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Writing Reports
A blue whale’s heart is the size of a cow.
You have 37 miles of nerves in your body.
In 1958, a 1,720 foot tsunami hit Alaska.
The world is full of amazing information, and when you learn something wonderful, you just want to share it.
A report gives you a chance to discover all sorts of amazing details about your world. For your report, make sure to choose a topic that can teach you fantastic facts. Then research and share!
What’s Ahead
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Sample Report
This report by Abe Lenzini provides amazing facts about platypuses, which share traits with mammals, birds, and reptiles.
The Platypus
Abe Lenzini
Beginning
The opening leads to a focus statement. Have you ever heard of a mammal that lays eggs like a bird and has venom like a snake? How about one that finds food using electrolocation? With its fur, milk, bill, and flippers, the platypus baffles many people.
Middle
This paragraph explains habitat. Platypuses are small animals that live in Australia and other islands around that area. They range from the tropical lowlands to as high as the Australian Alps. Although platypuses have been sighted in saltwater, they thrive by lakes, streams, ponds, and other freshwater systems. They live half on land and half in water and make their dens in the banks.
The next paragraph describes the animal’s appearance. The platypus has many unique features, such as a paddle-shaped tail like a beaver. It also has a sleek body like an otter, and a beak and webbed feet like a duck. Platypuses range from 14 to 25 inches, with the males being a little larger than the females. They have thick, waterproof fur that is usually reddish to dark brown.
Each middle paragraph focuses on a different main point. Platypuses are monotremes, or mammals that lay eggs. They and echidnas are the only two mammals that do this. A platypus has features from mammals, birds, and reptiles. A platypus’s mammal characteristics include having fur and lactation. A platypus’s bird traits include laying eggs and having a beak. Finally, a platypus’s reptile characteristics include laying eggs and having venom. This venom is ejected from spurs on the back of males’ hind legs.
The platypus eats an assortment of foods in the muddy waters where it lives. It is a carnivore, which means it eats only meat. These foods include shrimp, bugs, tadpoles, worms, snails, and freshwater mussels. The platypus’s bill can sense the electrical charges of muscles moving. When it catches its prey, it stores it in cheek pouches. Once at the surface, it chews food using grinding plates in its mouth.
Ending
The writer sums up the report and provides sources. The platypus isn’t a beaver or duck or snake, but it has features of all of these. It’s weird and wonderful, which makes it one of my favorite animals!
Sources
www.livescience.com/27572-platypus.html
australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/platypus/
www.britannica.com/animal/platypus
Tip Use your own words as much as possible. It’s okay to use some ideas and direct quotations from other sources, but be sure to give them credit.
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Writing a Report
Prewriting Choosing a Subject
Abe’s teacher allowed him to choose from a wide range of subjects. If you are given this choice, choose a subject that truly interests you.
Think of General Subject Areas 🟪 If you are not sure what to write about, think about the subjects you are studying in your different classes. Can you think of an interesting topic related to any of these subjects? What about an interesting topic related to something in the news? You could also review the following list of general subject areas. One of them may help you think of a specific topic. A subject like food may lead you to a specific type of food like yogurt.
animals
plants
music
books
movies
cities
school
environment
exercise
clothes
families
food
friends
health
houses
laws
technology
science
money
work
Choose a Specific Topic 🟪 Your topic needs to be specific enough to be covered in a report. You couldn’t cover the broad subject of “animals” in a page or two, but you could cover the specific topic “platypuses.” Here’s how Abe arrived at his specific topic.
I want a really interesting animal. I could do a supersaurus or a carnotaurus, a huge plant eater or a vicious meat eater. But I wrote about dinosaurs last essay. What about something that split off from the dinosaurs, like a dimetrodon? Or what about one of the early mammals that still laid eggs? That’s a platypus. They are still around, but they have bills like birds and venom like snakes. That’s a cool animal!
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Prewriting Gathering Information
Explore Your Topic 🟪 Once you have selected a specific topic, decide what you already know about it and what you still need to learn. Make a list of the details that you discover about your topic.
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Platypuses have fur, bills, webbed feet, and venom.
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They live in Australia in freshwater.
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Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs. Platypuses and achidna are the only ones.
