Formal Report

Reminder:  A report submitted without a Works Cited page and/or proper documentation throughout the report (in-text citations) will receive a grade of zero.  

Directions:   Write a 7 page, double-spaced, formal researched report on TWO challenges (Adequate funding and Time Management or Time Required) affecting college students today.  

The report should be geared for specific readers. In the workplace, reports may be read by multiple readers who have different levels of technical knowledge.  You may choose to write for others in your career field, those who are still students, majoring in your career, or for a lay audience. I am considered a lay reader and may not be part of your intended audience, so if the report is geared toward a technical audience, you will need to define terminology and provide more background about the issue. 

The report will contain the following information (The names of some of the basic features of a formal report have been bolded): 

• Introduction that identifies the research question 


• Methodology that explains step-by-step how the research was conducted. See attached methodology and us a guide. 


• General, background information on your career field 


• Summary of results of the TWO challenges you selected 


• Discussion of at least TWO different options to overcome the challenges, ease the challenges, tolerate the challenges, whatever may be most appropriate considering your chosen career field 


• Discussion indicating your personal perspective on the available options 


• Conclusion indicating your personal perspective on which option you feel is best 

The research included in this report should help you examine and analyze the challenges in your career field. 

NOTE: Please keep in mind that this is a formal report. Although you may have some personal experience relevant to the topic and will be presenting your personal perspective on the available options to overcome, ease, tolerate, etc. challenges, you should refrain from including excessive personal experience. In other words, the use of first person point of view ("I") should be very limited.  

 

Requirements: 

• Research:  


• Must include a minimum of five (5) resources for the researched report. 


• No more than two web sites. 


• Encyclopedias and dictionaries may be used but CANNOT be counted as part of the minimum five (5) required sources. 


• Wikipedia cannot be used due to unreliability. 


• Transmittal Correspondence: The report must be accompanied by an appropriately formatted and designed memorandum that provides an introduction of the report to the intended reader. 


• Cover Page:  


• The first page of the report must be a cover page. 


• Must give the title of the report and the writer’s name and position.  


• Must indicate the designated reader of the report as well as the reader’s position and the date the report is submitted. 


• Table of Contents: 


• The table of contents lists all elements and sections of the report that follow it, giving the page on which each part of the report begins. 


• Each page after the title page before the introduction is numbered with lowercase Roman numerals (ii. iii) 


• Must locate the parts of the report by page. 


• Must give each section heading a title that accurately describes the contents of that section.  


• Executive Summary: 


• The report should contain a summary, (a miniature version of the report) that provides a brief, concise, well-organized overview of your report.  


• Must be 1/4th the length of the report. 


• Must occur on a page by itself. 


• Must be single-spaced. 

Text: 

• Must be 7 pages. 


• Must be broken down into sections and sub-sections with headings. (See the breakdown of the main sections required in the report indicated above and restated below). 


• Must be double-spaced and should use a size 12 font. 


• Must include an introduction that identifies the research question
  
   


• Must include methodology that explains step-by-step how the research was conducted and gathered 


• Must include general background information on your chosen career field 


• Must include a summary of results of the TWO challenges you selected 


• Must include a discussion of at least TWO different options to overcome the challenges, ease the challenges, tolerate the challenges, whatever may be most appropriate considering your chosen career field 


• Must include a discussion indicating your personal perspective on the available options 


• Must include a conclusion indicating your personal perspective on which option you feel is best. 


•  

Page Numbering: 

• The prefatory elements of the report (cover page, table of contents, executive summary) must be labeled with lower-case Roman numerals. (The title page counts as lowercase Roman numeral page one ( i ). However, the title page is not numbered).  


• As previously mentioned, each page after the title page before the introduction is numbered with lowercase Roman numerals (ii. iii).  


• The first page of the body of the report that begins with the introduction is numbered with Arabic one (1), and each page thereafter is numbered consecutively.  Be sure to reflect these page numbers correctly in your table of contents. 


• Placement of page numbers: 


• May place the page numbers in one of three places on the page: the upper right-hand corner, lower-right-hand corner or centered at the bottom of the page. 


• Must be consistent in placement. 

Descriptive Headings: 

• Must appear in the text exactly as they are listed in your table of contents.  


• Must not title sections of your text with vague, general titles, such as “Body” or “Discussion.” 


• Must break your report into sections and give each one a heading that describes the contents in the the section that follows it. 


• Must break up long chunks of information under main headings with sub-headings. 


• Visual Aid(s): 


• Must contain at least ONE visual aid in the body of the report.  


• Must be prepared neatly and labeled appropriately as a Table or Figure and given a title.  


• Must include a citation for where the visual was obtained directly below the visual aid. 


• Each visual must be located with the text it illustrates, not later.  


• Must discuss each visual in the report. 


• Parenthetical Citations: Citations are a required part of the researched report. They document your use of quotes, paraphrases, unusual or unique information, or the opinions of others.  


• Only MLA 8 parenthetical (in-text) citation format is acceptable. 


• Works Cited: A list of all sources actually used in the report must be included at the end of the document.  


• Must be included as the last page of your report. 


• Must be formatted using MLA 8 style documentation. 


• Must be arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the author.  If no author is listed, entries are arranged by the first important word in the title.  


• Must not be numbered. 


• Optional Components: All optional components must be labeled in the Table of Contents. 


• An Appendix can include materials useful to the reader’s understanding of the report that must be located at the end of the report after the Works Cited page. 


• if the report contains many technical terms, a glossary must be created. The Glossary is also located at the end of the report.