Common Errors in Report Writing

Assignments

Content and organisation

Problem - No section headings

Solution - Use the following section headings:

Introduction, Findings, Conclusion and
Recommendations. Other possible sections include
Background, Method and Discussion. You can also
use sub-headings, such as 'Terms of Reference',
'Aims', and 'Overview'. Put each one on its own
line, above the following paragraph.

Problem - missing items related to the format

Solution - in memo-format reports, include To,

From, Date and Subject. In stand-alone reports,
include a title; e.g. 'Report on...', the date, and the
author's name, job title and organisation.

Problem - lack of numbering

Solution - add numbers at the start of the section

headings; for example:

Introduction

Background

1. Introduction
1.1 Terms of
Reference
1.2 Aims
1.3 Overview
2. Method
3. Findings

1. Introduction
2. Method
3. Findings
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Quality
3.3 Quantity
3.4 Cost

1. Introd
2. Metho
3. Findin
3.1 Intr
3.2 Ob
3.3 Qu
results


Method

Findings
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Strengths
4.3 Weaknesses
4.4 Opportunities
4.5 Threats

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Advantages
3.3 Disadvantages
4. Conclusion
5. Recommendations

3.5 Risk
4. Discussion
5. Conclusion
6.
Recommendations

Conclusion

Recommendations

Introduction section

Problem - no terms of reference

Solution - state who requested the report (their

name, job title and organisation) and when they
requested it.

Problem: no aim or objective

Solution - The aim should have an infinitive verb;

e.g. 'This report aims to investigate the recent
incident involving...' The objective should be the
desired result; e.g. 'in order to prevent this from
happening again', or 'for the purpose of increasing
sales'.

Procedure / Method section

Problem: in the Procedure / Method section, no date

for when information was collected

3.4 Inte
Results
4. Discu
5. Concl
6. Recom

Solution: include a date or a range of dates; e.g.

'Questionnaire were distributed on Friday, 22
August 2014. Interviews were conducted between
Thursday, 28 August 2014 and Wednesday, 10
September 2014.

Findings

Problem: no introduction to the findings

Explanation: It is important to have an introduction

to your Findings to summarise them for busy
people who do not have time to read all of them,
and to give readers an overview of what to expect
in the Findings. This helps them to understand the
Findings more easily, because the information is not
totally new.

Example: 'In general, staff were not satisfied with

the power and size of the microwave.'

Problem: the findings section is too long

Solution 1: select only some of the information

available - chose the most important information

Example 1: The purpose of reports is to solve

problems or take advantage of opportunities, so if
the information is not related to solving the
problem or taking advantage of the opportunity,
miss it out.

Solution 2: select only some of the information

available - chose information that represents the
other information.

Example 2: When describing data from a table,

look for data that shows that there is a problem, and
describe that in more detail. Describe other data
briefly, for example in one sentence (see the
Findings in the Example Report below).

Problem: On the other hand is used wrongly

Incorrect example: 'Over 90% of staff were not

satisfied with the location of the microwave. On the
other hand about three-quarters of them were not
satisfied with its capacity.'

Cause: On the other hand means However, not In

addition. It shows contrast with the previous
statement, not a change of subject.

Solution: use it properly or avoid it.

Correct example: 'Over 90% of staff were not

satisfied with the location of the microwave. On the
other hand about three-quarters of them were
satisfied or very satisfied with its reliability.'
(Explanation: there is a contrast between the lack of
satisfaction in the first sentence and the positive
satisfaction in the second.)

Problem: no ordering principle, so it is hard to

follow the priority of the Findings, or Findings in
the same order as the statistics

Solution: use an organisational structure, such as:

Importance - Great to less

Strengths and Weaknesses

Advantages and Disadvantages

Cost - Cheap to expensive

Quality - Best to worst

Quantity - Most to least

Time - Past to present, fastest to slowest, or

punctual to late

Problem: not putting the topic of the sentence at the

beginning, so readers have to remember all of the

words in the sentence before they find out what the

sentence is about.

