essay and report writing skills open university

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Essay and report writing skills Kindle Edition

Writing reports and assignments can be a daunting prospect. Learn how to interpret questions and how to plan, structure and write your assignment or report. This ebook, Essay and report writing skills, is designed to help you develop the skills you need to write effectively for academic purposes.

After reading this ebook, you should be able to: understand what writing an assignment involves; identify strengths and weaknesses; understand the functions of essays and reports; and demonstrate writing skills.

• Print length 60 pages
• Language English
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• Publisher The Open University
• Publication date February 2, 2023
• File size 2044 KB
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BP2J3RDY
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Open University (February 2, 2023)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 2, 2023
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2044 KB
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University of Sussex

• Starting at Sussex
• Critical thinking
• Note-making
• Presentations, seminars and group work
• Reading and research
• Referencing and academic integrity
• Revision and exams
• Writing and assessments
• Time management

There are six topics in this section relating to Writing and assessments:

Critical essay writing | Reflective writing | Reports (this page) | Dissertations | Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading | Feedback  | AI

A report is an informative piece of writing which explores and summarises some research – usually primary research – and which may end with recommendations for future actions. Like critical essays, reports have their own formal sections and standard structure. They are a common form of assessment at Sussex, and developing the principles of good report writing will help you to communicate well in whichever career you choose.

Elena and Tavian talk about the process of building a report

Elena: So thankfully I was actually exposed to, I did previous lab reports before coming to university because I did the International Baccalaureate. So I was quite accustomed to doing lab reports. But what helped me develop this process was the scientific method, just really knowing you have a question, a research question, go for the hypothesis, and then you look at the methods in which you can test this hypothesis. Go with the procedure, you develop a procedure, write the procedure down, then undergo the experiment. Make sure to have all your controls constant, control variable, and then you have a data set. You analyse the data, data analysis, and then you have a discussion of the data, what interpretation of the data, what went wrong as well. And then you just assess your data, assess the limitations maybe of your data and then conclude at the end, conclude the results, see if it's also statistically significant. That's more or less the process of building a lab report. Tavian: So in terms of resources for helping sort of understand how to write a report, I think the lectures do a pretty good job of sharing exactly what they expect. Definitely earlier on in university as well, and third year, they kind of expect you to know. But they do help you a lot with that. And I know that there are resources available from the university that help people, you know, understand the difference between say an essay and a report, because they are very different things. And I think that can be slightly confusing for people earlier on in their lives at university.

Understanding the Brief

Just as understanding the title is essential for an effective critical essay, for successful reports, understanding the brief is vital.

Make sure can answer these questions:

• what exactly is the report about? If you don't understand a word or phrase, look it up. If you are still not sure what you need to do, check with your tutor
• which sections does your report need? Reports differ a lot, even within the same subject
• how long should your report be? The longer the report, the more background and discussion you need
• when is the submission date? Start planning to collect your evidence as soon as possible.

The Audience

A key factor in report writing is the intended audience. Who are they? Why do they need the report? What do they want to find out? Are they looking just for information, or do they want a recommendation at the end of the report? Your brief may tell you these points, but if not, keep reflecting on what the audience wants as you write, rather than what you want to write about.

You might be asked to write for an imaginary reader, such as a business client. In this case, think about why they want the report to be produced - for example, to decide on the viability of a project.

If you are writing your report for your tutor, they want to know that you can communicate the process and results of your research clearly and accurately, and discuss your findings in the relevant context

Identifying the audience and purpose

Let’s practice putting ourselves in our audience’s shoes and imagining what they want to find out.

Step One : Read the four briefs and identify exactly who the audience is.

Step Two : Think about what the audience’s purpose is in reading the report.

Brief 1 : Write a report for the Student’s Union at Sussex on student’s attitudes to on-campus catering.

The audience are the members of the student union who want the best for the students. Therefore, they probably want to understand what the attitudes are and any recommendations for improving on-campus catering so that students are happier.

