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Data types in expressions in a paginated report (Report Builder)

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Data types represent different kinds of data in a paginated report so that it can be stored and processed efficiently. Typical data types include text (also known as strings), numbers with and without decimal places, dates and times, and images. Values in a report must be an Report Definition Language (RDL) data type. You can format a value according to your preference when you display it in a report. For example, a field that represents currency is stored in the report definition as a floating point number, but can be displayed in a variety of formats depending on the format property you choose.

For more information about display formats, see Formatting Report Items (Report Builder and SSRS) .

You can create and modify paginated report definition (.rdl) files in Microsoft Report Builder, Power BI Report Builder , and in Report Designer in SQL Server Data Tools.

Report Definition Language (RDL) Data Types and Common Language Runtime (CLR) Data Types

Values that are specified in an RDL file must be an RDL data type. When the report is compiled and processed, RDL data types are converted to CLR data types. The following table displays the conversion, which is marked Default:

RDL Type CLR Types
String Default: String

Chart, GUID, Timespan
Boolean Default: Boolean
Integer Default: Int64

Int16, Int32, Uint16, Uint64, Byte, Sbyte
DateTime Default: DateTime

DateTimeOffset
Float Default: Double

Single, Decimal
Binary Default: Byte[]
Variant Any of the above except Byte[]
VariantArray Array of Variant
Serializable Variant or types marked with Serializable or that implement ISerializable.

Understanding Data Types and Writing Expressions

It is important to understand data types when you write expressions to compare or combine values, for example, when you define group or filter expressions, or calculate aggregates. Comparisons and calculations are valid only between items of the same data type. If the data types do not match, you must explicitly convert the data type in the report item by using an expression.

The following list describes cases when you may need to convert data to a different data type:

Comparing the value of a report parameter of one data type to a dataset field of a different data type.

Writing filter expressions that compare values of different data types.

Writing sort expressions that combine fields of different data types.

Writing group expressions that combine fields of different data types.

Converting a value retrieved from the data source from one data type to a different data type.

Determining the Data Type of Report Data

To determine the data type of a report item, you can write an expression that returns its data type. For example, to show the data type for the field MyField , add the following expression to a table cell: =Fields!MyField.Value.GetType().ToString() . The result displays the CLR data type used to represent MyField , for example, System.String or System.DateTime .

Converting Dataset Fields to a Different Data Type

You can also convert dataset fields before you use them in a report. The following list describes ways that you can convert an existing dataset field:

Modify the dataset query to add a new query field with the converted data. For relational or multidimensional data sources, this uses data source resources to perform the conversion.

Create a calculated field based on an existing report dataset field by writing an expression that converts all the data in one result set column to a new column with a different data type. For example, the following expression converts the field Year from an integer value to a string value: =CStr(Fields!Year.Value) . For more information, see Add, Edit, Refresh Fields in the Report Data Pane (Report Builder and SSRS) .

Check whether the data processing extension you are using includes metadata for retrieving preformatted data. For example, a SQL Server Analysis Services MDX query includes a FORMATTED_VALUE extended property for cube values that have already been formatted when processing the cube. For more information, see Extended Field Properties for an Analysis Services Database (SSRS) .

Understanding Parameter Data Types

Report parameters must be one of five data types: Boolean, DateTime, Integer, Float, or Text (also known as String). When a dataset query includes query parameters, report parameters are automatically created and linked to the query parameters. The default data type for a report parameter is String. To change the default data type of a report parameter, select the correct value from the Data type drop-down list on the General page of the Report Parameter Properties dialog box.

Report parameters that are DateTime data types do not support milliseconds. Although you can create a parameter based on values that include milliseconds, you cannot select a value from an available values drop-down list that includes Date or Time values that include milliseconds.

Writing Expressions that Convert Data Types or Extract Parts of Data

When you combine text and dataset fields using the concatenation operator (&), the common language runtime (CLR) generally provides default formats. When you need to explicitly convert a dataset field or parameter to a specific data type, you must use a CLR method or a Visual Basic runtime library function to convert the data.

The following table shows examples of converting data types.

Type of conversion Example
DateTime to String
String to DateTime
String to DateTimeOffset
Extracting the Year



Boolean to Integer

-1 is True and 0 is False.
Boolean to Integer

1 is True and 0 is False.
Just the DateTime part of a DateTimeOffset value
Just the Offset part of a DateTimeOffset value

You can also use the Format function to control the display format for value. For more information, see Functions (Visual Basic) .

Advanced Examples

When you connect to a data source with a data provider that does not provide conversion support for all the data types on the data source, the default data type for unsupported data source types is String. The following examples provide solutions to specific data types that are returned as a string.

Concatenating a String and a CLR DateTimeOffset Data Type

For most data types, the CLR provides default conversions so that you can concatenate values that are different data types into one string by using the & operator. For example, the following expression concatenates the text "The date and time are: " with a dataset field StartDate, which is a DateTime value: ="The date and time are: " & Fields!StartDate.Value .

For some data types, you may need to include the ToString function. For example, the following expression shows the same example using the CLR data type DateTimeOffset , which include the date, the time, and a time-zone offset relative to the UTC time zone: ="The time is: " & Fields!StartDate.Value.ToString() .

Converting a String Data Type to a CLR DateTime Data Type

If a data processing extension does not support all data types defined on a data source, the data may be retrieved as text. For example, a datetimeoffset(7) data type value may be retrieved as a String data type. In Perth, Australia, the string value for July 1, 2008, at 6:05:07.9999999 A.M. would resemble:

2008-07-01 06:05:07.9999999 +08:00

This example shows the date (July 1, 2008), followed by the time to a 7-digit precision (6:05:07.9999999 A.M.), followed by a UTC time zone offset in hours and minutes (plus 8 hours, 0 minutes). For the following examples, this value has been placed in a String field called MyDateTime.Value .

You can use one of the following strategies to convert this data to one or more CLR values:

In a text box, use an expression to extract parts of the string. For example:

The following expression extracts just the hour part of the UTC time zone offset and converts it to minutes: =CInt(Fields!MyDateTime.Value.Substring(Fields!MyDateTime.Value.Length-5,2)) * 60

The result is 480 .

The following expression converts the string to a date and time value: =DateTime.Parse(Fields!MyDateTime.Value)

If the MyDateTime.Value string has a UTC offset, the DateTime.Parse function first adjusts for the UTC offset (7 A.M. - [ +08:00 ] to the UTC time of 11 P.M. the night before). The DateTime.Parse function then applies the local report server UTC offset and, if necessary, adjusts the time again for Daylight Saving Time. For example, in Redmond, Washington, the local time offset adjusted for Daylight Saving Time is [-07:00] , or 7 hours earlier than 11 PM. The result is the following DateTime value: 2007-07-06 04:07:07 PM (July 6, 2007 at 4:07 P.M).

For more information about converting strings to DateTime data types, see Parsing Date and Time Strings , Formatting Date and Time for a Specific Culture , and Choosing Between DateTime, DateTimeOffset, and TimeZoneInfo .

Add a new calculated field to the report dataset that uses an expression to extract parts of the string. For more information, see Add, Edit, Refresh Fields in the Report Data Pane (Report Builder and SSRS) .

Change the report dataset query to use Transact-SQL functions to extract the date and time values independently to create separate columns. The following example shows how to use the function DatePart to add a column for the year and a column for the UTC time zone converted to minutes:

MyDateTime,

DATEPART(year, MyDateTime) AS Year,

DATEPART(tz, MyDateTime) AS OffsetinMinutes

FROM MyDates

The result set has three columns. The first column is the date and time, the second column is the year, and the third column is the UTC offset in minutes. The following row shows example data:

2008-07-01 06:05:07 2008 480

For more information about SQL Server database data types, see Data Types (Transact-SQL) , and Date and Time Data Types and Functions (Transact-SQL) .

For more information about SQL Server Analysis Services data types, see Data Types in Analysis Services .

Formatting Report Items (Report Builder and SSRS)

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Additional resources

A Guide to Data Types in Statistics

What types of data are used in statistics? Here's a comprehensive guide.

Niklas Donges

Data types are an important concept in  statistics , which needs to be understood, to correctly apply statistical measurements to your data and therefore to correctly conclude certain assumptions about it. This blog post will introduce you to the different data types you need to know in order to do proper exploratory data analysis (EDA) , which is one of the most underestimated parts of a machine learning project.

What Are the Main Types of Data in Statistics?

  • Nominal data 
  • Ordinal data
  • Discrete data
  • Continuous data

Introduction to Data Types

Having a good understanding of the different data types, also called measurement scales, is a crucial prerequisite for doing exploratory data analysis, since you can use certain statistical measurements only for specific data types.

You also need to know which data type you are dealing with to choose the right visualization method . Think of data types as a way to categorize different types of variables. We will discuss the main types of variables and look at an example for each. We will sometimes refer to them as measurement scales.

Categorical or Qualitative Data Types

Categorical data represents characteristics. Therefore it can represent things like a person’s gender, language, etc. Categorical data can also take on numerical values (Example: 1 for female and 0 for male). Note that those numbers don’t have mathematical meaning.

Nominal Data

Nominal values represent discrete units and are used to label variables that have no quantitative value. Just think of them as “labels.” Note that nominal data that has no order. Therefore, if you would change the order of its values, the meaning would not change. You can see two examples of nominal features below:

The left feature that describes a person’s gender would be called “dichotomous,” which is a type of nominal scales that contains only two categories.

Ordinal Data

Ordinal values represent discrete and ordered units. It is therefore nearly the same as nominal data, except that its ordering matters. You can see an example below:

Note that the difference between Elementary and High School is different from the difference between High School and College. This is the main limitation of ordinal data, the differences between the values is not really known. Because of that, ordinal scales are usually used to measure non-numeric features like happiness, customer satisfaction and so on.

Numerical or Quantitative Data Types

Discrete data.

We speak of discrete data if its values are distinct and separate. In other words: We speak of discrete data if the data can only take on certain values. This type of data can’t be measured but it can be counted. It basically represents information that can be categorized into a classification . An example is the number of heads in 100 coin flips.

You can check by asking the following two questions whether you are dealing with discrete data or not: Can you count it and can it be divided up into smaller and smaller parts?

Continuous Data

Continuous data represents measurements and therefore their values can’t be counted but they can be measured. An example would be the height of a person, which you can describe by using intervals on the real number line.

Interval Data

Interval values represent ordered units that have the same difference. Therefore we speak of interval data when we have a variable that contains numeric values that are ordered and where we know the exact differences between the values. An example would be a feature that contains temperature of a given place like you can see below:

The problem with interval values data is that they don’t have a “true zero.” That means in regards to our example, that there is no such thing as no temperature. With interval data, we can add and subtract, but we cannot multiply, divide or calculate ratios. Because there is no true zero, a lot of descriptive and inferential statistics can’t be applied.

Ratio values are also ordered units that have the same difference. Ratio values are the same as interval values, with the difference that they do have an absolute zero. Good examples are height, weight, length, etc.

Why Are Data Types Important in Statistics?

Data types are an important concept because statistical methods can only be used with certain data types. You have to analyze continuous data differently than categorical data otherwise it would result in a wrong analysis. Therefore knowing the types of data you are dealing with, enables you to choose the correct method of analysis.

We will now go over every data type again but this time in regards to what statistical methods can be applied. To understand properly what we will now discuss, you have to understand the basics of descriptive statistics . If you don’t know them, you can read my blog post (9min read) about it:  https://towardsdatascience.com/intro-to-descriptive-statistics-252e9c464ac9 .

Statistical Methods for Nominal, Ordinal and Continuous Data Types

Summarizing nominal data.

When you are dealing with nominal data, you collect information through:

Frequencies: The frequency is the rate at which something occurs over a period of time or within a data set.

Proportion: You can easily calculate the proportion by dividing the frequency by the total number of events. (e.g how often something happened divided by how often it could happen)

Visualization Methods: To visualize nominal data you can use a pie chart or a bar chart.

In data science , you can use one hot encoding, to transform nominal data into a numeric feature.

Summarizing Ordinal Data

When you are dealing with ordinal data, you can use the same methods as with nominal data, but you also have access to some additional tools. Therefore you can summarize your ordinal data with frequencies, proportions, percentages. And you can visualize it with pie and bar charts. Additionally, you can use percentiles, median, mode and the interquartile range to summarize your data.

In data science, you can use one label encoding, to transform ordinal data into a numeric feature.

Summarizing Continuous Data

When you are dealing with continuous data, you can use the most methods to describe your data. You can summarize your data using percentiles, median, interquartile range, mean, mode, standard deviation, and range.

Visualization Methods:

To visualize continuous data, you can use a histogram or a boxplot . With a histogram, you can check the central tendency, variability, modality, and kurtosis of a distribution .

In this post, you discovered the different data types that are used throughout statistics. You learned the difference between discrete & continuous data and learned what nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio measurement scales are. Furthermore, you now know what statistical measurements you can use at which data Etype and which are the right visualization methods. You also learned, with which methods categorical variables can be transformed into numeric variables. This enables you to create a big part of an exploratory analysis on a given data set.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_data_type
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZxnzfnt5v8
  • http://www.dummies.com/education/math/statistics/types-of-statistical-data-numerical-categorical-and-ordinal/
  • https://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/discrete-data/
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHcQPKP6NpM&t=247s
  • http://www.mymarketresearchmethods.com/types-of-data-nominal-ordinal-interval-ratio/
  • https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-discrete-data-in-math-definition-examples.html

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Writing a Good Data Analysis Report: 7 Steps

As a data analyst, you feel most comfortable when you’re alone with all the numbers and data. You’re able to analyze them with confidence and reach the results you were asked to find. But, this is not the end of the road for you. You still need to write a data analysis report explaining your findings to the laymen - your clients or coworkers.

That means you need to think about your target audience, that is the people who’ll be reading your report.

They don’t have nearly as much knowledge about data analysis as you do. So, your report needs to be straightforward and informative. The article below will help you learn how to do it. Let’s take a look at some practical tips you can apply to your data analysis report writing and the benefits of doing so.

Writing a Good Data Analysis Report: 7 Steps

source: Pexels  

Data Analysis Report Writing: 7 Steps

The process of writing a data analysis report is far from simple, but you can master it quickly, with the right guidance and examples of similar reports .

This is why we've prepared a step-by-step guide that will cover everything you need to know about this process, as simply as possible. Let’s get to it.

Consider Your Audience

You are writing your report for a certain target audience, and you need to keep them in mind while writing. Depending on their level of expertise, you’ll need to adjust your report and ensure it speaks to them. So, before you go any further, ask yourself:

Who will be reading this report? How well do they understand the subject?

Let’s say you’re explaining the methodology you used to reach your conclusions and find the data in question. If the reader isn’t familiar with these tools and software, you’ll have to simplify it for them and provide additional explanations.

So, you won't be writing the same type of report for a coworker who's been on your team for years or a client who's seeing data analysis for the first time. Based on this determining factor, you'll think about:

the language and vocabulary you’re using

abbreviations and level of technicality

the depth you’ll go into to explain something

the type of visuals you’ll add

Your readers’ expertise dictates the tone of your report and you need to consider it before writing even a single word.

Draft Out the Sections

The next thing you need to do is create a draft of your data analysis report. This is just a skeleton of what your report will be once you finish. But, you need a starting point.

So, think about the sections you'll include and what each section is going to cover. Typically, your report should be divided into the following sections:

Introduction

Body (Data, Methods, Analysis, Results)

For each section, write down several short bullet points regarding the content to cover. Below, we'll discuss each section more elaborately.

Develop The Body

The body of your report is the most important section. You need to organize it into subsections and present all the information your readers will be interested in.

We suggest the following subsections.

Explain what data you used to conduct your analysis. Be specific and explain how you gathered the data, what your sample was, what tools and resources you’ve used, and how you’ve organized your data. This will give the reader a deeper understanding of your data sample and make your report more solid.

Also, explain why you choose the specific data for your sample. For instance, you may say “ The sample only includes data of the customers acquired during 2021, in the peak of the pandemic.”

Next, you need to explain what methods you’ve used to analyze the data. This simply means you need to explain why and how you choose specific methods. You also need to explain why these methods are the best fit for the goals you’ve set and the results you’re trying to reach.

Back up your methodology section with background information on each method or tool used. Explain how these resources are typically used in data analysis.

After you've explained the data and methods you've used, this next section brings those two together. The analysis section shows how you've analyzed the specific data using the specific methods. 

This means you’ll show your calculations, charts, and analyses, step by step. Add descriptions and explain each of the steps. Try making it as simple as possible so that even the most inexperienced of your readers understand every word.

This final section of the body can be considered the most important section of your report. Most of your clients will skim the rest of the report to reach this section. 

Because it’ll answer the questions you’ve all raised. It shares the results that were reached and gives the reader new findings, facts, and evidence. 

