11.1 Informational Reports

An informational report informs or instructs and presents details of events, activities, individuals, or conditions without analysis. An example of this type of “just the facts” report is a police accident report. The report will note the time, date, place, contributing factors like weather, and identification information for the drivers involved in an automobile accident.

Informational reports typically focus on major projects or subjects beyond the scope of everyday communication. At the same time, they are more specific in purpose than reports designed to persuade, present, and discuss results, or argue for specific actions.

Informational reports encompass a variety of genres. We elaborate on progress and lab reports in this section:

Progress reports provide status reports or project updates to supervisors and upper management.

Lab reports comprehensively record the procedures, outcomes, and limitations of scientific research.

Incident reports document onsite events such as accidents or malfunctions for which involved parties may be held liable.

Evaluations provide an overview of performance on the job by organizational members (e.g. employees, coworkers, employers, etc.).