Brief 2 : Write a report on the pricing models of on-campus cafes for a catering company.

The audience are the board members of a catering company who most likely want to increase their profits. They want information about which pricing models result in the most profit.

Brief 3 : Conduct an experiment on the elasticity of chewing gum and report your findings to your lecturer.

Your lecturer wants to see that you have conducted your experiment well, and that you are able to write a report correctly and clearly.

Brief 4 : Write a report on the elasticity of chewing gum to be shown to the Sussex cleaning and facilities department.

The cleaning and facilities department probably are less interested in buying chewing gum than getting rid of it! They might be looking for information and recommendations on which methods best help to remove chewing gum.

Structuring your Report

Reports are formally structured in sections. You need to understand the function of each section so that you can structure your information appropriately. If you have been given a detailed brief and the required sections for your report, use that as the basis of your structure. If you haven't been given instructions on how to structure your report, select the most appropriate from the tabs below. Compare to other examples of reports in your discipline.

This is sometimes called the Summary or Executive Summary. It is a short overview, to help the reader to make an informed decision about whether to read the whole report. The length depends on the extent of the work, but it is usually a paragraph or two and always less than a page.

Think of an abstract as a series of short answers to questions. For example:

• what is the purpose of the work? • what methods did you use for your research? • what were the main findings and conclusions reached? • did your work lead you to make any recommendations for future actions?

The Introduction may also be called Background or Context. Explain the rationale behind the work, what you have been asked to do (or what you have chosen), the reasons for doing it and the background.

State what the report is about. What question are you trying to answer? If it is a brief for a specific reader (e.g., a feasibility report on an AI project for a client), say who they are. Describe your starting point and the background to the subject, explaining the research that has already been done.

If you have been asked to include a Literature Survey later in the report, you only need a brief outline of previous research in the Introduction. State the relevant themes and issues. Why are you being asked to investigate them now?

Explain how you are going to respond to the brief. If you are going to test a hypothesis in your research, include this at the end of your introduction. Include a brief outline of your method of enquiry. State the limits of your research and reasons for them, for example: ‘ Research will focus on native English speakers only, as a proper consideration of the issues arising from speaking English as a second language is beyond the scope of this project .’

Also called a Literature Review or Survey/Review of Research. It provides the background to your research. It is a survey of books, journals, authoritative websites and sometimes conference papers that have been published on the topic of your report. It should only include studies that have direct relevance to your research.

A literature survey should be written like an essay in a discursive style, with an introduction, main discussion grouped in themes, and a conclusion.

Introduce your review by explaining how you went about finding your materials, and any clear trends in research that have emerged. Group the texts you found in themes. Write about each theme as a separate section, giving a critical summary of each piece of work and showing its relevance to your research.

Conclude with how the review has informed your research (things you'll build on, the gaps you'll fill, etc).

Also called Methodology. The Methods section is a factual account of the activities you used to collect your evidence. You are simply stating the facts in this section. Write your Methods section in such a way that a reader could follow your description to replicate your research.

State clearly how you carried out your investigation. Explain why you chose this particular method (questionnaires, focus group, experimental procedure, etc), including techniques and any equipment you used. If there were participants in your research, who were they? How many? How did you select them?

Write this section concisely but including all essential details. Say what you did, step by step, including everything that is relevant.

(Also called Data or Findings) In this section, you state your findings. Use the format that will communicate this most effectively, e.g., text, graphs, tables or diagrams.

Think about how the data will look to the reader. Choose one format and don't repeat the same information in two forms. Label your graphs and tables clearly. Give each figure a heading and describe what the figure demonstrates.

Writing in this section should be clear, simple and informative. Save your interpretation of the results for the Discussion section.

The Discussion places your evidence in the context of the background. It will probably be the longest section and may take the most time to write.

Here, you bring everything together. You show how your findings relate to the brief and the previous research in your literature survey. Write in a discursive style. You will need to show critical analysis of your findings, by discussing the reasons for your results and using evidence from previous research to back up your explanations.

