Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

The main body of the report
This part of the report should describe, in detail, what 
was discovered (the facts), the signifi cance of these 
discoveries (analysis) and their importance (evaluation). 
Graphs, tables and charts are often used at this stage 
in the report. These should have the function of sum-
marizing information rather than giving large amounts of 
detail. The more detailed graphics should be made into 
appendices.
To make it more digestible, this part of the report 
should be divided into sections, using numbered headings 
and sub-headings. Very long and complex reports will 
need to be broken down into chapters.
Conclusions
The concluding part of the report should be a reason-
ably detailed ‘summing up’. It should give the conclu-
sions arrived at by the writer and explain why the writer 
has reached these conclusions.
Recommendations
The use of this section depends on the requirements of 
the person commissioning the report. If recommenda-
tions are required, provide as few as possible, to retain 
a clear focus. Report writers are often asked only to pro-
vide the facts.
Appendices
This part of the report should contain sections that 
may be useful to a reader who requires more detail. 
Examples would be the detailed charts, graphs and 
tables mentioned in section 5, any questionnaires used 
in constructing the evidence, lists, forms, case studies 
and so on. The appendices are the background material 
of the report.

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Monitoring, review and audit
109
References
If any books, papers or journal articles have been used 
as source material, this should be acknowledged in a 
reference section. There are a number of accepted ref-
erencing methods used by academics.
Because the reader is likely to be a person with 
some degree of expertise in the subject, a report 
must be reliable, credible, relevant and thorough. It 
is therefore important to avoid emotional language, 
opinions presented as facts and arguments that have no 
supporting evidence. To make a report more persuasive, 
the writer needs to:
➤
present the information clearly 
➤
provide reliable evidence 
➤
present arguments logically 
➤
avoid falsifying, tampering with or concealing facts. 
Expertise in an area of knowledge means that distor-
tions, errors and omissions will quickly be spotted by the 
reader and the presence of any of these will cast doubt 
on the credibility of the whole report. 
Reports are usually used as part of a decision 
making process. If this is the case, clear, unembellished 
facts are needed. Exceptions to this would be where the 
report is a proposal document or where a recommenda-
tion is specifi cally requested. Unless this is the case, it is 
better not to make recommendations.
A report should play a key role in organizing 
information for the use of decision makers. It should 
review a complex and/or extensive body of information 
and make a summary of all the important issues.
It is relatively straightforward to produce a report, 
as long as the writer keeps to a clear format. Using the 
format described here, it should be possible to tell the 
reader as clearly as possible: 
➤
what 
happened 
➤
what it cost 
➤
what the result was, etc. 
There may be a request for a special report and this is 
likely to be longer and more diffi cult to produce. Often it 
will relate to a ‘critical incident’ and the decision makers 
will be looking for information to help them:
➤
decide whether this is a problem or an opportunity
➤
decide whether to take action
➤
decide what action, if any, to take.
Finally, report writing should be kept simple. Nothing is 
gained, in fact much is lost in the use of long, compli-
cated sentences, jargon and offi cial-sounding language. 
When the report is fi nished, it is helpful to run through 
it with the express intention of simplifying the language 
and making sure that it says what was intended in a 
clear and straightforward way.
KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE