Report Writing
Table of Content:
REPORT WRITING
Report is a statement of facts based on observation and investigation. It is prepared to communicate specific information. There are three main types of report :
- Eye-witness reports : These give an account of what was actually seen or experienced.
- Work-reports : These are of three kinds-(i) Progress report on work (ii) Completion report on final progress, and (iii) Single report on work of limited scope or duration.
- Investigation reports : These are of two kinds-(i) Information reports, detailing and analysing findings and showing their significance, (ii) Recommendation reports advising an action to be taken as well as giving information.
We are mostly familiar with Newspaper reports; and the essential features of these reports are:
- They must have a short and catchy heading
- There must be reference to the place and date
- The reporter should merely give facts and not personal opinion.
A Business Report conventionally contains the following parts :
- Suitable title
- Terms of reference
- Proceedings
- Findings
- Conclusions
- Recommendations
Some reports may have other parts :
- Table of contents
- Summary (the key points and main aim of the report)
- List of symbols, abbreviations and definitions.
- Acknowledgements (people who helped)
- References (documents and published materials consulted)
- Appendices (for table, figures, graphs, questionnaires).
In the following pages you have some examples of Newspaper Reports, followed by some Business Reports.
NEWSPAPER REPORTS
Observe how the given points are developed into newspaper reports : Points :
Nobel prize awarded to Dr. Amartya Sen, an Indian expert on poverty - prize awarded to welfare economics - Dr. Amartya Sen’s reaction to the prize - Dr. Sen’s prize as an honour to India - places where Dr. Sen taught and his work on poverty and famine
India’s Pride
Stockholm, Oct. 14 : Dr. Amartya Sen, an Indian expert on poverty and hunger and the Master of Britain’s Trinity College, Combridge, on Wednesday won the Noble Prize for Economics.
He was awarded the prestigious prize “for his contributions to welfare economics,” which have helped in the understanding of the economic mechanism underlying famines and poverty, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its citation.
“Sen, who has taught both economics and philosophy, has restored an ethical dimension to the discussion to the discussion of vital economic problems.” the academy said.
“I was surprised and quite pleased when I got call,” Dr. Sen said in New York. “But I was even more pleased when they told me the subject matter was welfare economics, a field I have long been very involved in. I am pleased that they gave recognition to that subject.”
Dr. Sen downplayed his Nobel achievement, saying there were many others who deserved the prize and he wished he could share it with them. Dr. Sen was in New York to deliver a lecture on Thursday on Pakistani economist Mahbub-ul Haq. With characteristic humility. Dr. Sen said there were many economists who had worked on this subject and “it is a tragedy we can’t all share the award.”
Asked if the thought this was an honour for India, he said, “I don’t know that. There are many Indians who have received the Nobel Prize. There arc many honours and this is one. What pleases me most is that the subject has received recognition.”
Dr. Sen heard about the prestigious award when he received a call at 4 a.m. in his hotel room. “I thought there was some emergency when the phone rang,” he laughed.
Dr. Sen was bom in Bengal in 1933 and is still an Indian Citizen. He left his professorships in economics and philosophy at Harvard University this year to become Master of Trinity College, Combridge. The prize, officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, is worth 7.6 million crowns (S 960,000) this year.
Dr. Sen, 64, has done work including studying the Bangladesh famine of 1974 and other catastrophes in India, Bangladesh and countries of the Sahara.
His work deals with development economics, the study of the welfare of the world’s poorest people. His best-known work, Detailed in his 1981 book, An Entitlement Deprivation, challenges the common view that the shortage of food is the most important explanation of famine.