KH3105HUM Foundation Academic English Skills 2 – Session 4
Structuring your report – jigsaw-reading worksheet (suggested answers)
In your small groups, read your section of the chapter and answer the questions below that relate to it. When all
groups have finished, you will find out which group read which section, and then ask them for the answers you need
for the questions relating to the other sections.
Abstract / Executive summary
1.
Why is this section of a report compared with a ‘shop window’?
Because it gives an idea of what’s inside. It should help the reader
decide if they want to go inside!
2.
When is it written? Why?
It’s written at the end of the report-writing process, because it’s
summarises the whole report. (So obviously you need to finish the
whole report to be able to summarise it.)
3.
What advice is given for writing an abstract?
Highlight the key sentence from each section of the report, then copy &
paste these key sentences together into a chunk of text near the
beginning of your document. Read through it and edit the sentences
until they fit together comfortably and the new chunk makes sense and
reads well (you will probably need to add some words / more
sentences).
4.
What’s the difference between an abstract and an executive
summary?
An executive summary is found in business reports. Whereas an
abstract has an academic focus, an executive summary is more
practical. An executive summary is aimed at managers (executives) who
need to make decisions.
Introduction
5.
What are the 2 main jobs the introduction section does?
It introduces the context of your investigation; explaining what you’ve
been asked to do, why it is important, and how you are going to do it. It
also analyses background literature that relates to the topic(s) and your
investigation.
6.
What style is it usually written in? What functions are fulfilled?
It’s usually written in an analytical style, comparing and contrasting
relevant studies and research.
7.
What will a reader find in the first few paragraphs of the introduction?
What will they find next?
They will find an explanation of why the report is needed, a statement
of the purpose of the report and an explanation of how the topic will be
tackled. Then the reader will find a review of literature already written
about the topic, with some analysis and assessment of the strengths
and weaknesses of previous investigations and reports.
8.
Where’s the best place in the introduction to mention the aims and
objectives of the report? Why?
At the end of it, because you need to show how your investigation
takes into account what has been learned through previous work done
on the topic. So you summarise and analyse previous work, then state
the aims and objectives of your new work.
Methods
9.
What are the 2 main things you need to do in the methods section?
You need to describe the steps you took to investigate the topic, and
you need to explain why you took those steps (case studies, interviews,
focus groups, experiments etc.).
10. Will your writing be descriptive or analytical in the methods section?
Mostly descriptive; you are describing what you did.
11. What advice is given regarding the level of detail that should be
provided in a methods section?
Think carefully about which details are important and which are not.
Don’t include any detail that doesn’t have any influence on
proceedings, or is not relevant.
12. Why is it necessary to be precise when writing a methods section?
Because the research should be repeatable. Another researcher might
want to conduct the same investigation, to see if they get similar (or
different!) results.
Results
13. What do students frequently forget to do, or do not do effectvely, when
writing reports?
They forget to refer to figures and graphs, or they don’t label them
clearly, don’t refer to them effectively, or don’t include them at all.
14. What is the advice given if you have collected too much data?
Keep looking back at your aims or research questions and ask yourself if
the data you have collected is helping you answer the brief (the task).
15. What should you try to do with the data, for the reader? What should
you not do?
Pick out trends or patterns in the data. You shouldn’t describe each
individual data point in detail.
16. What other thing should you not do in the results section? (Clue: you will
do it in a later section of the report.)
You shouldn’t start interpreting or suggesting explanations for the
findings / results. You do this in the next section – the discussion section.
Discussion
17. What does the writer do in the discussion section? What style of
writing is used?
Interprets and explains the results / findings, suggesting reasons. An
explanatory and analytical style of writing is used.
18. In what specific way does the discussion section link with the
introduction section?
The relevant research and studies mentioned in the introduction
section are referred to again, and your results and findings can now be
compared with other researchers’ results and findings. There may be
similarities and there may be important or interesting differences.
19. What is academic hedging and why is it important?
This is the use of cautious, tentative language, to avoid making claims
that could be disputed by other researchers. You can’t always be 100%
sure of most things, so it’s better not to give the impression in your
writing that you think you’re 100% sure!
20. How might a business report differ from other types of report?
In some business reports, the discussion section might not be
discussing results but instead analysing information gathered in order
to assess a proposed course of action or a particular problem.
Conclusions and Recommendations
21. What are the 4 main things you should do in this section?
1. Summarise the main findings of your investigation.
2. Remind the readers why the findings are important.
3. Give a crucial ‘take-away’ message that you want the reader
to think about after reading the report.
4. Includes suggestions for further research, if appropriate.
22. What should you not do in this section?
You shouldn’t introduce any new information.
23. What is the point of asking yourself the question ‘So what?’?
It helps you to keep seeing the ‘bigger picture’ and whether your
investigation and report will be helpful for the reader.
24. What six things are recommended when writing recommendations?
1. Look forward and suggest specific actions that should be
taken.
2. Let your readers know what they should do, based on your
findings.
3. State the crucial changes you want your readers to make.
4. Use bullet points to make the recommendations stand out.
5. Be consistent in the use of tense and grammatical
construction for each recommendation.
6. Identify the person (or persons) who will be responsible for
taking the actions, and when they should do it.
References and Appendices
25. What is suggested in relation to the preparation of the references
section of a report? Why?
Compile the reference list as you go along. To keep track of all your
sources and avoid any last-minute panic.
26. What sort of thing do you put in the appendices section? Why?
Any additional information that might be helpful or interesting for the
reader (e.g. raw data, sample questionnaires, interview transcripts and
similar). These things would just be in the way if they were in the main
body of the report.
27. What should you not do with the appendices section?
You shouldn’t use it as a space to include everything else that you’ve
done or collected, but which doesn’t fit in the main body. Items
included in the appendices should be thought about carefully, as is the
case for what you include in the body of the report itself.
28. What should you do?
You should label the appendices clearly, and also refer to them (as you
should do when you include figures, graphs etc.)