Types of Reports: Short, Technical, Informative, Analytical, and Routine Reports Explained

a very good morning to you all we are actually discussing a series of lectures on soft skills and as we said in the earlier talk we are dealing with writing section where we are discussing report writing earlier we discussed what a report is and why it is important today

to know the art of report writing how a report is different from other forms of writing in the present lecture we are going to talk about the different types of reports as i said earlier a report is an only tangible product of a professional but then what sort

of reports do we come across and what sort of reports are we supposed to write can a report be short or long can a report be only informational or can it also analyze we will discuss and how depending upon the nature and the need reports vary in their features

as we discussed earlier a report is actually written in response to a demand or a need since it is a formal piece of writing it is actually this formality that makes various reports different from each other people may at times also wonder what should be the length

of a report how long should a report be that will also depend upon the formality that will also depend upon the need moreover if the flow of reports in a particular organization is very frequent naturally the length of such ports will be less but here

in a professional world of today you need to understand the differences between all sorts of reports reports can be long reports can be short reports at its outset can either be written we have we have talked earlier that reports are written records but then

here we are also going to say that reports can also be oral but then they will differ in terms of their approach reports can be management reports and technical reports reports can be routine and reports can be special now let us try to understand all of

them in a very elaborate manner now what are short reports imagine yourself going back to your school days remember you went to a school trip or a picnic and when you came back your teacher asked you to write a report now such a report will be short very short

it may even at times may not be more than one page because it is just a sort of description so when a report is short it has a sort of limitation but on other occasions when you are sent from your organization ah to submit a report on the basis of the information available

you may write a report which maybe a bit longer but then that also cannot come in the category of a technical report because a technical report will require lots of illustrations lots of supporting materials so a short report can be sometimes between five to six pages

sometimes depending upon the need it maybe eight to ten pages when you are supposed to write a short report which we may also call ah a sort of informal report not many things are required in such a report there may only be a sort of authorization since as we have

discussed earlier you do not write a report because you want to write a report you write a report because you are authorized by some of your seniors at times you are given the task of writing a report so a letter of authorization will be there

and they will also tell you the problem now you will decide how this problem will be dealt with and then you can give a conclusion but then when it comes to recommendation it always depends upon the letter of the authorization or the person who has assigned you the task

of writing this report whether a recommendation is required or not my sound advice to you all is dont recommend unless and until you have been asked to conclusion is ok because conclusion is based on the data that is available but when somebody gives a recommendation some

way or the other some of your own thoughts also come into picture that is why recommendation should not be written or should not be given unless and until asked for now the short reports are informal in nature we have in some of the previous lectures discussed a letter report

and a memo report these are short reports they come in the category of short reports as we have discussed a letter report will be in the form of a letter where there can be a salutation and a complimentary close the language will be the tone will be a bit

informal likewise when you talk about a memo report which also comes in the category of short reports it will be written in the form of a memo there will be no complimentary close no salutation but then while drafting such reports all you need to do is you are always

to remember your purpose i would like to emphasize time and again that before you write a report ask yourself why you are writing this report when you ask yourself why you are writing this report it will give an answer to so many queries it will make your task easier rather

in terms of the approach the length language you have to be very concise plain and direct and when you have written the short report please review before you send it because that will allow you to understand certain pieces of information which hamper or which can hamper

the flow of reading so if you come across such a situation where you feel that such pieces of information are blocking the flow put them in the appendix of the report where which we which we call in a in a longer report or in an analytical

report back matter where there will be several appendixes so put unnecessary materials in the appendix next comes technical reports which you will come across every now and then being in an organization you will find that you are at times given the task of writing

a report hence it is very important to understand what is a technical report why do we call it technical and what are the specifications involved in it a technical report has to have a proper documentation so when i say documentation what i mean is

it should have a proper structure and and in structure it should follow a proper beginning it should follow a proper prefatory material along with the discussion the analysis the illustrations the supporting materials and many more in such a report i mean in a technical

report discussions are very deep discussions are very detailed because you are doing it in order to analyze a problem and since reports will provide a solution to a problem the discussion has to be very clear elaborate logical systematic moreover what is of at most importance is

