The Title Page

The title page of a formal report has four parts. It has:

The full title of the report. The title should be informative, yet not too long.

The name of the organization or company for which the report was prepared. You may also include a person's name who is from that company or organization, such as a contact person or your intended audience.

The name of your organization or company. You may also include the name of the person who wrote the report, if that information is needed.

The date the report was issued. Sometimes there is also a report number. This should also be included. Both the date and report number are offset right and left. If there's no report number, and just a date, the date should be centered on the page.

A title page should be simple, but you must place the text on the page so that it is visually appealing. Each line on the title page should be centered on either the left or right side of the vertical centerline. This vertical centerline should be offset about 0.25 inches to the right, because of the unusable 0.5 to 0.75 inches on the left hand side of the page, where it is usually bound or punched for a binder. This is in addition to the margin. While this sounds complicated, it's not. Most word processing programs will do this for you once you define your printing requirements.

NOTE: If the report is printed on the front and back side of a page, then the centerline offset on the back side of the page is offset 0.25 to the right.

An example of a title page is pictured below.

The Summary

The Summary comes immediately after the title page, but before the Table of Contents. It's always on a page by itself. Do not place other compartments, sections, or parts with your summary statement. Again, it should always be on its own page.

As you start to write reports, the summary statement may start to become the easiest part of the report to write. You should always write the summary statement last. That is true. But, because you write it last and simply summarize the contents of the report, it may also become the compartment of the report that you spend the least amount of time writing. For that reason, it's important that you realize that the summary statement is the most important page in a report. It's the first part of your actual report that your audience reads, so it must interest them enough for them to continue reading.

When writing the summary statement:

Write the summary statement last – after you've written the rest of the report.

Center the summary statement on the page, both from the left and right margins, as well as from top to bottom on the page.

Get your information for the summary from the Introduction (Background), the Discussion (use highlights), and the Conclusions and Recommendations.

The summary should be as brief as possible. Be specific when stating information. Don't generalize.

Always remember who your audience is, and write what they want to hear, or need to know.

Don't use technical words in the summary, so that it can be understood by anyone who reads the report.

The Table of Contents

A Table of Contents helps a reader find the information they want in your report. It's the same as a Table of Contents for a novel or any book that you read. However, a Table of Contents in a formal report has another purpose, as well. It lets your audience see how your information is organized, and the topics that are discussed.

Listed below are some things you must do when creating a Table of Contents for a formal report.

Every heading in your report must be included in your Table of Contents.

The headings listed in the Table of Contents must appear as they do in the report.

Sub-headings – or secondary headings that are included under primary headings – can be omitted from the Table of Contents, if they will make it too long, or they take away from the organization shown in the Table of Contents.

Instead of labeling your Table of Contents as "Table of Contents," you can label it as "Contents". This is more appropriate.

Appendixes must be listed. You can list them separately at the end of the Table of Contents by centering the word "Appendixes," then listing each appendix. You do not need page numbers for them.

If you have drawings or illustrations that are grouped separately, they must also be listed. You can simply use "Illustrations," then a page number to direct the reader to where they can find illustrations.

Any page that comes before the Table of Contents should be listed in the Table of Contents, but the page number should be a Roman numeral. The page number on the Table of Contents page should also be a Roman numeral. The first page of your report that's labeled with the number "1" should be the Introduction.

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