You can mention if there were any problems (for instance, if your results were different from expectations, you couldn't find important data, or you had to change your method or participants). Explain how they were or could have been solved.

The conclusion is a short section with no new arguments or evidence. Sum up the main points of your research. How do they answer the original brief?

This section may also include recommendations for action and suggestions for further research.

Writing your Report

Unlike essays, reports are objective. Report what the evidence tells you. Never present unsupported or personal opinions. Write accurately (e.g., after 25 minutes is better than later ) and objectively (e.g., negative effects is better than awful effects ).

Although essays are written in a single narrative voice from beginning to end, reports are written in sections that use different styles of writing, depending on the purpose of each section:

• introduction: Explanatory. Make the background of your report clear and give a purpose to it
• methods and Results: Factual and Descriptive. States the facts exactly as they are and provide detailed account of the characteristics of concepts and processes
• literature Survey and Discussion: Analytical and discursive. Examine complex data to discover how things work and come to a conclusion through reasoning about the data.

There are conventions for when you should use different tenses. The general rules are:

• when you are reporting your findings, use the past tense (you are reporting on something that has happened)
• when you are reporting other people's research, use the present tense (you are relating something that is established knowledge)
• when you are discussing your findings, use the present tense.

So you might write:

‘Smith (2015) argues that the precise dimensions of this variable are not crucial. However, our experiment showed wide variations in results when the variable was altered even slightly. We conclude that the correct choice of dimensions is a significant factor in achieving success with this procedure.’

Order of writing

It can be helpful to write up sections as you go along. You can write about what you've done while it is fresh in your mind and spot any gaps that require additional research. It also means that you won't have to do all the writing in one go.

Here is a suggested order for writing:

1. The Methods and Results

In general, the more factual the section, the earlier you should write it. Firstly, write the sections describing what you did and what you found.

2. Introduction and Literature Survey

Sections that explain or expand on the purpose of the research should be next. Completing these sections will help you to see how to interpret and analyse your findings.

3. Discussion

Now you can see how your results contribute to your brief and what kind of answers they point to. Write this section early enough that you still have time to fill any gaps.

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

These should follow on logically from your Discussion.

5. Abstract

It’s often easier to write a summary of the main features of your report once everything else is written.

Using graphs, diagrams and images

Since reports are very factual, visuals are often very suitable additions to the texts. They can help your audience understand your findings and see how they compare with other data. The key point is that visuals must make things clearer for the audience. If you don’t need to include a graph, don’t. If a table makes your data more confusing, leave it out. All your visuals must be large enough to be read easily and clearly labelled to explain what they show. They should be numbered consecutively as figures according to where they come in the text (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3). All tables should be numbered using a separate sequence (e.g. Table 1, Table 2).

Below are six ways of including visuals.

1. Tables  are useful for precise numerical data. Make sure they are titled and each column and row is labelled.

This work has been published under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license (abbreviated “cc-by-sa”), Version 2.5.

3. Bar charts/graphs  are good for comparisons. The bars can be vertical or horizontal. Different colours can help the audience to differentiate the results. 

4. Pie charts  are best used for showing different proportions of various elements.

5. Drawings and diagrams  can be added where something is more clearly shown in diagrammatic form.

6. Photographs  can help to show something that is complicated to explain using just words. However, don’t include photographs just to make your report more interesting!

Showing critical analysis

According to tutors who mark reports, the discussion of the findings has the most potential for demonstrating critical analysis and gaining high marks. To do this, you need to:

• critically analyse the findings
• link the findings to the background research
• show how the findings answer the brief.

Critically analysing the findings

Analysing critically means looking at your findings and asking yourself, ‘What do I think about this?’ Then go one step further and ask, ‘What is making me think that?’ Watch the video above to see an example of how this process might work.

Linking findings to the background research

Your background reading helps you to put your findings in context and helps provide possible reasons to explain your results.