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Early mammals split from dinosaurs 270 million years ago and led to platypuses.
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They have bodies like otters, tails like beavers, webbed feet like ducks, and venom like snakes.
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Platypuses are carnivores, eating bugs, shrimp, snails, mussels, worms, and tadpoles.
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They snatch food in their bills.
Prewriting Organizing Your Information
Create a Writing Plan 🟪 Once you’ve gathered plenty of details, it’s time to organize them. A writing plan can help you stay organized. You can use the PAST strategy to help you form a writing plan.
Purpose: To report useful and interesting information
Audience: Teacher and students at our school
Subject: Platypuses
Type: Report
Tip Also consider the voice you will want to use. You will want to sound serious, but with a personal tone.
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Create a Quick Outline 🟪 Next, you need to decide how you will arrange your details. Write a topic outline to organize your thoughts. (You can use single words and short phrases.)
I. Habitat—Australia
A. Southern islands up to Australian Alps
B. Freshwater streams, dens in banks
II. Appearance
A. Beaverlike tail, otterlike body
B. Duckbill, webbed feet with venom spikes
III. Classification—monotremes
A. Mammals that lay eggs
B. Features of mammals, birds, and reptiles
IV. Diet—carnivorous
A. Shrimp, bugs, tadpoles, worms, snails
B. Snatch in bill and grind in plates
Writing Developing Your First Draft
Once you have organized your thoughts and details (in a list or outline), you can begin writing your first draft. Here are a few tips.
Beginning
Begin with a Hook 🟪 Sharing your personal interest in the subject is one way to begin. Your interest in a topic will naturally draw your reader into your report. Abe started his platypus report by asking interesting questions about the topic.
Have you ever heard of a mammal that lays eggs like a bird and has venom like a snake? How about one that finds food using electrolocation? With its fur, milk, bill, and flippers, the platypus baffles many people.
Begin with a Hook 🟪 Sharing your personal interest in the subject is one way to begin. Your interest in a topic will naturally draw your reader into your report. Abe started his platypus report by asking interesting questions about the topic.
Have you ever heard of a mammal that lays eggs like a bird and has venom like a snake? How about one that finds food using electrolocation? With its fur, milk, bill, and flippers, the platypus baffles many people.
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Try Other Beginnings 🟪 Here are some other ways to start your report with a hook.
- Use a dramatic statement.
When European naturalists first saw a stuffed platypus, they thought it was a fake.
- Use a quotation from something you’ve read.
Stephen Colbert said this about the platypus: “That’s not a finished product. It’s clearly still in beta.”
- Introduce your subject.
A platypus seems like a cross between an otter and a duck.
Middle
Use Different Text Structures 🟪 Abe uses order of location to describe the habitat of the platypus. (See pages 24–26 for more text structures.)
Platypuses are small animals that live in Australia and other islands around that area. They range from the tropical lowlands to as high as the Australian Alps. Although platypuses have been sighted in saltwater, they thrive by lakes, streams, ponds, and other freshwater systems. They live half on land and half in water and make their dens . . .
A later paragraph defines a key term, provides examples, and then lists specific details.
Platypuses are monotremes, or mammals that lay eggs. They and echidnas are the only two mammals that do this. A platypus has features from mammals, birds, and reptiles. A platypus’s mammal characteristics include having fur and lactation. A platypus’s bird traits include laying eggs and . . .
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Ending
End with a Strong Point 🟪 End your report with a final thought about your topic. A sources list helps readers find more information.
The platypus isn’t a beaver or duck or snake, but it has features of all of these. It’s weird and wonderful, which makes it one of my favorite animals!
Revising Improving Your Report
Use this checklist as a guide when you revise your report.
Beginning
_____ Do I start my report off with a “hook” that explains my topic and gets my readers’ attention?
Middle
_____ Do I add plenty of specific details to keep my readers interested?
_____ Do I organize my details in clear, logical ways?
_____ Do I connect my ideas from one paragraph to the next with transitions?
_____ Do I use words and examples that are clear, colorful, and correct?
Ending
_____ Do I leave readers wishing they could read more about this topic?
Editing Polishing Your Writing
Check your final paper for careless errors. (Use the “Editing and Proofreading Checklist” on page 66 as an editing guide.)