So, explain and describe the results using numbers. Then, add a written description of what each of the numbers stands for and what it means for the entire analysis. Summarize your results and finalize the report on a strong note. 

Write the Introduction

Yes, it may seem strange to write the introduction section at the end, but it’s the smartest way to do it. This section briefly explains what the report will cover. That’s why you should write it after you’ve finished writing the Body.

In your introduction, explain:

the question you’ve raised and answered with the analysis

context of the analysis and background information

short outline of the report

Simply put, you’re telling your audience what to expect.

Add a Short Conclusion

Finally, the last section of your paper is a brief conclusion. It only repeats what you described in the Body, but only points out the most important details.

It should be less than a page long and use straightforward language to deliver the most important findings. It should also include a paragraph about the implications and importance of those findings for the client, customer, business, or company that hired you.

Include Data Visualization Elements

You have all the data and numbers in your mind and find it easy to understand what the data is saying. But, to a layman or someone less experienced than yourself, it can be quite a puzzle. All the information that your data analysis has found can create a mess in the head of your reader.

So, you should simplify it by using data visualization elements.

Firstly, let’s define what are the most common and useful data visualization elements you can use in your report:

There are subcategories to each of the elements and you should explore them all to decide what will do the best job for your specific case. For instance, you'll find different types of charts including, pie charts, bar charts, area charts, or spider charts.

For each data visualization element, add a brief description to tell the readers what information it contains. You can also add a title to each element and create a table of contents for visual elements only.

Proofread & Edit Before Submission

All the hard work you’ve invested in writing a good data analysis report might go to waste if you don’t edit and proofread. Proofreading and editing will help you eliminate potential mistakes, but also take another objective look at your report.

First, do the editing part. It includes:

reading the whole report objectively, like you’re seeing it for the first time

leaving an open mind for changes

adding or removing information

rearranging sections

finding better words to say something

You should repeat the editing phase a couple of times until you're completely happy with the result. Once you're certain the content is all tidied up, you can move on to the proofreading stage. It includes:

finding and removing grammar and spelling mistakes

rethinking vocabulary choices

improving clarity 

improving readability

You can use an online proofreading tool to make things faster. If you really want professional help, Grab My Essay is a great choice. Their professional writers can edit and rewrite your entire report, to make sure it’s impeccable before submission.

Whatever you choose to do, proofread yourself or get some help with it, make sure your report is well-organized and completely error-free.

Benefits of Writing Well-Structured Data Analysis Reports

Yes, writing a good data analysis report is a lot of hard work. But, if you understand the benefits of writing it, you’ll be more motivated and willing to invest the time and effort. After knowing how it can help you in different segments of your professional journey, you’ll be more willing to learn how to do it.

Below are the main benefits a data analysis report brings to the table.

Improved Collaboration

When you’re writing a data analysis report, you need to be aware more than one end user is going to use it. Whether it’s your employer, customer, or coworker - you need to make sure they’re all on the same page. And when you write a data analysis report that is easy to understand and learn from, you’re creating a bridge between all these people.

Simply, all of them are given accurate data they can rely on and you’re thus removing the potential misunderstandings that can happen in communication. This improves the overall collaboration level and makes everyone more open and helpful.

Increased Efficiency

People who are reading your data analysis report need the information it contains for some reason. They might use it to do their part of the job, to make decisions, or report further to someone else. Either way, the better your report, the more efficient it'll be. And, if you rely on those people as well, you'll benefit from this increased productivity as well.

Data tells a story about a business, project, or venture. It's able to show how well you've performed, what turned out to be a great move, and what needs to be reimagined. This means that a data analysis report provides valuable insight and measurable KPIs (key performance indicators) that you’re able to use to grow and develop. 

Clear Communication

Information is key regardless of the industry you're in or the type of business you're doing. Data analysis finds that information and proves its accuracy and importance. But, if those findings and the information itself aren't communicated clearly, it's like you haven't even found them.

This is why a data analysis report is crucial. It will present the information less technically and bring it closer to the readers.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, it takes some skill and a bit more practice to write a good data analysis report. But, all the effort you invest in writing it will be worth it once the results kick in. You’ll improve the communication between you and your clients, employers, or coworkers. People will be able to understand, rely on, and use the analysis you’ve conducted.

So, don’t be afraid and start writing your first data analysis report. Just follow the 7 steps we’ve listed and use a tool such as ProWebScraper to help you with website data analysis. You’ll be surprised when you see the result of your hard work.

Jessica Fender

Jessica Fender is a business analyst and a blogger. She writes about business and data analysis, networking in this sector, and acquiring new skills. Her goal is to provide fresh and accurate information that readers can apply instantly.

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What Is Data Reporting and How to Create Data Reports for Your Business

Author's avatar

Table of contents

Peter Caputa

To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .

According to Gartner’s prediction , 90% of organizations will consider information the most valuable asset a business may have.

And where does this information come from?

Here’s a magic word – data.

Even though many companies report making important decisions based on their gut feeling, 85% of them would like to improve the ways they use data insights to make business decisions.

It’s because they know data is critical for growth, especially when modern software allows you to monitor data in real-time and create effective reports for better and faster decision-making. To support this, over half of the companies surveyed for recent Databox’s state of business reporting study confirmed that regular monitoring and reporting brought them significant and tangible benefits.

Want to learn more about data reporting? This article will walk you through what data reports are, how they can benefit your company, and show you how to use the right tools to create effective, well-organized, and actionable reports.

Let’s dive right in.

What is Data Reporting?

Why is data reporting important for any business, what is the difference between data reporting and data analysis, how to write a data report, data report examples and templates.

  • How to Improve Your Data Reporting: 12 Best Practices

marketing_overview_hubspot_ga_dashboard_databox

If you’re looking for an exact data reporting definition, it comes down to the following:

Data reporting refers to the process of collecting unprocessed data from different sources that you later organize into meaningful and digestible pieces of information to gain valuable insights into your business performance.

After the collected data has been pulled from several sources or tools, organized, and visualized in an easy-to-follow manner, you can perform data analysis to assess the current state in your organization and create an actionable plan or give recommendations about future activities based on this data. That said, reporting on data is practically the step that leads to data analysis.

You can create a data report in different formats, but nowadays, reports created via data visualization tools are the most common ones. You will often find all kinds of illustrations in such reports: tables, pie charts, graphs, timelines, and more. Data reports can vary in nature, ranging from static to interactive dashboards , and they may possess varying levels of detail. Additionally, data can be categorized and organized in various ways, including by category, significance, objectives, or department.

Financial data reports are one of the most common types, but, in reality, every department within a company can benefit from reporting software : marketing, sales, HR, and others.

The eternal question for any business is this: which strategies are profitable and which ones need adjusting?

Having a consistent data reporting process in place helps you answer this question accurately and quickly. Without data reports, data analysis can’t happen, and without data analysis, you can’t plan your further steps towards your business objectives.

Based on the data you collect over a specific period of time, you can draw conclusions about your business performance and make future decisions about allocating time and money into activities that bring you revenue or help you reach other business goals. Data also helps you identify any problematic areas of your business that need your attention or strategies that need improvement because they’re not generating satisfactory results.

Having accurate data at your disposal in real-time helps you discover patterns and notice red flags so you can prevent potential problems before they occur. It also enables you to identify correlations between two or more trends and find their causes, so you can replicate your most successful tactics any time.

Without frequent reporting on data, you may end up with one of two scenarios:

  • You make wrong business decisions because you don’t have accurate data to rely and act on.
  • You believe your figures are better than they really are because some of the data hasn’t been reported – this is called underreporting and can give you a wrong overall picture of your business.

By understanding the importance of data reporting and analysis, you can easily avoid these situations.

Now that we’ve mentioned data analysis, the next logical step after you’ve crafted a data report, it’s worth mentioning that some people use these terms interchangeably.

However, they are not the same. Here are the main differences between data reporting and data analysis :

Data Reporting

  • This process comes first as a preparation for analysis
  • It’s used to track performance
  • Data needs to be pulled from multiple sources and it’s unprocessed
  • Enables you to ask the right questions about your business
  • Use of the “push approach” – the data is pushed to you so you can analyze it

Data Analysis

  • This process relies on data reporting and comes after it
  • It’s used to create actionable plans based on the conclusions
  • Data is organized and available to you in dashboards, reports, etc.
  • Enables you to answer the questions asked while reporting
  • Use of the “pull approach” where a person pulls out specific data to explore it

If you’re getting ready to write a data report, you may be looking for the best practices and writing tips to explore before you get started. Here’s what you need to do to write a great data report.

Step 1: Define what type of data report you need to write. There are several types of data reports, such as informational, analytical, investigative, recommendation, KPI, and more. All these data reports focus on providing facts or analysis, help to identify risks, come up with recommendations for further steps, monitor business KPIs, etc. Determine your report goal first, and then you’ll know exactly what sections you need to include.

PRO TIP: How Well Are Your Marketing KPIs Performing?

Like most marketers and marketing managers, you want to know how well your efforts are translating into results each month. How much traffic and new contact conversions do you get? How many new contacts do you get from organic sessions? How are your email campaigns performing? How well are your landing pages converting? You might have to scramble to put all of this together in a single report, but now you can have it all at your fingertips in a single Databox dashboard.

Our Marketing Overview Dashboard includes data from Google Analytics 4 and HubSpot Marketing with key performance metrics like:

  • Sessions . The number of sessions can tell you how many times people are returning to your website. Obviously, the higher the better.
  • New Contacts from Sessions . How well is your campaign driving new contacts and customers?
  • Marketing Performance KPIs . Tracking the number of MQLs, SQLs, New Contacts and similar will help you identify how your marketing efforts contribute to sales.
  • Email Performance . Measure the success of your email campaigns from HubSpot. Keep an eye on your most important email marketing metrics such as number of sent emails, number of opened emails, open rate, email click-through rate, and more.
  • Blog Posts and Landing Pages . How many people have viewed your blog recently? How well are your landing pages performing?

Now you can benefit from the experience of our Google Analytics and HubSpot Marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template that contains all the essential metrics for monitoring your leads. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!

marketing_overview_hubspot_ga_dashboard_preview

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your HubSpot and Google Analytics 4 accounts with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

Step 2: Determine who you’re writing the report for. Is it upper or middle management, or potential clients or investors ? Different audiences may require using a different tone, terminology, and can affect the choice of data you’re going to include.

Step 3: Create an outline. Before you start compiling the report, plan its structure. It’ll be easier to stay on track, choose the right KPIs, and ensure you’ve presented everything relevant while excluding the information that doesn’t contribute to the report.

Step 4: Include data visualizations. To make your data report more readable and beautiful, make sure you use data charts, tables, graphs, and other data visualization tools to make the data easy to interpret for the reader.

Step 5: Write a summary. Every great report has a summary that briefly explains the purpose of the document and its key findings. Sometimes, depending on the report type, you may even include a few action steps in this section.

Good teachers teach by showing rather than telling, right? Well, that’s why we also wanted to share a few great examples of data reports and templates you can use for building your own data report.

Marketing Data Report Example

Seo data report example, sales data report example, customer support data report example, ecommerce data report example, project management data report example, financial kpi data report example.

One of the best things about this marketing dashboard is that it’s intuitive and easy to follow. It allows you to track your website traffic, engagement, and conversions, and monitor user activity on your website. If metrics like page CTA clicks, bounce rate, pageviews per session matter to you, you will love this HubSpot Marketing Website Overview dashboard template .

HubSpot Marketing Website Overview dashboard template

To track your SEO efforts and report on them, you can use this streamlined Google Analytics 4 and GSC Organic SEO Dashboard Template . It gives you insight into the performance of your SEO strategy by integrating Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console and allowing you to monitor metrics such as sessions by channel, goal completions, clicks by devices, position by pages, and more.

Google Analytics 4 and GSC Organic SEO Dashboard Template

Is your current sales pipeline successful? A sales team can easily find the answer to this question by using this Sales Overview dashboard template . It provides valuable insight into monthly performance and allows you to track all the relevant metrics, such as new contacts, new deals, average time to close, closed-won amount, and more.

Sales Overview dashboard template

Customer support is an incredibly important part of any business. To track their metrics and collect the necessary data, you can use this Customer Success dashboard template . It’s accessible and allows you to track your churn rate and other relevant metrics to find out if it correlates with the performance of your customer support agents.

Customer Success dashboard template

This Google Analytics 4 E-commerce Overview Dashboard Template helps you collect important data so you can discover what works in your funnel and what could use improvement. If there’s a stage of the conversion funnel that needs optimization, you’ll be able to identify it. Thanks to multiple integrations, you can track metrics like CPC, ROAS, open rates, audience growth, average order value, and more.

Google Analytics 4 E-commerce Overview Dashboard Template

Do you need a great dashboard for your IT department projects? This Jira dashboard template allows your IT specialists and developers to track important metrics at a glance. They can monitor completed tasks and who completed them, as well as numerous other Jira metrics that are already built in the dashboard: story points by project, value points by project, issues resolved, issues created, etc.

data type report assignment expert

Finances are one of the most relevant KPIs of your company’s health. This QuickBooks + HubSpot CRM dashboard template helps you get a streamlined overview of your financial performance. You can track your expenses and goals, and numerous metrics, such as closed-won and lost deals, sales activity by sales rep, cash flow forecast, purchases by vendors, customer balance, inventory valuation, etc.

Jira dashboard

How to Improve Your Data Reporting: 15 Best Practices

Does your data reporting process need improving? The good news is, it’s possible to do it by implementing these 15 best practices we’ve selected for you.

Understand Your Audience

  • Ensure Accuracy and Consistency of the Data

Create an Appealing Presentation

Choose the right format, keep the report concise, use data storytelling, focus on relevant metrics, align the kpis with priorities, track progress towards goals.

  • Make Your Report Actionable

Keep Records

Customize your reports, find optimal reporting frequency, use automation tools, update your reporting process.

What do your readers actually want to know? What do they think? Are they too busy to read your data reports? By understanding what your audience wants and needs, you will be able to craft attention-grabbing data reports and at the same time show your reader that you can put yourself in their shoes.

Ensure Data Accuracy and Data Consistency

Using accurate data is one of the fundamental conditions that need to be fulfilled for successful data reporting and analysis. Evaluate your data sources and only use them if you consider them high-quality. Reducing manual data entry in your data reporting process can eliminate errors almost completely, and this is where automation tools help a lot.

Who says data can’t look beautiful? Visuals such as graphs and charts are much more digestible than mere text, so don’t forget to include data visualizations in your report. Other than looking well-organized, charts and tables will facilitate the process of data analysis. It’s much easier to draw conclusions about data when you can actually see a timeline and how it changed over a specific period.

It all depends on your audience, but some people will want to be included in the whole process, while others prefer more traditional formats. Consult the client or the manager on how they’d like to access the report, and then decide if you’re going to use a PDF, a presentation, or give them access to an interactive dashboard where they can see data in real-time.

Whether you’re writing for your team manager or a client, your data report should be to the point because its purpose is to enable successful data analysis. Going too much into detail or straying away from the main topic will make the data difficult to analyze and understand. Ensure you use a professional tone and stay objective throughout the whole report, no matter how little text there is to accompany the visuals.

Use unprocessed data to organize it into a story. A list that contains a bunch of numbers won’t tell as much as a well-put-together narrative that the reader can easily follow and gain insights from. When you combine the story the data tells you with nicely-looking graphics, you get a quality report that you can later effortlessly analyze.

You may feel compelled to include data that showcase significant progress, but if these metrics have nothing to do with the goal of your report, you should avoid doing it. Data reports should be as objective as possible so proper action can be taken after the analysis. That’s why you should stay true to your objectives and report the correct data in a straightforward way even if it’s unpleasant.

Whether they’re low-level or high-level KPIs, they should be aligned with your company’s priorities . Including everything that can be measured in your report can be overwhelming for the reader and they may miss the essential information due to too many numbers and charts. Focus on the KPIs that matter the most for your business at the moment.

It’s important to be better than your competitors, but it’s also vital to be progressing towards your goals . Comparing your data to the industry benchmarks is okay, but don’t forget to check where you stand compared to where you want to be. Include the data that shows whether or not you’re on the right track to achieve your objectives.

Make the Report Actionable

Reports aren’t made just so we can KNOW specific data – they’re made so we can do something about it. Depending on the data report type, you may need to include suggestions – what you believe would be appropriate further steps. These suggestions make your report actionable – people who read it will have a better understanding of what is going on in the company or a specific department, and get an idea of what they need to do next. 

Sometimes, you’ll want to pull your old data reports to compare the data you can no longer pull with the tools you’re using. You might want to see how much progress you’ve made compared to a few years back or identify trends that may have appeared in the past. At the same time, you may want to track how your data reporting processes changed over time so you can improve it in the future or present best practices to your trainees.