Example of the problem: 'Over three-quarters of

human resources department staff and over twothirds of accounting department staff were satisfied
in terms of the microwave's location.' (23 words to
remember)

Example of a better sentence organisation: 'The

location of the microwave satisfied over threequarters of human resources department staff and
over two-thirds of accounting department staff '. (1
word to remember)

Example of a better paragraph organisation:

3.2 Location of the Microwave
The location of the microwave in the pantry
satisfied over three-quarters of human resources
department staff and over two-thirds of accounting
department staff

Conclusion

Problem: No summary of the findings at the start of

the Conclusion

Cause: Writers do not see the need to repeat

information.

Reason: Busy report readers may not read all of the

report, especially the Findings. They may jump to
the conclusion, and therefore miss important
information.

Solution: At the start of the Conclusion write a oneparagraph summary of the Findings; e.g. In
conclusion, the findings show that staff are not
satisfied with the ...'.

Recommendations

Problem: Unrealistic recommendations.

Causes:

Unprofessional thinking; e.g. business

students recommending expensive solutions
that will not pay for themselves.

Over-general recommendations

Example:
'In future, our company should adopt more effective
measures to market more useful products to more
potential customers.' (Too general).

More information on how to write good

recommendations.

Grammar, vocabulary, style and tone

Introduction section

Problem: confusion between past and present

tenses.

Solution: Information about the content of the

report should use the present tense, but information
about what happened should be in the past tense.

Example: 'At the monthly staff meeting on Tuesday,

2 September 2014, you requested information about
staff satisfaction with the new microwave oven.
The aim of this report is to present this information,
and make suggestions about how to improve the
situation.'

Procedure / Method section

Problem: in the Procedure / Method section, the

description of the range of dates is wrong

Solution: include a date or a range of dates, and use

the correct words to describe the times; e.g. 'A
survey was carried out from Monday to Friday of
last week' or 'A survey was carried out between
Monday and Friday of last week'.

Problem: confusion between in total and totally

Bad example: There were totally 50 customers who

were interviewed.

Solution: totally means completely. However, In

total means Added together.

Correct examples: 'In total 50 customers were

interviewed.' or 'A total of 50 customers were
interviewed.'

Findings

Problem: use of the informal 'For' to introduce a

subject; e.g. 'For senior staff, ...'

Solution 1: Use 'Regarding'; e.g. 'Regarding senior

staff, ...'

Solution 2: start with the subject of the sentence,

then a verb; e.g. 'Senior staff were...'

Problem: using sentence structures such as, "For

pollution, it is a serious problem." is an error called
topicalisation.

Solution: write, "Pollution is a serious problem." If

you use 'Regarding X', 'Concerning X' 'With regard
to X' or 'As for X', you should follow it by a comma
and then a different subject (not X). For example,
'Regarding pollution, we see it as a serious
problem.' For more information, see
http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/common/topicalize.htm .

Problem: choosing between 'satisfy', 'satisfied',

'satisfying' and 'satisfactory', etc, and missing out
the following preposition.

Solution: see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/eiw/satisfaction.htm

Problem: using staffs

Solution: see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/exercises/staff.htm

Problem: grammatical mistakes in approximation;

e.g. 'two-third of staff were satisfied'

Solution: see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eiw/approximationcorre
ction.htm

Problem: describing trends incorrectly

Solution see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/exercises/trends.htm

Problem: missing auxiliary verb in cause and effect

descriptions

In correct example: This may because of a lack of

quality control.

Correct examples: 'This may be because of a lack of

quality control.' or 'This may have been because of
a lack of quality control.'

Problem: Extreme statements

Example: 'The materials were useless.'

Solution: Present the data; e.g. 'Staff did not find

the materials useful: over 90% of them found the
materials 'very dissatisfying.' '

Conclusion

Problem: describing cause and effect.

