Formal report guidelines and best practices

¶ … glimpse your reader sees of your report. The information contained should be straightforward and contain the title of your report, your name, the date, and anything else that is essential.

For longer reports, a Table of Contents should be included with a clear, organized breakdown of the sections included along with headings, subheadings, and the corresponding page numbers. Generally, a "long" report refers to one that contains ten pages or more, or a report that contains a number of sections that would be better understood with an outline. If illustrations, graphs, charts, photos are included in the report, these should appear in the Table of Contents as well.

An Executive Summary should be included in longer reports. This should be about 100 words in length and appear on a page of its own. The content should include a brief summary of what is to be covered in the report.

Introduction

A key part to any formal analytical report is the introduction. Basically, it explains the purpose of the report and identifies the audience for whom the report is targeted. This is the reader's initial introduction to what you are presenting, and as such it should be concise, clear, and polished -- in other words, you want to make a good impression in these opening paragraphs. This will spark your reader's interest in your report; it will also encourage your reader to maintain interest in what you have to say. A clearly written introduction also gives your reader a sense of your reliability, your credibility, and knowledge in the area you are addressing in the report. Therefore, taking the time to ensure that it is professional and well-written is well worth the effort.

The content of the introduction should contain background information that clearly describes what the report will cover. It should begin with the problem that is being addressed. This should be in the form of a definition or description of the problem. Once this is clearly stated, the report should cover the research methods that will be used to address the problem, along with an overview of the source material accessed to assist in preparation of the report. To prepare the reader for what is to be covered, the introduction should also include potential solution to the problem, as well as the solution or solutions that will be concluded from the data. If necessary, definitions of key terms can be included in the introduction. However, in longer reports, if there are a significant number of definitions, it would be better to include them in the form of a glossary, which would appear at the end of the report.

Body of the Report/Collected Data

The Body of the report contains the "meat" of the report. It should elaborate on the areas mentioned in the Introduction, and it should correspond to the pages as set out in the Table of Contents. The Body of the report should discuss the methodology used in obtaining the data, discussing in detail how the data have been collected. It should be indicated whether the collection methods were qualitative or quantitative, and collected methods should be discussed in detail.

The data should be presented in an organized format. Quantitative data should be organized in tables or charts that give the reader an overview of the results. This should be followed by an explanation of the findings, including a synthesis of the data and an analysis of the findings. It is important to report and analyze data in an objective and organized manner. If more than one conclusion has been reached, each conclusion should be related to the data on which it is based. That data should then be interpreted and analyzed accordingly.