Unit 5: Report-Writing Skills

Writing a report is scary to many students. All those words and pages assigned can be daunting to students who don’t think of themselves as “writers.” David B. Ellis, in the book Becoming A Master Student, suggests that when writing a report, you think of yourself as someone who is starting a business. First, think of a name for your business (report title). Next, consider the product you want to sell (report conclusion). Finally, consider what you are going to need to make the product—sales office, accounting office, factory (main points of the report).

Lesson 12 will help you organize your “business” so that you end up with the finished product you want to sell. You will learn many ways to organize your information. You might use a computer-designed plan to start your business, so this lesson will help you to design your report by gathering information on the Internet. And because your product may not be totally original (very few products are), this lesson will help you cite the sources you used to gather the information in a bibliography.

And now, your mission awaits …