Writing a B2 First Report

Writing a B2 First report is one of the options in the second part of the B2 First Writing exam. You must always write an essay in the first section; however, you can select between an email or letter, an article, a review, or a report in the second section.

Writing a report is not difficult, because there are very clear guidelines that guide you and give you a framework to use to achieve a good score.

All report tasks are similar, which means you can practice and learn to recognize these common characteristics. This makes writing reports simpler and faster, and as a result a good option for your test. This article discusses these similarities, report structure, as well as useful phrases and common errors to avoid if you want to earn good marks. 

Whenever you prepare to examine a task, make sure to consider these particular points:

• Who is going to read your report?- green
• What is the topic? (subject) – red
• What should it contain? – blue

When you read the task, underline the most important phrases that answer the three questions above. For example:

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Firstly, you need to answer the question: Who is going to read your report (green).

In this example, it is for your teacher. You need this information to tell you whether your report should be written in formal, semi-formal or informal English.

Your teacher is your superior, so in this case, it should be in formal English. In formal English, you shouldn’t use phrasal verbs, idioms, colloquial language or contractions. This an important part of your score, so you should be familiar with doing it correctly.

The answer to the second question, the topic, is in red. It is crucial that this is correct. You don’t want to write a great report on the wrong subject. This is a very common error!

Then, you need to analyse the main points that should be included. There are two main points in this question (sometimes there are three) highlighted, and they are in blue.

You can structure every report in more or less the same way.

You have to use the two parts from the questions above.

Use one paragraph for each.

So,
Paragraph 1: Introduction –
Paragraph 2: the sections of the museum
Paragraph 3: if younger students would enjoy it and why.
Paragraph 4: Recommendations/ conclusion

In a report, you should also have a title and subheadings for each paragraph. Reports are written for specific people or group of specific people. They do not want to read through information they are not interested in, so subheadings show them exactly where to find the information they want quickly and easily.

Therefore, using a topic sentence is not as important as usual because the subheadings introduce the paragraph instead.

As usual, planning is essential, although many students either don’t plan at all or make their plans so detailed, they run out if time to write their task.

A report doesn’t need to be exciting or creative, all you need to do is state the facts clearly and concisely.
To state the facts clearly and concisely, use your paragraph structure to note what you know about each part and also what you need to create to complete the task.
In this question, for example, you could have the following ideas.

Paragraph 1: Introduction – when you visited the museum, which museum it was and where it is located.

Paragraph 2: The sections of the museum – how the sections were divided, ie by age, by area, by interest. And what was in these sections.

Paragraph 3: if younger students would enjoy it and why – REMEMBER it is ok to say they would not enjoy it. Say which parts you think would appeal to younger students (maybe define which students by age). Also say why, ie because they would find it exciting, boring, interesting and so on. Also saying something like – If I had visited this museum when I was younger, I would find history much more interesting.

Paragraph 4: recommendations / conclusion – Here a recommendation would be better, so you could recommend that younger students visit the museum (or not) for xx reasons.  

Using this method to practice will let you know about how many sentences you need in each paragraph. You need to write between 140 to 190 words in total, so if you have four paragraphs, that means between 35 and 47 words per paragraph. If you have five paragraphs using three points, then you should write between 28 and 38 words per paragraph.

Note, when you count words, don’t count each word, count how many words are in one line, then count the lines. Much quicker. If you practice well, then you will know how many lines you need in each paragraph.

Sometimes it is easy to think of ideas for one part but difficult for another. If you turn an idea around, it can be useful. For example, you could take a reason you enjoyed the museum as being too scary for younger kids.

Let’s go into more detail about how to write each paragraph with some model phrases to help you.

Note that it is ALWAYS better to use your own words to say something rather than copying them from the question. Aim to be as accurate as possible, but if you find you can’t paraphrase like this, just do your best. Paraphrasing is good for your score, but doing it poorly won’t deduct as many points as not doing it at all.

Title

State briefly what the report is about. In the above example, you could use a title such as A Museum Visit or Visiting Newark Museum

Introduction (the goal of the report)

The aim of this report is to …..
The purpose of this report is to explain / describe / present / …
This report aims to…
It is the result of a discussion which took place among / between …

Developing Paragraphs

Useful phrases for developing paragraphs are:
First of all,…
Firstly,…
Secondly,…
Furthermore,…
Moreover,…
In fact,…
Lastly,…
Finally,…
The outlook for …… is bright/optimistic/depressing
The future looks bleak/remains uncertain/is promising
This seems unlikely in the near/foreseeable future

A last short paragraph is needed to finish the report.
This depends on the things you mentioned in the topic paragraphs and the exact requirements in the task. Usually, you have to make a recommendation, so it is important to be persuasive.
In this example though, some recommendations have already been made, so you can either reinforce them or give a short conclusion. Whatever you do, make sure the subheadings let the reader know where that information is.

Phrases for recommendations or conclusions are:

Recommendations

I would strongly recommend that…
The best solution would be to…
In order to improve …… it is necessary to..
This will have an impact on NOUN

Conclusion

In conclusion, …
From the above it can be concluded that…

Like any writing task you will improve your report writing with practice. These improvements will be faster and more effective if you enlist the help of a professional teacher to help you. Good luck with your report writing! I’m sure after some trial and error, they will become effortless.

Sample Answers

There is a sample report here.