LABU2060
Section
Executive
Summary
Remarks
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Background /
Introduction
Guidelines on writing the Progress Report
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The reader would want to find out your answers to these questions:
o What is overall progress of your project?
o What major work has been completed?
o What tasks are in progress?
o What work is remaining?
o Any problems encountered?
o What is your forecast of progress?
This section is a mini version of the whole report.
The audience is mainly internal, but there is a possibility that it would be read by the investors or
even lending institutions sometime in the future.
The main language function to use is ‘to summarize’ the key information and findings.
This section should be written last when the report has been written.
It should be about 150 words within one paragraph.
The whole report should be written in formal language.
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The main language function is ‘to report and describe’.
You state the purpose of writing.
You give the reader an overview of how the report is structured.
You provide some brief background information to set the scene for the readers to understand the
key points you make. Useful background may include information such as when the project
started, the initial agreement reached, the reporting period etc.
This report should be written to document and report the progress, problems encountered,
changes of plan as the startup team works toward finalizing the business idea.
This is a simulation exercise. It is acceptable to fabricate the timeline(s). You could set the end
point of the reporting period earlier than the submission deadline.
The timeline in all the other sections could be either the real timeline of your project or an
imaginary one that you think your project will follow. You could state, for example, 8 months as
the duration for the project. You will be meeting the investors by the end of November.
There will be more simple present, present perfect and past tenses in this section.
Description of
tasks and
responsibilities
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The main language function is ‘to report and describe’.
Lay out how the project is managed in terms of tasks and responsibilities.
You need to let the reader know who does what and when.
You could use Gannt charts to illustrate the progress of various task against time.
There will be more simple present and present perfect, simple past in this section.
Work completed
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The main language function is ‘to report and describe’.
State the progress made so far and your evaluation (smooth progress so far?)
Organize this section by key tasks.
Do not write in brief bullet points or in a table format with dates on one side and brief description
in another column.
Write in prose form, with each key task elaborated to give the necessary information about the
progress to the audience.
You might think that because your startup team knows the project very well, you need not write
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Work in progress
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Work remaining
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Problems
encountered
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Change of
strategies
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Recommendations
to the reader
Conclusion
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the details. The answer is no. Imagine that the report is to be read by someone not in the project
team, so you will need to give details about the tasks.
For example, tell the reader the following:
o What was the key task?
o Why was it significant?
o How was this task related to the other tasks of the project?
o Who was responsible for the key task?
o What action was taken?
o Was the task completed as expected?
There will be more past and past perfect tenses in this section.
The main language functions to use is ‘to report and describe’.
State what is being done at the point of writing (Is the progress as expected or already behind
schedule? If latter, is it a serious delay?)
For example, tell the reader the following:
o What is the key task?
o Why is it significant?
o How is this task related to the other tasks of the project?
o Who is responsible for the key task?
o What action is being taken?
o Will the task be completed as expected?
There will be more simple present and present continuous tenses in this section.
The main language functions to use is ‘to report and describe’.
State what needs be completed in the future before the team presents the idea to the angel
investors.
Tasks remaining may include: researching the potential investors, preparing for the pitch etc.
For example, tell the reader the following:
o What will the key task be?
o Why will it be significant?
o How will this task be related to the other tasks of the project?
o Who will responsible for the key task?
o What action will need to be taken?
o Will the task be completed as expected?
There will be more future, future continuous, and future perfect tenses in this section.
Conditionals and possibility language may also be used.
These two sections could be combined.
The main language functions is ‘to report and describe’ as well as to ‘analyze and evaluate’.
You should provide brief details of the problems encountered and justifications for any change of
strategies.
You should provide some reflection to demonstrate a critical evaluation of your team’s
management and project development skills.
The tone of this section should be overall positive.
There will be more simple present, present perfect, simple past and future tense in this section.
These two sections could be combined.
The language function to use is ‘to summarize’ and ‘to persuade’.
Summarize the key points of the progress report.
Provide a call to action if you need anything specific from the readers, e.g. approval, endorsement,
further injection of funds for certain aspects of either development or administration.
There will be more simple present and present perfect, simple past and perhaps future tenses in
this section.
Notes:
 You could structure the different sections in ways to suit the development of your key points. You
could have a different structuring or combining the sections differently.
 The graphics included in the text should be those which help the reader to understand the points
made in the text. They should be placed as close to the relevant text as possible. If you want to refer
to a graphic presented earlier, you should write, “As Table 2 in the Section “Opportunity” shows…”.
More detailed graphics could be included as appendices.
 As the sections are all interrelated, make sure that you adjust the contents so that they do not
repeat in different sections.
 Any appendices, graphs such as charts or tables included will not be counted towards the word limit.