Structure of a Report: Prefatorial Front Matter and Its Components

hello welcome back to lectures on soft skills and the previous lecture we talked about the evaluation of data and organization of data and while we were closing we had left you with a promise that we shall be talking about this structure

now what is the structure of a report imagine yourself standing before a palatial building when you look at the building you are moved by the beauty of the building but then have you ever thought of how this beautiful mansion or building might have been made it could

have taken a lot of time to build that palatial building brick by brick and on a structure that might have been devised before same is true of a report a report which is actually a formal written document is also built structurally as we discussed earlier you have the information

ready you have also divided the information into several parts as a tailor cuts the cloth into several parts and then finally decides to weave that so you too are now ready with those parts and now you have to understand what are the structural

parts of the report when we talk about the structure we actually should decide depending upon the topic of the report what structure is required but more or less every structure of a report is the same only in case of a sort report a sort report may not follow the

entire structure but then you have to understand what is expected of a report for that you should actually consult your t o r that is terms of reference as we have talked earlier that when you are assigned the task of writing the report you are also instructed as to what

this report will have keeping that into consideration and keeping the requirements of the report now you start making your report so when you talk about the structure the structure actually is the foundation on which the entire building of the report will lie or will exist

so let us say that a report structurally can be divided into three parts we have discussed earlier while talking about the business correspondences that later should have three parts introduction the middle and the end likewise a report will also have three divisions three parts and

these three divisions unitedly make a report a technical report the first of these parts are the prefatorial material then comes the main elements and then the back matter now there might be a question in your mind that what exactly could be the parts of a

prefatorial material this prefatorial material can also be considered the front matter in in many books ah you will come across these three divisions as front matter main body and then the back matter so the front matter in a way are the prefatorial material now

in a prefatorial material ah front matter of the report there are several items and all these items are very important because we have talked about a report being systematic a report being functional a report written on demand a report having data but now when

you have the information these pieces of information are to be separated are to be placed into different heads and of all these heads the most important is the front matter now look at a book for that matter you you can when when you talk of a report you can

think of a book also a book also on a specific subject is like a report now the first thing that you come across in a book is its cover page and so is the case of a report so the items of a report especially the items of the front matter are cover then frontispiece

then title page copyright notice forwarding letter preface acknowledgement table of contents list of illustrations and abstract now all these items from the part of front matter let us discuss and let us try to understand all of them because as a professional you

have all of you at some point of the time have to write a report now when we talk about the cover you see your report if it is a thirty page report forty page report the first thing that you come across is its cover now how to create a cover

you will find that in several organizations they have a proforma they have a proforma of the cover because the report has to be written in certain organizations where there are no proformas you need to understand how to make the cover of the report usually the

cover of the report is a thick paper may be ah varying in terms of organizational requirement and all because ah many organizations prefer that the cover of the report should be white but in in order to make it more attractive ah some some people some report writers they

also go for ah the cover ah which is colored but then with color apart we should try to understand what are the items that should be there on the cover page you see in larger organizations every year so many reports are written and that is why ah they provide a

number to the report that and in certain cases they they provide the report number if they have a proforma so you will find the first thing that has to be written on the report cover page is a report on remember every report will have

a title and now you have some liberty when you are ah giving the title to a report if you are in in many cases you will find that people are not even clear about how to go for the title what should be the exact title you see title should have certain keywords

of the entire report and the title could be written either in capitals if you are if you are following the system of writing the ah title of the report in ah bold or in capital letters follow it but then if not then the first letter of every word should be the title

except the prepositions and all so you will find ah here here the title of the report is there quality management in service industries this is actually the title of the report and then on the right hand side you see the report number is given you see

since you are going to write this report sometimes you will find a group of people also ah write the report as a united effort and all so people would like to know who is the writer of the report so here you will find it is written quality

management in service industries and the name of the report writer is also given so if you are writing the report please write your ah ah name and if you have an employee number you can write if you are a student you will have an enrollment number whatever so by in

certain cases you will find what is expected is that you are writing the report but you are writing the report on the demand of somebody or on the authorization of somebody now these also have to be written you can write ah quality management in service industries

