Reporting Information
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES
• A topic carefully focused for a specific audience
• Definitions of key terms
• Trustworthy information
CONSIDER YOUR RHETORICAL SITUATION
Analyzing your audience, purpose, and other elements of your rhetorical situation will
help you to make the decisions you’ll face as you write.
Address your audience appropriately. If you’re writing a report for an audience you
know—your classmates, your instructor—you can sometimes assume what they will
• What do you know about your audience? To what extent are they like or unlike
you—or one another?
• What background information will your audience likely need on your topic? Will
their knowledge of it vary?
Be clear about your purpose. Consider why you are writing a report on this topic for
this particular audience. Odds are that you want your report to do more than merely
convey information. If you’re writing it for a course, you likely want to learn something
and to get a good grade. If the report is part of a large project—a campaign to
Consider your stance. Think about your own attitudes toward your topic and your
audience: What about this topic captured your interest? Why do you think it matters—
Consider the larger context. What are the various perspectives on the topic, and what
else has been said about it? What larger conversations, if any, is this topic a part of?
Think about media. As the three reports on aerial skiing make clear, the medium you
use to say something plays a big role in determining the message you convey. If you
have a choice, will your text be presented in print? on the web? as an oral report?
Which will be most effective for your subject and audience? If you’ve got audio of an
Think about design. Consider what design elements are available to you and will help
you convey your information in the clearest, most memorable way. For example, large