Structuring your report

You should have completed your project before you start to write about it. Gather your information and group it into categories. Find the key points you will want to report on that are relevant to your reader. 

Consider the following questions when analysing your information: 

• What facts and/or evidence do you have to support your key points? 
• What are your conclusions? 
• Are there any limitations or flaws in your findings? 
• Is any of your evidence inconsistent or contradicting one another? 

Analysing and grouping your work first will help you find an order to your information. You may already start to see sections of your report emerging. 

As we’ve seen in comparison to an essay, reports have specific requirements when it comes to structure. However, these requirements can vary across different courses and assignments. Be sure to read your assignment criteria carefully to know how you should structure your report. The most typical, basic structure is: 

• Introduction 
• Methodology 
• Results/findings 
• Discussion 
• Conclusion/recommendations   
• References 
• Appendix 

You may also be asked to include an abstract or, for a business related study, an executive summary. This will come before your introduction to summarise your project and the key points of your report. 

Watch this video for more information about each of these sections and the information they require. 

For extra guidance, the graphic below has some questions for you to consider in each section of your report. 

A longer report may also include a table of contents, a table of figures/illustrations and acknowledgements all before the abstract/executive summary. Refer to your assignment criteria to know which sections you’ll need to include in your report.