prepared for and you will read write the name of the person to whom you are going to submit the report and you will find in every report the the last ah space i mean this space towards the end it is actually ah meant for the place meant for the organization from where you

are writing the report so here you can see ah it is it is ah written the name of the institute and then the month and the year because you know every report in course of time becomes important because it is on a particular subject and if somebody else is

going to ah do some survey or research this report may be helpful that is why the numbers are given and then [the/that] that is why the date i mean the month and the year is also given so this is a sample are cover of the report next to the cover comes the frontispiece

now what is this frontispiece you will find once you start ah the ah once you turn the cover of the page then there may be a title page after cover page you may have a title page now there may be another ah question as to what is the difference between the title

page and the cover page in some reports you will find it is not only the title but it also has got a subtitle say for example ah the report may have a subtitle so if it is a subtitle so put the subtitle after the title on the title page and then once you have written

the once you have drafted the title page here also you write the name of the organization the date the month and all but remember there are certain differences other than ah the title for example if your report is to be approved by in in certain organizations when

you write the report your report has also to be approved by so if it is so then on the left hand side of the report you will write approved by and the name of the person and his education that also should be written but this should be

on the left hand side of the report the left hand side i mean below not on the top and in in certain cases there are three popular ways of study one may be a discrapted descriptive study then a correlation study ah then a causal study i mean these are helpful in making you

create the title or write the title for example if we say the demand of two wheelers in organization i mean this may be a descriptive study sometimes if it is a correlation study then naturally ah two things can be correlated and if it is a causal you can also say the effect of

the effect of pollution on mankind i mean these are some of ah the titles which you can select for the report but remember your title depends upon the assignment or the task that actually have been provided to you next comes the frontispiece

now what is this frontispiece just after the title page you will find there is a thin paper like thing which actually can be used which is which is a ah given just to create a sort of curiosity among the readers and this this actually protects your report because in some

cases your report also may have certain drawings it may have certain charts and in a bound report because you know every report cannot be bound sort reports cannot be bound sort reports are ah not bound ah but then when the report is thick it is bound and in such

reports this frontispiece becomes very important of course ah in in modern day a times ah this habit of frontispiece has been abandoned but then you ought to understand what is the frontispiece it is actually the window display of the whole report of course in technical reports this

may not be as important ah but then reports cannot be technical always you know there are some reports where you feel that certain paragraphs sorry certain drawings ah certain photographs are important so there you provide a frontispiece

now here is a sample title page now you see again here we write and and the first three words a report on that has to be written in capital and then we write quality health management in hospital a case study now see if the title of your report was quality management in hospitals

or quality health management in hospitals a [cake/case] case study is the subtitle and now here ah in a very detailed manner you have provided the information prepared for i of course it is the person to whom you are going to submit the report and then prepare

it by the name of the person who has prepared and just here on the left hand side you will write approved by as i have said earlier you will light approved by because the ah suppose you are working in a unit where your main boss i mean you are controlling officer is

to approve this ah report because it has to go through a file ah ah through a formal channel umm so naturally you have to write approved by and the name of the person who is you are controlling officer next to that comes the

copyright notice the report that you prepare is your property if you are if you have done it yourself and if you have been assigned it single handedly so naturally ah the amount of labour that you have put ah the entire property is yours so just on the back or the

inside of the title page ah you have to mention copyright notice suppose you are ah amith jain so you will write on the backside of the ah title page ah amith jain and and at the rate off amith jain two thousand seventeen or whatever year

you have ah done this report you will mention that and then ah some words are there because you know ah we are living in an age where your ideas or your ideas your findings are yours nobody can have the power to take it or the privilege to take it without your permission

that why what is written is all rights reserved no part of this report may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the author or publisher that is actually very important so this has to be written so this is copyright

notice next comes the forwarding later suppose you are writing a report while you are working in an organization naturally as i said earlier you have to follow ah certain channels and this report because it has to be submitted to somebody else the report has to be forwarded

and for that you require a forwarding letter in certain cases we also call it letter of transmittal so this because you know the officer under whom you are working he will write a forwarding later he will forward this letter this letter of forwarding its simply a hint

