g6afiten,39 



WRITING 



SCIENTIFIC 



REPORTS 



4 



George W. Johnson 



Unfortunately it is impossible to be very specific in a discussion of such 

 a broad subject as writing scientific reports, for what may be said specifically 

 about one scientific report may not apply to another. It may be said of reports 

 in general that they increase in number and importance from year to year. If 

 one needs assurance on this point, he need only examine current issues of 

 scientific journals, hardly one of which does not have an article on the need 

 for improvement of reports and what should be done to solve this problem. 

 Research organizations and institutions, whose chief products are reports, spend 

 increasing sums each year to insure that the products not only convey the in- 

 formation intended but reflect credit upon the organizations from which they 

 originate. 



What makes a report good? Before answering such a question, one should 

 consider what a report is. A report may be defined as a presentation of material 

 that is organized to meet the purpose for which the material is to be used. A 

 good report, therefore, must fulfill a specific purpose, and its organization and 

 presentation must serve this purpose as adequately and as efficiently as possible. 



Because the number of purposes of reports almost equals that of reports, 

 a discussion of the general subject of report writing gravitates inevitably to a 

 discussion of reports in particular subject areas and to specific report situations. 

 So it is with this brief discussion, which will consider report writing in the 



779 



