8/8/2019 University of Wales - Guide to Writing Essays and Reports

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School of Business

Academic Writing: Essays and Reports

When preparing assignments you need to consider the writing skills that are necessary and the

structures that are required. There are many assignment formats that might be asked of you, the

most usual of Academic writing required for a non-technical assignment will be an essay or a report.

All writing needs the same overall structure.

•  An introduction

•  An academic argument or line of reasoning that answers the assignment brief 

•  A conclusion

The introduction and conclusion are very important parts of the document. You might expect

between 8 and 10% of the words in your essay to be used in each of these parts.

Introduction, should include –

•  A representation and your interpretation of the question

•  Brief identification of how you are planning to answer that questions, your approach and the

issues/arguments to be presented including order

The main argument, should include –

•  Order of information and discussion that reflects what you said you’d do in the introduction

•  Paragraphs that systematically present information to critically support your answer

Paragraphs should link together and develop the answer as the reader progresses through

the document

Conclusion, should include –

•  No new material

•  It should summarise your argument and main themes

•  Explain why you have reached your conclusions and why they are important

The writing style needs to be academic and formal. See various study guides for details. You need

to consider every sentence you write and ask yourself, “is this directly relevant to the question I am

answering?”.

All of the above applies to both essays and reports; however, the presentation, layout and detailed

approach is different in these two formats. There is a good comparison on Page 263, of Cottrell,

2008.

Essays

  This is structured writing.

  There are no headings and sub-headings, the introduction, conclusion etc. are identified only

by the words used within paragraphs.

  Traditional academic approach

  Integrated presentation of a narrative answer to the question

  There should be no tables, charts, graphics or other interruptions to the narrative style.

8/8/2019 University of Wales - Guide to Writing Essays and Reports

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Reports 

  Formally structured analysis of a topic/question, that will include headings and sub-headings

  Can include charts, graphs, tables (that are of direct relevant and assist in the effective

answering of the question

Formatting a Report

There are many precise and different formats for reports. Many organisations have their own in-

house report structure and style. These can include numbered paragraphs and sections, font size

protocols and so forth.

During your degree programme the following is expected -

•  A cover sheet with your name, student number, module name and code, and the assignment

title.

•  A contents list that includes all headings and sub-headings and the relevant page numbers.

•  A section called – Introduction

•  A section called – Conclusion

•  Between the introduction and the conclusion there will be a series of other headings that you

will decide upon that best meet the needs of the assignment you are working on.

o  The naming of these sections should make sense within the context of the individual

assignment.

o  Sometimes the assignment brief will specify the headings that are required, you should take

particular note of such information.

o  In some assignments this central part of the report could contain a series of headings related

to the topic itself.

o  In other assignment reports the format will more closely reflect the requirements of a project

report, and might include methodology (or research design/information collection), results,

discussion and recommendations.

•  For longer reports it can be useful to provide a summary or abstract.

•  When writing an assignment of 3,000 words or less it is suggested that you keep any

methodology and summary sections to a minimum (or do not include at all) because of the

limited number of words available for the whole assignment.  This does not apply if you are

writing a research or project proposal, in which case the proposed methodology needs to be

discussed in detail.

•  Reports can include tables, charts, graphics that are of direct relevance to the answering of the

question, and must be referred to within the text of the report

Appendices

Appendices can be included at the end of an assignment but should only be used if the presentation

of this additional detailed information is essential to the answering of the question, and is effectively

referred to and referenced within the main text of the assignment

Notes:

•  All essay and reports should (at least) include the following on all pages of the document –

student number, module code and assignment number (if more than one), and the page

number.

•  This document should be read in conjunction with the Guide to Good Practice in Assignment

Writing and the Referencing Guide.