Solution: see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/exercises/cause&effec
t.htm

Problem: using lack and lack of wrongly

Solution: see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/exercises/lack.htm

Problem: confusion between the different sentence

structures around due to and because

Solution: see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/exercises/because.htm

Problem: using it is because inappropriately

Solution: see
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/exercises/itisbecause.ht
m

Recommendations

Problem: using suggest to and recommend to, not

followed by a person

Solution 1: use an _ing form; e.g. 'I suggest taking

the following action.'

Solution 2: use a that-clause; e.g. 'I recommend

that the company take the following action.'

Problem: not showing confidence or tentativity in

recommendations.

Solution 1: use should to show confidence and

could to show tentativity; e.g. 'We should return the
microwave to the shop and ask them if we can buy
a bigger one. We could also let the staff arrange a
system for different staff to use the microwave at
different times.

Solution 2: use clearly to show confidence and

may, or might to show tentativity; e.g. 'This may be
because of ...'

Solution 3: use adverbs such as definitely to show

confidence and probably or possibly to show
tentativity; e.g. 'This is probably due to the...".

Solution 4: use is to show confidence and seems to

or appears to to show tentativity; e.g. 'This is
because of...' or 'This seems to be because of...'

Problem: wrong tense to show the results of a

suggestion.

Solution 1: to show confidence, use would plus an

infinitive verb; e.g. "The proposed changes would
improve the situation.'

Solution 2: to show tentativity, use could, may or

might plus an infinitive verb; e.g. "The proposed
changes might improve the situation.'

All sections

Problem: lack of use of 'and' before the last item in

a list.

Solution: add 'and'; e.g. This report examines the

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
faced by the organisation.

Problem: determiners not specific enough.

Solution: use specific determiners such as this,

these and it, rather than general ones such as the;
e.g. 'This report aims to' rather than 'The report
aims to...'

Problem: using and and but at the start of

sentences, which is inappropriate for formal
writing.

Solutions: use more formal alternatives; e.g. In

addition and However

Conventions

Problem: too much detail in the description of

statistics

Example: '33.33% of respondents thought that this

was acceptable'.

Solution: use approximation; e.g. 'A third of

respondents thought that this was acceptable'.

Next: try the Report Correction Exercise

Example report
CONTACT COMPUTER GRAPHICS
MEMORANDUM
To:
From:
Date:
Subject:

1. Introduction
At the monthly staff meeting on Tuesday, 2 September 2014, you requested inform

2. Background
Since the move to the new office in Kowloon Bay, staff have had difficulty in findi

3. Method
Sixty staff were surveyed by questionnaire from Friday, 5 September 2014 to Wedn

4. Findings

4.1 Introduction
In general, staff were not satisfied with the power and size of the microwav
Table 1: Staff Satisfaction with the Microwave Oven
Staff Satisfaction
Feature

Group A
Usually ate in the
office (n=40)

Group B
Usually ate outside
the office (n=20)

Size

55%

35%

Power

30%

25%

Location

70%

75%

Reliability

95%

95%

Cleanliness

90%

95%

Average

68%

65.5%

4.2 Power
Only a quarter of Group B staff said that the oven was powerful enough for
4.3 Size
In addition, about two-thirds of Group B staff said that the microwave was

4.4 Location
About three-quarters of both groups of staff thought that the location of the

4.5 Reliability and Cleanliness

Regarding both reliability and cleanliness, almost all of the staff were satisf

5. Conclusions
The Findings show that staff, especially staff in Group B, were not satisfied with th
6. Recommendations
There are a number of options we could consider, as follows:
6.1 Exchange

We should return the microwave to the shop and ask them if we can buy a b

6.2 Purchase of a New Microwave

If the shop will not take back the old microwave I recommend buying a new

6.3 Queuing System

We could let the staff arrange a system for different staff to use the microwa

hits since 31 March 2007

If you have any suggestions or questions, please e-mail us at

eccill@inet.polyu.edu.hk .