reports

1. Academic Writing: Reports
You will be able to…
Identify what goes in each section of a report
Explain and experiment with the stages of
planning and writing a report
Assess your current methods of report writing
Rhian Wyn-Williams,
Academic Skills Tutor,
skills@ljmu.ac.uk

2. Planning your report is essential because…
… a report communicates the findings of an investigation. So, think of planning it as going for a
walk: get to your destination clearly and logically, without detours.
A report has clear sections that tell
the reader:
what you did
why and how you did it
what you found out
why that is important
In your groups, can you match the
title of the report section with the
description of what goes in it?
Next, can you decide which section
the sample paragraphs belong to?

3. Analyse
the brief
Research
and plan
Writing
Plan
Write
To achieve such a clear structure, you need to plan. When
does planning start?
What is it asking you to do? What is the
purpose of the report? What key issues
and concepts will you need to include?
What about a hypothesis? Get down some
initial ideas.
Gather evidence for your writing. What
do you need to know? What will your
reader need to know? How will you
collect your information? Are there key
points and themes starting to form?
How will you communicate your knowledge,
understanding and ideas?
You will need to
write and re-
write until your
ideas are clear
are
communicated
clearly

4. What is the first thing you need to make
sure you know before you analyse the brief?
In your groups, match the image of each
individual with the description of them.
Analyse
the brief

5. Conduct an investigation into levels of unconscious bias amongst LJMU
students. The report will be presented to LJMU’s Library Services to inform
their planning in terms of inclusivity and diversity.
In your groups, start to plan out the type of
information you would need to include in this
report. How will you decide?
How will you gather this information? What
influences your decision?
What are your aims and objectives?
Analyse
the brief

6. • This rough outline plan and the establishment of aims and objectives before you
do your research helps you focus on what information you are gathering, whether
that is through secondary or primary research.
• Don’t forget – as you research, your ideas may change.
Analyse
the brief
How about keeping this initial plan
and your breakdown of the brief
somewhere visible during your
research and planning process?
Keeps you focused!

7. Reading, Research and Note-Making
• Don’t forget to read for your methods section too, when relevant.
• Never just write everything down.
• Keep an eye on the brief and your aims and objectives– have a purpose.
Research
and plan
Remember that books and articles are not
written around your assignments. Ask
yourself whether it will help you, how
much of it is relevant and how/why.

8. • How you go about your research and
gathering your information will vary
greatly depending on your subject and the
actual brief, but you will always need to
read.
• Using your initial thoughts, start your
background reading. This will help you
start to plan what will go in your
introduction and will help you to interpret
your findings, ready to put in your
discussion.
• Don’t forget to use your aims and
objectives: these don’t only focus and
guide you in the research phase but help
you see how your sections will be
structured.
Research
and plan
In your groups, go back to the research aims
and objectives you wrote earlier. How would
these help you to structure your
introduction, your findings section and your
discussion?

9. A grid like this can help you keep track of your reading and analysis, and think
about how you will use or refer to it in your writing:
Author, title Topic Key idea Strengths/Weaknesses How to use
Bill Johnston (2010)
The First Year at
University: Teaching
Students in
Transition: Teaching
Students in
Transition (Helping
Students Learn)
Effect of
stress on
university
students
Students need to
have differences in
study practices
made clear at the
outset: this is
primarily the
responsibility of
the university
Very small sample
Longitudinal study
– appropriate
methods
Compare to
(Jones, 2014) who
emphasises
responsibility of
the student –
introduction (as
background)
Compare with own
methods-
introduction
Compare to own
findings -
discussion
Don’t forget, use diagrams like mind maps too if you prefer
Research
and plan

10. They can also help you keep track of your research and think about how you will
use it in your discussion and conclusion sections:
Aim Objective Finding Links to reading Analysis
Do your findings
challenge what
you have read, or
offer further
evidence for
established
arguments? How
do they compare?
What these
findings mean to
you in relation to
the brief – discuss
them, draw
conclusions,
consider
limitations and
recommendations.
Don’t forget, use diagrams like mind maps too if you prefer
Research
and plan

