looking at attitudes
between different generations:
We are very keen to hear how elderly people are regarded by younger people in
different countries and why the younger generation feel the way they do about elderly
people. Suggestions regarding how positive attitudes can be developed are welcome.
Write the report for the organisation.
CAE Report Vocabulary:-
Introduction (the goal of the report)
The objective of this report is to compare ….. and …..
The purpose of this report is to examine / evaluate / explain / describe / analyse /
present / outline…
This report aims to…
It is based on a survey conducted among…
It is the result of a discussion which took place among…
Development
The first observation to make concerns…
First of all,…
Firstly,…
Secondly,…
Furthermore,…
Moreover,…
In fact,…
Lastly,…
Finally,…
It has to been stressed that…
According to (the majority of respondents)…
In spite of (the fact that)…
Despite (the fact that)…
The outlook for …… is (far from) bright/optimistic/depressing/daunting
The future looks bleak/remains uncertain/is promising
This seems unlikely in the near/foreseeable future
Recommendations
I would strongly recommend that…
The following measures should be implemented:
In the light of the results of the survey I would advise against…
Given the results of the survey, I would advise for…
I feel it would be to our advantage if…
The best solution would be to…
In order to improve …… it is necessary to..
This will have an impact on …….
Conclusion
Provided that these recommendations are taken into consideration,…
In conclusion,…
From the research one can conclude that…