that this is through a proper channel and in forwarding later ah the person who forwards this he actually certifies this ah report so it is a statement of submittal moreover it also talks about the statement of authorization you will find ah that when you are provided

with the t o r a means terms of reference you are also ah given this authorization because you have authorized somebody else has authorized you to write this report that is why you want this report to have a forwarding letter and it talks about the statement of the subject

the purpose scope also the limitations and it is in a way a statement of acknowledgment but remember ah it is not mandatory in all reports and the forwarding later will be just like any other business letter where the person i mean the forwarding officer or your control

officer will write it in the format of a letter where he will use the requirements of business letter and he will also talk about fine he will also talk about how this report happened to be and why this report is important so when you formulate a forwarding letter

fine for example here ah you you have found ah that here is letter to ah nilesh mathur and then the person who writes it he also in a way acknowledges the help of those people who have helped him in the formulation or the creation of this report next comes the

preface this is actually the first page of the report writer first written page by the report writer you see in a preface because the preface is written by the writer himself the report writer himself here the report writer talks about the subject

talks about the work that he has done and in a way he familiarizes the readers with the report or maybe with findings also but the preface cannot be too long sometimes ah people often confuse between preface and forward while a point of caution in this regard is

quite important to understand that the preface is written by the person who is writing the report whereas foreword is written by an expert in that area for example if i write my book i will write my preface but somebody else say a person

who is a celebrity a person who is an expert in any air in that area he will actually recommend it is a sort of recommendation so when when somebody writes a foreword it is a sort of recommendation to the reader so and and in preface you also talk about the significance

of your study you may also talk about the organization of various sections and in a way you acknowledge also but since ah the number of people whom you want to acknowledge the list sometimes becomes ah longer that is why it is advisable not to acknowledge

all the people in the preface that is why let the preface be as short as possible because you have a separate page for acknowledgement where you can ah pay your gratitude where you can thank all those people who have helped you ah in the acknowledgement section

next comes the acknowledgement section this acknowledgment section is again a different page which comes soon after the preface and here ah you have to understand because you know as a report writer you know who are the people you want to ah acknowledge their services

since you came across several people who have been of some help in some way or the other to you you know better moreover there are several people you want to acknowledge so while writing the acknowledgement page you need to distribute and divide people into

different categories sometimes you will find in a report or in a book also people also acknowledge their family members and all but you cannot do it just in the beginning because you are working in an organization from where you are going to write a report and you are

also going to talk about ah the people you are going actually to appreciate you are ah just expressing ah your gratitude in a very sentimental manner so let it be as soft as two or three paragraphs but then and and the language ah appears to

be very polite for example you can say i am thankful to my director shri such and such i am also thankful to ah shri such and such the dean faculty of us but remember if you go on repeating the same line it will appear very boring hence the need of the are is to

change for in first sentence or in first paragraph you say i acknowledge the services of shri such and such in the second you can say i felt ah feel highly satisfied if i also acknowledge you can also say i am thankful too i pay my ah ah regards to mister such and such i shall

be failing in my duty if i do not put a word of acknowledgement to shri such and such what i mean to say i i oh my gratitude to mister such and such i mean every sentence every paragraph has to have a sort of variety but remember while using variety ah dont use ah

metaphorical language who are people cannot understand all you need to do is you need to language that is simple we shall be discussing how you can make use of language while you are writing a report and here has to be taken that you do not use klisors jargons because

people whom you are going to acknowledge they are not men of letters like you so let the language be add simple as possible next to the acknowledgement part comes the table of contents now friends you remember in the previous lecture we talked about an

outline and here we are going to talk about the table of contents in outline we said that it is actually ah the division of the entire information into several parts in table of contents also it is actually a division of the entire matter of the book into several

parts but here the point of difference is while in outline we did not have the pagination i mean we didnt use the page numbers but here we are using the page numbers while writing table of contents you have to follow certain norms the first is right table

of contents in the middle i mean the center on the top and ah then please leave some spaces and the first item that comes in every table of contents is preface then will come acknowledgement and then will come abstract if you have also attached abstract ah in your report and then

