Report structure

Methodological recommendations

B) Discriminate between verbal and nominal predicates.

1 He went home after the lecture. 2 the voice sounded cheerful.3 The roses smell sweet.4 He must post the letter at once

Exercise3. a) Point out the objects and what kind they are..

1 She gives Charlie a glass of milk every day. 2 I see a picture over there. 3 He was afraid of the dark. 4 They ate everything on the table.

b) Point out the attributes in the following sentences and say what kind they are.

1 He got a long letter from his school friend. 2 There are two broken chairs in the room. 3 We took a late train to Riga. 4 He picked up the letter lying on the floor.

c) Point out the adverbial modifiers in the following sentences. State their type and say what they are expressed by.

1 We reached the town in the morning. 2 I called on Bob to ask him about our exams. 3 He likes to walk fast. 4 He looked at me strangely. 5 I met Nancy on my first day at University.

HOW TO WRITE A REPORT

A report is a systematic, well organized document which defines and analyses a subject or problem, and which may include:

- The record of a sequence of events

- Interpretation of the significance of these events or facts

- Evaluation of the facts or results of research presented

- Discussion of the outcomes of a decision or course of action

- Conclusions

- Recommendations

Reports must always be:

- Accurate

- Concise

- Clear

- Well structured

Unlike essays, reports are written in sections with heading and sub-heading, which are usually numbered. Below are the possible components of a report, in the order in which they would appear.

· Title page

This should normally include the title, your name and the name of tutor to whom it is being submitted, date of submission, your course/department, and if applicable, the name of the person and/or organization who has commissioned the report.

Avoid “fancy” fonts and effects and don’t include any clipart.

· Acknowledgements (usually just in long reports)

A list of people and organizations both within and outside UCE who have helped you.

· Contents page (always included in reports of 4+pages)

· Terms of reference (sometimes included)

A definition of the task; your specific objective and purpose of writing. Even if you don’t include this as a heading, it is a vital process to go through in your planning.

· Procedure (sometimes include)

How your research was carried out; how the information was gathered.

· Summary (usually included in longer reports; may be called Executive

Summary, Abstract or Synopsis)

This is a very brief outline of the repot to give the potential reader a general idea of what it’s about. A statement of:

- Overall aims and specific objectives (unless included in terms of reference)

- Method/procedure used (unless included in separate section)

- Key findings

- Main conclusion and recommendations

· Introduction (always included)

This should show that you have fully understood the task/brief and that you are going to cover everything required. Indicate the basic structure of the report. You should include just a little background/context and indicate the reasons for writing the report. You may include your terms of reference and procedure/research methods if not covered elsewhere.

Your introduction will often give an indication of the conclusion to the report.

· Main body /findings (always included)

This is the substance of your report. The structure will vary according to the nature of the material being presented, with headings and sub-headings used to clearly indicate the different sections (unlike essay). A “situation - problem – solution – evaluation” approach may be appropriate. It is not sufficient to simply describe a situation. Your tutor will be looking for analysis and for a critical approach, when appropriate.

Charts, diagrams and tables can be used to reinforce your arguments, although sometimes it may be letter to include these as an appendix (particularly if they are long or complicated).

Do not include opinions, conclusions or recommendations in this section.

· Results (possibly included in scientific/engineering reports)

This section records your observations (in the past tense) and would normally include statistics, tables or graphs.

· Conclusion (always included)

Your conclusion should draw out the implications of your, with deductions based on the facts described in your main body. Don’t include any new material here.

· Recommendations (sometimes included)

These should follow on logically from your conclusion and be specific, measurable and achievable. They should propose how the situation/problem could be improved by suggesting action to be taken. A “statement of cost” should be included if you are recommending changes that have financial implications. Recommendations can be numbered if you wish.

· Appendices (sometimes included)

An appendix (plural=appendices) is detailed documentation of points you outline in your findings, for example, technical data, letters sent, tables, sketches, charts, leaflets etc. it is supplementary information which you consider to be too long or complicated or not quite relevant enough to include in your main body, but which still should be of interest to your reader. Each appendix should be referred to in your text. You should not include sometimes as an appendix if it is not discussed in the main body.

· Bibliography (sometimes included)

This is either a separate list of sources which you have used during your research, but have not actually made reference to in your writing, or this list together with your list of references.

· Glossary (occasionally included)

Include a glossary if the report includes a lot of specialized vocabulary or acronyms which may not be familiar to the reader.

ANNOTATING A TEXT

Annotating is a so called process of making up a short fragment about a published extract (in a book, article, report, etc), which can allow to think over the main aim of more detailed exploring of an article.

While annotating the main direction, value and content are taken into consideration as well.

Annotation is a short characteristic of a text according to its content, from some specialties and other, which can be an addition to the description.

Annotation should be written in a plain language. It must be very short and tell us about the main idea, importance and usefulness of a text.

The main sources while preparing for annotation are:

- Title-page (the name of an article and the author’s name)

- Content (the title and descriptive part of the original)

- Conclusion

- Preface

- Epilogue

- Author’s notes

- Graphs and tables.

Due to the content annotations have such types:

- Descriptive;

- Abstractive;

- Critical;

- Introductive;

- Systematic;

- Pedagogical and other.

We should pay much attention to the descriptive annotation.

· Descriptive annotation is a short description of the text’s content with the help of impersonal constructions in a form of a short reference and it can be made up for any printed issue. The general volume of a descriptive annotation is 300-500 signs, in average it is about 3-4 sentences. And it doesn’t depend on an article’s size.

The annotation must consist of 3 parts:

1. The introductive part – the title of an article, author’s name, the publication date, the publication place, the volume or size (pages, illustrations, tables, and so on)

2. The descriptive part – 2-3 main sentences, which are the most typical for his article;

3. The conclusive part.

Annotation has no passage and often begins with the words: “there is explored”, “there is given”, “there is shown” and other. Annotation must be complied correctly grammatically and logically.

HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY

A classic format for compositions is the five-paragraph essay. It is not the only format for writing an essay, of course, but it is a useful model for you to keep in mind, especially as you begin to develop your composition skills.

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