Reports

Reports are a very common assignment type at university. In this section, you'll find resources to help you understand different report types and how to structure them.

Reports provide structured and factual information, narrating the investigation or problem-solving process. They typically offer practical outcomes and recommendations and are written to address a specific need, issue, or question.

Purpose of a report

An academic report can document a trial, experiment, investigation or intervention. Some examples include:

• business reports which analyse business issues or opportunities, providing insights and recommendations to help decision-makers strategise and improve operations
• scientific reports that detail the methodology, results, and conclusions of research or experiments
• engineering reports that seek to document technical processes, analyses, and outcomes related to engineering projects

Report topics

In some cases, students will be given a topic or list of topics that they need to conduct their report on. For example, they may be given a scenario in which a company or organisation is experiencing a problem. Students then need to analyse the issue and come up with solutions or recommendations to overcome it.

In other cases, students will be asked to come up with their own topic for their report, often within certain guidelines or subject areas.

If you have been asked to come up with your own topic, it is important that you take a few things into consideration:

• Your topic should not be so broad that you will not be able to explore it in a satisfactory way. For example, if you have a 2000-word essay, you will not be able to come up with solutions to significant issues like the global cost of living crisis.

  Instead, you can narrow down your topic by adding limiting statements to it. For example, you could specify a timeframe, location, population group or specific aspect. Then your topic might look something like:

  Screen reader users, this text uses visual highlights to indicate different parts of speech. Each highlight is explained for your convenience.

  • 1 Timeframe
  • 2 Population group
  • 3 Location

  Examine the current¹Screen reader users, this is a timeframe. cost of living crisis is affecting families²Screen reader users, this is a population group. in Victoria, Australia,³Screen reader users, this is a location. and provide suggestions for how the Victorian Government can ease the burden on families.

• At the same time, your topic should not be so narrow that it will make it hard for you to research and meet the required word limit. An example of a report topic that is too narrow in scope is:
  

  The impact of a single mindfulness session on the reading comprehension skills of male year 8 students at Greenfield High School during the second week of Term 3 in 2024.

Sources to use in a report

Where you source the information from your report from will depend on the type of report you have been asked to write. Examples of sources include:

• academic journals
• books and textbooks
• online databases
• government reports and publications
• industry reports
• company websites
• annual reports
• news articles
• interviews and surveys
• conference proceedings
• professional associations
• government reports and statistics