Sometimes you’ll prepare data reports for senior management, investors, or partners. Sometimes, your prospective clients will want insight into your business health. Don’t use the same report format and the same KPIs because these people will want to know different information about your company. Also, some will ask for quarterly data reporting, while others will want to see the reports on an annual basis. Customize your data reports to fit the reader’s needs by including and excluding different sections when necessary.

Reporting typically occurs on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. More frequent data reporting enables better communication and faster reactions when there’s a trend to take advantage of or an issue to fix. However, it doesn’t mean each client or manager will want daily reports. Find the best reporting frequency based on the purpose of the report and the person who will be reading it.

Data reporting can truly be daunting if you always do it from scratch. Luckily, with automation tools like Databox, you can create visually attractive dashboards with all the important metrics and simply customize them whenever you need to create a new report. Data reporting tools like Databox can also automatically pull all your data from different sources so you don’t need to enter anything manually.

Just like your business objectives and KPIs need revisions from time to time, your data reporting process may need to be updated. New information, best practices, and effective strategies become available every day, so if you learn something that could optimize this process and make it even more efficient, don’t hesitate to update it.

Automate Data Reporting with Databox

You already know data is essential for efficient decision making. But collecting, processing, organizing, presenting, and analyzing data can be so challenging! Seeing all those numbers gives you an instant headache and you feel like you spend ages compiling the report that your clients or managers end up only skimming over and asking you a million questions – your effort was for nothing.

The whole point of writing a data report is to lay the groundwork for effective data analysis and drawing the right conclusions so you can make further decisions for your business. And can it be less painful?

Yes, it can!

We created Databox with the goal of making data reporting less time-consuming, tedious, and demanding. Instead of wasting your time on manual activities, you can pull all your data in one place in seconds, create custom metrics with ease and adjust reporting dashboards to your needs.

What’s more, you can automate custom calculations , which makes calculating metrics from several sources or tools 10x easier than before, without any coding or spreadsheets. Now you won’t need to spend hours calculating ROI, conversion rates, and other relevant financial metrics stakeholders typically want to know about.

If you think we stopped there, think again. Databox also enables you to build custom metrics with Query Builder’s dimensions and filters so you can have a more detailed insight into your performance. You can also connect your account with any of the 100+ integrations we offer: Google Sheets, Google Ads, Google Analytics, HubSpot, Zapier, Stripe, and pull data from anywhere – even a SQL database or custom API, in a safe, fast, and simple way.

Can you believe it’s all found in one place, a single dashboard? Actually, you don’t need to believe a word we say – test your own dashboard and see for yourself: sign up for a free trial today .

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Stefana Zarić is a freelance writer & content marketer. Other than writing for SaaS and fintech clients, she educates future writers who want to build a career in marketing. When not working, Stefana loves to read books, play with her kid, travel, and dance.

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The Ultimate Guide To Writing a Data-Based Report

Data exploration and analytics are only the beginning— the real business impact comes from the ability to communicate your results..

Kyle

Towards Data Science

Introduction

At Kyso we’re building a central knowledge hub where data scientists can post reports so everyone — and we mean absolutely everyone — can learn from them and apply these insights to their respective roles across the entire organisation. We render tools used by the data team in a way that is understandable to all, thus bridging the gap between the technical stakeholders and the rest of the company.

But while we provide a space for data engineers, scientists and analysts to post their reports and circulate internally, whether these reports will be turned into business actions depends on the how the generated insights are presented and communicated to readers. Any data team can create an analytics report, but not all are creating actionable reports.

This article will discuss the most important objectives of any data analytics report and take you through some of our most vital tips to remember when writing up each report.

Reporting Objectives

The final goal of any data exploration & analysis is not to generate interesting but arbitrary information from the company’s data — it is to uncover actionable insights, communicated effectively in reports that are ready to be used around the business to take more data-informed decisions.

To achieve this, there are three underlying guidelines to follow and to continuously refer back to when writing up data-based reports:

  • Intent: This is your overall goal for the project, the reason you are doing the analysis and should signal how you expect the analysis to contribute to decision-making.
  • Objectives: The objectives are the specific steps you are taking or have taken to achieve your above goal. These should likely form the report’s table of contents.
  • Impact: The result of your analysis has to be usable — it must offer solutions to the problems that led to the analysis, to impact business actions. Any information which won’t trigger action, no matter how small, is useless.

Now let’s dive into the details — how to actually structure & write the final report that will be shared across the business, to be consumed by both technical and non-technical audiences alike.

Structuring the Report

As with any other type of content, your reports should follow a specific structure, which will help the reader frame the report’s contents & thus facilitate an easier read. The structure should look something like:

  • Introduction: Every report needs a strong introduction. This is where you intro the reader to the project, the reasons for carrying out the analysis & what you expect to achieve by doing so. This should also be where you lay out the table of contents.
  • Methodology: This does not need to be technical. Simply describe the data you are using and the types of analyses you have conducted & why.
  • Results: This is the main body of the report, and likely split into sections according to the various business questions the report attempts to answer & the results generated for each question.
  • Decision Recommendations : Ok, so you have completed the project, run the analyses & generated your results. What are the recommended business actions based on these insights? Be objective.
  • Conclusion: Tie the entire report up (in a single paragraph if possible), from the starting objective of the project to the recommended decision outcomes. In this final section you can add your own personal touch — what the results mean from your perspective & perhaps your recommendations for future analyses on the subject.

Writing the Report

1. consider your target audience.

Who is your report intended for? If it’s for a sales lead, emphasise the core metrics by which their department evaluates performance. If it is for a C-level executive, it’s generally best to present the business highlights rather than pages of tables and figures.

Keep in mind the reason they have requested the report & try not to stray from that reason.

2. Have a clear objective

As mentioned already, explain clearly at the beginning what you’re article is going to be about and the data you are using. Provide some background to the topic in question if necessary & explain why you are writing the post.

3. Structure your writing

Determine the logical structure of your argument. Have a beginning, middle, and end. Provide a table of contents, use headings and subheadings accordingly, which gives readers an overview and will help orientate them as they read through the post — this is particularly important if your content is complex.

Aim for a logical flow throughout, with appropriate sections, paragraphs, and sentences. Keep sentences short and straight-forward. It’s best to address only one concept in each paragraph, which can involve the main insight with supporting information, such that the reader’s attention is immediately focused on what is most important.

Never introduce something into the conclusion that was not analysed or discussed earlier in the report.

4. Start strong

Writing a strong introduction makes it is easier to keep the report well structured. Your introduction should lay out the objective, problem definition and the methods employed.

A strong introduction will also captivate the reader’s attention and entice them to read further.

5. Be objective

The facts and figures in your report should speak for themselves without the need for any exaggeration. Keep the language as clear and concise as possible.

An objective style helps you keep the insights you’ve uncovered at the centre of the argument.

6. Don’t overdo it

It is always best to keep your report as clear and concise as possible. By including more information that, while useful, is unnecessary to the core objectives of the report, your most central arguments will be lost.

If absolutely necessary, attach a supporting appendix, or you can even publish a series, with each report having its own core objective.

7. Plotting libraries

There are many visualisation tools available to you. For static plotting or for very unique or customised plots, where you may need to build your own solution, matplotlib and seaborn are your answers.

However, if you really want to tell a story and allow the reader to immerse themselves in your analysis, interactivity is the way to go. Your two main options are Bokeh and plotly . Both are really powerful declarative libraries and worth considering.

Regardless of the one you choose, we recommend picking the one library and sticking with it until there’s a compelling reason to switch.

Altair is another (newer) declarative, lightweight, plotting library, and merits consideration. Check out its gallery here .

While Plotly has become the leader for interactive visualizations, because it stores the data for each plot generated in the user’s browser session and renders every interactive data point, it can really slow down the load time of your report if you are working with multiple plots or with a very large dataset, which negatively impacts the reader’s experience.

If you are generating a lot of graphs or are working with very large datasets but wish to retain the interactivity, use Bokeh or Altair instead.

8. Avoid overuse of graphics

Charts, graphs and tables are a great way of summarising data into easy-to-remember visuals. Try not to break-up the flow of the report with too many graphics that essentially show the same thing. Pick the chart, graph or table that best fits with the paragraph and move on to the next point.

9. Document your charts!!!

When plotting make sure to have explanatory text above or below the chart — explain to the reader what they are looking at, and walk them through the insights and conclusions drawn from each visualisation.

Label everything in your graphs, including axes and colorscales. Create a legend if necessary.

10. Hide your code

When writing a report that is intended to be consumed by non-technical business agents throughout the organisation, hide your code. How you generated your graphs is not important for these users, only the visuals and the insights they display are.

Naturally, if you are writing a guide or a particularly technical post for your fellow data scientists and analysts, in which you are constantly referring to the code, you should show it by default.

Final Thoughts

And there we have it! 10 tips to follow every time you are writing up a data-based report. A note on the conclusion — don’t just taper off at the end of the article or finish with the final point in the main body. Give the reader a quick summary of what they have learned, explain how the insights gained impact for the business and how they can apply this knowledge in their work.

Be sure to also make your analysis reproducible for your fellow creators throughout the company — it’s always a good idea to follow coding best practices when developing a data science project or publishing research, including using the correct directory structure, syntax, explanatory text (or comments in the code cells), versioning, and, most importantly, making sure all relevant files and datasets are attached to the post. Have a call to action — perhaps a recommendation for extending the analysis.

And finally, last but certainly not least, add an appropriate title, description, tags, and preview image. This is important for organising the team’s work on whichever curation system you are using — presentation is key.

Title Photo by Dustin Lee on Unsplash

Kyle

Written by Kyle

CMO & Data Science at Kyso. Feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] with any issues and/or feedback!

Text to speech

8.5 Writing Process: Creating an Analytical Report

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Identify the elements of the rhetorical situation for your report.
  • Find and focus a topic to write about.
  • Gather and analyze information from appropriate sources.
  • Distinguish among different kinds of evidence.
  • Draft a thesis and create an organizational plan.
  • Compose a report that develops ideas and integrates evidence from sources.
  • Give and act on productive feedback to works in progress.

You might think that writing comes easily to experienced writers—that they draft stories and college papers all at once, sitting down at the computer and having sentences flow from their fingers like water from a faucet. In reality, most writers engage in a recursive process, pushing forward, stepping back, and repeating steps multiple times as their ideas develop and change. In broad strokes, the steps most writers go through are these:

  • Planning and Organization . You will have an easier time drafting if you devote time at the beginning to consider the rhetorical situation for your report, understand your assignment, gather ideas and information, draft a thesis statement, and create an organizational plan.
  • Drafting . When you have an idea of what you want to say and the order in which you want to say it, you’re ready to draft. As much as possible, keep going until you have a complete first draft of your report, resisting the urge to go back and rewrite. Save that for after you have completed a first draft.
  • Review . Now is the time to get feedback from others, whether from your instructor, your classmates, a tutor in the writing center, your roommate, someone in your family, or someone else you trust to read your writing critically and give you honest feedback.
  • Revising . With feedback on your draft, you are ready to revise. You may need to return to an earlier step and make large-scale revisions that involve planning, organizing, and rewriting, or you may need to work mostly on ensuring that your sentences are clear and correct.

Considering the Rhetorical Situation

Like other kinds of writing projects, a report starts with assessing the rhetorical situation —the circumstance in which a writer communicates with an audience of readers about a subject. As the writer of a report, you make choices based on the purpose of your writing, the audience who will read it, the genre of the report, and the expectations of the community and culture in which you are working. A graphic organizer like Table 8.1 can help you begin.

Rhetorical Situation Element Brainstorming Questions Your Responses

Is the topic of your report specified, or are you free to choose?

What topic or topics do you want to know more about?

How can you find out more about this topic or topics?

What constraints do you have?

What is the purpose of your report?

To analyze a subject or issue from more than one perspective?

To analyze a cause or an effect?

To examine a problem and recommend a solution?

To compare or contrast?

To conduct research and report results?

Who will read your report?

Who is your primary audience—your instructor? Your classmates?

What can you assume your audience already knows about your topic?

What background information does your audience need to know?

How will you shape your report to connect most effectively with this audience?

Do you need to consider any secondary audiences, such as people outside of class?

If so, who are those readers?

What format should your report take?

Should you prepare a traditional written document or use another medium, such as a slide deck or video presentation?

Should you include visuals and other media along with text, such as figures, charts, graphs, photographs, audio, or video?

What other presentation requirements do you need to consider?

How do the time period and location affect decisions you make about your report?

What is happening in your city, county, state, area, or nation or the world that needs reporting on?

What current events or new information might relate to your topic?

Is your college or university relevant to your topic?

What social or cultural assumptions do you or your audience have?

How will you show awareness of your community’s social and cultural expectations in your report?

Summary of Assignment

Write an analytical report on a topic that interests you and that you want to know more about. The topic can be contemporary or historical, but it must be one that you can analyze and support with evidence from sources.

The following questions can help you think about a topic suitable for analysis:

  • Why or how did ________ happen?
  • What are the results or effects of ________?
  • Is ________ a problem? If so, why?
  • What are examples of ________ or reasons for ________?
  • How does ________ compare to or contrast with other issues, concerns, or things?

Consult and cite three to five reliable sources. The sources do not have to be scholarly for this assignment, but they must be credible, trustworthy, and unbiased. Possible sources include academic journals, newspapers, magazines, reputable websites, government publications or agency websites, and visual sources such as TED Talks. You may also use the results of an experiment or survey, and you may want to conduct interviews.

Consider whether visuals and media will enhance your report. Can you present data you collect visually? Would a map, photograph, chart, or other graphic provide interesting and relevant support? Would video or audio allow you to present evidence that you would otherwise need to describe in words?

Another Lens. To gain another analytic view on the topic of your report, consider different people affected by it. Say, for example, that you have decided to report on recent high school graduates and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the final months of their senior year. If you are a recent high school graduate, you might naturally gravitate toward writing about yourself and your peers. But you might also consider the adults in the lives of recent high school graduates—for example, teachers, parents, or grandparents—and how they view the same period. Or you might consider the same topic from the perspective of a college admissions department looking at their incoming freshman class.

Quick Launch: Finding and Focusing a Topic

Coming up with a topic for a report can be daunting because you can report on nearly anything. The topic can easily get too broad, trapping you in the realm of generalizations. The trick is to find a topic that interests you and focus on an angle you can analyze in order to say something significant about it. You can use a graphic organizer to generate ideas, or you can use a concept map similar to the one featured in Writing Process: Thinking Critically About a “Text.”

Asking the Journalist’s Questions

One way to generate ideas about a topic is to ask the five W (and one H) questions, also called the journalist’s questions : Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Try answering the following questions to explore a topic:

Who was or is involved in ________?

What happened/is happening with ________? What were/are the results of ________?

When did ________ happen? Is ________ happening now?

Where did ________ happen, or where is ________ happening?

Why did ________ happen, or why is ________ happening now?

How did ________ happen?

For example, imagine that you have decided to write your analytical report on the effect of the COVID-19 shutdown on high-school students by interviewing students on your college campus. Your questions and answers might look something like those in Table 8.2 :

was involved in the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown? Nearly every student of my generation was sent home to learn in 2020. My school was one of the first in the United States to close. We were in school one day, and then we were all sent home, wondering when we would go back.

happened during the shutdown?

were/are the results of the shutdown?

Schools closed in March 2020. Students started online learning. Not all of them had computers. Teachers had to figure out how to teach online. All activities were canceled—sports, music, theater, prom, graduation celebrations—pretty much everything. Social life went online. Life as we knew it changed and still hasn’t returned to normal.

did the shutdown happen? Is it happening now? Everything was canceled from March through the end of the school year. Although many colleges have in-person classes, many of us are doing most of our classes online, even if we are living on campus. This learning situation hasn’t been easy. I need to decide whether I want to focus on then or now.
did the shutdown happen, or is it still happening? Schools were closed all over the United States and all over the world. Some schools are still closed.
did the shutdown happen, or is it happening now? Schools closed because the virus was highly contagious, and no one knew much about how many people would get sick from it or how sick they would get. Many schools were still closed for much of the 2020–21 school year.
was the shutdown implemented? is it still in effect? Governors of many states, including mine, issued orders for schools to close. Now colleges are making their own plans.

Asking Focused Questions

Another way to find a topic is to ask focused questions about it. For example, you might ask the following questions about the effect of the 2020 pandemic shutdown on recent high school graduates:

  • How did the shutdown change students’ feelings about their senior year?
  • How did the shutdown affect their decisions about post-graduation plans, such as work or going to college?
  • How did the shutdown affect their academic performance in high school or in college?
  • How did/do they feel about continuing their education?
  • How did the shutdown affect their social relationships?

Any of these questions might be developed into a thesis for an analytical report. Table 8.3 shows more examples of broad topics and focusing questions.

Sports, such as college athletes and academic performance

How does participating in a sport affect the academic performance of college athletes?

Does participation help or hurt students’ grades?

Does participation improve athletes’ study habits?

