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Report topic
Gather information about a career or position to which you aspire. Learn about the nature of the job.
Discover whether certification, a license or experience is required. One of the best places to search is
the latest Occupational Outlook Handbook compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Google the
latest Handbook and either input your desired occupation using the Search box or click an A-Z Index
Link. Also, determine what training, education and/or other background you might need to be
promoted into such a position. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses in relation to this goal.
Your Task: To write a report to your instructor that describes your targeted career area/promotion,
including the following:
Discuss the nature of the work, working conditions, necessary qualifications, and the future job
outlook for the occupation, including any special considerations if you are in the US on a visa.
Provide information about the career/position gained through interviews with one or more
individuals working in similar positions.
Create a SWOT analysis for your potential to be considered for this career/position.
Include any additional personal insights regarding information that would affect your
employability/promotability.
The length should be in the range of about 1000 words +/- 10%. Longer is not necessarily better, but it
should not be fewer than 900 words nor longer than 1100 words.
Make sure that your report contains all of the following headings, shown below in components of a business report.
Components of a business report
A business report contains a collection of objective data that the reader should consider. The report can contain suggestions
and recommendations, but its primary purpose should be to present facts and information. Please note this important
distinction. A report is not a proposal. A proposal is a sales pitch with the single objective of promoting an idea. A business
proposal spends most of its time promoting suggestions and recommendations. A business report spends most of its time
presenting objective facts. Proposals propose. Reports report.
Please include all of the following headings and sections in your report:
Title Page
Business reports generally follow a formal structure, unless they are very short email reports. Most moderate to long reports
begin with a title page. The title page shows the full title of the report, the name of the author and the names of audience
members or groups.
Executive Summary
This brief summary presents the purpose, methods, scope, findings, conclusions and recommendations of the reportl. A
high-level business executive might choose not to read the entire report, but instead to read only the executive summary.
Write the summary with enough detail to provide a busy executive with the most important elements of the report.
Table of Contents
The table of contents page usually comes immediately after the title page and before the executive summary. It should show
each section of the report by name and page number.
List of Figures, Tables, Abbreviations or Symbols (optional)
A good rule of thumb is that if your report includes more than five figures, illustrations or tables, you should list them by
page number, immediately after the table of contents page. If the reportl contains abbreviations or symbols that might not be
familiar to all readers, include those abbreviations and symbols, plus their definitions and explanations in this section. Not
all reports need to contain this section.Introduction
Start the body of the report with an introductory paragraph, with the heading “Introduction.” The introduction should
present the purpose and scope of the report, and present background information that might be necessary for readers to
know so that they can understand the rest of the report.
Body
The next heading should read “Body,” and this begins the heart of the report. You can include subheadings to introduce the
various information categories that make up the body. Consider including tables of data or financial information, charts,
graphs and illustrations.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The body of the report ends with “Conclusions and Recommendations.” In this section, you summarize the objective data
and findings, and propose recommendations, if necessary and appropriate.
Bibliography
If your reportl presents data that you gathered from published sources, show those sources in a bibliography that should
include traditional publications, Internet sources and people who you might have interviewed.