Response: Module 24

Module 24 gives advice on how to organize time for writing a long report and how to create each section of the report. 

            When organizing our time for writing the report, we need to be efficient. Therefore, we should plan before writing. Planning will take most of our time. The book also suggests expending more time in sections that are important to our audience and support our recommendations. We will have some writing already done from our proposal paper, such as the introduction and bibliography, but we will need to make some adjustments.

The components of a formal report are:

·         Cover

·         Title Page

·         Letter of Transmittal

·         Table of Contents

·         List of Illustrations

·         Executive Summary

·         Report Body (Introduction, Background History of the Problem, Body, Conclusion, Recommendations, References, and Appendixes)

I find very useful figure 24.2 in the book, because it gives an example of a long report with blue marginal notes explaining each of the above mentioned sections.

The format and style of a report will vary depending on the report’s purpose, the organization, and the discourse community. I find useful the book’s advice on how to find the appropriate format and style for our reports. It suggests finding past reports of our organization or reports published by other organizations that have similar characteristics to the one we need to write. It also suggests testing our draft with an audience similar to the one that will read our report.