Culture and society, such as cancel culture

Who is affected by cancel culture? Who is canceled, and who is empowered?

How do the lives of people who are canceled change? How do the lives of people who are canceling others change?

How does cancel culture affect community attitudes and actions?

History and historical events, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965

How did voting patterns change after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

How has the law been challenged?

How have voting patterns changed in the years since the law was challenged?

Health and the environment, such as a plant-based diet

What are the known health benefits of a plant-based diet?

What are the effects of a plant-based diet on the environment?

How much money can a person save (or not save) by adopting a plant-based diet, such as vegetarianism or veganism?

Entertainment and the arts, such as TV talent shows

How do TV talent shows affect the careers of their contestants?

How many of the contestants continue to develop their talent?

How many continue to perform several years after their appearance on a show?

Technologies and objects, such as smartphones

Do people depend on smartphones more than they did a year ago? Five years ago?

What has changed about people’s relationships with their phones?

Gathering Information

Because they are based on information and evidence, most analytical reports require you to do at least some research. Depending on your assignment, you may be able to find reliable information online, or you may need to do primary research by conducting an experiment, a survey, or interviews. For example, if you live among students in their late teens and early twenties, consider what they can tell you about their lives that you might be able to analyze. Returning to or graduating from high school, starting college, or returning to college in the midst of a global pandemic has provided them, for better or worse, with educational and social experiences that are shared widely by people their age and very different from the experiences older adults had at the same age.

Some report assignments will require you to do formal research, an activity that involves finding sources and evaluating them for reliability, reading them carefully, taking notes, and citing all words you quote and ideas you borrow. See Research Process: Accessing and Recording Information and Annotated Bibliography: Gathering, Evaluating, and Documenting Sources for detailed instruction on conducting research.

Whether you conduct in-depth research or not, keep track of the ideas that come to you and the information you learn. You can write or dictate notes using an app on your phone or computer, or you can jot notes in a journal if you prefer pen and paper. Then, when you are ready to begin organizing your report, you will have a record of your thoughts and information. Always track the sources of information you gather, whether from printed or digital material or from a person you interviewed, so that you can return to the sources if you need more information. And always credit the sources in your report.

Kinds of Evidence

Depending on your assignment and the topic of your report, certain kinds of evidence may be more effective than others. Other kinds of evidence may even be required. As a general rule, choose evidence that is rooted in verifiable facts and experience. In addition, select the evidence that best supports the topic and your approach to the topic, be sure the evidence meets your instructor’s requirements, and cite any evidence you use that comes from a source. The following list contains different kinds of frequently used evidence and an example of each.

Definition : An explanation of a key word, idea, or concept.

The U.S. Census Bureau refers to a “young adult” as a person between 18 and 34 years old.

Example : An illustration of an idea or concept.

The college experience in the fall of 2020 was starkly different from that of previous years. Students who lived in residence halls were assigned to small pods. On-campus dining services were limited. Classes were small and physically distanced or conducted online. Parties were banned.

Expert opinion : A statement by a professional in the field whose opinion is respected.

According to Louise Aronson, MD, geriatrician and author of Elderhood , people over the age of 65 are the happiest of any age group, reporting “less stress, depression, worry, and anger, and more enjoyment, happiness, and satisfaction” (255).

Fact : Information that can be proven correct or accurate.

According to data collected by the NCAA, the academic success of Division I college athletes between 2015 and 2019 was consistently high (Hosick).

Interview : An in-person, phone, or remote conversation that involves an interviewer posing questions to another person or people.

During our interview, I asked Betty about living without a cell phone during the pandemic. She said that before the pandemic, she hadn’t needed a cell phone in her daily activities, but she soon realized that she, and people like her, were increasingly at a disadvantage.

Quotation : The exact words of an author or a speaker.

In response to whether she thought she needed a cell phone, Betty said, “I got along just fine without a cell phone when I could go everywhere in person. The shift to needing a phone came suddenly, and I don’t have extra money in my budget to get one.”

Statistics : A numerical fact or item of data.

The Pew Research Center reported that approximately 25 percent of Hispanic Americans and 17 percent of Black Americans relied on smartphones for online access, compared with 12 percent of White people.

Survey : A structured interview in which respondents (the people who answer the survey questions) are all asked the same questions, either in person or through print or electronic means, and their answers tabulated and interpreted. Surveys discover attitudes, beliefs, or habits of the general public or segments of the population.

A survey of 3,000 mobile phone users in October 2020 showed that 54 percent of respondents used their phones for messaging, while 40 percent used their phones for calls (Steele).

  • Visuals : Graphs, figures, tables, photographs and other images, diagrams, charts, maps, videos, and audio recordings, among others.

Thesis and Organization

Drafting a thesis.

When you have a grasp of your topic, move on to the next phase: drafting a thesis. The thesis is the central idea that you will explore and support in your report; all paragraphs in your report should relate to it. In an essay-style analytical report, you will likely express this main idea in a thesis statement of one or two sentences toward the end of the introduction.

For example, if you found that the academic performance of student athletes was higher than that of non-athletes, you might write the following thesis statement:

student sample text Although a common stereotype is that college athletes barely pass their classes, an analysis of athletes’ academic performance indicates that athletes drop fewer classes, earn higher grades, and are more likely to be on track to graduate in four years when compared with their non-athlete peers. end student sample text

The thesis statement often previews the organization of your writing. For example, in his report on the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trevor Garcia wrote the following thesis statement, which detailed the central idea of his report:

student sample text An examination of the U.S. response shows that a reduction of experts in key positions and programs, inaction that led to equipment shortages, and inconsistent policies were three major causes of the spread of the virus and the resulting deaths. end student sample text

After you draft a thesis statement, ask these questions, and examine your thesis as you answer them. Revise your draft as needed.

  • Is it interesting? A thesis for a report should answer a question that is worth asking and piques curiosity.
  • Is it precise and specific? If you are interested in reducing pollution in a nearby lake, explain how to stop the zebra mussel infestation or reduce the frequent algae blooms.
  • Is it manageable? Try to split the difference between having too much information and not having enough.

Organizing Your Ideas

As a next step, organize the points you want to make in your report and the evidence to support them. Use an outline, a diagram, or another organizational tool, such as Table 8.4 .

Introduction (usually one paragraph, but can be two)

Draw readers in with an overview; an anecdote; a question (open-ended, not yes-or-no); a description of an event, scene, or situation; or a quotation.

Provide necessary background here or in the first paragraph of the body, defining terms as needed.

State the tentative thesis.

First Main Point

Give the first main point related to the thesis.

Develop the point in paragraphs supported by evidence.

Second Main Point

Give the second main point related to the thesis.

Develop the point in paragraphs supported by evidence.

Additional Main Points

Give the third and additional main point(s) related to the thesis.

Develop the points in paragraphs supported by evidence.

Conclusion Conclude with a summary of the main points, a recommended course of action, and/or a review of the introduction and restatement of the thesis.

Drafting an Analytical Report

With a tentative thesis, an organization plan, and evidence, you are ready to begin drafting. For this assignment, you will report information, analyze it, and draw conclusions about the cause of something, the effect of something, or the similarities and differences between two different things.

Introduction

Some students write the introduction first; others save it for last. Whenever you choose to write the introduction, use it to draw readers into your report. Make the topic of your report clear, and be concise and sincere. End the introduction with your thesis statement. Depending on your topic and the type of report, you can write an effective introduction in several ways. Opening a report with an overview is a tried-and-true strategy, as shown in the following example on the U.S. response to COVID-19 by Trevor Garcia. Notice how he opens the introduction with statistics and a comparison and follows it with a question that leads to the thesis statement (underlined).

student sample text With more than 83 million cases and 1.8 million deaths at the end of 2020, COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. By the end of 2020, the United States led the world in the number of cases, at more than 20 million infections and nearly 350,000 deaths. In comparison, the second-highest number of cases was in India, which at the end of 2020 had less than half the number of COVID-19 cases despite having a population four times greater than the U.S. (“COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic,” 2021). How did the United States come to have the world’s worst record in this pandemic? underline An examination of the U.S. response shows that a reduction of experts in key positions and programs, inaction that led to equipment shortages, and inconsistent policies were three major causes of the spread of the virus and the resulting deaths end underline . end student sample text

For a less formal report, you might want to open with a question, quotation, or brief story. The following example opens with an anecdote that leads to the thesis statement (underlined).

student sample text Betty stood outside the salon, wondering how to get in. It was June of 2020, and the door was locked. A sign posted on the door provided a phone number for her to call to be let in, but at 81, Betty had lived her life without a cell phone. Betty’s day-to-day life had been hard during the pandemic, but she had planned for this haircut and was looking forward to it; she had a mask on and hand sanitizer in her car. Now she couldn’t get in the door, and she was discouraged. In that moment, Betty realized how much Americans’ dependence on cell phones had grown in the months since the pandemic began. underline Betty and thousands of other senior citizens who could not afford cell phones or did not have the technological skills and support they needed were being left behind in a society that was increasingly reliant on technology end underline . end student sample text

Body Paragraphs: Point, Evidence, Analysis

Use the body paragraphs of your report to present evidence that supports your thesis. A reliable pattern to keep in mind for developing the body paragraphs of a report is point , evidence , and analysis :

  • The point is the central idea of the paragraph, usually given in a topic sentence stated in your own words at or toward the beginning of the paragraph. Each topic sentence should relate to the thesis.
  • The evidence you provide develops the paragraph and supports the point made in the topic sentence. Include details, examples, quotations, paraphrases, and summaries from sources if you conducted formal research. Synthesize the evidence you include by showing in your sentences the connections between sources.
  • The analysis comes at the end of the paragraph. In your own words, draw a conclusion about the evidence you have provided and how it relates to the topic sentence.

The paragraph below illustrates the point, evidence, and analysis pattern. Drawn from a report about concussions among football players, the paragraph opens with a topic sentence about the NCAA and NFL and their responses to studies about concussions. The paragraph is developed with evidence from three sources. It concludes with a statement about helmets and players’ safety.

student sample text The NCAA and NFL have taken steps forward and backward to respond to studies about the danger of concussions among players. Responding to the deaths of athletes, documented brain damage, lawsuits, and public outcry (Buckley et al., 2017), the NCAA instituted protocols to reduce potentially dangerous hits during football games and to diagnose traumatic head injuries more quickly and effectively. Still, it has allowed players to wear more than one style of helmet during a season, raising the risk of injury because of imperfect fit. At the professional level, the NFL developed a helmet-rating system in 2011 in an effort to reduce concussions, but it continued to allow players to wear helmets with a wide range of safety ratings. The NFL’s decision created an opportunity for researchers to look at the relationship between helmet safety ratings and concussions. Cocello et al. (2016) reported that players who wore helmets with a lower safety rating had more concussions than players who wore helmets with a higher safety rating, and they concluded that safer helmets are a key factor in reducing concussions. end student sample text

Developing Paragraph Content

In the body paragraphs of your report, you will likely use examples, draw comparisons, show contrasts, or analyze causes and effects to develop your topic.

Paragraphs developed with Example are common in reports. The paragraph below, adapted from a report by student John Zwick on the mental health of soldiers deployed during wartime, draws examples from three sources.

student sample text Throughout the Vietnam War, military leaders claimed that the mental health of soldiers was stable and that men who suffered from combat fatigue, now known as PTSD, were getting the help they needed. For example, the New York Times (1966) quoted military leaders who claimed that mental fatigue among enlisted men had “virtually ceased to be a problem,” occurring at a rate far below that of World War II. Ayres (1969) reported that Brigadier General Spurgeon Neel, chief American medical officer in Vietnam, explained that soldiers experiencing combat fatigue were admitted to the psychiatric ward, sedated for up to 36 hours, and given a counseling session with a doctor who reassured them that the rest was well deserved and that they were ready to return to their units. Although experts outside the military saw profound damage to soldiers’ psyches when they returned home (Halloran, 1970), the military stayed the course, treating acute cases expediently and showing little concern for the cumulative effect of combat stress on individual soldiers. end student sample text

When you analyze causes and effects , you explain the reasons that certain things happened and/or their results. The report by Trevor Garcia on the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is an example: his report examines the reasons the United States failed to control the coronavirus. The paragraph below, adapted from another student’s report written for an environmental policy course, explains the effect of white settlers’ views of forest management on New England.

student sample text The early colonists’ European ideas about forest management dramatically changed the New England landscape. White settlers saw the New World as virgin, unused land, even though indigenous people had been drawing on its resources for generations by using fire subtly to improve hunting, employing construction techniques that left ancient trees intact, and farming small, efficient fields that left the surrounding landscape largely unaltered. White settlers’ desire to develop wood-built and wood-burning homesteads surrounded by large farm fields led to forestry practices and techniques that resulted in the removal of old-growth trees. These practices defined the way the forests look today. end student sample text

Compare and contrast paragraphs are useful when you wish to examine similarities and differences. You can use both comparison and contrast in a single paragraph, or you can use one or the other. The paragraph below, adapted from a student report on the rise of populist politicians, compares the rhetorical styles of populist politicians Huey Long and Donald Trump.

student sample text A key similarity among populist politicians is their rejection of carefully crafted sound bites and erudite vocabulary typically associated with candidates for high office. Huey Long and Donald Trump are two examples. When he ran for president, Long captured attention through his wild gesticulations on almost every word, dramatically varying volume, and heavily accented, folksy expressions, such as “The only way to be able to feed the balance of the people is to make that man come back and bring back some of that grub that he ain’t got no business with!” In addition, Long’s down-home persona made him a credible voice to represent the common people against the country’s rich, and his buffoonish style allowed him to express his radical ideas without sounding anti-communist alarm bells. Similarly, Donald Trump chose to speak informally in his campaign appearances, but the persona he projected was that of a fast-talking, domineering salesman. His frequent use of personal anecdotes, rhetorical questions, brief asides, jokes, personal attacks, and false claims made his speeches disjointed, but they gave the feeling of a running conversation between him and his audience. For example, in a 2015 speech, Trump said, “They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don’t have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should’ve taken” (“Our Country Needs” 2020). While very different in substance, Long and Trump adopted similar styles that positioned them as the antithesis of typical politicians and their worldviews. end student sample text

The conclusion should draw the threads of your report together and make its significance clear to readers. You may wish to review the introduction, restate the thesis, recommend a course of action, point to the future, or use some combination of these. Whichever way you approach it, the conclusion should not head in a new direction. The following example is the conclusion from a student’s report on the effect of a book about environmental movements in the United States.

student sample text Since its publication in 1949, environmental activists of various movements have found wisdom and inspiration in Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac . These audiences included Leopold’s conservationist contemporaries, environmentalists of the 1960s and 1970s, and the environmental justice activists who rose in the 1980s and continue to make their voices heard today. These audiences have read the work differently: conservationists looked to the author as a leader, environmentalists applied his wisdom to their movement, and environmental justice advocates have pointed out the flaws in Leopold’s thinking. Even so, like those before them, environmental justice activists recognize the book’s value as a testament to taking the long view and eliminating biases that may cloud an objective assessment of humanity’s interdependent relationship with the environment. end student sample text

Citing Sources

You must cite the sources of information and data included in your report. Citations must appear in both the text and a bibliography at the end of the report.

The sample paragraphs in the previous section include examples of in-text citation using APA documentation style. Trevor Garcia’s report on the U.S. response to COVID-19 in 2020 also uses APA documentation style for citations in the text of the report and the list of references at the end. Your instructor may require another documentation style, such as MLA or Chicago.

Peer Review: Getting Feedback from Readers

You will likely engage in peer review with other students in your class by sharing drafts and providing feedback to help spot strengths and weaknesses in your reports. For peer review within a class, your instructor may provide assignment-specific questions or a form for you to complete as you work together.

If you have a writing center on your campus, it is well worth your time to make an online or in-person appointment with a tutor. You’ll receive valuable feedback and improve your ability to review not only your report but your overall writing.

Another way to receive feedback on your report is to ask a friend or family member to read your draft. Provide a list of questions or a form such as the one in Table 8.5 for them to complete as they read.

Questions for Reviewer Comment or Suggestion
Does the introduction interest you in the topic of the report?
Can you find the thesis statement? Underline it for the writer.
Does the thesis indicate the purpose of the report?

Does each body paragraph start with a point stated in the writer’s own words? Does that point relate to the thesis?

Mark paragraphs that don’t have a clear point.

Does each body paragraph support the main point of the paragraph with details and evidence, such as facts, statistics, or examples?

Mark paragraphs that need more support and/or explanation.

Does each body paragraph end with an analysis in the writer’s own words that draws a conclusion?

Mark paragraphs that need analysis.

Where do you get lost or confused?

Mark anything that is unclear.

Does the report flow from one point to the next?
Does the organization make sense to you?

Does the conclusion wrap up the main points of the report and connect to the thesis?

Mark anything in the conclusion that seems irrelevant.

Does the report have an engaging title?