the data because in the definition we have already said a report is an official piece of writing moreover it is actually a description based on the data analysis and this data has to be factual so but then one has to understand much depends upon the data of the report isnt

it so since data is very important you should know what are the sources of the data because every curious reader would like to know the veracity of data i mean the validity of the data for that you need to understand the sources from where you have taken the data

sometimes it may appear that a report is simply the collection or simply the gathering of some other pieces of information from some sources which may not be reliable such a report may not be effective as i said earlier reports enable decisions and since decisions are to

be taken the data as well as its sources have to be very authentic otherwise any wrong decision that results out of a report may or may actually harm an institution and when you have got the data because there are various ways you will gather the data you will collect the

data and once you have the data what you will do is you will start analyzing the data interpreting the data sampling the data in order to come to a proper conclusion and recommendation if required so a technical report by its very nature is

technical because it is elaborate it actually in tells a lot of discussion it also tells you about why you are writing the report and why you are writing the report and what actually the person who has assigned the report wants you to cover in that report that will be discussed

in such a report now when you are analyzing the data you will find suppose you are actually writing a report on the problem of pollution you are writing a report on ah the disposal of garbage i mean these are some of the topics so when you are writing such a report and

you have got the data you need to analyze the data and to discuss it in the light of the information that you have got but since this analysis will be longer what you will require is you will require that there has to be a proper division because you will come

across ah several you know items ah there will be several items and when you are analyzing what you are supposed to do is you are actually to divide it into several sections as well as several sub sections when you are making a sort of analysis this analysis should be

upon in such a manner that finally it is paving way to reach a conclusion and as conclusion is based on the data which you have the conclusion has to be logical moreover based on this conclusion and based on what you have been asked to do in the terms of

reference what you what you are supposed to know is whether you are going to recommend some course of action or not remember that you are not supposed to recommend unless and until you have been asked to and if you are giving the recommendation of course your conclusion

ah will be based on the discussion that you have made but suppose you are going to recommend some action also it is quite important that the supporting materials are there and the supporting materials can be of different sorts say the sources of data the method of data

collection sometimes you are trying to suggest some course of action so for that also you need to provide some sort of support as we have discussed earlier and this these supporting materials because maybe there are number of supporting materials and if you put them all

in the midst of the report that may block so let us try to see that these things are flust towards the back matter of the report now as we have said reports can be short and long and reports can be technical now any technical report can also be that also can

be categorized into two first is that it maybe informative remember ah you are following a course where the teacher takes your attendance the teacher keeps a record of your attendance and towards the end of the semester he actually recommends or in the midst of the semester

he also recommends whether you should be allowed to continue in this course now how does the teacher come to know he actually comes to know by having a look at your attendance records likewise now now this piece of information here you are providing some sort of action

some action will be taken but all reports may not enable us to take some action there maybe reports which simply maybe informative in nature now what is an informative report an informative report as the term itself says is simply a

piece of information you simply want to know ah the market survey and and and you for that ah you have supplied a questionnaire or you have collected a data through some other sources suppose somebody is going to have a sort of lab report i mean laboratory report sometimes

you are going to take stock of ah an inventory sometimes you are going to make a sort of inspection so you are going to ah now in such pieces of information you will find that you do not have to make much use of language there are certain columns every every organization

will have ah a sort of ah proforma where certain items will be there and all you need to do is you simply need to tick you are not going to recommend any action in many of the cases so this is what an informative report an do it simply conveys information and it also

develops aims and objectives of an organization or of a particular product i mean you are not the person who will recommend some action you are simply going to understand the trend and for that this proforma has to be filled out so an informative report presents

information as it is there is no further analysis as we have discussed in our technical report that is why an informative report maybe shorter an informative report maybe shorter suppose you went to ah see the activities or suppose you went to see ah the flow of traffic on

a on a particular square on a particular ah say ah road so what you will do you will simply go there and watch and after watching you will come and you will put it you are not going to recommend any action so for that there is some other person who will recommend

