english
Informational Reports
1
What are informational reports?
Purpose is always to inform
Always know
The audience
Your role
The desired effect
Types of informational reports
Directives
Field reports
Incident reports
Minutes
Lab reports
Progress or status reports
2
Directives
Always from a place of authority
To instruct
To clarify
To persuade
To document
Field reports
Always from expert observations
Always to an informed audience
Used to
Describe
Explain
Document
And, sometimes, recommend
Incident reports
To document an incident
Usually within a form
Necessary information
Date of incident
Who was involved
Who observed
What happened
Why (in unbiased terms)
Simple observation
Complex investigation
What has been done to follow up
What will be done to follow up
Minutes
Usually using a template
From a member present
Always objective
free from opinion or perspective
To members present for recall
To members absent to inform
Necessary information:
Date
Time
Location
Called by
Attending
Note taker
Agenda items
Main points of discussion
Person leading discussion
Action items
Deadline
Lab reports
Always uses passive voice
The direct object receives the action
The beaker was filled with water
No first person
Relies heavily on lab notes
Get into the habit of taking lab notes!
Equations
Questions
Actions
The audience is other scientists
Structure, conciseness, and clarity are key
Not read linearly, so structure must be followed
Structure
Descriptive and explicit title
Clear, not creative
Abstract
Not always required
Helps the reader find relevant information
Includes
Purpose of the experiment
Approach used in the experiment
Significance of the experiment
Introduction
Moves from general to specific
Establishes the context of the experiment
Addresses background, secondary research, and concepts that impact the experiment
Directly addresses the singular purpose of the experiment
Method and materials
What is being done
What is being used
Often provided in a science classes (state the experiment was completed as assigned)
Note any issues here
Results
The data derived from the experiment
Always in past tense
No conclusions in this section
Discussion
Conclusions and discussions of meaning
Further questions
Address inconclusive data
Progress or status reports
To a familiar audience
To document progress
To satisfy supervisors’ need to know
To get permission on changes
To alert supervisors to potential problems
Introduction – progress report
The introduction of a progress report should :
Identify the document as a progress report
Describe your project or assigned work
State that you are describing the progress made since your last progress report
Discussion – progress report
Explain what you have accomplished. You need to be clear and correct in this section so that your reader is not misled.
Narrate each task thoroughly
Work accomplished
Progress expected
Problems encountered
Discuss solutions or ask for help
Use complete sentences
Do not include “empty” sections
Organization – progress report
Work Accomplished
Task 1
Task 2
Progress Expected
Task 1
Task 2
Problems Encountered
Task 1
Task 2
Task 1
Work Accomplished
Progress Expected
Problems
Task 2
Work Accomplished
Progress Expected
Problems
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Conclusion – progress report
Overall progress
Ability to make deadline
Offer to answer questions or concerns