Report Design

Although technical reports have various designs depending on the industry, profession, or organization, they still have some standard components, which are discussed on this page. You may need to use all or just some of these report components; confirm what’s required for each report.

When you analyze the design of a technical report, notice how repetitive some sections are. This duplication has to do with how people read reports. They don’t read reports straight through. They may start with the executive summary, skip to the conclusion or recommendations, and read other portions selectively.  Most readers probably do not read every page. Your challenge is to design reports so that readers encounter your key facts and conclusions, no matter how much of the report they read or in what order they read it.

Letter of Transmittal

The letter of transmittal letter is a cover letter, usually attached to the report. It’s a communication from you—the report writer—to the recipient, the person who requested the report. A letter of transmittal briefly explains what the report contains. More importantly, it reiterates the context of the report, the events which brought about the report, to remind the recipient about the report’s importance. Background context is information that does not belong in the body of the report.

Use standard business letter format for the letter of transmittal. If you write an internal report, use memo format instead, as memos traditionally are used for internal communications. In either case, the contents and organization are the same:

  • First paragraph – Cites the name of the report, and mentions the date of the agreement to write the report
  • Middle paragraph(s) – Focuses on the context and purpose of the report and gives a brief overview of the report’s contents
  • Final paragraph – Encourages the reader to get in touch if there are questions, comments, or concerns. It closes on a positive note, expressing hope that the reader finds the report satisfactory.

As with any other element in a report, you may have to modify the contents of the letter/memo of transmittal for specific situations. For example, you might want to add a paragraph that lists questions you’d like readers to consider as they review the report.

Cover Page

Make sure to have a cover page that contains at least the following information:

  • title of the report—brief, but descriptive enough to indicate its contents
  • prepared by [your name, or the names of the group members if the report was a collaborative effort]
  • prepared for [name of person, or name of department—whatever is appropriate]
  • date

Table of Contents

Any technical document of more than a few pages may have a table of contents. The table of contents page lists the headings and secondary headings of the report and their page numbers, enabling readers to quickly locate specific parts of the report. Leaders (i.e. spaced or unspaced dots) are used to guide the reader’s eye from the headings to their page numbers.

The words “Table of Contents” should appear at the top of the page. You may use uppercase or bold type. Align the titles of major report parts at the left-hand margin, and indent secondary headings. Make sure that the wording of headings in the table of contents is the same as the wording used in the text of the report.

Note that the table of contents should not include the title page or the cover letter/memo. If the report includes an executive summary and/or abstract, those sections can be included in the contents, usually paginated with lower-case roman numerals.

List of Tables/Figures

Create a separate list of tables and figures for longer reports that contain multiple tables and figures. The list may fit on the same page as the table of contents, or may require a new page. If it makes sense to intersperse the tables and figures, do so, but if you have many of each, you may want to categorize and do a list of tables and a list of figures.

Executive Summary

An executive summary presents an overview of the report that can be used as a time-saving device by recipients who do not have time to read the entire report.

The executive summary should include:

  • mention of the report’s purpose
  • a summary of key findings
  • identification of conclusions
  • a summary of recommendations

An executive summary is just that—a summary, usually no more than ten percent of the length of the report, and often shorter. The idea is to highlight the report’s main ideas, for a reader who will not read the whole thing, or for a reader who needs to refresh their memory of the report’s contents.

Body of the Report

No matter how brief or lengthy a report, you should consistently include an introduction, body, and conclusion, followed by a reference list if you included information from researched sources.

Introduction

The body of a formal report begins with an introduction. The introduction sets the stage for the report, clarifies what need(s) motivated it, and orients the reader to its structure.

Most report introductions address the following elements: background information, problem or purpose, significance, scope, methods, organization, and sources. As you may have noticed, other parts of a formal report fulfill similar purposes. Information from the letter of transmittal and the executive summary may be repeated in the introduction. Re-word the information in order to avoid sounding repetitive.

Make sure to label this section “Introduction” or “Background” and then discuss the relevant background information, problem, or purpose. You do not need to use any headings in this section.

Because this section includes background information, it’s also an appropriate place to address readers who may need additional knowledge about the topic. Provide definitions of technical terms and instruction about the overall project if necessary. If you are uncertain whether your audience needs a particular piece of information, include it; it’s better to give your reader a little bit too much background than not enough.

Body

Begin the body with your first major heading and its information, and develop the report with subsequent headings and units of information. The body of a report houses the bulk of the information that addresses your purpose, broken up and organized into parts indicated by headings and subheadings. Determine the content in the body of your report according to your purpose and audience, and apply heading conventions.

As you present, interpret, and analyze information, remember that you may include both text and graphics. When you use graphics, make sure to apply conventions for tables and figures. Also remember that, if you use research from other sources in the body of the report, you need to include in-text citations that identify the source of each piece of borrowed information.

Conclusion/Recommendations

The conclusions and recommendations section conveys the key results or insights from the information in the body. Up to this point, you’re presented data in the report; now readers are logically prepared to read your results.

Conclusions answer any research questions around which the report was based. Recommendations answer research questions and also offer a course of action. Depending on your purpose and the number of conclusions or recommendations, you may want to summarize the conclusion section with a re-cap of conclusions or recommendations in list form.

Reference List

All formal reports should include a reference list at the end. This page documents the sources cited within the report. The reference list allows readers to refer to this page to locate sources for further research. APA style uses the name “Reference List.” Check Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab for more information about APA style.

Optional Sections

There are some standard optional pieces that you may add to a formal report, depending on the type and amount of information you need to provide to your audience.

Descriptive Abstract

A descriptive abstract is optional and not the same as an executive summary, which is a standard portion of formal reports. Descriptive abstracts and executive summaries each summarize a report’s contents, but they do so in different ways and for different purposes. A descriptive abstract provides a capsule overview of the report’s purpose and contents. It’s usually a single, very short paragraph that appears at the bottom of the cover page to provide a preview of report contents that is slightly fuller than the title.

Appendix

An appendix is an extra section that appears after the report’s main body. Any useful content that you feel is too large for the main part of the report or that you think would be distracting and interrupt the flow of information should go into an appendix. Common examples of appendix-appropriate material are large tables of data, big chunks of sample code, fold-out maps, or background that is too basic or too advanced for the body of the report.

If you have different types of information, create separate appendices for each item or category of items, and label each one alphabetically, as Appendix A: [descriptive title of contents], Appendix B, and so on.

Glossary

Always define specialized terms in the document’s main text but, if your proposal contains a significant number of terms that are unfamiliar to your audience, you may need to include a glossary.

Index

Long, complex reports may need to include an index so that readers can find the specific word or topic that interests them.

While document design for reports might seem complicated, it’s important to learn the standard parts of a formal report, since using a regulated format allows for a more universal organization that most readers understand.

 


A Note on Page Numbering 

Do not number the letter of transmittal, the cover page, or the table of contents.Do number the rest of the pages in the report, using Arabic numerals for the body of the report itself, and lower-case roman numerals for pages that precede the actual report, e.g., executive summary.

Longer reports often use the page numbering style known as folio-by-chapter or double-enumeration (for example, pages in Chapter 2 would be numbered 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, and so on, and pages in Appendix B would be numbered B-1, B-2, and so on).
Similarly, tables and figures would use this numbering style. This style eases the process of adding and deleting pages.