Incident Report
Incident Reports
An incident report can also be known as an occurrence or accident report. It tells about an event that happened, as well as why it happened, what effect it had, and what has been done about it. In addition, it can tell about corrective actions or things that have been done to prevent the event from recurring. It contains the following compartments:- Summary. The summary should have two parts. It should tell what happened, and it should also tell what was the result.
- Background. Answers the questions: who, why, where, and when.
- Facts and Events. Answers the questions: what and how.
- Outcome. The outcome compartment should tell the result of the incident. What was the result? What have you done about the incident?
How much information and detail you include in each compartment will depend on the importance of the event and your audience.
To write an incident report, you will follow the instructions you learned for writing reports in the first four lessons of this course.
In short, you will:
- Determine your audience.
- Determine what message your audience wants to hear.
- Create your main message.
- Create a preliminary outline.
- Label the topics by compartment.
- Create an outline with topics and subtopics, and arrange them in the order that they will appear in the report, using the report pyramid as a guide.
- Write a first draft.
- Proofread the first draft.
- Make note of any changes that need to be made.
- Write a second draft. This can also be the final draft. Remember, you can have as many drafts as you want and/or need.
Section Review 1
Below are excerpted paragraphs from a draft of an incident report. Read the paragraph, then choose the compartment in which the paragraph belongs.1. A power outage interrupted the installation of new computers in the regional customer service department located in the Burlington office. This will increase labor for the company-wide upgrade by $6,400 and delay completion for 72 hours.
____ Summary Statement
____ Outcome
____ Facts and Events
2. The power outage was caused by a multi-car accident on Highway 126 on Friday, July 6. The outage lasted for approximately four hours. The installation team attempted to proceed with installation using the office's back up generators for power; however, the power outage affected Internet access, as well. The team was unable to get the computers online to finish installation.
____ Summary Statement
____ Outcome
____ Facts and Events
3. I have scheduled the installation team to return to the Burlington office on Monday evening, July 9, to finish installation of the new computers. I have notified Herbert Reed, the general manager of the Burlington location, that our team will arrive at 6 p.m. and will finish installation by 11 p.m. the same night, and that he can expect all new computers to be up and running when his staff arrives on July 10.
____ Summary Statement
____ Outcome
____ Facts and Events
]]>