Revising: Using Reviewers’ Responses to Revise your Work

When you receive comments from readers, including your instructor, read each comment carefully to understand what is being asked. Try not to get defensive, even though this response is completely natural. Remember that readers are like coaches who want you to succeed. They are looking at your writing from outside your own head, and they can identify strengths and weaknesses that you may not have noticed. Keep track of the strengths and weaknesses your readers point out. Pay special attention to those that more than one reader identifies, and use this information to improve your report and later assignments.

As you analyze each response, be open to suggestions for improvement, and be willing to make significant revisions to improve your writing. Perhaps you need to revise your thesis statement to better reflect the content of your draft. Maybe you need to return to your sources to better understand a point you’re trying to make in order to develop a paragraph more fully. Perhaps you need to rethink the organization, move paragraphs around, and add transition sentences.

Below is an early draft of part of Trevor Garcia’s report with comments from a peer reviewer:

student sample text To truly understand what happened, it’s important first to look back to the years leading up to the pandemic. Epidemiologists and public health officials had long known that a global pandemic was possible. In 2016, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) published a 69-page document with the intimidating title Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents . The document’s two sections address responses to “emerging disease threats that start or are circulating in another country but not yet confirmed within U.S. territorial borders” and to “emerging disease threats within our nation’s borders.” On 13 January 2017, the joint Obama-Trump transition teams performed a pandemic preparedness exercise; however, the playbook was never adopted by the incoming administration. end student sample text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: Do the words in quotation marks need to be a direct quotation? It seems like a paraphrase would work here. end annotated text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: I’m getting lost in the details about the playbook. What’s the Obama-Trump transition team? end annotated text

student sample text In February 2018, the administration began to cut funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; cuts to other health agencies continued throughout 2018, with funds diverted to unrelated projects such as housing for detained immigrant children. end student sample text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: This paragraph has only one sentence, and it’s more like an example. It needs a topic sentence and more development. end annotated text

student sample text Three months later, Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the NSC, spoke at a symposium marking the centennial of the 1918 influenza pandemic. “The threat of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern,” she said. “Are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no.” end student sample text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: This paragraph is very short and a lot like the previous paragraph in that it’s a single example. It needs a topic sentence. Maybe you can combine them? end annotated text

annotated text Peer Review Comment: Be sure to cite the quotation. end annotated text

Reading these comments and those of others, Trevor decided to combine the three short paragraphs into one paragraph focusing on the fact that the United States knew a pandemic was possible but was unprepared for it. He developed the paragraph, using the short paragraphs as evidence and connecting the sentences and evidence with transitional words and phrases. Finally, he added in-text citations in APA documentation style to credit his sources. The revised paragraph is below:

student sample text Epidemiologists and public health officials in the United States had long known that a global pandemic was possible. In 2016, the National Security Council (NSC) published Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents , a 69-page document on responding to diseases spreading within and outside of the United States. On January 13, 2017, the joint transition teams of outgoing president Barack Obama and then president-elect Donald Trump performed a pandemic preparedness exercise based on the playbook; however, it was never adopted by the incoming administration (Goodman & Schulkin, 2020). A year later, in February 2018, the Trump administration began to cut funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving key positions unfilled. Other individuals who were fired or resigned in 2018 were the homeland security adviser, whose portfolio included global pandemics; the director for medical and biodefense preparedness; and the top official in charge of a pandemic response. None of them were replaced, leaving the White House with no senior person who had experience in public health (Goodman & Schulkin, 2020). Experts voiced concerns, among them Luciana Borio, director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the NSC, who spoke at a symposium marking the centennial of the 1918 influenza pandemic in May 2018: “The threat of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern,” she said. “Are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no” (Sun, 2018, final para.). end student sample text

A final word on working with reviewers’ comments: as you consider your readers’ suggestions, remember, too, that you remain the author. You are free to disregard suggestions that you think will not improve your writing. If you choose to disregard comments from your instructor, consider submitting a note explaining your reasons with the final draft of your report.

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  • Help Center

What are Data Reports? + 3 Keys to High-Quality Reports

Data reporting is the process of organizing and curating information into a format that makes it easier to digest than if you looked at the raw data.

Data doesn’t automatically translate to a “Eureka!” moment. The insights that give companies a competitive edge come from the ability to quickly synthesize and interpret complex data sets. So how does one get from point A (collecting data) to point B (organizing it into a comprehensive report)? We’ll show you how. 

What is a data report?

A data report takes an otherwise large or complex data set and is able to present this information in a way that’s succinct and broadly accessible. A data report distills key themes and trends that are represented in the data, and can take the form of a table, graph, or chart (certain business intelligence dashboards are able to update these graphs in real time).

Usually, a data report aims to answer a specific question(s). There can be quarterly data reports on key performance indicators for a business – like website traffic, closed-won deals, the conversion rate for ad campaigns – as just a few examples. 

What are the benefits of data reporting?

Data reporting, when done well, distills the essential information about a complicated situation or topic, making it easy for everyone to grasp. This characteristic makes data reports indispensable for modern organizations that often have to adapt with fast-changing macro- and micro-trends. Data-driven insights are the best way to “steer the ship,” helping businesses become more strategic, cost-effective, and innovative. 

However, data literacy can be difficult to attain across an organization, with data reports offering a great solution: simplifying the process of gleaning insight. Here are the top three benefits of data reports. 

1. Communicate complex information quickly

A good data report takes an otherwise intimidating data set and makes it simpler to understand. It helps different stakeholders cut through the noise and see the overarching points. (E.g., is performance better quarter to quarter? Are there any areas where spending has gotten egregious?). 

Data reports help simplify complex information in two important ways: 

Curation . They present relevant data to the reader that answers the specific question being asked. 

Visualization . They turn endless rows of numbers in a database into tables, charts, and graphs, making the information more accessible for the reader.

2. Monitor business performance at a glance

As we mentioned above, data reports are a quick way to get to the point, summarizing essential points and metrics. This mission-control-like overview allows managers to monitor business performance and even spot potential problems before they have a chance to unfold.  

Even better, with real-time business intelligence dashboards teams can apply specific filters to quickly spin up reports for different stakeholders. 

Periscope

3. Highlight patterns and relations to uncover insights

Data reports are also an effective way to illustrate patterns and trends – helping to drive deeper insight (e.g., attributing a dip or spike in web traffic to seasonality, which a business can then prepare for or anticipate moving forward). 

Data reports play a crucial role in getting to the heart of the matter (and cutting out all the white noise). But being able to discern these overarching trends and patterns comes from understanding which metrics matter to the business (here’s a hint: focus on rates , not just totals that offer little context on their own, and know which teams are responsible for driving each metric).  

What types of data reports are there for businesses?

Data reports can come in many different forms: real-time dashboards, shareholder reports, annual research studies. Here are some common types of data reports you may come across. 

Customer analytics

A customer analytics report helps companies understand—and, ideally, anticipate— a customer’s needs. These reports can show stats like product usage, the likelihood of churn, or purchase preferences (to give a few examples). They’re essential for product, marketing, and customer support teams to understand the ease of use of their product or interface, how well they’re retaining customers, opportunities for cross-sells or upsells , and so on. 

Qualtrics

Source: Qualtrics

Gaining a holistic view of your customers, and how they interact with your business, can become considerably more challenging for companies that support multiple business units or geographies. While a company would of course want an understanding of business health as a whole, they’ll also want to drill down to understand how each region is performing, respectively. Using Segment’s Multi-Instance Destinations , companies can send different data to different analytics destinations. In this step-by-step guide, we show how to build a customized customer engagement report with Google Analytics .

KPIs and OKRs

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) help teams set goals and measure their progress based on a set of predefined metrics. While both KPIs and OKRs are used to measure business performance and success, a key distinction between the two is that OKRs – as their name suggests – are tied to an objective. Here's an example of how one might write an OKR:

OKR-example

Here’s how you can build real-time, company-wide KPI dashboards using Segment. 

Financial reports

Financial reports provide an overview of the companies’ financial situation (e.g., revenue, profits, etc.). They can include historical data, like a quarterly breakdown of revenue and expenses or forecast ahead, like anticipated growth and earnings.

Most financial reports are critical for operating any business because they give you an understanding of how much money is coming in and where you’re spending it, allowing you to make corrections where necessary.

financial-institute

Source: Corporate Finance Institute

Research reports

Research reports often set out to find extensive answers to a predefined question, like “Is there a market for our product in this region?” or “How are consumer buying patterns changing year over year?” These reports can be more informal (e.g., user research conducted internally) or huge undertakings that involve external agencies and months of work.

At Segment, we have launched several annual research reports that look at everything from trends among fast-growing companies to patterns regarding consumer engagement – like our most recent Personalization Report .

Three keys to high-quality data reporting

There is a framework for creating high-quality data reports: having a clear goal or question in mind, understanding where the data is coming from (and how it was analyzed), and structuring the information in a clear, cohesive way. 

1. Know what you’re looking for and for whom

A data report sets out to answer a central question. Are we on track to hit our OKRs for the quarter? How does our earned revenue stack up against our forecasted revenue for the past year? There are countless questions that could be the driving force behind a data report, but the main point is: data reports aren’t aimless, random metrics pasted together. They’re an investigation into – and answer for – a larger question. 

When putting together a data report it’s important to also consider who the intended audience is. Let’s say a company wants to put out an annual report about consumer behavior. That’s a pretty broad topic on its own, and someone who works in SaaS would likely be interested in much different trends than someone who works in e-commerce. On top of that, people within the same organization may have very different ideas of what relevant data entails (e.g., someone in the C-suite may want more of a top-level summary, while a team lead would be trying to discern the impact of their specific campaigns or initiatives). 

2. Know where to get your information

Understanding where this data is coming from is also a crucial aspect of putting together an accurate report. As we say at Segment: what good is bad data? 

Knowing with certainty that the data is reliable is a must, and this comes down to how you’re collecting data, the infrastructure in place for consolidating, storing, and sharing said data, and how integrated your tech stack is (among other qualities). 

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) like Segment pays enormous dividends here. Segment Connections ensure your data is unified, centralized, and ready for company-wide use.

Segment-workspace

3. Know how to present and structure your information

Presenting and structuring your data reports involves picking the most relevant information and then visualizing that data in a way that makes it as easy as possible for the reader to grasp. Such visualization goes beyond creating a chart or graph (table stakes in modern data reporting). You’ll need to build virtual dashboards, use data visualization tools, and connect them to a centralized data platform like Segment.

Learn how to use Hex, Python, Segment, and AWS S3 for data visualization here. 

segment-aws-s3-chart

The foundation of successful data reporting: data accuracy

Throughout this report, we’ve referenced one of the most important attributes of data reporting: accuracy. If the data you collect and process is incomplete, inaccurate (e.g., duplicate entries, inconsistent), or outdated, you can bet that your data report will be too. 

This is where a customer data platform can be essential, helping businesses to ensure data collection, quality, and activation at scale. Here are a few ways a CDP accomplishes this. 

Align everyone around a single data dictionary

Internal alignment is the first step in ensuring data accuracy. When teams work in silos, data becomes divvied up between the different tools and systems owned by different departments. This results in blindspots (i.e., a lack of a complete customer view and incomplete data), and duplicates (e.g., the same event being counted twice, because it’s referred to by a different name between teams). 

Standardizing naming conventions is a fundamental step in implementing a shared data dictionary across the organization – which brings clarity and structure as to what data is being collected, how it’s being processed, and where it’s stored. 

With Segment, you can enforce this data dictionary at scale using Protocols.

Automate QA checks  

Along with helping businesses enforce a universal tracking plan , Protocols can also help automate data governance at scale. One way it’s able to do this is by automating QA checks, to proactively block bad data (that does not adhere to their predefined tracking plan) before it moves to a downstream destination. 

data-validation

Pre-built and custom integrations for a connected tech stack

A key component of data accuracy is whether or not your data is complete. With all the various channels and touchpoints companies have today, it’s easy for key data points to fall through the cracks. With Segment’s CDP, businesses are able to leverage hundreds of pre-built integrations to seamlessly connect every tool in their tech stack (along with building their own custom integrations, if needed). 

Take a look at our integration catalog here. 

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Frequently asked questions

What are data analysis reports.

A data analysis report is a summary of trends, outcomes, or patterns that came from analyzing a specific set of data.

Why do we need data reports?

Data reports are important because they help identify patterns and trends in otherwise large and complex data sets – helping to distill important information across an organization to improve decision making, hone strategies, and become more data-driven.

What are some best practices for writing a data report?

A few best practices to follow when putting together a data report is to: 1. Ensure the data being used is accurate, complete, and up to date. 2. Have a clear question and goal in mind for the data report (e.g., what are we trying to answer here?) 3. Understand your audience (e.g., what takeaways are most relevant to the people we’re delivering this report to). 4. Make sure information is displayed in a clear, visually compelling way for fast analysis.

What is the difference between a data report and data analysis?

Data analysis is the process of getting insights from a data set (e.g., being able to understand year-over-year business growth by analyzing metrics like revenue, churn rate, retention rate, etc.). A data report is when these insights are aggregated and displayed in an easy-to-understand way like charts, tables, etc.

What is often included in a data report?

What’s included in a data report will depend on the type of report being created. For example, a report focused on customer engagement may focus on metrics like website traffic (and its growth quarter over quarter), retention rates, etc. A financial report may look at revenue, profit, ROI and efficiency of new technologies, etc.

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Data types represent the different kinds of values we can use in JavaScript.

There are altogether 8 basic data types in JavaScript.

Data Type Description Example
Textual data. , , etc.
An integer or a floating-point number. , , , etc.
An integer with arbitrary precision. , , etc.
Any of two values: or . and
A data type whose variable is not initialized.
Denotes a value.
A data type whose instances are unique and immutable.
Key-value pairs of collection of data.

Note: JavaScript data types are divided into primitive and non-primitive types.

  • Primitive Data Types: They can hold a single simple value. String , Number , BigInt , Boolean , undefined , null , and Symbol are primitive data types.
  • Non-Primitive Data Types: They can hold multiple values. Objects are non-primitive data types.

A string represents textual data. It contains a sequence of characters. For example, "hello" , "JavaScript" , etc.

In JavaScript, strings are surrounded by quotes:

  • Single quotes: 'Hello'
  • Double quotes: "Hello"
  • Backticks: `Hello`

For example,

In a string, we can either use single quotes or double quotes. However, it is recommended to use double quotes.

Note: It is illegal to mismatch quotes in strings. For example, the strings 'hello" and "world' are enclosed inside one single quote and one double quote, which results in an error.

To learn more about strings, visit JavaScript String .

In JavaScript, the number type represents numeric values (both integers and floating-point numbers).

  • Integers - Numeric values without any decimal parts. Example: 3 , -74 , etc.
  • Floating-Point - Numeric values with decimal parts. Example: 3.15 , -1.3 , etc.

To learn more about numbers, visit JavaScript Number .

Special Numeric Values

JavaScript can also represent special numeric values such as Infinity , -Infinity , and NaN (Not-a-Number). For example,

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BigInt is a type of number that can represent very large or very small integers beyond the range of the regular number data type.

Note: The regular number data type can handle values less than (2^53 - 1) and greater than -(2^53 - 1) .

A BigInt number is created by appending n to the end of an integer. For example,

Note: BigInt was introduced in a newer version of JavaScript (ES11) and is not supported by many browsers, including Safari. To learn more, visit JavaScript BigInt support .

You can't mix BigInt and number

In JavaScript, you can't mix BigInt and number values (for instance, by performing arithmetic operations between them).

  • JavaScript Boolean

A Boolean data can only have one of two values: true or false . For example,

If you want to learn more about booleans, visit JavaScript Booleans .

  • JavaScript undefined

In JavaScript, undefined represents the absence of a value.

If a variable is declared but the value is not assigned, then the value of that variable will be undefined . For example,

It is also possible to explicitly assign undefined as a variable value. For example,

Note: You should avoid explicitly assigning undefined to a variable. Usually, we assign null to variables to indicate "unknown" or "empty" values.

  • JavaScript null

In JavaScript, null represents "no value" or "nothing." For example,

Here, let number = null; indicates that the number variable is set to have no value.

Visit JavaScript null and undefined to learn more.

A Symbol is a unique and primitive value. This data type was introduced in ES6 .

When you create a Symbol , JavaScript guarantees that it is distinct from all other symbols, even if they have the same descriptions. For example,

Here, we have used === to compare value1 and value2 . It returns true if the two values are exactly the same. Otherwise, it returns false .

Though both value1 and value2 contain "programiz" , JavaScript treats them as different since they are of the Symbol type. Hence, value1 === value2 returns false .

To learn more, visit JavaScript Symbol .

  • JavaScript Object

An Object holds data in the form of key-value pairs. For example,

Here, we have created an object named student that contains key-value pairs:

Key Value

To learn more, visit JavaScript Objects .

