What is the body of the report?

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Reports are a common academic genre at university. Although the exact nature will vary according to the discipline you are studying, the general structure is broadly similar for all disciplines. The typical structure of a report, as shown on this page, is often referred to as IMRAD, which is short for Introduction, Method, Results And Discussion. As reports often begin with an Abstract, the structure may also be referred to as AIMRAD.

Preliminaries

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There are several parts which go at the beginning of the report, before the main content. These are the title page, abstract and contents page.

Title page

Your report should have a title page. Information which could be included on this page are:

Abstract

Many longer reports will contain an abstract. This is like a summary of the whole report, and should contain details on the key areas, in other words the purpose, the methodology, the main findings and the conclusions. An abstract is not usually needed for shorter reports such as science lab reports.

Contents page

Many reports will contain a contents page. This should list all the headings and sub-headings in the report, together with the page numbers. Most word processing software can build a table of contents automatically.

Introduction

The first section of your report will be the introduction. This will often contain several sub-sections, as outlined below.

Background

There should be some background information on the topic area. This could be in the form of a literature review. It is likely that this section will contain material from other sources, in which case appropriate citations will be needed. You will also need to summarise or paraphrase any information which comes from your text books or other sources.

Theory

Many reports, especially science reports, will contain essential theory, such as equations which will be used later. You may need to give definitions of key terms and classify information. As with the background section, correct in-text citations will be needed for any information which comes from your text books or other sources.

Aims

This part of the report explains why you are writing the report. The tense you use will depend on whether the subject of the sentence is the report (which still exists) or the experiment (which has finished). See the language for reports section for more information.

Method

Also called Methodology or Procedure, this section outlines how you gathered information, where from and how much. For example, if you used a survey:

If it is a science lab report, you will need to answer these questions:

Results

This section, also called Findings, gives the data that has been collected (for example from the survey or experiment). This section will often present data in tables and charts. This section is primarily concerned with description. In other words, it does not analyse or draw conclusions.

Discussion

The Discussion section, also called Analysis, is the main body of the report, where you develop your ideas. It draws together the background information or theory from the Introduction with the data from the Findings section. Sub-sections (with sub-headings) may be needed to ensure the readers can find information quickly. Although the sub-headings help to clarify, you should still use well constructed paragraphs, with clear topic sentences. This section will often include graphs or other visual material, as this will help the readers to understand the main points. This section should fulfil the aims in the introduction, and should contain sufficient information to justify the conclusions and recommendations which come later in the report.

Conclusion

The conclusions come from the analysis in the Discussion section and should be clear and concise. The conclusions should relate directly to the aims of the report, and state whether these have been fulfilled. At this stage in the report, no new information should be included.

Recommendations

The report should conclude with recommendations. These should be specific. As with the conclusion, the recommendations should derive from the main body of the report and again, no new information should be included.

Reference section

Any sources cited in the text should be included in full in the reference section. For more information, see the reference section page of the writing section.

Appendices

Appendices are used to provide any detailed information which your readers may need for reference, but which do not contain key information and which you therefore do not want to include in the body of the report. Examples are a questionnaire used in a survey or a letter of consent for interview participants. Appendices must be relevant and should be numbered so they can be referred to in the main body. They should be labelled Appendix 1, Appendix 2, etc. ('appendices' is the plural form of 'appendix').

The diagram below summarises the sections of a report outlined above.

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There is a downloadable checklist for reports (structure and language) in the writing resources section.

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Make sure your report contains all the right elements. Every report should have the following sections:

Title page

Table of contents

This is optional depending on the length of the report—a 2 to 3 page report probably wouldn't have a table of contents but a 10 to 20 page report would.

Executive summary

An executive summary is a brief overview of a report that is designed to give the reader a quick preview of the report's contents. Its purpose is to present the key points of a report in one place. After reading the summary, your audience will understand the main points you are making and your evidence for those points without needing to read your full report. Remember that the purpose of an executive summary is to provide an overview or preview to an audience who may not have time to read the whole report carefully.

• An executive summary explains why you wrote the report, emphasises your conclusions or recommendations and includes only the essential or most significant information to support those conclusions
• Executive summaries are usually organised according to the sequence of information presented in the full report, so follow the order of your full report as you discuss the reasons for your conclusions
• Executive summaries are usually proportional in length to the larger work they summarize, typically 10 to 15 percent. Most executive summaries are 1 to 2 paragraphs
• Write the executive summary after you have completed the report and have decided on your recommendations. Review your report and identify the key points and use these to organise a draft of your summary
• Make the summary concise, but be sure to show how you arrived at your conclusions
• Don't introduce any new information that is not in your report
• Executive summaries should communicate independently from your report

Introduction

The introduction should:

• briefly describe the context and background to the research
• describe the change, problem or issue to be reported on
• define the specific objectives and purpose of the report
• indicate the overall answer to the problem explored in the report
•  outline the report's scope (the extent of the investigation, also known as its terms of reference or brief)
• preview the report structure
• comment on the limitations of the report and any assumptions that are made.

Discussion

This is the main body of the report and it has two key purposes:

1. to explain the conclusions
2. to justify the recommendations

Key points to remember when you are writing the discussion include the following:

• Present the analysis in a logical and systematic way
• If necessary, divide the material with appropriate headings to improve the readers' understanding
• Back up your claims with evidence—explain your findings
• Link theory to practical issues
• Persuade readers of the validity of your stance

Conclusion

The conclusion should:

• be arranged so that the major conclusions come first
• identify the major issues relating to the case and give your interpretation of them
• relate specifically to the objectives of the report as set out in the introduction
• be a list of numbered points
• follow logically from the facts in the discussion
• be clean-cut and specific
• be brief

Recommendations

Your recommendations point to the future and should be:

• action-oriented
• feasible
• logically related to the discussion and conclusion
• numbered
• arranged in order of importance
• brief

References

See the Library's website for information on citation and how to compile a reference list.

Appendices

Include in the appendices any essential extra material, such as tables and graphs that support your research but don't relate directly to the discussion of your findings.

Remember...

The first thing you need to do is identify your audience and what they need to know. Then think through what the report is about—what information needs to be in it, what information is best left out?

Also, remember that the key difference between an essay and a report is that an essay focuses on developing an argument or point of view, while a report centres on solving a problem and presenting research findings. You can also use headings (this is something you wouldn't do in an essay) to identify sections of the report (i.e., Discussion, Conclusion, etc.).

Get more advice and tips on how to write a great essay or report.

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