The Sunday News
Charles Dube
There are various formats of report writing which at times are of no major consequence if not properly written. But there is one laid out this way: From? To, Date and then Subject. Examiners are concerned with how well the report is structured. Was the student able to maintain appropriate register? (Register means the use of accurate words and vocabulary required for a formal report).
The other area of concern by examiners is whether the student has answered all the rubric points. He best expected way to begin a report in an O-level English paper is to write, Sir or Madam and put the date adjacent to it, unless instructed otherwise. The first paragraph should tell what the report is about. If reporting about an event then in the first paragraph you should also inform the reader when and where the event took place.
The second paragraph should tell how the entire event took place. Some eye catching and relevant incidents worth mentioning should be added as well. Last paragraph should add some suggestions and concluding remarks from the writer’s side. Writer should be entirely objective. At times examiners ask the candidates to provide some suggestions, in that case students are free to add subjective remarks but not to extremes.
Students should end their reports by writing their names and signatures. They should also keep their language simple. For students to articulate themselves well in report writing just like in ordinary composition they should be conversant with different parts of speech. They should use prepositions properly which is a challenge to many students. A preposition is a word that shows the relationship of a noun or a pronoun to another word in a sentence.
Example: The father of these children has left for town. (Of here shows the relationship of the father to the children). I will come after lunch. (After expresses the time relationship between lunch and when I will come). She sang a song for them. (For relates the verb song to the pronoun them). There are instances when prepositions are married to other words such that they have practically become one word. This occurs in three categories; nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.
Examples of nouns and prepositions: approval of, concern for, desire for, belief in, confusion about. Adjectives and prepositions: afraid of, angry with/at, familiar with. Verbs and prepositions: ask for, belong to, bring up, find out, care for, apologise for. We have many commonly used prepositions, like, against, in, inside, besides, into, for, off, onto, out, over, around, up, except, underneath, to, beneath, despite, down, opposite, until, upon, from, toward, but (meaning except), beside, at, before, by and many others.
We can also identify compound prepositions. A compound preposition is a preposition that is made up of more than one word. Examples are as follows: in front of, on account of, on top of, in spite of, out of, in addition to, except for, next to, apart from, along with, instead of, ahead of, according to, and so on. Another challenging area for students is punctuation. Punctuation involves the use of full stops, commas, colons, semi-colons, question marks, exclamation marks and apostrophes.
While it might be straight forward when to use punctuation like a full stop or period, some of the punctuation marks are quite tricky. A full stop marks the end of a sentence. It is also used after initials like: R. James or after some abbreviations which do not require capitals like, etc. e.g. Commas: A comma is the punctuation mark used to indicate a slight pause or break between parts of sentence.
Commas should be used to separate words in a list. Example: The man ate oranges, mangoes, apples and guavas. They can be used to separate clauses in a sentence e.g. When she drank water, she threw it out. Colons: A colon is the punctuation mark usually used to show that a list will follow: She went to town and bought the following items: pieces of cloth, soft drinks, stationery and a wedding ring. Use colons to introduce a list, especially after a statement that uses such words as these, namely, the following, or as follows.
Use a colon to introduce material that illustrates, explains, restates the preceding material. Note: A complete sentence following a colon should be capitalised. Example: The cause of the accident was obvious. The driven was speeding and ignoring traffic signs. Other uses of the colon: Use a colon between the hour and the minute of the precise time Examples: 7:10 A.M. 3:20P,M. Use a colon between the chapter and the verse in biblical references – Mark 3: 5, Exodus 3: 4.
Semi-colons separate main clauses. They are usually used to join together two independent clauses, (joining two clauses that could be sentences). Jane teaches English Language; John teaches Geography. Use a semi-colon to join clauses using a transition such as: in addition, however, otherwise, therefore, on the other hand, etc. Joe works all day in the sports shop; in addition, he trains the football team in the evening.
This at times is explained in the following terms: Use a semi-colon to separate main clauses that are joined by a conjunctive adverb (such as therefore, nevertheless, moreover, furthermore, and subsequently) or by an expression such as for example or that is. In general, a conjunctive adverb or an expression such as for example is followed by a comma. We stop here for today with these few examples. For more clarity on the use of these punctuation marks students could do justice unto themselves by researching from other sources which could be simpler than this.
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