More on JavaScript Data Types

You can use the typeof operator to find the data type of a variable. For example,

Note: Notice that typeof returned object for the null type. This has been a known issue in JavaScript since its first release.

JavaScript determines the type of a variable based on the value assigned to it.

As a result, changing the value of a variable can also change its type, provided the new value is of a different type. For example,

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Before we wrap up, let’s put your knowledge of JavaScript Data Types to the test! Can you solve the following challenge?

Write a function to concatenate two strings.

  • Given two input strings ( str1 and str2 ), return the concatenated string.
  • For example, if str1 = "Hello, " and str2 = "World!" , the expected output is "Hello, World!" .

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A Guide To The Top 14 Types Of Reports With Examples Of When To Use Them

Types Of Reports Blog By RIB Software

What Is The Report Definition?

What are the different types of reports, what does a report look like, what you should look for in a reporting tool, types of reporting for every business & purpose.

Businesses have been producing reports forever. No matter what role or industry you work in, chances are that you have been faced with the task of generating a tedious report to show your progress or performance.

While reporting has been a common practice for many decades, the business world keeps evolving, and with more competitive industries, the need to generate fast and accurate reports becomes critical. This presents a problem for many modern organizations today, as building reports can take from hours to days. In fact, a survey about management reports performed by Deloitte says that 50% of managers are unsatisfied with the speed of delivery and the quality of the reports they receive.

With this issue in mind, several BI tools, such as RIB BI+ , have been developed to assist businesses in generating interactive reports with just a few clicks, enhancing the way companies make critical decisions and service insights from their most valuable data.

But, with so many types of reports used daily, how can you know when to use them effectively? How can you push yourself ahead of the pack with the power of information? Here, we will explore the 14 most common types of reports in business and provide some examples of when to use them to your brand-boosting advantage. In addition, we will see how online dashboards have overthrown the static nature of classic reports and given way to a much faster, more interactive way of working with data.

Let’s get started with a brief report definition.

Construction Dashboard For Project Controlling

A report is a document that presents relevant business information in an organized and understandable format. Each report is aimed at a specific audience and business purpose, and it summarizes the development of different activities based on goals and objectives.

That said, there are various types of reports that can be used for different purposes. Whether you want to track the progress of your strategies or stay compliant with financial laws, there is a different report for each task. To help you identify when to use them, we will cover the top 14 most common report formats used for businesses today.

Top 14 Types Of Reports

1. Informational Reports

The first in our list of reporting types is informational reports. As their name suggests, this report type aims to give factual insights about a specific topic. This can include performance reports, expense reports, and justification reports, among others. A differentiating characteristic of these reports is their objectivity; they are only meant to inform but not propose solutions or hypotheses. Common informational reports examples are for performance tracking, such as annual, monthly, or weekly reports.

2. Analytical Reports

This report type contains a mix of useful information to facilitate the decision-making process through a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights as well as real-time and historical insights. Unlike informational reports that purely inform users about a topic, this report type also aims to provide recommendations about the next steps and help with problem-solving. With this information in hand, businesses can build strategies based on analytical evidence and not simple intuition. With the use of the right BI reporting tool, businesses can generate various types of analytical reports that include accurate forecasts via predictive analytics technologies. Let’s look at it with an analytical report example.

Sales Analytical Report

The example above is the perfect representation of how analytical reports can boost a business’s performance. By getting detailed information such as sales opportunities, a probability rate, as well as an accurate pipeline value forecast based on historical data, sales teams can prepare their strategies in advance, tackle any inefficiencies, and make informed decisions for increased efficiency.

3. Operational Reports

These reports track every pertinent detail of the company’s operational tasks, such as its production processes. They are typically short-term reports as they aim to paint a picture of the present. Businesses use this type of report to spot any issues and define their solutions or to identify improvement opportunities to optimize their operational efficiency. Operational reports are commonly used in manufacturing, logistics, and retail as they help keep track of inventory, production, and costs, among others.

4. Industry Reports

Next in our list of the most common kinds of reports, we have industry-specific reports. As its name suggests, these types of reports are used in specific industries and provide valuable information about KPIs and goals that are unique to that industry. For instance, construction reports are invaluable tools to track project progress and extract valuable conclusions to optimize processes.

The example below is a report for a construction company that has multiple active projects. The template offers a complete overview of performance with KPIs related to contract value, budget, and profit margins, among other things. That said, the most valuable part of this report is the detailed overview of finishing projects and projects in execution, where we see that industry-specific KPIs like the SPI and CPI are tracked for each project with color to understand the status at a glance. Templates like this one play a fundamental role in efficient project management in construction as they offer the necessary overview to make smart decisions with fresh data. 

Construction Project Report

5. Product Reports

As its name suggests, this report type is used to monitor several aspects related to product development. Businesses often use them to track which of their products or subscriptions are selling the most within a given time period, calculate inventories, or see what kind of product the client values the most. Another common use case of these reports is to research the implementation of new products or develop existing ones. Let’s see it in more detail with a visual example.

Product Innovation Report

The image above is a product report that shows valuable insights regarding usage intention, purchase intention, willingness to pay, and more. In this case, the report is based on the answers from a survey that aimed to understand how the target customer would receive a new product. Getting this level of insight through this report type is very useful for businesses as it allows them to make smart investments in new products and set realistic pricing based on their clients’ willingness to pay.

6. Department Reports

These reports are specific to each department or business function. They serve as a communication tool between managers and team members who must stay connected and work together for common goals. Whether it is the sales department, customer service, logistics, or finances, this specific report type helps track and optimize strategies on a deeper level. Let’s look at it with an example of a team performance report.

Department Report Template For Customer Service

The image above is a department report created with an online data analysis tool, and it tracks the performance of a support team. This insightful report displays relevant metrics such as the top-performing agents, net promoter score, and first contact resolution rate, among others. Having this information in hand not only helps each team member to keep track of their individual progress but also allows managers to understand who needs more training and who is performing at their best.

7. Progress Reports

From the branch of informational reports, progress reports provide critical information about a project’s status. Employees or managers can produce these reports daily, weekly, or monthly to track performance and fine-tune tasks for the project’s better development. Progress reports are often used as visual materials to support meetings and discussions. A good example is a KPI scorecard.

8. Internal Reports

A type of report that encompasses many others on this list, internal reports refer to any type of report that is used internally in a business. They convey information between team members and departments to keep communication flowing regarding goals and business objectives.

Internal Report Example For Hospital Management

As mentioned above, internal reports are useful communication tools to keep every relevant person in the organization informed and engaged. This healthcare report aims to do just that. By providing insights into the performance of different departments and areas of a hospital, such as in and outpatients, average waiting times, treatment costs, and more, healthcare managers can allocate resources and plan the schedule accurately, as well as monitor any changes or issues in real-time.

9. External Reports

Although most of the report types listed here are used for internal purposes, not all reporting is meant to be used behind closed doors. External reports are created to share information with external stakeholders such as clients or investors for budget or progress accountability, as well as for governmental bodies to stay compliant with the law requirements.

External Report Template

The image above is the perfect example of an external client report from an IT project. This insightful report provides a visual overview of every relevant aspect of the project’s development. From deadlines, budget usage, completion stage, and task breakdown, clients can be fully informed and involved in the project.

10. Vertical & Lateral Reports

Next, in our rundown of types of reports, we have vertical and lateral reports. This reporting type refers to the direction in which a report travels. A vertical report is meant to go upward or downward the hierarchy, for example, a management report. A lateral report assists in organization and communication between groups that are at the same level of the hierarchy, such as the financial and marketing departments.

11. Research Reports

Without a doubt, one of the most vital reporting types for any modern business is centered on research. Being able to collect, collate, and drill down into insights based on key pockets of your customer base or industry will give you the tools to drive innovation while meeting your audience’s needs head-on.

Research Report For Customer Demographics

The image above is a market research analytics report example for customer demographics. It serves up a balanced blend of metrics that will empower you to boost engagement as well as retention rates. Here, you can drill down into your audience’s behaviors, interests, gender, educational levels, and tech adoption life cycles with a simple glance.

What’s particularly striking about this dashboard is the fact that you can explore key trends in brand innovation with ease, gaining a working insight into how your audience perceives your business. This invaluable type of report will help you get under the skin of your consumers, driving growth and loyalty in the process.

12. Strategic Reports

Strategy is a vital component of every business, big or small. Strategic analytics tools are perhaps the broadest and most universal of all the different types of business reports imaginable.

These particular tools exist to help you consistently understand, meet, and exceed your most pressing organizational goals by providing top-level metrics on various initiatives or functions.

By working with strategic-style tools, you will:

  • Improve internal motivation and engagement
  • Refine your plans and strategies for the best possible return on investment (ROI)
  • Enhance internal communication and optimize the way your various departments run
  • Create more room for innovation and creative thinking

13. Project Reports

Projects are key to keeping a business moving in the right direction while keeping innovation and evolution at the forefront of every plan, communication, or campaign. But without the right management tools, a potentially groundbreaking project can become a resource-sapping disaster.

A project management report serves as a summary of a particular project’s status and its various components. It’s a visual tool that you can share with partners, colleagues, clients, and stakeholders to showcase your project’s progress at multiple stages. Let’s look at our example and dig a little deeper.

Project Report Template

Our example above is a construction project management dashboard that offers a 360-degree view of a project’s development. This invaluable construction collaboration tool can help keep every relevant project stakeholder involved and informed about the latest developments to ensure maximum efficiency and transparency.

Work and budget development and cost breakdown charts can help develop efficient construction cost control strategies to ensure the project remains profitable and on schedule. On the other hand, progress metrics like the SPI and the CPI can help assess construction productivity issues that can lead to delays and costly overruns.

14. Statutory Reports

It may not seem exciting or glamorous, but keeping your business’s statutory affairs in order is vital to your ongoing commercial health and success.

When it comes to submitting vital financial and non-financial information to official bodies, one small error can result in serious repercussions. As such, working with statutory report formats is a watertight way of keeping track of your affairs and records while significantly reducing the risk of human error.

Armed with interactive insights and dynamic visuals, you will keep your records clean and compliant while gaining the ability to nip any potential errors or issues in the bud.

Now that we’ve covered the most relevant types of reports, we will answer the question: what does a report look like?

As mentioned at the beginning of this insightful guide, static reporting is a thing of the past. With the rise of modern technologies like self-service BI tools, the use of interactive reports in the shape of business dashboards has become more and more popular among companies.

Unlike static reports that take time to be generated and are difficult to understand, modern reporting tools are intuitive. Their visual nature makes them easy to understand for any type of user, and they provide businesses with a central view of their most important performance indicators for an improved decision-making process. Here, we will cover 20 useful dashboard examples from different industries, functions, and platforms to put the value of dashboard reporting into perspective.

1. Financial Report

Financial KPI Report

Keeping finances in check is critical for success. This financial report offers an overview of the most important financial metrics that a business needs to monitor its economic activities and answer vital questions to ensure healthy finances.

With insights about liquidity, invoicing, budgeting, and general financial stability, managers can extract long and short-term conclusions to reduce inefficiencies, make accurate forecasts about future performance, and keep the overall financial efficiency of the business flowing. For instance, getting a detailed calculation of the business’s working capital can allow you to understand how liquid your company is. If it’s higher than expected, it means you have the potential to invest and grow—definitely one of the most valuable types of finance reports.

2. Construction Report

Bid Management Report

Our next example is a construction report offering the perfect overview for efficient construction bid management . In this case, the template is tracked for an enterprise that has multiple projects working simultaneously and needs a general view of how everything is performing to ensure maximum efficiency.

The key metric highlighted in this report is the net bid value, which shows the value of all submitted bids, including canceled ones. As seen in the net bid value by status chart, only a small amount is accounted for canceled bids, which means this organization’s construction bidding process is efficient. The rest of the charts displayed in the template help provide a deeper understanding of bids to make informed decisions.

Another valuable aspect of this construction report is its interactivity. The filters on top allow the user to visualize only data for a specific category, project classification, or bid status, making it possible to answer any questions that arise during meetings or discussions. This was not possible in the past as the construction industry relied heavily on static reporting. Luckily, with the rise of digital construction tools, like interactive real-time reporting, they no longer need to rely solely on intuition or outdated information. Instead, they have fresh insights at all times.

3. Marketing Report

Marketing Performance Report

Our following example is a marketing report that ensures a healthy return on investment from your marketing efforts. This type of report offers a detailed overview of campaign performance over the last 12 weeks. Having access to this information enables you to maximize the value of your promotional actions, keeping your audience engaged by providing a targeted experience.

For instance, you can implement different campaign formats as a test and then compare which one is most successful for your business. This is possible thanks to the monitoring of important marketing metrics such as the click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA), and more.

The visual nature of this report makes it easy to understand important insights at a glance. For instance, the four gauge charts at the top show the total spending from all campaigns and how much of the total budget of each campaign has been used. In just seconds, you can see if you are on target to meet your marketing budgets for every single campaign.

4. Sales Report

Sales KPI Report

An intuitive sales dashboard like the one above is the perfect analytical tool to monitor and optimize sales performance. Armed with powerful high-level metrics, this report type is especially interesting for managers, executives, and sales VPs as it provides relevant data to ensure strategic and operational success.

The value of this sales report lies in the fact that it offers a complete and comprehensive overview of relevant insights needed to make smart sales decisions. For instance, at the top of an analysis tool, you get important metrics such as the number of sales, revenue, profit, and costs, all compared to a set target and to the previous time period. The use of historical data is fundamental when building successful sales strategies as they provide a picture of what could happen in the future. Being able to filter the key metrics all in one screen is a key benefit of modern reporting.

5. HR Report

Human Resources Report

Our next report example concerns human resources analytics. The HR department needs to track various KPIs for employee performance and effectiveness. However, it must also ensure that employees are happy and working in a healthy environment since an unhappy workforce can significantly damage an organization. This intuitive dashboard makes this possible.

Providing a comprehensive mix of metrics, this employee-centric report drills down into every major element needed to ensure successful workforce management. For example, the top portion of the dashboard covers absenteeism in 3 different ways: yearly average, absenteeism rate with a target of 3.8%, and absenteeism over the last five years. Tracking absenteeism rates in detail is helpful as it can tell you if your employees are skipping workdays. If the rate is over the expected target, then you have to dig deeper into the reasons and find sustainable solutions.

On the other hand, the second part of the dashboard covers the overall labor effectiveness (OLE). This can be tracked based on specific criteria that HR predefined, and it helps them understand if workers are achieving their targets or if they need extra training or help.

6. Management Report

Investors Management Report

Managers must monitor big amounts of data to ensure that the business is running smoothly. One of them being investor relationships. This management dashboard focuses on high-level metrics that shareholders need to look at before investing, such as the return on assets, return on equity, debt-equity ratio, and share price, among others.

By getting an overview of these important metrics, investors can easily extract the needed insights to make an informed decision regarding an investment in your business. For instance, the return on assets measures how efficiently are the company’s assets being used to generate profit. With this knowledge, investors can understand how effectively your company deploys available resources compared to others in the market. Another great indicator is the share price; the higher the increase in your share price, the more money your shareholders are making from their investment.

7. IT Report

IT Issue Management Report

Just like all the other departments and sections covered in this list, the IT department is one that can especially benefit from these types of reports. With so many technical issues to solve, the need for a visual tool to help IT specialists stay on track with their workload becomes critical.

As seen in the image above, this IT dashboard offers detailed information about different system indicators. For starters, we get a visual overview of the status of each server, followed by a detailed graph displaying the uptime & downtime of each week. This is complemented by the most common downtown issues and some ticket management information. Getting this level of insight helps your IT staff to know what is happening and when it is happening and find proper solutions to prevent these issues from repeating themselves. Keeping constant track of these metrics will ensure robust system performance.

8. Procurement Report

Procurement KPI Report

The following report example was built with intuitive procurement analytics software. It gives a general view of various metrics that any procurement department needs to manage suppliers efficiently.

With the possibility to filter, drill down, and interact with KPIs, this intuitive procurement dashboard offers key information to ensure a healthy supplier relationship. With metrics such as compliance rate, the number of suppliers, or the purchase order cycle time, the procurement team can classify the different suppliers, define the relationship each of them has with the company and optimize processes to ensure it stays profitable.

One of the industries that could truly benefit from this template is construction. Managing procurement in construction projects is not easy, as suppliers must be picked carefully to ensure they meet the project’s needs. An overview like this one can help assess the abilities of each supplier to choose the ones that best meet the requirements. In construction, supplier selection is more than just about pricing, it also involves availability, certifications, quality, etc.

9. Customer Service Report

Customer Service Report

Following our list of examples of reports is one from the support area. Armed with powerful customer service KPIs, this dashboard is a useful tool for monitoring performance, spotting trends, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and improving the overall effectiveness of the customer support department.

