XobaWrite How to structure a report
Reports are not read front to back. Someone reads your summary, decides whether to continue, and skims for the part that affects them. Structure is what survives that.
An essay is designed to be read from the first word to the last. A report is not. Someone reads the summary, decides whether it concerns them, and jumps to the section that does. That reading pattern is the whole reason a report has the sections it has.
The standard sections
Not every report needs all of these, and your department or employer may have its own template that overrides this. But this is the conventional order.
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Title page | Title, author, date, who it is for |
| Executive summary / Abstract | The whole report in a paragraph, findings and recommendation included |
| Contents | Sections and page numbers. Worth having past about six pages |
| Introduction | Why the report exists, what it covers, what it does not |
| Method | What you did, in enough detail to be repeated or challenged |
| Findings / Results | What you found. No interpretation here |
| Discussion | What the findings mean, and their limits |
| Conclusion | The answer to the question the report was asked |
| Recommendations | What should happen, who does it, by when |
| References | Everything cited |
| Appendices | Supporting material too bulky for the body |
The executive summary is not an introduction
This is the section most often written wrongly. An introduction says what the report will do. An executive summary says what it found. Someone who reads only the summary should be able to act.
This report examines the causes of delayed order processing in the warehouse. It considers staffing, software and layout, and makes recommendations.
Order processing delays are caused primarily by the two-stage manual check introduced in March, which adds an average of 41 minutes per order. Staffing and warehouse layout are not significant factors. Removing the second check, with a sampled audit in its place, would recover an estimated 28 hours a week at no additional cost.
Write it last, however tempting it is to write it first. You cannot summarise a conclusion you have not reached. Keep it to one page at most.
Findings and discussion are different sections for a reason
Findings are what you observed: numbers, measurements, what people said. No interpretation. Discussion is what they mean.
Keeping them apart lets a reader disagree with your interpretation while still trusting your data — which is exactly what a sceptical reader wants to be able to do. Blend them and the reader cannot tell where the evidence stops and your reasoning starts.
Mean processing time was 94 minutes (SD 22) after the change, compared with 53 minutes (SD 19) before it. 87% of the increase occurred at the second check stage.
The concentration of delay at a single stage suggests the problem is the check itself rather than general slowdown. The stable standard deviation makes a few unusually slow orders an unlikely explanation.
Recommendations that can actually be acted on
Each one needs three things: what to do, who does it, and by when.
Order processing procedures should be reviewed.
Replace the second manual check with a 10% sampled audit. Owner: warehouse operations manager. By: end of the next quarter. Expected effect: 28 hours a week recovered.
Order them by importance, not by the order you thought of them. If some depend on others, say so.
Numbering and cross-references
Number sections (1, 1.1, 1.2) so people can refer to them in a meeting. Go no deeper than three levels — 2.3.4.1 is a sign the structure needs rethinking rather than more digits.
Number tables and figures separately, each with a caption that makes sense on its own. People pull figures out of reports and put them in slides; a caption saying only “Figure 3” is useless the moment it leaves the page.
Appendices
Anything a reader might want to check but does not need in order to follow the argument: raw data, full questionnaires, detailed calculations. Every appendix must be referred to from the body — an appendix nothing points at is material you did not need.
A checklist before you submit
- The executive summary states findings and a recommendation, not intentions
- Findings contain no interpretation; discussion contains no new data
- Every recommendation has an owner and a deadline
- Sections are numbered, no deeper than three levels
- Every table and figure has a caption that stands alone
- Every appendix is referenced from the body
- Contents page page numbers match the document