Step 7: Organize Your Ideas And Create Structure

Once you have finished taking notes on what you have read, begin to organize your ideas and create a structure for your report. Your report should have three main parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. Each section serves an important function.

• Introduction: The introduction of the report begins with a broad statement and communicates very general ideas about the topic.
• Body: The body of the report communicates the main points and supporting ideas.
• Conclusion: The conclusion of the report summarizes and restates the main ideas and ends with a general statement about the topic.

 

There are a variety of ways that you may choose to structure your ideas within the report. A few structuring techniques are described below:

• General to specific: Begin by discussing the main point in general terms and then moving to more specific information.
• Chronological: Provide information in a date and/or time sequence.
• Problem-solution: Discuss a problem and then offer possible solutions for the problem.
• Familiar to unfamiliar: Discuss what is familiar to the reader prior to discussing unfamiliar or new information.
• Comparison: Compare two ideas to each other on the basis of their similarities and differences.
• Causation: Explain the cause-and-effect relationship between two ideas.