Covering aspects such as revenue and costs from customer support as well as customer satisfaction, this complete analysis tool is the perfect tool for managers who have to keep an eye on every little detail from a performance and operational perspective. For example, by monitoring your customer service costs and comparing them to the revenue, you can understand if you are investing the right amount into your support processes. This can be directly related to your agent’s average time to solve issues; the longer it takes to solve a support ticket, the more money it will cost and the less revenue it will bring. If your agents take too long to solve an issue, you can think of some training instances to help them reduce this number.

10. Market Research Report

Market Research Report On Brand Analytics

This list of report types would not be complete without a market research report. Market research agencies deal with a large amount of information coming from surveys and other research sources. Considering that, reports that can be filtered for deeper interaction become more necessary for this industry than for any other.

The image above is a brand analytics dashboard that displays the survey results about how the public perceives a brand. This savvy tool contains different charts that make it easy to understand the information visually. For instance, the map chart with the different colors lets you quickly understand in which regions each age range is located. The charts can be filtered further to see the detailed answers from each group for a deeper analysis.

11. Social Media Report

Social Media Report

Last but not least, we have a social media report. This scorecard-format dashboard monitors the performance of four main social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. It serves as a perfect visual overview to track the performance of different social media efforts and achievements.

Tracking relevant metrics such as followers, impressions, clicks, engagement rates, and conversions, this report type serves as a perfect progress report for managers or clients who need to see the status of their social channels. Each metric is shown in its actual value and compared to a set target. The colors green and red from the fourth column let you quickly understand if a metric is over or under its expected target.

12. Logistics Report

Logistics are the cornerstone of an operationally fluent and progressive business. If you deal with large quantities of goods and tangible items, in particular, maintaining a solid logistical strategy is vital to ensuring you maintain your brand reputation while keeping things flowing in the right direction.

Warehouse Logistics Report

A prime example designed to improve logistical management, our warehouse KPI dashboard is equipped with metrics required to maintain strategic movement while eliminating any unnecessary costs or redundant processes. Here, you can dig into your shipping success rates across regions while accessing warehouse costs and perfect order rates in real-time. If you spot any potential inefficiencies, you can track them here and take the correct course of action to refine your strategy. This is an essential tool for any business with a busy or scaling warehouse.

13. Manufacturing Report

Next, in our essential types of business reports examples, we’re looking at tools made to improve your business’s various manufacturing processes.

Manufacturing Production Report

Our clean and concise production tool is a sight to behold and serves up key manufacturing KPIs that improve the decision-making process regarding costs, volume, and machinery.

Here, you can hone in on historical patterns and trends while connecting with priceless real-time insights that will not only enable you to make the right calls concerning your manufacturing process at the moment but will also allow you to formulate predictive strategies that will ultimately save money, boost productivity, and result in top-quality products across the board.

14. Retail Report

As a retailer with so many channels to consider and so many important choices to make, working with the right metrics and visuals is absolutely essential. Fortunately, we live in an age where there are different types of reporting designed for this very reason.

Retail Report Template

Our sales and order example, generated with retail analytics software, is a dream come true for retailers as it offers the visual insights needed to understand your product range in greater detail while keeping a firm grip on your order volumes, perfect order rates, and reasons for returns.

Gaining access to these invaluable insights in one visually presentable space will allow you to track increases or decreases in orders over a set timeframe (and understand whether you’re doing the right things to drive engagement) while plowing your promotional resources into the products that are likely to offer the best returns.

Plus, by gaining an accurate overview of why people are returning your products, you can omit problem items or processes from your retail strategy, improving your brand reputation as well as revenue in the process.

15. Digital Media Report

The content and communications you publish are critical to your ongoing success, regardless of your sector, niche, or specialty. Without putting out communications that speak directly to the right segments of your audience at the right times in their journey, your brand will swiftly fade into the background.

Content Quality Report

To ensure your brand remains inspiring, engaging, and thought-leading across channels, working with media types of a business report is essential. You must ensure your communications cut through the noise and scream ‘quality’ from start to finish—no ifs, no buts, no exceptions.

Our content quality control tool is designed with a logical hierarchy that will tell you if your content sparks readership, if the language you’re using is inclusive and conversational, and how much engagement-specific communications earn. You can also check your most engaging articles with a quick glance to understand what your users value most. Armed with this information, you can keep creating content that your audience loves and ultimately drives true value to the business.

16. Energy Report

In the age of sustainability and in the face of international fuel hikes, managing the energy your business uses effectively is paramount. Here, there is little room for excess or error, and as such, working with the right metrics is the only way to ensure successful energy regulation.

Energy Management Report

If your company has a big HQ or multiple sites that require power, our energy management analytics tool will help you take the stress out of managing your resources. One of the most striking features of this dashboard is the fact that it empowers you to compare your company’s energy usage against those from other sectors and set an accurate benchmark.

Here, you can also get a digestible breakdown of your various production costs regarding energy consumption and the main sources you use to keep your organization running. Regularly consulting these metrics will not only allow you to save colossal chunks of your budget, but it will also give you the intelligence to become more sustainable as an organization. This, in turn, is good for the planet and your brand reputation—a real win-win-win.

17. FMCG Report

FMCG Report

The fast-moving consuming goods (FMCG) industry can highly benefit from a powerful report containing real-time insights. This is because the products handled in this sector, which are often food and beverages, don’t last very long. Therefore, having a live overview of all the latest developments can aid decision-makers in optimizing the supply chain to ensure everything runs smoothly and no major issues happen.

Our report format example above aims to do just that by providing an overview of critical performance indicators, such as the percentage of products sold within freshness date, the out-of-stock rate, on-time in full deliveries, inventory turnover, and more. What makes this template so valuable is the fact that it provides a range of periods to get a more recent view of events but also a longer yearly view to extract deeper insights.

The FMCG dashboard also offers an overview of the main KPIs to aid users in understanding if they are on the right track to meet their goals. There, we can observe that the OTIF is far from its target of 90%. Therefore, it should be looked at in more detail to optimize it and prevent it from affecting the entire supply chain.

18. Google Analytics Report

Google Analytics Performance Report

Regardless of your industry, if you have a website, you probably require a Google Analytics report. This powerful tool helps you understand how your audience interacts with your website while helping you reach more people through the Google search engine. The issue is that the reports the tool provides are more or less basic and don’t give you the dynamic and agile view you need to stay on top of your data and competitors.

For that reason, we generated a range of Google Analytics dashboards that take your experience one step further by allowing you to explore your most important KPIs in real-time. That way, you’ll be able to spot any potential issues or opportunities to improve as soon as they occur, allowing you to act on them on the spot.

Among some of the most valuable metrics you can find in this sample are the sessions and their daily, weekly, and monthly development, the average session duration, the bounce rate by channel and by top 5 countries, among others.

19. LinkedIn Report

LinkedIn Report

Another very important platform that companies use, no matter their size or industry, is LinkedIn. This platform is the place where companies develop and showcase their corporate image, network with other companies, and tell their clients and audience about the different initiatives they are developing to grow and be better. Some organizations also use LinkedIn to showcase their charity or sustainability initiatives.

The truth is LinkedIn has become an increasingly relevant platform, and just like we discussed with YouTube, organizations need to analyze data to ensure their strategies are on the right path to success.

The template above offers a 360-degree view of a company page’s performance. With metrics such as the followers gained, engagement rate, impressions vs unique impressions, CTR, and more. Decision-makers can dive deeper into the performance of their content and understand what their audience enjoys the most. For instance, by looking at the CTR of the last 5 company updates, you can start to get a sense of what topics and content format your audience on the platforms interact with the most. That way, you’ll avoid wasting time and resources producing content without interaction.

20. Healthcare Report

Healthcare Report For Patient Satisfaction

Moving on from platform-related examples, we have one last monthly report template from a very relevant sector, the healthcare industry. For decades now, hospitals and healthcare professionals have benefited from data to develop new treatments and analyze unknown diseases. But data can also help to ensure daily patient care is of top quality.

Our sample above is a healthcare dashboard report that tracks patient satisfaction stats for a clinic named Saint Martins Clinic. The template provides insights into various aspects of patient care that can affect their satisfaction levels to help spot any weak areas.

Just by looking at the report in a bit more detail, we can already see that the average waiting time for arrival at a bed and time to see a doctor are on the higher side. This is something that needs to be looked into immediately, as waiting times are the most important success factors for patients. Additionally, we can see those lab test turnarounds are also above target. This is another aspect that should be optimized to prevent satisfaction levels from going down.

Reporting Tools Features

As you learned from our extensive list of examples, different reports are widely used across industries and sectors. Now, you might wonder, how do I get my hands on one of these reports? The answer is a professional online reporting tool. With the right software in hand, you can generate stunning reports to extract the maximum potential out of your data and boost business growth in the process.

But, with so many options in the market, how do make sure you choose the best tool for your needs? Below we cover some of the most relevant features and capabilities you should look for to make the most out of the process.

1. Pre-made reporting templates

To ensure successful operations, a business will most likely need to use many reports for its internal and external strategies. Manually generating these reports can become a time-consuming task that burdens the business. That is why professional reporting software should offer pre-made reporting templates. At RIB, we offer an extensive template library for the construction industry that allows users to generate reports in a matter of seconds—allowing them to use their time on actually analyzing the information and extracting powerful insights from it.

2. Multiple visualization options

If you look for report templates on Google, you might run into multiple posts about written ones. This is not a surprise, as written reports have been the norm for decades. That being said, a modern approach to reporting has developed in the past years where visuals have taken over text. The value of visuals lies in the fact that they make the information easier to understand, especially for users who have no technical knowledge. But most importantly, they make the information easier to explore by telling a compelling story. For that reason, the tool you choose to invest in should provide you with multiple visualization options to have the flexibility to tell your data story in the most successful way possible.

3. Customization

While pre-made templates are fundamental to generating agile reports, being able to customize them to meet your needs is also of utmost importance. At RIB Software, we offer our users the possibility to customize their construction reports to fit their most important KPIs, as well as their logo, business colors, and font. This is an especially valuable feature for external reports that must be shown to clients or other relevant stakeholders, giving your reports a more professional look. Customization can also help from an internal perspective to provide employees who are uncomfortable with data with a familiar environment to work in.

4. Real-time insights

In the fast-paced world we live in today, having static reports is not enough. Businesses need to have real-time access to the latest developments in their data to spot any issues or opportunities as soon as they occur and act on them to ensure their resources are spent smartly and their strategies are running as expected. Doing so will allow for agile and efficient decision-making, giving the company a huge competitive advantage.

5. Sharing capabilities

Communication and collaboration are the basis of a successful reporting process. Today, team members and departments need to be connected to ensure everyone is on the right path to achieve general company goals. That is why the tool you invest in should offer flexible sharing capabilities to ensure every user can access the reports. For instance, we offer our users the possibility to share reports through automated emails or password-protected URLs with viewing or editing rights depending on what data the specific user can see and manipulate. A great way to keep everyone connected and boost collaboration.

As we’ve seen throughout our journey, businesses use different report formats for diverse purposes in their everyday activities. Whether you’re talking about types of reports in research, types of reports in management, or anything in between, these dynamic tools will get you where you need to be (and beyond).

In this post, we covered the top 14 most common ones and explored key examples of how different report types are changing the way businesses are leveraging their most critical insights for internal efficiency and, ultimately, external success.

With modern tools and solutions, reporting doesn’t have to be a tedious task. Anyone in your organization can rely on data for their decision-making process without needing technical skills. Rather, you want to keep your team connected or show progress to investors or clients. There is a report type for the job. To keep your mind fresh, here are the top 14 types of data reports covered in this post:

  • Informational reports
  • Analytical reports
  • Operational reports
  • Product reports
  • Industry reports
  • Department reports
  • Progress reports
  • Internal reports
  • External reports
  • Vertical and lateral reports
  • Strategic reports
  • Research reports
  • Project reports
  • Statutory reports

At RIB Software , we provide multiple solutions to make construction companies’ lives easier. Our construction data analytics software, RIB BI+, offers powerful business intelligence and reporting capabilities to help businesses in the building sector manage their data and make data-driven decisions to boost the quality of their projects. If you are ready to benefit from automated, interactive analytics, get a demo of RIB BI+ today!

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How to Write Data Analysis Reports

Reports on data analysis are essential for communicating data-driven insights to decision-makers, stakeholders, and other pertinent parties. These reports provide an organized format for providing conclusions, analyses, and suggestions derived from data set analysis.

In this guide, we will learn how to make an interactive Data Analysis Report.

How-to-Write-Data-Analysis-Reports

What is a Data Analysis Report?

A data analysis report is a comprehensive document that presents the findings, insights, and interpretations derived from analyzing a dataset or datasets. It serves as a means of communicating the results of a data analysis process to stakeholders, decision-makers, or other interested parties.

These reports are crucial in various fields such as business, science, healthcare, finance, and government, where data-driven decision-making is essential. It combines quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate past performance, understand current trends, and make informed recommendations for the future. Think of it as a translator, taking the language of numbers and transforming it into a clear and concise story that guides decision-making.

Why is Data Analysis Reporting Important?

Data analysis reporting is critical for various reasons:

  • Making decisions : Reports on data analysis provide decision-makers insightful information that helps them make well-informed choices. These reports assist stakeholders in understanding trends, patterns, and linkages that may guide strategic planning and decision-making procedures by summarizing and analyzing data.
  • Performance Evaluation : Data analysis reports are used by organizations to assess how well procedures, goods, or services are working. Through the examination of pertinent metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) , enterprises may pinpoint opportunities for improvement and maximize productivity.
  • Risk management : Within a company, data analysis reports may be used to detect possible dangers, difficulties, or opportunities. Businesses may reduce risks and take advantage of new possibilities by examining past data and predicting future patterns.
  • Communication and Transparency : By providing a concise and impartial summary of study findings, data analysis reports promote communication and transparency within enterprises. With the help of these reports, stakeholders may successfully cooperate to solve problems and accomplish goals by understanding complicated data insights.

How to Write a Data Analysis Report?

Writing a data analysis report comprises many critical processes, each of which adds to the clarity, coherence, and effectiveness of the final product. Let’s discuss each stage:

1. Map Your Report with an Outline

Creating a well-structured outline is like drawing a roadmap for your report. It acts as a guide, to organize your thoughts and content logically. Begin by identifying the key sections of report, such as introduction, methodology, findings, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations. Within each section, break down the specific points or subtopics you want to address. This step-by-step approach not only streamlines the writing process but also ensures that you cover all essential elements of your analysis. Moreover, an outline helps you maintain focus and prevents you from veering off track, ensuring that your report remains coherent and easy to follow for your audience.

2. Prioritize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

In a data analysis report, it’s crucial to prioritize the most relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to avoid overwhelming your audience with unnecessary information. Start by identifying the KPIs that directly impact your business objectives and overall performance. These could include metrics like revenue growth, customer retention rates, conversion rates, or website traffic. By focusing on these key metrics, the audience can track report with actionable insights that drive strategic decision-making. Additionally, consider contextualizing these KPIs within your industry or market landscape to provide a comprehensive understanding of your performance relative to competitors or benchmarks.

3. Visualize Data with Impact

Data visualization plays a pivotal role in conveying complex information in a clear and engaging manner. When selecting visualization tools, consider the nature of the data and the story you want to tell. For instance, if you’re illustrating historical trends, timelines or line graphs can effectively showcase patterns over time. On the other hand, if you’re comparing categorical data, pie charts or bar graphs might be more suitable. The key is to choose visualization methods that accurately represent your findings and facilitate comprehension for your audience. Additionally, pay attention to design principles such as color contrast, labeling, and scale to ensure that your visuals are both informative and visually appealing.

4. Craft a Compelling Data Narrative

Transforming your data into a compelling narrative is essential for engaging your audience and highlighting key insights. Instead of presenting raw data, strive to tell a story that contextualizes the numbers and unveils their significance.

Start by identifying specific events or trends in data and explore the underlying reasons behind them. For example, if you notice a sudden spike in sales, investigate the marketing campaign or external factors that may have contributed to this increase . By weaving these insights into a cohesive narrative, you can guide your audience through your analysis and make your findings more memorable and impactful. Remember to keep your language clear and concise, avoiding jargon or technical terms that may confuse your audience.

5. Organize for Clarity

Establishing a clear information hierarchy is essential for ensuring that your report is easy to navigate and understand. Start by outlining the main points or sections of your report and consider the logical flow of information. Typically, it’s best to start with broader, more general information and gradually delve into specifics as needed. This approach helps orient your audience and provides them with a framework for understanding the rest of the report.

Additionally, use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up dense text and make your content more scannable. By organizing your report for clarity, you can enhance comprehension and ensure that your audience grasps the key takeaways of your analysis.

6. Summarize Key Findings

A concise summary at the beginning of your report serves as a roadmap for your audience, providing them with a quick overview of the report’s objectives and key findings . However, it’s important to write this summary after completing the report, as it requires a comprehensive understanding of the data and analysis.