some action so an informative report it simply presents the information as it is not as what it should be there is some examples of informative report that maybe we we may also call it periodic reports for a for an organization which say

has its report say weekly no it may attendance report maybe weekly inspection report maybe monthly by monthly so since it is from one period to another we may also call it periodic reports likewise readership surveys suppose a new magazine it wants to know because it

is ah the the magazine doesnt have much reader now so what it will do is it will actually have a sort of readership service and would like to see how many people ah read a particular journal or a newspaper then employee booklets you will find here you will come across lots

of rules and regulations for example the prospectus of a particular institution that may also come under informative report here not much is given about the action or something like that it simply allows you to understand the aims

and objects even even an organization you know the the website that you ah go to ah to have some information about a particular organization that is also a sort of informative report then committee reports that will also be a sort of informative report policy statements

sales reports credit reports production reports all these come under the category of informative reports now such pieces of information may at times be also very routine in nature but then another sort of technical report which is of at most importance and use is analytical

or interpretive now how is this report different from an informative report while an informative report simply puts the information as it is an interpretive report it actually interprets analyzes and it evaluates based on the data that it has

it will put a lot of interpretation and while it interprets it also comes to know about some other things also i mean which may not be very specific but it gives you some amount of information about some other aspects also and this analysis is of investigation say

for example a new product has developed certain ah deficiencies and for that of a report is to be written ah so everything will be taken into consideration as to why this happened and you know for coming to a solution it is only an analytical report or an interpretive

report that can help you come to a solution and it is once again an analytical report that will help you understand or that will help you come to up an action whatever action may be taken so it it simply finds an it moves one step further that it

recommends some action and since it is based on a problem the analysis will not only help you to reach a conclusion but it may also suggest or recommend some course of action on the basis of which some decision maybe taken so an analytical report can also help

in taking certain decisions all you need to understand is as a report writer you must take into consideration the approach that you are not biased the data you have but while you are interpreting that data please keep your personal bias out of this discussion

an interpretive report will be elaborate in nature meaning there by it will be very descriptive it cannot be confined ah to eight or ten pages rather it can go sometimes to thirty to thirty five pages depending upon the nature of the problem

now all these people who are working professionals they might know it better that when a new recommendation comes say for example pay recommendation comes the pay committee or the pay recommendation committee puts into consideration all sorts of situations and then finally they come up

with certain recommendations and they submit this recommendation to the government which on its now it is once again it is for other people for the government or for other people who are at the decisive role they only can take certain decision but then based on the

recommendations which the report writer has already given so the data has to be analyzed logically because much depends on how you are analyzing and when you are analyzing you must ensure that it should be in the greater common good based on the data because you

know you are the person who are going to recommend some action it is not so a whether all the recommendations that you have suggested will enable but of course some of the recommendations maybe taken seriously so an interpretive report is more

objective and it is more scientific in nature and you will also find since this is elaborate since this report is quite longer sometimes the report writer because you know not every person is interested in reading everything and since is ah time taking an elaborate or

analytical report ah requires a lot of time so basic professionals what they do is they will look at some of the graphic details which are in the form of illustrations so they will they will simply comes to analysis and then they will see how it has been done through

certain tables and charts so illustrations are very important in an analytical report so make use of illustrations but when you are making use of illustrations you should see the relevance if if it is of relevance because you know visuals they actually

are more important then the written ones and they are easy to understand for example if you are mentioning the employment trends of a particular organization or if you are mentioning ah the trend of people living a particular organization that can be very well through

certain drafts or through certain charts hence you have to be very particular when you are making use of illustrations next comes routine reports once again the term routine itself suggests that such a report is of routine nature

now this routine report has got a sort of regularity regularity in terms of frequency as i said earlier it may ah be written ah in a month or in in two months time sometimes in a week or a fourth night so such a report is regular but at fixed intervals that is

why these reports they actually deal with regular matters regular matters of the organization ah say for example finance production sales performance inventory these now why why are these important they are important to make the internal people aware of what is happening