• look back over the background reading that you did for your introduction or literature survey
• compare and contrast your findings with what other people have found. Do your results confirm or contrast with their results? Why might this be?
• use previous studies to provide evidence to help explain your findings.

Showing how the findings answer the brief

The discussion of your findings needs to relate to the brief and your research questions.

• before analysing your findings, check the brief and any hypotheses you may have made
• while you are writing your discussion section, keep asking yourself ‘How does this answer my brief?'
• be ruthless and take out any unnecessary information.

Advice and guidance

Check out the Guide to Technical Report Writing  and  Guide to Laboratory Writing , which have been specifically written for engineering students at Sussex but are good reference points for everyone.

Engage in Research  is a very detailed interactive skills resource for bioscience students.

Essay and report writing skills  is a free course provided by the Open University

The text resources in this section of the website have been adapted from materials originally produced by  LearnHigher CETL  and are therefore licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. Please see Creative Commons web site  for terms of use. This licence does not extend to the videos of Sussex students and staff.

Other topics in this section relating to Writing and assessments:

Critical essay writing | Reflective writing | Reports (this page) | Dissertations | Academic writing style, editing and proof-reading | Feedback

 Essay and report writing skills http://data.open.ac.uk/library/261964 is a Book

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Academic writing style developing academic english, using language appropriate to both audience and task.

• Is the sentence structure clear and concise?
• Have you used the relevant vocabulary specific to your subject, with explanations where helpful?
• Have you used a form of language that is appropriate for your audience?
• Have you presented different perspectives where necessary?
• Are linking words used to support the flow of ideas?

Introduction to academic writing

For an introduction to different writing styles for different subject areas and purposes, see Using an appropriate writing style .

Approaches to academic writing

Various subjects often want you to achieve an objectivity and formality in your writing. The following sets of activities from the University of Southampton explore ways to develop a more formal and objective writing style.

• Activity: Introduction to abstract vocabulary
• Activity: Stylistic effects of abstract vocabulary
• Activity: Impersonal style and passive verb construction
• Activity: Using noun phrases instead of clauses

Building your vocabulary

Activities from the University of Southampton on how to extend your vocabulary from single base words, including examples from a business context.

• Activity: Building your vocabulary
• Activity: Using online concordancers to improve your vocabulary

Expressing complex ideas

The following activities from the University of Southampton aim to help you get to grips with noun phrases (a useful way of expressing complex ideas).

• Activity: Forming complex noun phrases
• Activity: Changing emphasis in a sentence

Developing an argument

The following activities from the University of Southampton aim to help you express subtle differences in meanings and express arguments cautiously thus avoiding bold statements that cannot be supported.

• Activity: The meanings of modal verbs
• Activity: Hedging or using language cautiously

There is a clear explanation on the British Council 'Learn English' site of how Modal verbs express degrees of uncertainty.

You might also like to watch some of the events on The Student Hub Live that talk about developing a good academic argument.

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Essay and dissertation writing skills

Planning your essay

Writing your introduction

Structuring your essay

• Writing essays in science subjects
• Brief video guides to support essay planning and writing
• Writing extended essays and dissertations
• Planning your dissertation writing time

Structuring your dissertation

• Top tips for writing longer pieces of work

Advice on planning and writing essays and dissertations

University essays differ from school essays in that they are less concerned with what you know and more concerned with how you construct an argument to answer the question. This means that the starting point for writing a strong essay is to first unpick the question and to then use this to plan your essay before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

A really good starting point for you are these short, downloadable Tips for Successful Essay Writing and Answering the Question resources. Both resources will help you to plan your essay, as well as giving you guidance on how to distinguish between different sorts of essay questions. 

You may find it helpful to watch this seven-minute video on six tips for essay writing which outlines how to interpret essay questions, as well as giving advice on planning and structuring your writing:

Different disciplines will have different expectations for essay structure and you should always refer to your Faculty or Department student handbook or course Canvas site for more specific guidance.