there will be ah further divisions or further titles chapter titles of your report but but please do remember that when you are writing preface and acknowledgement and abstract they should be in itals italics and the numbering wise also they will be written in say in roman

and the real pagination will begin from the introduction and again from the introduction the real numbering will begin this numbering here you do not have to give several subdivisions you know many people often you know they are often ah driven by the idea that they should

also provide the subdivisions it is not essential you should simply provide ah the ah title because the entire matter is there in the ah book or in the report and then finally the appendix and the bibliography that also will form part of the table of contents moreover

you will find in your ah report there will be certain list of illustrations now what are these list of illustrations we will discuss so you also will write list of illustrations and then ah your report may have several tables and charts and all in certain cases you may

avoid mentioning them in the table of contents but nowadays ah many writers also feel it important to provide them so if you are going to provide them its ok but if you are not its not mandatory rather then comes abstract and summary

now here also you need to understand but before that let us talk about illustrations what are these lists of illustrations when you are writing a technical report it is not only that you are providing only verbal information written information as i have said time and

again that there are many people who do not have much time to read the entire ah report so what they need to understand is they actually need to understand is the trend they also use ah they also ah would like to know it through a table through certain drops whether

it be ah rectilinear graphs pie charts or whatever so all these illustrations which are there in your report but then in order that you are going to ah give them some more privilege you have provided a separate list where you have mentioned and in the list you

have mentioned ah the number of tables are the chart number and there also you can mention these page numbers now comes the abstract or this summary now what is the ah basic difference between the t two and why they are important suppose you

are going for a conference you are also going to read the paper there so what what is expected first they actually asked you to send an abstract an abstract an abstract is actually in in a brief manner it is the condensed form of your paper or your presentation or your written

work so it has to be written in such a manner because this abstract helps people to understand what this entire report is about so in a in a very succinct manner in a very brief manner you are going to provide them what this report is all about it actually talks about the main

focus of your study but when you talk about these summary summary is somehow longer than the abstract abstract is a very short in in a very short manner you are and here you also provide some key words as to what this report is about what

you have done but when you are ah talking about this summary it will be a bit longer in summary you talk about the entire report in an certain cases people also use executive summary where they provide ah the details of the entire report but in a very concise

manner whenever concise it may be it may go up to one point five or two pages but remember the language that you will use in an abstract as well as in a summary that has to be that has to follow a sort of neutrality i mean the language always in all source of business

communications will have a sort of detachment and it should stand true to the scientific description it should not be a flowery sort of language moreover ah using too much of jagans and all so care has to be taken that while you are

writing the report while you are writing the report and when you are in the structural part and you are writing the summary it has to be in such a manner that people who are going to read it may have some knowledge because through your abstract you are preparing them

to read your report next is executive summary so here we should also ah throw some light on what an executive summary can be as i said earlier it is actually the entire report in a not sell i mean you begin with ah ah you you may talk about a little bit very little

of the background because for that you have to do a lot when you start the ah main part of the report but here you are going to talk about why you are writing this report why you are writing this ah paper so identify the topic sentence and provide

different ah paragraphs in in various ways identify the topic sentences ah by putting them into different paragraphs and there has to be occurrence between the main topic and the subordinate once please do mention the objectives of your report the findings in

an abstract ah people also should see that they mentioned the methodology i mean how they will ah carry forward their report how they will ah move on ah ah further in their report and then if there are recommendations because when people look at the abstract they

are also in a position ah to see what an abstract is and how the further paper will be it it creates in people a sort of desire to read your report dear friends ah when we talk about the prefatorial material or the front matter all the items

right from the cover page to the title page to the frontispiece to the copyright notice to the acknowledgement and then abstract summary illustrations all of them they actually are simply the parts and they formulate the main part that is why we call them prefatorial

materials but when we have done the task of completing the prefatorial materials all we need is to go to the main discussion and then to the back matter we shall be talking both about the main part or ah main part as well as the back matter in detail in the lecture

that follows till then you should think off whether you have been able to understand the prefatorial part of the report thank you very much