To create an effective summary , distill the main points of the report into a few succinct paragraphs. Focus on highlighting the most significant insights and outcomes, avoiding unnecessary details or technical language. Consider the needs of your audience and tailor the summary to address their interests and priorities. By providing a clear and concise summary upfront, you set the stage for the rest of the report and help busy readers grasp the essence of your analysis quickly.

7. Offer Actionable Recommendations

Effective communication of data analysis findings goes beyond simply reporting the numbers; it involves providing actionable recommendations that drive decision-making and facilitate improvements. When offering recommendations, remain objective and avoid assigning blame for any negative outcomes. Instead, focus on identifying solutions and suggesting practical steps for addressing challenges or leveraging opportunities.

Consider the implications of your findings for the broader business strategy and provide specific guidance on how to implement changes or initiatives. Moreover, prioritize recommendations that are realistic, achievable, and aligned with the organization’s goals and resources. By offering actionable recommendations, you demonstrate the value of your analysis and empower stakeholders to take proactive steps towards improvement.

8. Leverage Interactive Dashboards for Enhanced Presentation

The presentation format of the report is as crucial as its content, as it directly impacts the effectiveness of your communication and engagement with your audience. Interactive dashboards offer a dynamic and visually appealing way to present data, allowing users to explore and interact with the information in real-time.

When selecting a reporting tool, prioritize those that offer customizable dashboards with interactive features such as filters, drill-downs, and hover-over tooltips. These functionalities enable users to customize their viewing experience and extract insights tailored to their specific needs and interests. Moreover, look for reporting tools that support automatic data updates, ensuring that your dashboards always reflect the most current information. By leveraging interactive dashboards for enhanced presentation, you create a more engaging and immersive experience for your audience, fostering deeper understanding and retention of your analysis.

Best Practices for Writing Data Analysis Reports

  • Understand Your Audience: It’s important to know who will be reading the report before you start writing. Make sure that the language, substance, and degree of technical information are appropriate for the audience’s expertise and interests.
  • Clarity and Precision: Communicate your results in a clear, succinct manner by using appropriate terminology. Steer clear of technical phrases and jargon that stakeholders who aren’t technical may not understand. Clarify terminology and ideas as needed to maintain understanding.
  • Stay Objective: Don’t include any prejudice or subjective interpretation while presenting your analysis and results. Allow the data to speak for itself and back up your findings with facts.
  • Focus on Key Insights: Summarize the most important conclusions and revelations that came from the examination of the data. Sort material into categories according to the audience’s relevancy and significance.
  • Provide Context: Put your analysis in perspective by outlining the importance of the data, how it relates to the larger aims or objectives, and any relevant prior knowledge. Assist the reader in realizing the significance of the analysis.
  • Use Visuals Wisely: Employ graphs, charts, and other visualizations to highlight important patterns, correlations, and trends in the data. Select visual forms that make sense for the kind of data and the point you’re trying to make. Make sure the images are simple to understand, educational, and clear.

Conclusion – How to Write Data Analysis Reports

It takes a combination of analytical abilities, attention to detail, and clear communication to write data analysis reports. These guidelines and best practices will help you produce reports that effectively convey insights and facilitate well-informed decision-making. Keep in mind to adjust your strategy to the demands of your audience and to remain impartial and transparent at all times. You can become skilled at creating compelling data analysis reports that benefit your company with practice and improvement.

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Research for Technical Report Writing

  • Library Terminology
  • Types of Sources
  • Getting Started
  • Building your Search Strategy
  • Scopus Search Demonstration Videos
  • Web of Science Search Demonstration Videos
  • PubMed Search Tutorials
  • Evaluating your Results
  • Writing Resources

Tips and Tricks for Successful Research

  • Often your professor will specify in the instructions which sources types you should use/are required for your assignment
  • Knowing which source types will help you to plan your search effectively

Learning Objectives

data type report assignment expert

  • Identify various formats in which information can be found
  • Understand when it is appropriate to utilize various source types based  on your specific information needs 

What is a Source?

In your courses, you may hear your professors refer to 'sources of information'. They may even specify what types of sources that you should use in your assignments. But what do we mean when we say sources? Information can be found in an incredibly wide variety of types, formats and styles. This can include anything from other people, to text, to video and everything found in between. Anything that provides information or material that informs your thoughts on a topic can be considered a source of information. 

Each source type has a specific role in research and may be more or less useful for you depending on your specific research context. It is important to understand the different sources of information and what you can gain from them. Prior to starting your research, make sure that you consider your information needs. Are you looking for more of a topic overview / general information? Or do you need in-depth, detailed information on your topic? Having these considerations in mind will allow you to create an appropriate research plan and will ultimately make your research process easier. 

There are many different ways in which sources can be categorized. Below we will describe two of these possible categorizations which are commonly referred to in academia: primary sources vs secondary sources  & scholarly sources vs professional sources vs popular sources . 

Primary & Secondary Sources

One way of categorizing source types is either as primary sources , secondary sources, or tertiary sources. These categories are based off of how close the researcher/author is to the subject/topic within the information source. To learn more about primary and secondary sources, as well as some examples sources of each, please watch the video below. 

Video coming shortly. 

If you wish to learn even more about this categorization of source types, please view the Types of Sources PDF handout provided by SASS.  

Scholarly VS Professional VS Popular Sources

A second categorization of information sources includes scholarly sources vs professional or trade sources vs popular sources. These categories refer to the specific audience for which they are being produced. 

Scholarly sources are typically written by an expert, on their own original research, for an audience of other experts. Because of this, they often include discipline specific jargon and terminology that make it harder for non-experts to understand. At the end of the source, you will find a bibliography containing the full references of all of the other sources used to support their claims. Many scholarly sources have gone through a peer-review process (described in detail further down on the page). 

Professional or trade sources are typically written by practitioners within a specific field, for other practitioners in that field. Because of this, they often use the terminology and language that is commonly used within the field, but may not be common knowledge to the general public. While scholarly sources usually focus more on theory or academic research, professional sources focus on current practices and developments in the field. At the end of the source you may find a bibliography, however it will not be an extensive as in scholarly publications.

Popular sources are typically written by non-experts (journalists or writers) for the general public. Since it is being produced for a more general audience, they do not use discipline specific terminology and do not assume that you have any prior knowledge of the subject. As a result, they are typically much easier to understand. Depending on the type of popular source, they may refer to scholarly sources, however they do not usually contain a full bibliography. 

Common Sources Used in Science and Engineering

Undergraduate assignments in the sciences and engineering typically depend on the use of text-based sources. Below we have given a brief description of common types of sources that you might come across in your research, as well as when and why you might want to use them. 

Encyclopedias

  • What are they? Encyclopedias are a type of reference work that is usually either found in the form of a book or a whole series of books. They typically consist of short entries written by experts on the topic. Encyclopedias can either be general (giving short summaries on a wide range of topics) or subject specific (providing in-depth entries related to a particular field of study). 
  • When and why to use them? Encyclopedias are a great way to start your research. They help to provide background information on the topic and can help to clarify key concepts and researchers. 

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Books & Textbooks

  • What are they?  Books provide a longer, more in-depth and comprehensive coverage of a subject area. Due to the fact that books have quite a long publishing process they do not contain the most up-to-date information. Books can either be in print or in electronic format (which might also be referred to as an ebook). 
  • When and why to use them?  Because of their level of detail and coverage of an entire subject area, they are wonderful sources to develop an overview of the area and learn the about the history and previous previous developments within the field. When you are beginning your research, books can be an excellent way to introduce yourself to the subject area and help you to develop the background knowledge that will allow you to familiarize yourself with the area before proceeding with your research. 

Cover Art

Research Articles

  • What are they?  Research (or academic) articles are reports that are focused around one small aspect of a subject area. They are written by expert researchers for other expert researchers. As a result, they usually include jargon and discipline specific terminology that make the article harder to understand if you are not already knowledgeable in this area. They typically consist of original research and are written directly by the associated researcher(s). This is one of the main ways in which researchers will share their research findings with the field at large. Because of this, they will include detailed information about the methods, and results of the study, as well as a full bibliography containing other related sources that were used within the report. Because of the shorter publication period they are usually much more up-to-date than books. In scholarly journals, articles will often go through a peer review process (see the following section to learn more about this). Articles can be in print or in electronic format, although electronic is much more common. 
  • When and why to use them?  Since articles are one of the main ways in which researchers share their findings with others, and the relatively up-to-date information that they provide, they are the source that you will want to use when doing the main research for your reports. They will contain the level of detail and specificity required to help you to answer the research question that you have developed. Additionally, choosing peer-reviewed articles will help to ensure the level of quality of the information you are using as opposed to general web-sources. 
  • Example Article: Environmental and economic aspects of water kiosks: Case study of a medium-sized Italian town

Theses & Dissertations

  • What are they?  This is the report produced as the end result of a student's research while in a university program (typically the end result of a graduate degree, but may also be completed as part of some undergraduate degrees). These reports are usually kept in institutional repositories (such as uOResearch) but are not published in journals. As a result, they do not go through a peer-review process, although they are written under the guidance of a faculty member and go through a review process in front of an academic committee. 
  • Example Dissertation: Effects of Acid Mine Drainage and Acid Precipitation on Leaf Litter Breakdown Rates in Appalachian Headwater Streams

Conference Proceedings

  • What are they?  Conference proceedings consist of papers, research and information that has been presented and released at conferences. This is where the newest and most up-to-date information from a field of research is presented. Often researchers will first present their findings at a conference and then later publish them as a research article. These conference proceedings may be peer-reviewed depending on the specific conference and publication. 
  • When and why to use them?  If you are doing research on a very active field of study, with many new developments being presented, conference proceedings would be an excellent way to get the most recent information. 
  • Example Conference Proceeding: Cyclotron laboratory of the Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy

Trade magazines

  • What are they?  Trade magazines contain articles that are geared towards professionals working in a particular field. These articles are often written by practitioners for other practitioners. They will typically focus more on current practices and challenges that are being seen in the workplace rather than on academic research. 
  • When and why to use them?  You may want to use trade magazines if your specific research question deals with the practices, challenges or issues seen in the workplace. Having a look at these publications will be able to give you some context as to the professionals point of view. 
  • Example Trade Magazine: IEEE Spectrum

Government Publications 

  • What are they?  Government publications include any information disseminated by the government, either on the local, provincial, national or international level. This could include information such as laws, regulations, research reports, factsheets and much more. 
  • When and why to use them?  Government publications may be beneficial to your research in your topic can be impacted by government decisions. 

Cover Art

Newspapers articles

  • What are they?  Newspaper articles are written by journalists and professional writers for the general public. They will usually centre on current events on an international, national, or local level. Newspapers can be published daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. 
  • When and why to use them?  Newspaper articles may serve as a way to come up with a research topic that is relevant in current society. They can also serve as valuable sources to view public opinion and to get first-hand accounts of certain events. 
  • Examples News: Paralysed man moves in mind-reading exoskeleton

Popular magazines  

  • What are they?  Popular magazines contain articles written by professional writers for the general public. Typically the articles are shorter in length and may feature some photos. They usually serve a dual purpose of both entertainment and educational. They do not usually have a full bibliography but may mention the academic research. It is usually best practice to visit the studies mentioned rather than use the information provided by the article directly.
  • When and why to use them?  They can be very helpful to introduce you to topics that you may not be as familiar with, as they are written in an easy to understand manner. Additionally they can help to provide insight on how society views the topic. 
  • Example Popular Magazine: National Geographic

The Ins and Outs of Peer-Review

data type report assignment expert

Some databases and Search+ will allow you to limit your results to only peer-reviewed content.  However, this function does not appear in all databases, which can make it difficult to distinguish peer-reviewed articles from other types of articles in the results list. 

How can you determine if an article has been peer-reviewed?

  • On the article itself, look for submission and acceptance dates for an article
  • For a journal, look the cover info to determine the presence of an editorial board or committee.
  • In the record look for the field referred to determine if the journal is peer-reviewed.

If it is still not clear, contact a science & engineering librarian for help.

  • << Previous: Library Terminology
  • Next: Getting Started >>
  • Last Updated: May 10, 2023 10:55 AM
  • URL: https://uottawa.libguides.com/research-technical-report-writing

JS Tutorial

Js versions, js functions, js html dom, js browser bom, js web apis, js vs jquery, js graphics, js examples, js references, javascript assignment, javascript assignment operators.

Assignment operators assign values to JavaScript variables.

Operator Example Same As
= x = y x = y
+= x += y x = x + y
-= x -= y x = x - y
*= x *= y x = x * y
/= x /= y x = x / y
%= x %= y x = x % y
**= x **= y x = x ** y

Shift Assignment Operators

Operator Example Same As
<<= x <<= y x = x << y
>>= x >>= y x = x >> y
>>>= x >>>= y x = x >>> y

Bitwise Assignment Operators

Operator Example Same As
&= x &= y x = x & y
^= x ^= y x = x ^ y
|= x |= y x = x | y

Logical Assignment Operators

Operator Example Same As
&&= x &&= y x = x && (x = y)
||= x ||= y x = x || (x = y)
??= x ??= y x = x ?? (x = y)

The = Operator

The Simple Assignment Operator assigns a value to a variable.

Simple Assignment Examples

The += operator.

The Addition Assignment Operator adds a value to a variable.

Addition Assignment Examples

The -= operator.

The Subtraction Assignment Operator subtracts a value from a variable.

Subtraction Assignment Example

The *= operator.

The Multiplication Assignment Operator multiplies a variable.

Multiplication Assignment Example

The **= operator.

The Exponentiation Assignment Operator raises a variable to the power of the operand.

Exponentiation Assignment Example

The /= operator.

The Division Assignment Operator divides a variable.

Division Assignment Example

The %= operator.

The Remainder Assignment Operator assigns a remainder to a variable.

Remainder Assignment Example

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The <<= Operator

The Left Shift Assignment Operator left shifts a variable.

Left Shift Assignment Example

The >>= operator.

The Right Shift Assignment Operator right shifts a variable (signed).

Right Shift Assignment Example

The >>>= operator.

The Unsigned Right Shift Assignment Operator right shifts a variable (unsigned).

Unsigned Right Shift Assignment Example

The &= operator.

The Bitwise AND Assignment Operator does a bitwise AND operation on two operands and assigns the result to the the variable.

Bitwise AND Assignment Example

The |= operator.

The Bitwise OR Assignment Operator does a bitwise OR operation on two operands and assigns the result to the variable.

Bitwise OR Assignment Example

The ^= operator.

The Bitwise XOR Assignment Operator does a bitwise XOR operation on two operands and assigns the result to the variable.

Bitwise XOR Assignment Example

The &&= operator.

The Logical AND assignment operator is used between two values.

If the first value is true, the second value is assigned.

Logical AND Assignment Example

The &&= operator is an ES2020 feature .

The ||= Operator

The Logical OR assignment operator is used between two values.

If the first value is false, the second value is assigned.

Logical OR Assignment Example

The ||= operator is an ES2020 feature .

The ??= Operator

The Nullish coalescing assignment operator is used between two values.

If the first value is undefined or null, the second value is assigned.

Nullish Coalescing Assignment Example

The ??= operator is an ES2020 feature .

Test Yourself With Exercises

Use the correct assignment operator that will result in x being 15 (same as x = x + y ).

Start the Exercise

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Physics help

Answer to Question #170566 in HTML/JavaScript Web Application for hemanth

Split and Replace

Given three strings

inputString, separator and replaceString as inputs. Write a JS program to split the

inputString with the given separator and replace strings in the resultant array with the replaceString whose length is greater than 7.

  • You can use the string method split()
  • You can use the array method map()
  • The first line of input contains a string inputString
  • The second line of input contains a string separator
  • The third line of input contains a string replaceString
  • The output should be a single line containing the strings separated by a space

Sample Input 1

JavaScript-is-amazing

  • Programming

Sample Output 1

Programming is amazing

Sample Input 2

The&Lion&King

Sample Output 2

The Lion King

i need code in between write code here

"use strict";

process.stdin.resume();

process.stdin.setEncoding("utf-8");

let inputString = "";

let currentLine = 0;

process.stdin.on("data", (inputStdin) => {

 inputString += inputStdin;

process.stdin.on("end", (_) => {

 inputString = inputString.trim().split("\n").map((str) => str.trim());

function readLine() {

 return inputString[currentLine++];

/* Please do not modify anything above this line */

function main() {

 const inputString = readLine();

 const separator = readLine();

 const replaceString = readLine();

 /* Write your code here */

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  19. Answer in Web Application for king #303239

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  22. Answer in Web Application for hemanth #170566

    Question #170566. Split and Replace. Given three strings. inputString, separator and replaceString as inputs. Write a JS program to split the. inputString with the given separator and replace strings in the resultant array with the replaceString whose length is greater than 7. Quick Tip.