9.8. Writing Structure

Sections

The Report Templates contain a set of chapters and some example sections. These are a good starting point for your report, but you may change them to fit your content.

Do use sections and sub-sections within your report. These can help to structure your content and make it easier for your readers to follow the discussion.

Using sections, sub-sections and sub-sub-sections can help to provide good structure, such as Section 1, Section 1.1 and Section 1.1.1. Sometimes it may be appropriate to have a fourth-level of sections, i.e. 1.1.1.1, but that is probably the deepest level that you need to use. If you are using the fourth-level a lot, pause and think if there are better ways to organise the content.

There are times when some people use a lot of fourth-level sections that may be better as bullet lists. If you are using a number of fourth-level sections, but each one only has a short paragraph, there could be a good case for changing those sections into a bullet list. There are no rules on this. Think about what makes it easier for your reader to understand the points that you are reporting.

Use relevant styles for headings in your word processing or text formatting tools. Doing this will mean that the Table of Contents can be generated by the tools.

Paragraphs and sentences

Divide longer paragraphs into more than one paragraph. There was an example a few years ago, a report with one paragraph that occupied all of one page. It is tiring to read such text. You risk your reader losing focus and unable to find the most useful ideas in your writing.

A quick tip is that a paragraph will introduce a new idea. You then expand on that idea with the following sentences in the same paragraph. These should add detail and help the reader to understand issues related to the idea. There is no rule about how many sentences are ideal for a paragraph and different types of writing will have different standards. Look at technical writing to see how they structure paragraphs.

As a general rule, start a new paragraph when you need to introduce a new idea. This helps to make that idea easier to find when someone is looking through your report. Having started that paragraph, follow the same idea of using the rest of the paragraph to discuss the idea. If that discussion is more complex, think how you will divide that discussion into multiple paragraphs.

Long sentences can also be difficult to read. When you write your first draft of parts of your report, it is likely that you will keep typing as you try to write about an issue. There are times when those sentences are very long and, like paragraphs, that can make it harder for your reader to concentrate on the discussion. Take time to re-read your writing to identify those longer sentences. Split them up into shorter sentences to improve your writing.

A good way to review your writing is to read it aloud to yourself. When you read something in your head, you can miss how difficult it is to follow what is being said. Saying it aloud can help you to find the bits that are difficult to say. If it is difficult for you to say, then it is probably difficult for someone else to read.

Paragraph and line spacing

Make it obvious when there is a new paragraph. In this document, a blank line is used between paragraphs. Some people prefer the formatting where the first line of a paragraph is indented so that it is clear when there is a new paragraph. Either approach is acceptable.

There are no rules on the line spacing, which is the spacing between each line of text in a paragraph. Some people may prefer no extra line spacing, which means a value of 1.0. Others like to have some extra spacing between lines such as a value of 1.5. The overall aim is that your report is formatted so that it is easy to read. The only recommendation is that the line spacing should not be less than 1.0 because it will make the text look cramped.