APA style and citations for dummies - Joe Giampalmi 2021
APA report writing: specializing and personalizing
Perfecting specialized writings: APA reports
Perfecting presentation: beginnings, endings, and other writings
Report specializations vary as much as professors’ quirkiness. A unifying factor of variations of reports is APA formatting consistencies, which include title page, page appearance, heading case, levels of headings, major sections, and optional sections. The following sections describe numerous kinds of reports.
Business reports
Reports are to business what bats are to baseball; without them, you have no game. Report purposes in business include establishing policy, updating projects, justifying procedures, and evaluating performance. Business reports also measure an organization’s effectiveness in achieving goals. As academic assignments, business reports frequently focus on a problem or case study. Many companies create specific guidelines and formatting for business documents, which supersede APA guidelines. APA writing style guidelines apply to business writing.
Education reports
In the field of education, the purposes of reports include proposing new programs, changing policy, justifying spending, and establishing curriculum. Education reports also include a variety of proposal reports for topics such as courses, programs, requirements, staffing, and budgeting. Education institutional reports generally follow APA guidelines.
Science reports
Science reports, sometimes called lab reports in the academic setting, generally follow a standardized format that includes report sections such as purpose, methods, materials, results, and conclusions. Science reports are as common to science students as white lab coats and a microscope. Another classification of science reports includes reports on science topics, such as recommendations for clean energy sources on a campus. Academic science reports (not lab reports) generally follow APA guidelines.
Periodic reports
Managers and project leaders are frequently required to submit performance and project reports weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Periodic reports usually include a list of accomplishments during the designated timeframe and a brief reflection on those accomplishments. Periodic reports in the workplace generally follow company guidelines, which may or may not include APA principles.
Sales and marketing reports
Sales and marketing reports include the status of marketing and sales strategies, which often comprise analysis of data. They’re usually written for internal audiences and contain confidential data such as profits, losses, and projections. Tables and figures are common to these reports. Sales and marketing reports generally follow company guidelines.
Proposal reports
Business proposals are persuasive reports designed to convince an investor to financially support a product, service, or other business opportunity. The proposal provides the details the investor needs to commit to the investment. The heart of the proposal is the research that provides an accurate statistical analysis of the opportunity. The writer of the report has an obligation (sometimes legal) to present accurate data. Proposals, which are complex financial documents, rank among the most important reports that businesses write. Proposal reports are unique business documents and generally follow company guidelines.
Feasibility studies
Feasibility studies assess a project’s conditions that contribute to success, such as economical, geographical, environmental, and political. They identify obstacles that can cause a project to fail. Feasibility studies are completed prior to a commitment of time and resources.
Optional sections of feasibility studies usually include oversized tables and figures, and appendixes for supplemental information. Examples of topics include feasibility of a three-year college degree program, feasibility of earning a degree without debt, and feasibility of no-cost public transportation in major cities. Feasibility reports generally follow company guidelines.
Recommendation reports
A recommendation report, common to any discipline and almost any topic, analyzes information and offers recommendations accordingly. These topics include recommendations for reducing knee injuries among high school athletes, recommendations for avoiding student loans, and recommendations for navigating course requirements for graduation. For a model of recommendation language, flip to Figure 17-7 earlier in this chapter. Recommendation reports generally follow APA guidelines.
Technical reports
Technical reports explain technical information, for example, when recommending the installation of a building’s ventilation system. The audience usually has less technical knowledge than the writer, which requires that the writer simplify technical information for the reader. A glossary is commonly included. Technical report content crosses academic disciplines and generally follow company guidelines.
Academic reports
College juniors and seniors are required to write numerous reports in content courses such as economics, finance, psychology, government, history, education, art, and health. An academic report can be as focused as a four-page report analyzing the causes of college dropouts or as extensive as a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation. Academic reports follow APA guidelines.
Project progress reports
Organizations track projects and associated progress with reports that generally include project accomplishments to date and goals to be completed. Evaluations and obstacles are also included in progress reports. Think of a project progress report as what you’ve been doing at work — or what you haven’t yet accomplished at work.
A project completion report offers an opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of completed projects. These reports are much more detailed than update reports, and they contain almost all optional sections of reports. Project completion reports are disseminated up the company hierarchy, requiring your awareness of secondary audiences — your supervisor’s supervisor and the person who hired you. Project progress reports are commonly required for college team projects, and they generally follow company guidelines.
Field reports
Field reports include an analysis of an observation or event. Field reports are common to course study in education, health and sciences, history, political science, psychology, medicine, and law. Events are analyzed within the context of classroom content. The length of field reports generally ranges between three and four pages, and the structure resembles that of a reaction paper (see Chapter 15).
A field report generally excludes optional sections such as executive summary, table of contents, glossary, figures and tables, and appendixes. Citations and references are frequently required and strengthen a field report. If citations and references are not required, professors are impressed to see your knowledge of academic protocol by formally identifying sources. Field reports as academic documents follow APA guidelines.
Research reports
Research reports represent a broad category of reports and provide detailed research data to support the value of a product or service. Research reports are written to validate product credibility. In addition to the major structural sections required in a report, they also include methodology, results, and discussion. Research reports generally follow company guidelines.