FORMAL REPORT

COMPONENTS

Basic Format
Total 10-15 pages, including appendices. No
penalty for longer reports as long as appropriate
writing style maintained.
Single spaced, no indent, left justify only
Page numbers in upper right corner
1 blank line between new paragraphs
Final report must be bound, with loose letter of
transmittal clipped to cover.

Headings
Major section headings start a new page,
1 blank line after.
1 blank line before and after sub-headings.
3rd level subheadings must be easily
distinguished from others
There should be at least one sub-heading
on each page (a whole page of text with
no sub-heading will be penalized)
No orphan headings.

Page 4

HEADINGS
Sub-Heading
Note how easy it is to distinguish
between the major, section heading and
the sub-heading.
Sub-Heading
Note that consistent spacing is used,
skipping one line both before and after a
sub-heading.
Third-level headings. If used should
be easy to distinguish from major,
section headings and sub-headings.

Letter of Transmittal
Announce the topic and explain who
authorized it.
Briefly describe the project and preview
the conclusions if the reader is
supportive.
Close expressing appreciation for
assignment, suggesting follow-up
actions, acknowledging the help of
others, and offering to answer
questions.

Title Page
Balance the following lines:
*

*
*
*

Name of the report in all caps (e.g. Final

Report)
Receivers name, title, and organization
Team name and team members
Date submitted (month/year)

No page number on title page (page 1 is

executive summary)

FINAL REPORT
XYZ Corporation
Jane Smith, VP Marketing

Longhorn Consulting
Bruce Springsteen, Faith Hill,
Huey Lewis, Melissa Etheridge

April 2006

Table of Contents
Show the beginning page number
where each report heading appears in
the report (do not put page number
range, just the first page number).
Connect headings to page numbers
with dots.
Headings should be grammatically
parallel
Include major section headings and
sub-headings
No page number on TOC page

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary........................... 1

Introduction ....................................... 2
Background
Purpose
Scope
Research Questions
Report Organization
Research and Analysis...................... 4
Methodology
Findings
Conclusions & Recommendations..... 6
Appendices........................................ 7
Appendix 1: Survey questions
Appendix 2: Client proposal
Appendix 3: PowerPoint slides

Executive Summary
Include
challenge statement (client focused)
a little background (type of organization, what
they do, size, when established)
SMART goal (team focused)
a little research summary (techniques/sources
used, research questions if have room)
conclusions and recommendations (all, but
summarized)

Executive Summary (cont)

This is first page of report (page 1)
Typically 1-2 pages
OK to copy/repeat portions of report in E.S

Introduction
Background: Provide a full description of the
client and the challenge.
Purpose: Clients perspective on the
challenge/motivation for report (e.g. XYZs goal
for this project is to....). Include significance of
challenge (what difference will it make?).
Scope: Clarify the scope and limitations of
report. (include your SMART goal)

Introduction (cont)
Research questions: from proposal
your broad, upper level questions/areas
of investigation (NOT detailed survey
questions). Must include benchmark
question.
Preview reports organization. The
next section presents our research and
analysis followed by our conclusions
and recommendations.

Research and Analysis

Introductory paragraph for the section (this can
also be used for executive summary)
Methodology
For all types of research provide:
Goal for each piece of research (what is your
question/hypothesis?)
Data source
For surveys give # surveys distributed, how
distributed, how population chosen
For observations give how, when, where observations
occurred
Refer to more detailed information in appendix

Research and Analysis

Analysis/Research Findings
Goal = supply proof for conclusions
Discuss, analyze, and interpret (dont just give results,
also say what they mean particularly with
benchmarking)
Remember to report on all your research, including
interviews with client and personal observations
(discuss in methodology too)
Support your findings with evidence
(new) Provide summary paragraph of key findings
and their significance at end of section

Research and Analysis

Explain all graphs in writing
Arrange the findings in logical segments
that follow your outline. Findings should
be presented in the same order as
discussed in methodology.
Use clear, descriptive headings.
Present just the facts, no opinions, no
feelings.
At end of section, introduce next section
(conclusions and recommendations).

Conclusions/Recommendations
Conclusions: explain what the research findings
mean in relation to the challenge.
Recommendations: Start with a verb and
suggest actions to address challenge.
Enumerate conclusions and bullet related
recommendations.
Conclusion answers the question, why will your
recommendation work?
Conclusions are clearly drawn from the
presented research (based on....)
(new) Introduce section with challenge
statement and significance
Provide a final focus paragraph that relates
recommendations back to SMART goal.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Based on our survey results and
literature review, volunteer retention is
increased when volunteers report feeling
appreciated.

Initiate a volunteer reward program

to recognize hours of service and
leadership (see appendix for an
example from abc organization).

2. Based on the experience similar

organizations, volunteer retention is
increased when volunteers report their
skills are utilized and they feel part of the
organization.

Introduce an initial interview system

to identify the skills of volunteers.

Match new volunteers with a mentor

to speed the volunteer assimilation.

Appendix
Begin section with a cover sheet that includes a list of
all items in appendix
Items should be numbered and titled (e.g. Appendix 1:
Volunteer Survey). If difficult to put a number/title on
the appendix item, use a cover sheet with the items
number/title.
Include items of interest to some, but not all, readers
(questionnaires, detailed budgets, etc).
Include a reference list showing all the works cited and
consulted arranged alphabetically by author/source. For
help with reference formatting, you can consult the
website EasyBib at http://www.easybib.com/.
Include signed copy of your client proposal.
Include your PowerPoint slides.
(new) Include your team agreement.

Format/Content Considerations
Use present or past tense except for
conclusions/ recommendations, which
may be future tense.
Stay positive (no problems)! Any
negative information should be buried in
the findings section and reported briefly,
factually.
No we feel or we think outside of the
recommendations just the facts.