What Constitutes a Good Report free essay sample

At the beginning Before writing a report we need to clear up the target subject and what will be included in this report in order to let your readers easily understand what you want them to get from your report. For example, we all once had the experience of looking for something in a messy drawer. The result is that it is so difficult to find what you want under this condition. In the meantime, you also need to spend lots of time on it. Similarly, presenting an unclear and disorganized report can hardly express your point to the readers. The following is the list which I think a good report must contain: ?Having a proper cover page ?Subheadings (having a topic word or sentence before each paragraph) ? Bullet points ?Making a list ?Highlighting your argument ?Proving your argument ?Using simple words and languages ?Using pinpoint words ?Referencing from ?Having a complete conclusion Below are the reasons why I think the 10 bullet points above form a good and professional report ?Why we need to have a proper cover page in a good report Here I’d like to have you as an example. Like you mentioned in the class before, it is much easier and more convenient for you to organize and categorize different kinds of reports from different departments and classes. You can also save plenty of time on looking for a specific report that you might need. Imagine that if one of your students failed by you come and ask you why you fail him or her, you can immediately find their rubbish reports and show them their disgusting work. It is bloody efficient, isn’t it? A proper cover page should have: 1. Subject 2. Name (who presents the report) . Name (who receives the report) 4. Having the date on it 5. Having company name and department title 6. Should be simple 7. Should be professional 8. Avoiding complicated decoration and designs ?Why we need to use subheadings in our reports I think it is the best way to catch readers’ eyes by using subheadings and once more pull readers into the text. Another important point is that you can get a general idea by only reading the subheadings. If the reader is too busy reading the whole report he or she just need to view the subheadings. How helpful the bullet points are 1. Bullet points help organize information into nuggets 2. It makes reports more manageable. 3. Theyre short and to the main point 4. Theyre easily recognizable 5. They separate facts out in memorable chunks Bullet points have similar functions as the headings. They both save a lot of time for the viewers who are very busy. E. g. Bill Gates receives thousands of reports on his desk every month from all over the world. He would never get to sleep if he needed to read the whole reports. Bullet points and headings can easily help him to select the most important ones and let him work effectively. ?Making a list helps you catch the focal point of a report It really can help you to clear up what you are going to present in a report by writing down all viewpoints that you want to cover in a simple way. It is like a roadmap leading you to the successful destination. ?Highlighting your arguments Life is full of arguments and without arguments we cannot come to a result. Arguments are done on a basis to get the good result out of it hence we need to present the same in a good manner. We need to highlight our arguments so that the reader comes to know about the real facts on which the argument is taken place. ?Proving your arguments You can express your own opinion but you must put forward some substantial evidences to support your arguments, which like the real facts, cases , personal experiences, statistical figures and famous quotations . I think these are the best way to prove our arguments so that the other side person gets convinced from them. ?Using simple words and languages Nowadays the life is to fast and complicated. Everybody needs to complete the work without any trouble. I don’t wish that the person reading my report must get confused in it so the best way is to present my report in a very simple and pleasant way by using a nice and decent language. For example: Our Honorable President Mr. Hu Jintao is very busy man and needs to do lot of work for our loving nation and in that moment while he is reading reports it will be very convenient for him to read it since I have used many simple words with nice language. ?Using pinpoint words In daily life it’s very necessary to use the pinpoint words as because this saves lot of time and gets easy to attract the reader. Pinpointed words give lot of support in your report as because it makes clear your idea the way you present it in front of others. ?Referencing from Nowadays most of the work in daily routine is based on reference. The reference can be socially and or politically. Reference itself means that it can be checked by a relevant source. Reference creates lot of reliability in a work. We can get good information from good references. For example: we always refer to persons in case we need to buy a genuine thing from the market which helps a lot to get a reliable thing in a simple and fastest way. ?Having a complete conclusion connects your keystones again to the reader I don’t think you like to watch a movie or sporty match without an ending. Of course the audience would love to know what the result is. Readers usually read the title, abstract, introduction, and conclusions. In that sense, this section is quite important. You have to crisply state the main take-away points from your work. How has the reader become smarter, or how has the world become a better place because of your work? Another function of conclusion is to let the reader gets a deeper impression on the main and final points of the report. I think conclusion is the best part of the report as it enables to complete it by giving a proper meaning to the complete work done. Conclusion Based on the above, I recommend the following strategy for someone who wants to produce a high-quality report: 1. Check if the title/abstract makes sense, is effective/eye-catching. 2. Are all the relevant questions answered in the introduction? 3. Is the overall structure of the rest of the sections meaningful? 4. Is the difference from related/past work crisp and meaningful? 5. Are the technical sections understandable? Are the figures/tables explained properly? Is the terminology clear? Are the symbols used defined appropriately? 6. Are the results explained properly? Are the conclusions drawn from the graphs/tables sound? Or are there technical holes/flaws? Do the results show how the work presented is better/worse that the other cases of comparison?