This will help you see the bigger picture from the beginning, make your report coherent, and reorder or reorient it easier if necessary. Consider when the introduction, conclusion and executive summary (if writing one) are best left until last. These parts are often improved by relating back to the input already within the body of the report, even though you will often feel inclined to write skeleton summaries for each.
Research information that has been gathered can be stored on note cards, in a writing book, digitally or in other ways that work for you. The main thing is to ensure that you have easy access to the information, that it’s not one messy pile that simply confuses you, and that it is as extensive as required for your report. If there are missing links or unfinished research areas, be sure to make a note of this, so that you don’t accidentally overlook it when writing up the report. Save yourself a ton of time by writing down the author, the day it was published, and who published it, and any other identifiers. Information absent these important details is painful for you, as you’ll have to backtrack to confirm the source and that can sometimes be very time consuming.
Also find out such basics as indentation requirements, quote style, use of text boxes, placement of images, etc.
Talk to others if you have writer’s block. If may be just a standard report but writer’s block occurs for technical, professional and educational writing just as much as for novelists! You may talk to someone closest in proximity, like a family member, or to your teacher, professor, or other mentor. If you’re new to report writing, check in with your supervisor, teacher or other mentor regularly, to be sure that you’re headed in the right direction. It’s painful to have to undo a lot of thorough and thoughtful work just because you didn’t understand what was expected. Use prompts that already exist in your workplace, educational institution or other relevant organization. Existing reports can help you to determine the style, the expected approaches and what sort of content is considered appropriate and adequate. Reference as you go. That way, you won’t have to spend ages working out where the references came from or have to fact check your statements later. Use a program that can help you to format footnotes or endnotes, as required. Once again, conform to the style expected by your workplace or institution.
Liaise with the graphic designer for development of any design work required, such as the cover pages, internal images, graphs and charts that you were unable to do yourself, and so forth. This should actually be underway during the report writing stage, as it takes time and you will likely reject some of the designer’s drafts and seek amendments until the items look as you wish them to.
