Internal report
Executive summary (1 paragraph)
Summary of your entire report (i.e the most important information from your introduction, your
findings and your recommendations)
Introduction (1 paragraph)
- Specifies the problem that Hurrah Airlines is facing (what does it have to do with?).
- Provides background information: what is the reason for writing this report? (this could be bad
publicity/an increase in complaints/a decrease in the number of customers/…)
- Ends with a thesis statement: This report deals with … (make sure you specify the type of
problem the report is about and refer to the solutions it offers as well).
Findings (number of paragraphs depend on the number of findings/observations/problems; +/- 3
paragraphs)
- Each paragraph deals with one finding (i.e. one thing that presents a problem to travelers of
Hurrah Airlines, e.g. extra costs that disabled passengers face when travelling with Hurrah
Airlines).
- Each paragraph starts with a topic sentence that states what this problem is (The first problem
encountered by many disabled passengers is that they are faced with many extra costs). This
should not be too specific yet (e.g., extra costs), so that you can give examples in the rest of the
paragraph (costs for A, costs for B, costs for C).
- The rest of each paragraph goes into the problem in more detail. You can do this by giving
examples, but also by describing consequences (what is the result of all these extra costs?).
Conclusion (1 paragraph)
Repeats problem and summarizes findings.
Recommendations (1 paragraph)
- For each finding/problem, you present a concrete/specific action (could also be more than 1)
that Hurrah Airlines can take to solve the problem.
- Make a link to the findings (that’s what your recommendations are based on). For example:
‘Based on the findings reported above, Hurrah Airlines is advised to take the following actions’.
- Just taking away the problem does not form a good piece of advice (if the problem is that costs
are too high for disabled travelers, do not say that Hurrah Airlines is recommended to lower the
costs)
- Avoid the use of ‘have to’, ‘must’, ‘should’, ‘need to’ etc. in the recommendations. Use ‘Hurrah
Airlines is advised’, ‘it is recommended’, ‘can’, ‘could’ etc.
, Name
Position
Date
In general:
- Use linking words, not only in the topic sentences of the paragraphs, but also within the
paragraphs (you can list your problems; start your conclusion with a linking phrase such as ‘In
conclusion’, or ‘To conclude’, etc.)
- Paragraphs should not be shorter than 3 sentences.
- Avoid the use of I/me/my, you/your and we/us/our. As an alternative you can use the third form
(he/she/it, or they), general nouns such as ‘passengers’, ‘travelers’, ‘staff’, etc. or passive
constructions (‘Hurrah Airlines is recommended to …’ instead of ‘I recommend Hurrah Airlines
to…’).
- Do not use contractions (isn’t ->is not; don’t -> do not; can’t -> cannot).
Executive summary (1 paragraph)
Summary of your entire report (i.e the most important information from your introduction, your
findings and your recommendations)
Introduction (1 paragraph)
- Specifies the problem that Hurrah Airlines is facing (what does it have to do with?).
- Provides background information: what is the reason for writing this report? (this could be bad
publicity/an increase in complaints/a decrease in the number of customers/…)
- Ends with a thesis statement: This report deals with … (make sure you specify the type of
problem the report is about and refer to the solutions it offers as well).
Findings (number of paragraphs depend on the number of findings/observations/problems; +/- 3
paragraphs)
- Each paragraph deals with one finding (i.e. one thing that presents a problem to travelers of
Hurrah Airlines, e.g. extra costs that disabled passengers face when travelling with Hurrah
Airlines).
- Each paragraph starts with a topic sentence that states what this problem is (The first problem
encountered by many disabled passengers is that they are faced with many extra costs). This
should not be too specific yet (e.g., extra costs), so that you can give examples in the rest of the
paragraph (costs for A, costs for B, costs for C).
- The rest of each paragraph goes into the problem in more detail. You can do this by giving
examples, but also by describing consequences (what is the result of all these extra costs?).
Conclusion (1 paragraph)
Repeats problem and summarizes findings.
Recommendations (1 paragraph)
- For each finding/problem, you present a concrete/specific action (could also be more than 1)
that Hurrah Airlines can take to solve the problem.
- Make a link to the findings (that’s what your recommendations are based on). For example:
‘Based on the findings reported above, Hurrah Airlines is advised to take the following actions’.
- Just taking away the problem does not form a good piece of advice (if the problem is that costs
are too high for disabled travelers, do not say that Hurrah Airlines is recommended to lower the
costs)
- Avoid the use of ‘have to’, ‘must’, ‘should’, ‘need to’ etc. in the recommendations. Use ‘Hurrah
Airlines is advised’, ‘it is recommended’, ‘can’, ‘could’ etc.
, Name
Position
Date
In general:
- Use linking words, not only in the topic sentences of the paragraphs, but also within the
paragraphs (you can list your problems; start your conclusion with a linking phrase such as ‘In
conclusion’, or ‘To conclude’, etc.)
- Paragraphs should not be shorter than 3 sentences.
- Avoid the use of I/me/my, you/your and we/us/our. As an alternative you can use the third form
(he/she/it, or they), general nouns such as ‘passengers’, ‘travelers’, ‘staff’, etc. or passive
constructions (‘Hurrah Airlines is recommended to …’ instead of ‘I recommend Hurrah Airlines
to…’).
- Do not use contractions (isn’t ->is not; don’t -> do not; can’t -> cannot).