However, broadly speaking, all essays share the following features:

Essays need an introduction to establish and focus the parameters of the discussion that will follow. You may find it helpful to divide the introduction into areas to demonstrate your breadth and engagement with the essay question. You might define specific terms in the introduction to show your engagement with the essay question; for example, ‘This is a large topic which has been variously discussed by many scientists and commentators. The principle tension is between the views of X and Y who define the main issues as…’ Breadth might be demonstrated by showing the range of viewpoints from which the essay question could be considered; for example, ‘A variety of factors including economic, social and political, influence A and B. This essay will focus on the social and economic aspects, with particular emphasis on…..’

Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to plan and structure an introduction:

The main body of the essay should elaborate on the issues raised in the introduction and develop an argument(s) that answers the question. It should consist of a number of self-contained paragraphs each of which makes a specific point and provides some form of evidence to support the argument being made. Remember that a clear argument requires that each paragraph explicitly relates back to the essay question or the developing argument.

• Conclusion: An essay should end with a conclusion that reiterates the argument in light of the evidence you have provided; you shouldn’t use the conclusion to introduce new information.
• References: You need to include references to the materials you’ve used to write your essay. These might be in the form of footnotes, in-text citations, or a bibliography at the end. Different systems exist for citing references and different disciplines will use various approaches to citation. Ask your tutor which method(s) you should be using for your essay and also consult your Department or Faculty webpages for specific guidance in your discipline. 

Essay writing in science subjects

If you are writing an essay for a science subject you may need to consider additional areas, such as how to present data or diagrams. This five-minute video gives you some advice on how to approach your reading list, planning which information to include in your answer and how to write for your scientific audience – the video is available here:

A PDF providing further guidance on writing science essays for tutorials is available to download.

Short videos to support your essay writing skills

There are many other resources at Oxford that can help support your essay writing skills and if you are short on time, the Oxford Study Skills Centre has produced a number of short (2-minute) videos covering different aspects of essay writing, including:

• Approaching different types of essay questions  
• Structuring your essay  
• Writing an introduction  
• Making use of evidence in your essay writing  
• Writing your conclusion

Extended essays and dissertations

Longer pieces of writing like extended essays and dissertations may seem like quite a challenge from your regular essay writing. The important point is to start with a plan and to focus on what the question is asking. A PDF providing further guidance on planning Humanities and Social Science dissertations is available to download.

Planning your time effectively

Try not to leave the writing until close to your deadline, instead start as soon as you have some ideas to put down onto paper. Your early drafts may never end up in the final work, but the work of committing your ideas to paper helps to formulate not only your ideas, but the method of structuring your writing to read well and conclude firmly.

Although many students and tutors will say that the introduction is often written last, it is a good idea to begin to think about what will go into it early on. For example, the first draft of your introduction should set out your argument, the information you have, and your methods, and it should give a structure to the chapters and sections you will write. Your introduction will probably change as time goes on but it will stand as a guide to your entire extended essay or dissertation and it will help you to keep focused.

The structure of  extended essays or dissertations will vary depending on the question and discipline, but may include some or all of the following:

• The background information to - and context for - your research. This often takes the form of a literature review.
• Explanation of the focus of your work.
• Explanation of the value of this work to scholarship on the topic.
• List of the aims and objectives of the work and also the issues which will not be covered because they are outside its scope.

The main body of your extended essay or dissertation will probably include your methodology, the results of research, and your argument(s) based on your findings.

The conclusion is to summarise the value your research has added to the topic, and any further lines of research you would undertake given more time or resources. 

Tips on writing longer pieces of work

Approaching each chapter of a dissertation as a shorter essay can make the task of writing a dissertation seem less overwhelming. Each chapter will have an introduction, a main body where the argument is developed and substantiated with evidence, and a conclusion to tie things together. Unlike in a regular essay, chapter conclusions may also introduce the chapter that will follow, indicating how the chapters are connected to one another and how the argument will develop through your dissertation.