11. Let’s look at how you can write your sections

12. Evidence to use
/ works to cite
Key point 1 1
2
3
Key point 2 1
2
3
Key point 3 1
2
3
Key point 4 1
2
3
Conclusion Summarise
Plan each paragraph and briefly note the
evidence you will present.
Can you explain why you are including
that point?
It is important to remember that we all
plan at this stage differently BUT the
principle is the same.
Writing
Plan
Now make a detailed paragraph plan for each section,
with notes on where your reading will fit in.
Your analysis of the
brief, your aims and
objectives and your
focused research
and notes have
already started to
give you a
structure.

13. Planning your paragraphs: WEED
What is your paragraph about? This will be your topic
sentence. Try writing each of these first
Explanation: what do you mean?
Examples: illustrate your point with examples.
Do: What do I do with this information? How is it
relevant? Keep thinking ‘So what?’. Relate to brief and
particular section.
Writing
Plan
Your methods and findings sections are
mostly descriptive, so you may need think
about how you present them to show some
‘D’, e.g. a graph of significant statistics from
your research, your error analysis, or
justification for chosen methods.
Can you break the example introduction down into WEED?

14. The potential issues caused by the entanglement of cables and tubing
at hospital bedsides are numerous and can often seriously
compromise patient care and recovery. For example, in an intensive
care unit a mess of cables that becomes caught and pulled can
disconnect or snap a critical fluid line leading to the rapid
deterioration of a patient’s condition (Imhoff, 2004). This could then
be made more dangerous by anyone trying to reconnect the line by
pulling back at the cabling, potentially damaging a number of other
life supporting systems. Patients have also been known to become
strangled by tubing this is more common in paediatric care where
child patients become restless and induce further tangling by moving
about (Garros et al., 2003). In circumstances when a patient is bed-
bound for an extended amount of time, movement and exercise can
enhance recovery and reduce loss of muscle strength (Burtin et al.,
2009). However, the way that most wired monitoring systems are set
up limit the area in which a patient can move by effectively tethering
them to the machine. This has a wider impact on the NHS by
contributing to bed shortages because patients take longer to recover
to the point at which they can be discharged. A product is therefore
required that can replace the current system of bedside cables and
tubing to improve patient safety and recovery, which would be
beneficial to the individual patient and alleviate some of the
pressures on the health system.
What the paragraph is
about
Explanation/evidence
Examples/evidence
D: showing relevance
to question/issue, the
‘so, what?’

15. but, however, on the
other hand, yet
CONTRAST
for example, that is ILLUSTRATION
similarly, moreover,
furthermore, in addition
EXTENSION
therefore, consequently,
as a result, thus
CONCLUSION
then, after that,
ultimately
THE NEXT STEP
Signposting and transition phrases
help clarity
As discussed above,…
It is also important to consider…
Before proceeding to
examine X, it will be
necessary to …
When considering all the points
outlined above …
A contrasting approach is ….
And finally…

16. Generalisations:
Many writers agree that…
Omit rhetorical questions:
How can this problem be addressed without
the appropriate support?
Remove redundant words and phrases:
Looking at the evidence, It seems that
further protection of woodlands is not
needed.
Past history
Only use words you are sure you understand to avoid misuse and lack of clarity.
Writing with academic language is about precise and accurate word-usage, not over
blown and long-winded expression. So watch out for these ….
Avoid overly complicated language:
A multipronged tool was utilized to process a starch
resource.
= A fork was used to eat a potato.

17. So, what will you start trying to do to
make improvements to your report
planning?
This is a really useful online tool you
could use to help organise your
report planning.
https://www.kent.ac.uk/ai/ask/

18. Next Steps
Next week:
To think about how you will use your
reading in a report (or other
assignments):
Summarising, Paraphrasing and Quoting
To think about how you will use your
language in your assignments, including
reports:
Developing your academic language
Don’t forget our PG Writing Club!