What is the difference between a report and an essay? Good question! If I had a pound every time a student had asked me that question I’d be a rich man!
|A report A report is divided into different parts and sections with headings. There may be numbered parts with headings and subheadings, parts labelled A, B, C and so on.Reports are very common in everyday life. You see them in businesses all the time.|
There are different types of reports. There are academic reports which are like journal articles. There are laboratory reports that scientists write. There are business reports which don’t have the same parts as an academic report.
Reports are often on practical issues. For example: A report into the impact of the tuition fee increase on student applications to university.
The aim of a report is often to make recommendations for action or to find out and present facts.
Here are a couple of real reports that you can look at to get the feel of reports from the outside world:
|An essay Usually there is only the title at the top of the essay and no other headings or subheadings. Just lots of writing with paragraphs breaks.An essay is an academic piece of work and you usually don’t see essays outside college or university.|
Essays are usually on very academic topics, not practical issues.
Essays are more common in Arts and Humanities subjects such as English and History.
The aim of an essay is to discuss, explore and show the reader that you can present and evaluate arguments.
For more help with report writing you check out the excellent Learn Higher site.