Writing a Formal Report for Media Portfolio Project

Assignment Type

In groups, you are expected to write a Formal Report (see your textbook, Meyer, 2017, pp. 467-482 for sample formal report in APA). The report must provide:

information and analysis

secondary and primary research

recommendations.

Assignment Parts

Report Topic

Reports are based on evidence. Research and data collection play a big role in persuading the reader and would need to be planned, depending on the situation (Meyer, 2017, p. 449).

Your report topic should be related to your media portfolio project. Design 2-3 questions you would like to answer regarding your company product, something you would like to survey through interviews/questionnaires with 20 people. If interviews are not possible, simply use Survey Monkey to collect your data. How to design the survey will be discussed in class. Questions must be approved by me before you begin collecting data.  

The following will be sent to Jane for approval by Tuesday June 9 at noon

Collaborate to prepare/agree upon the following information
 

Topic:

1. Group Participants:

2. Survey questions 2-3 max:

3. Survey method:

4. Expected recommendation:

 

Once I approve the above, start planning your report, using the report outline we discussed in class. Delegate tasks to save time and edit everything that is written.

 

Your research participants will be the class students. You’ll need 20-30 students. Remember that this project is mainly to help you practice writing formal reports, and the data should not be shared publicly.

 

Expected Section/Sub-section Details (see also Meyer, 2017, p. 458-461)

 

A. Front Matter: title page, table of contents, list of tables/figures/illustrations, and executive summary. Notice that we are not asking for a transmittal memo/letter, which is part of the front matter in formal reports, because we’ve already practiced memo/letter writing. More details:

1. Title page includes:

· full report title

· name of recipients, using Prepared for, Presented to, or Submitted to

· names of the writers and their job titles, using Prepared by or Submitted by

· the name of their company

· the date of submission.

Note. The title page is unnumbered, but it is counted as page 1.

2. Table of Contents

3. List of Tables/Figures/Illustrations: If you don’t have many, you can list these in a section at the bottom of your TOC.

4. Executive Summary:

· You write this after you finish writing the report.

· This document must be set as a separate page at the end of the front matter.

· It is roughly 10% of the length of the report.

· It does not include technical jargon or examples; it focuses on conclusions and recommendations.

 

B. Body: Introduction, Method, Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations. The body:

1. begins on page 1.

2. starts with the Introduction (as a first-level heading) to give the general guide and road map for the report. It includes:

· Purpose or Problem: identifies what the report does, e.g. to explain, to recommend, etc.

· Scope: sets the boundaries of your material and defines limitations of the subject. It defines what the report does or does not investigate.

· Background: gives a brief review of the events and circumstances leading to the report.

· Organization: gives the structure of the report.

· Sources and Methods: outlines the procedure used to collect data, the survey type you used (interviews/questionnaires), who your 20 subjects are, how they were chosen, whether the data is limited, etc.

3. gives the Methods (as a first-level heading) with the procedures that were used to gather data.

4. provides the Findings (as a first-level heading) to discusses the results on which your conclusions and recommendations are based. Use an appropriate way to arrange your findings, i.e. logically, chronologically, in order of importance, by region, or by topic.

5. draws Conclusions and Recommendations (as a first-level heading) from the results. They tell the readers what they have been waiting to learn – what the findings really mean and what you are suggesting based on these findings. Some reports have conclusions and recommendations in separate sections. If the sections are short, they can be combined. Every statement you make must be justifiable by a point already discussed.

6. includes both functional (as above) and descriptive headings (for second and third-level headings) – see eLearn for more.

C.   Back Matter: References or works cited, and (Appendices and Glossary - if needed).