How to Write a Formal Report?

Every professional worker needs to know the rules and principles of writing a formal report in order to be able to put forward personal suggestions for specific projects and be aware how to share information among the personnel. For example, in engineering sphere, one may need to know how to write a formal report on the way of arranging aircraft seats, whereas a PhD graduate may need to know the rules of writing a formal report when describing the latest innovations in his/her field of research.

What Makes the Formal Report so Special?

• Methodological structure (each section should be properly organized in terms of addressing each key point);
• It should address the target audience (the content of the report should be of interest to your readers);
• The report should be written in appropriate formal style.

Every person who is struggling with the task of writing a formal report should learn the basic steps on how to structure it properly.

 Sections of the Report:

• Front cover. Its main role is to provide appropriate visual representation hat could grab attention of your target audience. Provide the report title (should be capitalized) and the writer’s name.

• Title page. Although similar to the front cover, it includes the abstract, which is a brief and concise summary of the report’s content.
• Table of contents for making it clear what sections and subsections you have. It helps to navigate through your paper and find the needed information more easily.

Summary. The last paragraph provides a descriptive conclusion, where you identify the main goal, research questions, and outcomes revealed within the formal report.

The aforementioned is the backbone of structuring the report as a document. However, regarding the organization of the main body of the text, it should be logically divided into the introductory paragraph, discussion section, and conclusion.

Each of the sections that are included into the formal report should be separately discussed and be provided with headings and subheadings. You should formulate the subheadings in such a way that it is clear for a reader what is the key point or idea that you aim to convey.

Make sure to organize separate sections of the report logically and coherently. The information that you write under each section should be relevant to the topic/subheading. Most importantly, you should provide original ideas. In case you borrow some ideas or use references to other scholars/researchers/professionals, you should properly cite those pieces of text.

The last section of the formal report contains professionals setting and should be comprised of the following parts:

• Appendix (appendices), where you provide supplementary materials that are attached along with the report.
• Glossary, where you provide explanation for specific terms in case they might be unknown for your target audience.
• A reference page, where you cite each work that was used in the report.

To sum up, a formal report is not that hard to write as it seems from the first sight. The thing that is important is to follow the requirements.