Report

Areportis adocumentor a statement that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are usually given in the form of written documents.^[1]^[2]Typically reports relay information that was found or observed.^[2]The credible report enhances the previous beliefs while dishonest information can question the agency preparing the report.^[3]Reports fromIPCCas IPCC reports,World Health ReportandGlobal Gender Gap ReportfromWorld Economic Forumsare few examples of reports highlighting important worldly affairs.

Usage

In modernbusinessscenario, reports play a major role in the progress of business. Reports are the backbone to the thinking process of the establishment and they are responsible, to a great extent, in evolving an efficient or inefficient work environment.

The significance of the reports includes:

Reports present adequate information on various aspects of the business.
All the skills and the knowledge of theprofessionalsare communicated through reports.
Reports help the top line indecision making.
A rule and balanced report also helps inproblem solving.
Reports communicate theplanning,policies and other matters regarding anorganizationto the masses. News reports play the role ofombudsmanand levy checks and balances onthe establishment.

Attributes

One of the most common formats for presenting reports isIMRAD—introduction, methods, results, and discussion. This structure, standard for the genre, mirrors traditional publication ofscientific researchand summons the ethos and credibility of that discipline. Reports are not required to follow this pattern and may use alternative methods such as the problem-solution format, wherein the author first lists an issue and then details what must be done to fix the problem. Transparency and a focus on quality are keys to writing a useful report. Accuracy is also important. Faulty numbers in afinancial reportcould lead to disastrous consequences.

Standard elements

Reports use features such as tables,graphics,pictures, voice, or specializedvocabularyin order to persuade a specificaudienceto undertake an action or inform the reader of the subject at hand. Some common elements of written reports include headings to indicate topics and help the reader locate relevant information quickly, and visual elements such ascharts,tablesand figures, which are useful for breaking up large sections of text and making complex issues more accessible. Lengthy written reports will almost always contain atable of contents,appendices,footnotes,andreferences.Abibliographyor list of references will appear at the end of any credible report andcitationsare often included within the text itself. Complex terms are explained within the body of the report or listed as footnotes in order to make the report easier to follow. A short summary of the report's contents, called anabstract,may appear in the beginning so that the audience knows what the report will cover. Online reports often containhyperlinksto internal or external sources as well.

Verbal reports differ from written reports in the minutiae of their format, but they still educate or advocate for a course of action. Quality reports will be well researched and the speaker will list their sources if at all possible.

Structure of a report

A typical report would include the following sections in it:^[4]

Title page
Executive summary
Table of contents
Introduction
Discussion or body
Conclusion
Recommendations
Reference list
Appendices.

Types

Some examples of reports are:

Annual reports
Auditor's reports
Book reports
Bound report
Retailreport
Censusreports
Credit reports
Demographicreports
Expense report
Experiencereport
Incident report
Inspectionreports
Militaryreports
Policereports
Policyreports
Informal reports
Progress reports
Investigative reports
Technical or scientific reports
Tripreports
White papers
Appraisalreports
Workplace reports^[5]^{[unreliable source?]}

References

^Madan, Poonam (2016–2017).Language proficiency in English.28/115, jyoti block, sanjay place, Agra-2: Agarwal publication. p. 138.ISBN 9789385872280.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location (link)
^^a ^b"Definition of REPORT".merriam-webster.Retrieved2023-11-26.
^Hunter, Aaron (2024). Liu, Tongliang; Webb, Geoff; Yue, Lin; Wang, Dadong (eds.)."Reports, Observations, and Belief Change".AI 2023: Advances in Artificial Intelligence.Lecture Notes in Computer Science.14472.Singapore: Springer Nature: 54–65.doi:10.1007/978-981-99-8391-9_5.ISBN 978-981-99-8391-9.
^"QUT cite|write - Writing a report".citewrite.qut.edu.au.Retrieved2020-08-06.
^"Report".archive.org.Archived from the original on 2014-03-19.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)