- 1). Determine the audience for your standard report and decide on a tone and reading level for your report depending on the answer. For instance, if you're presenting this report to a group of scientists, then you'll use advanced language and write in a very formal tone. If you're writing a report for a group of 10 years olds to read, you can be more informal and use simpler language so that they can understand.
- 2). Create a title for the report depending on the subject matter. Get right to the point in the title--explain the purpose of the report and summarize the findings. For example, "New Study: One Out of 10 People Love to Write Reports."
- 3). Write an abstract at the beginning of the report, no more than two short paragraphs long, that contains a summary of the report. You can discuss your motivation for researching this report, key findings, and information on how you came to your conclusions.
- 4). Write an introduction for the report. This is basic background information related to the topic of the report, such as a description of the issue, why it's important, and a quick summary of the results of your research or case study.
- 5). Start composing the main body of your report. Go into detail with technical information related to the topic's background and your findings as described in the introduction. Provide your statistics, results of your own experiments or studies, and charts if necessary to support the content of your report here. Separate the report into sections---and subsections if necessary---to make it simpler to read. In the case of a research report you can separate the report into three main sections---a review of what experts say on the subject, methodology (how you conducted the research or experiment), and then the results of the research.
- 6). End the report with your conclusions related to the topic at hand. Discuss the most important takeaways from the report and how it can help the reader or the public in general.
- 7). Provide a "References" section at the very end of the report listing citations (APA format is common for reports, but use the style suggested by your instructor or organization) from your statistical data, evidence, or ideas presented in the report body.
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