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Report Writing
By: Parthiv Goel

A report should have clearly defined sections presented in a standard format, which are used to tell the reader what you did, why and how you did it and what you found.

It should be written in a sufficient detail so that someone reading it would be able to reproduce your experiment accurately. To write a report, make use of top-down approach.

There are three phases of refinement of details--

Section-level outline,
Subsection-level outline
Paragraph-level outline.

The paragraph-level outline includes the flow of ideas. It would be relatively like a presentation with the bulleted points.

The purpose of reports is generally to inform. However, reports may include credible elements, such as recommendations, suggestions, or other inspiring conclusions that specify possible future actions, the report reader may take into the consideration.

Title— It should be short and precise and attention-grabbing to the reader.

Abstract— The abstract is a self-contained summary of your entire report. Thus, it should be written at the end and is generally restricted to one paragraph (just about 150 words).

Introduction-- Give details of the background to the problem with reference to a previous work carried out in the area. To be precise -- literature review. Make sure you are including only that studies which have the direct significance to your research.

Method-- The Method segment should depict every step of how you executed your research the reader could exactly replicate your procedure if they wanted to. Things which have been engaged in the method should be specified, such as—Equipments, information on your experimental design, participants, sampling methods and the overall procedure. All these things have to be taken into the consideration.

Results-- In this section, you should put across your findings of the experiment, evidently. Readers needs to be certain of your results as in the Discussion section, these findings will be acting as foundation on your explanations.

Discussion--It gives an account of the findings of your study to the research. Discussions ease the reader in understanding the significance of your research. All the information which you have collected, you can easily examine and understand your results in this section.

References-- At this juncture, you must furnish all the fine points of a work by all the other authors which you have referred to in your report.

Appendices-- All appendices should be clearly tagged and referred to where appropriate in the main text. This segment holds the stuff that is applicable to your report, such as-- raw data and calculations, a glossary of terms, interview questions, or the other information that the reader could stumble on.

A key thing to consider during the report writing is that of intended audience. Formulate your writing in such a way that it is readable and useful for the technical community.