Thu. Aug 14th, 2025

 REPORT WRITING FORMAT

A report is an official/semiofficial piece of writing which involves giving information about an occurrence, an event or an investigation. By its nature, a report has to be

Factual

Concise

Objective 

Free from any bias


The writer of the report must state only the happenings and occurrences in a sequential order. He/she does not have the freedom to express his/her opinions or conclusions. Similarly, elaborations, descriptions and irrelevant matter cannot be included.

According to the demands of the subject matter, the language of a report must be simple, direct and without embellishment.

Reports may be of several kinds. Students are required t write reports of school events or of important daily occurrences for a newspaper.


REPORTS FOR A SCHOOL MAGAZINE

Usually, school activities have to be reported for publishing in a school magazine. 

Format : (a) Heading

(b) Writer’s name, class and section

Language is semi formal.

Content – factual information about the school activity/event, date, time, venue

              – sequence of programme/event

              – information about chief guest/judges/participants

              – highlights of the event

              – kind of organization, people responsible for programme arrangements

              – result if describing a contest




REPORT FOR A NEWSPAPER 


Political news, accidents, natural disaster, crime, etc., are usually the subjects for news reports.

Format: (a) Headline

(b) Dateline-date and place of occurrence before beginning the report

(c) Byline, i.e., by a correspondent or an agency as its  source (It can appear immediately after the heading. )

Language and style for a news report are quite formal.

 – passive voice is preferred.

 – journalistic vocabulary/expressions are used, e.g., according to government sources, according to ministry/party spokesman.

 – words like ‘murderer’, ‘thief’ ‘smuggler’, etc., are preceded by ‘suspected’, ‘alleged’, etc.


Content is systematically presented. The main information is given in the first two or three sentences. The following sentences fill up the details of date, place, occasion and other information about the occurrence