Here is a summary of the main differences between essay, and report writing. It can make it easy to identify the two on an individual basis. The essay is an analytical piece of writing reflecting the personal arguments. It will also highlight point of view of the author. It has limited information consisting of different types of essays. An essay writing content evaluates the theories and concepts provided by other researchers. You can say that an essay is the evaluation of practical implications of the theory.
A report is a collection of data. It can be numerical, or non-numerical, and is collected by the author. The reports are also of different types. For example, case study reports, surveys and research are some types. In this article, experts of a dissertation writing service UK have taken a detailed difference between the above three;
Formatting:
The essay does not have a table of contents while reports do have structured content. The content of the essay is not divided into subsections. But the content of the report is. The report has a headed section with further sub-sections. There are no tables, charts, or diagrams in the essay. Whereas reports have these displays. The essay writing does not have any method of analysis. But report writing does have a method of collecting the data. The author mentions the method in body of the report. Essay writing does not have any personal input, or research in the essay. Report writing is a type of research. This is because the author collects the data, and interprets the findings.Purpose Of The Essay And Report:
Essay writing is based more on academic literature. It helps in the evaluation of understanding by students about various concepts. For example, the 'Essay on the terrorism is a creation of western world and islamophobia'. The students will give their view and analysis about the statement.While report writing is most often generated, and used in practical workplaces. It gives an analysis of the growth, demise, and new findings as well. The annual budgetary report can be taken as an example within this context. Essay writing does not have an audience to address, but is written for the topic justification. Whereas report writing is drafted for a specific audience in mind.
Types:
Essay, and report writing both are of different types. They are used for different purposes as well. Essay writing is most often done as narrative, descriptive, and argumentative essays. Report writing is most often used for surveys, as well as laboratory tests, and work reports. The purpose is the same. It is to analyse the information gained over a specific period of time.Structure:
The structure of report writing is different from essay writing, and is stricter. Report writing starts with aims, and objectives of the research. In chronological order, it describes the data collected from the field. The field may be based on a company, or laboratory experiment. The assessment of results of a report is in the conclusion section. The introduction contains essential background of the topic of report writing. The literature review is after the introduction. It seeks to provide relevant research. The method that the researcher uses for data collection comes after this section.The findings of report in the form of figures, tables, and smart art are given at the end. Then comes the important part of report writing. This is known as interpretation. The author gives an analysis of the findings. These are connected with the title of that report. This gives the reader an idea of what is the meaning of this report. The overall report is then summated into the conclusion. Strategic recommendations are given at the end of a report.
Essay writing has a different structure, which is simpler too. An essay starts with introduction to the type of essay. The content of an essay is divided into different paragraphs. The author describes introduction to the topic in the initial paragraph. The general structure of essay writing is synthesis of the information. The main body of an essay includes paragraphs of the content. The author provides an argument related to the topic, and then supports it with the literature. A similar structure is followed throughout the essay. The content, and referencing are only related to the essay question. Bibliography used within the essay comes at the end to give a proper reference.
The conclusion section is at the end of both report, and the essay. It gives a conclusion of the aim of essay, and report writing. But report writing can have more than one conclusion. This is because the data of a report is on different indicators. Every indicator may have a different result, and conclusion as well.