The report is a small research paper devoted to one narrow topic. You may either write it down or make a speech. Usually, students have to do it in both forms.

Report often confused with abstract. In some ways, these "genres" are close to each other, often the essay is called a "report", but if you do not see the difference, then you might end up doing extra work and writing 30-40 pages instead of 5-6.

The key difference between the report and the abstract is in its purpose. The report is intended to give an information to the audience. You have the right to simply prepare a plan and reveal the information on the topic, to your fellow students and teacher. Your performance can last 5-10 minutes.

However, teachers often require students to write a report. And this may cause problems. From school we got used to the standard structure for small scientific works:

- Title page;
- Table of contents;
- Introduction;
- Main part;
- Conclusion;
- Bibliography.

This structure is suitable for both the report and the abstract. But in the first case the main part will be much shorter (5-6 pages versus 30-40). Accordingly, it makes no sense to make a big introduction and conclusion.

How to write a report?
We will talk more about how to draw up a report a little later. Now - let`s talk about the work that you have to do. It is conditionally possible to divide it into four stages:

Stage One. Topic selection

Everything is simple here. If the teacher gave a list of topics, choose the one that you like most. If you are asked to come up with a topic yourself (for example, within a certain sphere), take the one that you like. Even in boring discipline, there is something interesting. And you can always connect one discipline with another. For example, a history buff while preparing a report on jurisprudence may consider the history of the development of law. A musician who has become a student at a medical university may consider the effect of music on health. You are free to choose any topic, if the teacher allows it.

Stage Two. Search and study of literature

With the Internet, finding literature on a topic has become much easier. You don’t have to dig for hours in a file cabinet and shovel hundreds of books. It is enough to make a request in a search engine. Alas, the network has a lot of “bullshit” (that is, absolutely useless, often false information). Definitely not worth using regular sites, banks of abstracts and reports and other similar resources. Wikipedia needs to be handled carefully, double-checking the information. The best source is scientific work. You can find them online, for example, using Google Scholar or any other trusted writing services. If only links to work are posted, you will have to go to the library.
Be sure to save not only the names and data of the authors of scientific works, but also the year of publication and the name of the publishers in which the works are published. Indicate pages if the work is placed in the collection

Stage Three. Writing the main body

This stage is divided into three parts.

The first is the preparation of abstracts. If you have already written an essay, you know how to do it. One thesis is enough - all work will be built around it.

Note! In the thesis, as in the whole report, there should be no subjective opinion - yours or someone else's. This is the main difference between the report and the essay. What matters here is objectivity.
The second part is the preparation of a plan (structure) of work. The structure depends on the topic you choose. It can be linear or branched, can go from the thesis to argumentation, and vice versa, can have a descriptive or analytical character.
The third part is the actual work on the text. There are very few rules for writing a report, we will talk about them below.

Stage Four. Work on introduction and conclusion

The introduction and conclusion of the report is typical of any student work. In the introduction, we formulate the problem (thesis), justify the choice of the topic (optional), evaluate the relevance, indicate the purpose and objectives of the report, characterize the literature that was used.

In conclusion, we draw conclusions, summarize the information presented in the main part.

That, in fact, is all. It remains only to draw up a title page and a list of references. Before you print a report, do not be too lazy to re-read it again, but rather - check the services for uniqueness and errors.

How to write an excellent report?
Any student can prepare a report. But not everyone will be receive an excellent grade, and not everyone will be remembered. So that your work is noted not only by other students, but also by teachers, be guided by three rules for writing a report:

Uniqueness. Do not copy phrases or paragraphs of text. Neither from the Internet nor from library books. It is not difficult to check the uniqueness, and you cannot deceive even a young and inexperienced teacher.
Literacy. You should be interested in not only spelling and punctuation errors, but also actual errors. However, such will not happen if you use scientific literature and indicate it in the bibliography.
Academic style. Almost all types of student work are written in an academic style. You have the right to use complex sentences, participles and participles, terms and polysyllabic words. However, it is important that the sentences are built correctly, and the terms are applied to the place. Do not intentionally complicate the text if you have no experience.