how they are progressing and moreover when when this ah routine report you will find in many organizations they have got annual reports so these annual reports they are nothing but a compilation of data and data of the period

ah period in which that has been reported so every organization has got annual reports and in such reports you will find use of language is less and the proforma is also fixed here you do not have a much autonomy ah either with language because it it has got a proforma

and you are simply going to fill out certain pieces of information or you are going to tick so it has got a fixed proforma and the use of language is less but then we cannot say that this routine report is not a important it is as important as interpretive report

because it tells not only the internal people but also the outside agencies what this organization ah does say for example when you are doing a project suppose you have got a project so every six months they send you a proforma and in this

proforma you are to you you are actually to update how much of work has been done ah how much of work is remaining likewise when you are writing a lab report you are once again going to fill out certain ah things every organization ah every year or say every six

months they are also going to have a sort of stock verification so that they should come to know what things are needed and what things usually ah have got to be abandoned so this is very important otherwise what will happen you will have lots of things and it

will appear to be a big mess because reports actually help you not only convey but it actually helps you communicate for further business then we have inspection report you actually ah want to check in in in big organizations you will find from time to time they actually

change certain things in certain products how do they do it that is on the basis of the inspection recently you might have read in certain newspapers that some of the ah some of the car making companies they are actually going to withdraw certain ah certain

facilities and in addition they are going to provide some new facilities so how do they come to know it they actually come to know it only through a report which actually tells them then as i said earlier that if an employee is to be promoted or is

waiting for a promotion for them also we actually require a sort of confidential report of course this appears to be very routine in nature but it actually analyzes and it tries to evaluate the performance of an employee and for that various organizations have various proformas

where ah they see your skills ah your publications ah your performance your work place behavior there are several categories depending upon and varying upon the needs now based on this a c r at at times you know many organizations call it a c r and will confidential reports

so it actually helps in analyzing or in understanding the capability of an employee so this is annual this is annual confidential report of an employee so all these reports they appear to be routine in nature but still they are very important my dear friends and then we also should understand

another category of report which is management report now this management report is non technical in nature it is it is different from the technical reports this report may not be that you know longer it maybe at times shorter because it is only the top people who want to know ah

ah certain things and since it is non technical once again here more use of illustrations is important than you know not much of explanation is required in such a report it is often said that once a management report is submitted depending upon the requirement or depending

upon the urgency the managers would like to see the technical report so the readers of such reports specially the managers and others they are only interested in the finer parts of the report ah they only want to see the conclusion what is there they

may not but then at times they may also would like to see how such a conclusion has been made and for that they may go ah to have a look at the technical report in such a report specially in a management report the language is very restricted and and the tone is at

times journalistic we shall have a detailed discussion on how language can be used in a report because you know when you are writing a report you also understand who your readers are we have talked about who your readers are much depends because since action is to

be taken much depends upon the background age test preferences of the readers of a report my dear friends at times in organization some critical junctures are there say something you know some some mis happening is there during such moments also a report comes into

force such reports are called special reports which are written only during critical hours here you do not have you know much autonomy but then it there is time limitation also and the report writer has to be extra vigilant extra diligent extra intelligent extra careful

for this there is no standard format is up to the report writer but report writer can in such a situation use his own caution and is with the language ah because the objectives here are very clear and in such a situation ah because some action will be taken ah the

report writer has to be very careful so how he very meticulously uses the language is of prime importance so but then such a report the frequency of such reports is quite less because it occurs or the need of writing such a report occurs only during aberrations

or when some mis happening is there and all so while writing this report you need to exercise your caution and your linguistic ability you know you may come across all sorts of reports once you are a professional and in an organization but please do remember when you are writing

a report let us try to understand that we need to be extra vigilant and extra careful and in this regard a quote appears to be very pertinent ah the quote by and christian which says a report is like a bathing suit it covers everything that has to be covered but nothing

more the meaning is a report should not have any unnecessary any irrelevant material but only materials which are required only information which actually will help and not harm i hope by now you are in a position to understand the various types of reports and

in the next lecture we shall be talking above these strategies as to how we should start or initiate the process of report writing thank you very much