# HOW TO ORGANIZE THE INFORMATION

Now that you've collected all the significant information for your report, you need to organize it.
The easiest way to organize your information (for you and your readers) is to divide it into sections and then decide on the best sequence to present it. You can use catalog cards to help you sort your information — write a point, piece of information, or reference on each card and then experiment. Start off with four or five major headings to serve as key points and spread these out on your desk. Then add the cards with relevant facts, explanations, and reasoning that will lead to your conclusions and recommendations.
Read through these, checking for any repetition or missing information, and moving the cards around until you're satisfied you have all the necessary data.
Keep related issues in groupings according to common characteristics and their contributions to achieving the purpose of your report.
You then need to arrange these groupings or headings into a logical sequence:
If your purpose is to show what happened, organize the information chronologically.
If you have to explain why something happened, you can use a cause and effect structure or discuss the present situation and then go back in time to explain how the problem or situation arose.
If your purpose is to show what should be done, you can compare and contrast alternative solutions, assembling evidence and then making a recommendation based on the information presented.
You've now organized the content logically, and your next step is to put it into its correct place in the report.
Key Parts of the Report
Check with your assignment guidelines for what you need to include in your report.
While not every report will have all of these, the generally accepted parts of a formal report are:
Title page
Table of contents
Summary (also called the abstract or synopsis)
Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Recommendation
Bibliography
Appendices
Glossary
You should start a new page for each one — and remember to number your pages.
Title Page
This gives the title of the report, the date it was completed, the author's name, and, where appropriate, his title or position. It also gives the name of the person or group authorizing the report, and often the intended audience. It's also the place where you can thank people or organizations that provided special information.
Table of Contents
This is where you show how your report has been organized by listing the various sections and subsections and the corresponding page numbers. It's important be cause it shows the structure and hierarchy of information. Anyone reading the report can go straight to the information they need.
If your table of contents is written well, it will contain thoughtful and descriptive headings that can be used as the basis for your summary.
Summary
The summary (also called the abstract or synopsis) includes a short overview of what's in your report. It should cover major areas such as the purpose, approach, data presented, and conclusions or recommendations. This is not the place for any factual details, statistics, or examples — they'll all come later.
Your summary can contain a sentence or two from your introduction, a sentence
about each of your main headings from your table of contents, and a sentence or two from your conclusion and recommendations. It should be short — no longer than a page. Its purpose is to tell your readers what they'll find if they decide to read the entire report.
Introduction
This is not the same as an introduction written in an essay. In a report your introduction sets out the background, terms of reference, and scope of your report. It should tell your readers:
- what the problem is or was (this is the background)
- who initiated the report and why it was written (these are the terms of reference)
- what readers can expect to find (this is the scope)
It should also say who the intended audience is; list any constraints such as your deadline, permitted length, or access to information; and clearly state your aims and objectives.
This is also where you can explain how you collected your information and what materials, equipment, or techniques you used. Not every report will need all this detail — many may only require a brief outline of your purpose and scope.
It's important that you keep your introduction relevant, factual, and brief, as shown in the sample below:
Sample Introduction: In response to the decreasing numbers of fish being caught in X, the X Branch of the Commercial Fishermen's Cooperative set up a committee to investigate the possible causes.
This report uses the research findings conducted by XYZ University during the past fishing season. The university gathered and compiled opinions from industry experts, local fishermen, and long-term residents, and includes records and data relating to waste materials from the nearby Z factory.
We present recommendations on ways to reduce pollution levels and minimize their impact on the fish feeding grounds in local kelp beds.
Body
In the body of your report you present all the facts and opinions you've collected, and you should organize your data as already discussed — logically and clearly.
Use headings and subheadings, footnotes where necessary, and graphics where applicable. Not all your charts, tables, maps, statistics, or diagrams have to be in the body of the report. You can add these to your appendices and simply refer to them where appropriate so you don't interrupt the flow of your report.
When deciding on how to present your information, it's always safe to go from the general to the specific and from the descriptive to the analytical. By starting with general ideas, your readers can draw upon their own knowledge of the subject, and this prepares them for the more specific ideas that will follow.
This part of your report should contain enough information to justify your conclusions and recommendations, but all information must be relevant — if it's not, get rid of it, however interesting it may be!
Conclusions
Once you've presented all the significant details, you must explain what the findings mean, and you must relate your conclusions to the objectives stated in your introduction.
If you said your purpose was "to show which medical invention has helped save lives during surgery," then the body of your report should contain evidence of high death rates before the invention. You could include facts and figures that show the higher survival rates after the invention and references to experts who corroborate the link between the invention and these improved rates. Your conclusion could then state that this particular invention has had a significant impact on survival during surgery.
Whatever is in this part of your report, it should present enough information for you to justify your recommendations.
At this stage, you should not include any new information — the function here is to cover your conclusions about the situation. You can, however, use numbered points for this section.
The warning below about writing your conclusion comes from the Learning Center at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Three academics are traveling on a train through Britain. As the train crosses into Scotland they see a black sheep in a field.
The first academic remarks, “Oh look, the sheep in Scotland are black.” (An over generalization)
The second academic replies, “No, some sheep in Scotland are black.” (A reasonable conclusion)
The third academic declares, “There is at least one sheep in Scotland that is black on at least one side.” (A precise and cautious conclusion)
Recommendations
If part of the scope of your assignment was to evaluate a situation and suggest
changes, you set these out in your recommendations.
You can give your recommendations as a series of numbered points, but they must always follow from your conclusion. Again, you cannot introduce any new information.
Bibliography
It’s important to acknowledge all your sources of information, so people who are interested can follow up with extra reading and check your accuracy at a later date.
Most organizations will use a specific form of documentation, so always ask and follow the house rules. If no guidance is available, you can use this format:
Author’s Surname, First Name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Date. You’ll find a useful (and detailed) section on different styles of bibliographies — Harvard, APA, Chicago, and Vancouver listed in the resources at the end of this document.
You must also acknowledge details of surveys, interviews, films, and so on. See the resource section for more information.
Appendices
If you find additional (and appropriate) graphics, statistics, or documents, you can include them at the end of the report. Often it’s a useful way to provide more detailed information your readers may need for reference. All appendices must be numbered so they can be referred to in the main body. (See the Resources for ways to do this.)
Glossary
Whether you use a glossary or not will depend on your intended audience. If you’re using specialized technical, medical, or scientific terms and your readers are not experts, then a glossary will help them. But if your audience can be expected to have this knowledge, it’s not necessary.