ELC3203
Report Writing: Introduction and Procedure
Activity 1
In the Introduction below (to a report on employment among graduates), put the verbs in
brackets in the correct form where necessary.
This report (present) _________ (1) the findings of a survey of graduate employment
(conduct) _________ (2) in 2007. The main aim of the survey is to gather information on the
experiences of graduates in their first year of full-time employment. The report writing activity
has involved (analyse) _________ (3) the gathered data, (draw) _________ (4) conclusions
and (make) _________ (5) recommendations. I (hope) _________ (6) that the
recommendations will be helpful to new graduates as they (prepare) _________ (7) to join
the labour market. The findings of this report (present) _________ (8) with the aid of
graphics, and (follow) _________ (9) by conclusions and recommendations.
In any language, certain words seem to belong together. This is called collocation and being
aware of collocation can help you build your vocabulary. An example of the pairing of words (a
verb and a noun in this instance) is present and findings in the introduction to the graduate
employment report above. Activity 2 below gives you the opportunity to familiarise yourself with
ten common pairings of verbs and nouns in report writing.
Activity 2
Work in pairs to match each of the verbs in the table below with an appropriate noun by writing
a letter in the brackets. The first verb has been matched with its noun for you as an example.
Verbs
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
solve
hold
reduce
make
draw
gather
suggest
administer
conduct
undertake
Nouns
a questionnaire ( )
changes ( )
research ( )
problems (a)
a meeting ( )
a survey ( )
recommendations ( )
conclusions ( )
costs ( )
data ( )
ELC3203
Report Writing: Introduction and Procedure
The Procedure section
Activity 3
Check and if necessary correct the verb forms of the passive voice in the section below.
The data for this report was gathered by means of a questionnaire survey of a large
sample of Hong Kong university graduates. The questionnaire was divide into three main
sections: personal information, job hunting strategies, and views about the current job. In
addition to the survey, interviews were hold with small groups of recent graduates in their
first year of full-time employment. The survey sample consisted of 680 females and 710
males who were draw proportionately from the areas of Humanities, Business Studies and
Engineering. Of the 1,390 questionnaires distribute, 1,130 was returned and of these
1,105 completed accurately enough to justify analysis.
Style in report writing
We learned in the introduction to this unit that a report is a highly valued, high status document
and is nearly always written for upward transmission within an organisation. Such documents
need to be written in a formal style which can be partly achieved by using appropriate
vocabulary. Activity 4 below gives you an opportunity to identify and replace words and phrases
which are too informal to use in a report.
Activity 4
In the Procedure section below, underline the informal words and phrases and replace them
with suitable (formal) ones from the box. You may need to change the form of some words.
To take a look at (investigate) the problem of declining numbers of visitors to Hong Kong,
we decided to do a really big survey. We made a questionnaire and handed it out to 2,000
people.
We did this because right now we don’t have any hard data on why tourist
numbers are declining. There’s not much information available either on what might bring
them back to Hong Kong. The return rate for the questionnaire was really bad at only 13%
but this figure should provide a firm enough basis for talking about why tourist numbers are
going down.
no
currently
little
very disappointing
investigate
discuss
decline
large-scale
conduct
design
distribute
reliable
ELC3203
Report Writing: Introduction and Procedure
Introduction and Procedure Practice:
Background Data:
You work for the Hong Kong Tourist Board as an administrative officer.
Your boss, Mrs. Y.W. Chan (Director) has asked you do a report on the changing face of tourism
in Hong Kong
Aim to find out:
 Source of tourists (Mainland, other Asian, long haul).
 spending habits
 length of stay
 future requirements
Primary data:
 interview tourists July and August, 2010
 hotel occupancy rates
Secondary data:
 newspaper reports
Write 2 or 3 paragraphs for the introduction and procedure sections of this report.
Pay attention to:
 use of the passive
 formality
 tenses