Noun

reports

1. Plural form of report.

Verb

reports

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of report.

Anagrams

• porters

Written reports are documents which present specific, focused content—often the result of an experiment, investigation, or inquiry—to a specific audience. The audience may be public or private, an individual or the public in general. Reports are used in government, business, education, and science.

Reports often use persuasive elements, such as graphics, images, voice, or specialized vocabulary in order to persuade that specific audience to undertake an action. One of the most common formats for presenting reports is IMRAD: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.This structure is standard for the genre because it mirrors the traditional publication of scientific research and summons the ethos of that discipline. Reports are not required to follow this pattern, however, and some do use the problem-solution format.

Additional elements often used to persuade readers include: headings to indicate topics, to more complex formats including charts, tables, figures, pictures, tables of contents, abstracts, summaries, appendices, footnotes, hyperlinks, and references.

Some examples of reports are: scientific reports, recommendation reports, white papers, annual reports, auditor's reports, workplace reports, census reports, trip reports, progress reports, investigative reports, budget reports, policy reports, demographic reports, credit reports, appraisal reports, inspection reports, military reports, bound reports, etc.