A report on a student meeting

Learn how to write a report.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

Improvements to Oak Hall

Introduction

This report aims to describe problems in Oak Hall of Residence and discuss possible maintenance work to solve them. The two biggest issues were discussed at a meeting on 12 May, which was attended by 165 of the 250 students who live in the building.

Issue 1: temperature in rooms

A number of students complained that the second-floor bedrooms are too hot. Concerns were raised about lack of sleep and students finding it hard to study in their rooms. Air conditioning was suggested as a possible solution.

However, there is no budget left for installing air conditioning this academic year. Also, installation can only be carried out during holidays as students cannot be present in the building while the work takes place.

Issue 2: improving wheelchair access to Oak Café

It was noted that wheelchair users can only access Oak Café from the back and not the front entrance nearer the lifts. This makes access to the café difficult for wheelchair users. The university is looking to improve its wheelchair access in general by installing ramps in key areas and work can take place during term time with no issues for staff or students.

Conclusion and recommendations

Taking the factors mentioned into account, August would be the best time for the installation of air conditioning. Until then, the university could consider supplying fans to each second-floor room so students can sleep and study comfortably.

The front of the café is recommended as an ideal place to install a wheelchair ramp. This work can take place immediately and should be a priority.

Tips

Start with the aim of the report and say where the information comes from.
Use subheadings to make the layout clear. Follow a logical structure, e.g.:
- Introduction
- The problem(s) (Give each issue a separate section)
- Conclusion and recommendations
Assume the person reading the report has asked you to write it and needs only a brief introduction to the situation.
Use an impersonal, formal style.
Use the passive to keep the focus off individual people:
Concerns were raised about ...
... was suggested ...
You should also use objective language for recommendations and conclusions:
... would be the best …
the university could consider ...
... is recommended ...

Discussion

Have you ever had to write a report? What for?

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Language level

B1 Intermediate

Often I need to make reports at my workplace, minutes and memories of meetings are common documents in my routine.

I never had to write a report but I have to learn how to write for my English exam. So far, this lesson is the most useful for me. I study this lesson very carefully and I am sure I will come back to this lesson.

I had prepared many reports in my life . I have never preparing in english. I would if I could, I think I need some self-confidence . İn sipite of that , I 've been worked hard for many years, I have still not thougt in english. I haven't figured out yet.

Only in school when we had chemistry classes, we wrote reports about the results in the experiments.

No, I never wrote a report in my life. I`m going to do one now to practice.

I usually write a small report after a work meeting to keep informations about what we said. It is useful when we have to speak about this subject again. It permits to remember what were the tasks we had to do.

Yes, I have had to write a report to my local council regarding some repairs to my college property, which were not completed according to the time scales advised. This included dates of the jobs recorded along with correspondence received.

As a student taking a STEM major, It is almost a weekly task for me to write a report (sometimes even four reports!). I do a number of practical courses that require me to report the experiments taking place in the laboratories. It has its own format and unlike the report shown on this page, it includes the aims of the practical course, data obtained from the experiments, discussion, conclusion and so on.

Not me but I attended to my building's meeting. A lot of topics were metioned but one important was that neighbours complained about the pets in the building, some of them were to loud. Opening a pet area was suggested by the Administrator but the budget was not enough and there were a lot of pets.