For further guidance, watch this two-minute video on writing longer pieces of work . 

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2.2 Developing writing styles

If any of the statements on the previous page rings true, let us reassure you: many other students are feeling the same as you. Writing skills can be learned . We want to emphasise straightaway that this is a process that can be continually developed.

There is no single ‘correct’ way of writing: different academic disciplines demand different styles. This can be confusing if you feel that you've mastered what is required for one course, only to find that something different is expected on another. You might feel more comfortable with one particular style of writing or presentation rather than another. You will also have your own individual way of writing, which reflects your personality or your culture: think of this as a strength that can be built on.

Reports and essays: key differences

Know what to expect

Explore the main differences between reports and essays and how to write for your assignments

You'll complete assignments with different requirements throughout your degree, so it's important to understand what you need to do for each of them. Here we explore the key differences between reports and essays. 

This page describes general features of academic reports and essays. Depending on your subject you may use all of these features, a selection of them, or you may have additional requirements. 

There is no single right way to write a report or essay, but they are different assignments. At a glance: 

• Reports depend heavily on your subject and the type of report.
• Essays usually have specific content and a planned structure with a focus on sense and flow. You subject might need different types of information in your introduction –  some disciplines include a short background and context here, while others begin their discussion, discuss their resources or briefly signpost the topic.

Differences between reports and essays

This table compares reports and essays and provides an outline of the standard structure for each. Your assignment will also depend on your discipline, the purpose of your work, and your audience – so you should check what you need to do in your course and module handbooks, instructions from your lecturer, and your subject conventions.

Table adapted from Cottrell, 2003, p. 209.

The structure of reports

Most reports use an IMRaD structure: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

Below are some common sections that also appear in reports. Some sections include alternative headings.

1. Table of contents

Your contents shows the number of each report section, its title, page number and any sub-sections. Sub-section numbers and details start under the section title, not the margin or the number.

2. Abstract or Executive summary

This brief summary of the report is usually the last thing you write.

3. Introduction

Your introduction describes the purpose of the report, explains why it necessary or useful, and sets out its precise aims and objectives.

4. Literature review

This describes current research and thinking about the problem or research question, and is often incorporated into the introduction.

5. Methods or Methodology

This describes and justifies the methods or processes used to collect your data.

6. Results or Findings

This section presents the results (or processed data) from the research and may consist of mainly tables, charts and or diagrams.

7. Discussion, or Analysis, or Interpretation

This section analyses the results and evaluates the research carried out.

8. Conclusion

The conclusion summarises the report and usually revisits the aims and objectives.

9. Recommendations

In this section the writer uses the results and conclusions from the report to make practical suggestions about a problem or issue. This may not be required.

10. Appendices

You can include raw data or materials that your report refers to in the appendix, if you need to. The data is often presented as charts, diagrams and tables. Each item should be numbered : for example, write Table 1 and its title; Table 2 and its title, and so on as needed.

Structure of essays

Introduction.

Your essay introduction contextualises and gives background information about the topic or questions being discussed, and sets out what the essay is going to cover.

Your essay body is divided into paragraphs. These paragraphs help make a continuous, flowing text.

The conclusion summarises the main points made in the essay. Avoid introducing new information in your conclusion.

Bibliography or Reference list

This is a list of the resources you've used in your essay. This is usually presented alphabetically by authors’ surname.

Reference for the Table of Distinctions above: 

Cottrell, S. (2003).  The Study Skills Handbook  (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Download our report and essay differences revision sheet

Download this page as a PDF for your report and essay revision notes.

Key features of academic reports

Basic essay structure

Writing clear sentences

Find an undergraduate or postgraduate degree course that suits you at Portsmouth.

Guidance and support

Find out about the guidance and support you'll get if you need a helping hand with academic life – or life in general – when you study with us at Portsmouth.

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