English for Geography

In producing a report, you are normally addressing the following questions: 

1. What did you do? 
2. Why did you do it? 
3. How did you do it? 
4. What did you find out? 
5. What do the findings mean? 

Report writing is different to essay writing since: 

1. Reports usually utilise primary rather than secondary data 
2. They are more formally structured 
3. You may not be required to develop an argument through the report 

Introduction: Outline why you did what you did. Particularly in a short report where there is no literature review section, this is the place where you place the work in context. Without going overboard, attempt to highlight why the particular location of study (whether a “place” or a “space”) is particularly important. Most studies will be undertaken in South Australia and close to Adelaide. Justify (other than simply on the basis of cost and convenience) why this is the case. For example, are the environmental phenomena and issues experienced here either unusual (e.g. a rare species or ecosystem or a great example of good management) or examples of similar phenomena and issues elsewhere? The latter means that your report acts as a case study. 

Methods: This section is not always required, so check with you lecturer or supervisor. This section may appear the easiest to write (i.e. simply re-stating methods from the literature).  However, the best methods are the result of a careful reading of the literature and a choice between different methods. If, at the end of your study, you concluded that different methods should have been used, this will be outlined in the discussion and conclusion but could be hinted at here. 

Results: Describe what you found but do not interpret the data. This is left to the discussion. Deciding what goes in the results and discussion is a challenge. However, restrict your results section to a strict reporting of the facts. Note that for longer reports (including theses) it can be better not to report every aspect of your work. In doing this it is important not to be deceptive. You don’t have to include everything you did since you are being judged on the quality of your work as much as the quantity. 

Discussion: The fun part! Here you discuss what your findings mean.  If the discussion follows a similar structure to the results this will make it easier for the reader to follow.  In the discussion you place the results in the context of the literature.  It is important not to repeat the results. Here then cross-referencing is important. For example, you might say “The density of aquatic plants was higher in the River Torrens downstream of the industrial area at site 1 (see section 5.2, figure 5). This contrasts with findings of previous authors in Adelaide (Wang and Li, 1998) and other Australian cites (Smith and Jones, 2002; Nguyen, 2005).” 

Conclusion: Often relatively brief, but the conclusion provides an important opportunity to reflect on the findings and to indicate where improvements could be made or where future research could be directed. The conclusion is not simply a summary of the rest of your report. 

Citation style: APA Style (7th ed.) 

Further reference: Hay, I. (2012). Writing a report. In: I. Hay, Communicating in geography and the environmental sciences. pp. 30-56. Oxford University Press.