Since it is February, I imagine students are busy with reports and faculty are busy grading. I have also finished grading reports and submitted my grades.
Recently, many universities have been offering freshman seminars or short workshops on how to write reports, haven’t they? Some places have even gone as far as establishing writing centers.
Those kinds of workshops are popular. Even in freshman seminars, students are surprisingly serious when the topic is how to write a report. At our university, we sometimes cover this in freshman seminars, and our center also teaches report writing in luncheon seminars. Those sessions are always packed. In my own classes, I also briefly taught how to write reports toward the end of the term.
I believe that reports have a “form.” Of course, there is also the texture, but I think there is a flow that includes logic. As I wrote on Twitter before, there is a type of logical thinking—or perhaps a diagram or model—devised by a philosopher named Toulmin (this is called the Toulmin model). A report is essentially a stacking of such logic. Logic does not occur as a single, isolated unit. Multiple diagrams connect to form the overall logic.
Within that stacking of logic, there is a flow of logic. This is often taught in elementary and junior high school as “Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu” (introduction, development, turn, and conclusion), but it is a more concrete version of that. For example, it is a flow that includes pointing out a problem, the actual harm caused by it, and why that harm arises from that problem. I believe students need practice in building arguments by stacking logic within such a flow.
What is important in this stacking of logic is information gathering. For us researchers, this means collecting prior research. Kids these days use the Web for everything. It is surprising how they only cite Web information. Although a vast amount of information can be obtained on the Web now, much of it only describes things at a superficial level. Some students even cite Wikipedia. It is astonishing. In my class, I explain why that is not acceptable and forbid them from citing it. I believe they should look at paper media. The discussion section is the unique part of a report, but if that discussion is based on logic relying only on Web information, such as newspaper articles, it is a very shallow discussion. It feels like they are stating someone else’s opinion in words that are not their own. That is truly not good. If you are going to cite a newspaper article, remember that newspaper articles only state facts; if you do not grasp the background through books such as specialized texts, your discussion will remain shallow.
I did not understand these things from the beginning either. Twelve or thirteen years ago, when I was a student, no one taught us how to write reports in class. I learned in the ESS (English Speaking Society). Since it is a club that has continued for over 70 years, its guidance and activities have become quite refined. Third-year students serve as the executive committee, handling guidance and project planning, but starting around the autumn of their second year, they analyze the projects and guidance methods used by their seniors and establish policies for the following year based on improvement proposals and new project plans. A vote of confidence is held to see if the content is good. If it is not good, it is sent back for revision.
I was in a group that learned how to debate in English, and what we used to learn the logic and the stacking of logic mentioned above were sheets based on the Problem Solving (Pro-Sol) format and Observation format, which had been improved over generations and passed down traditionally. New first-year students were given samples, and they would write down what they had researched according to those sheets, formulate plans on simple themes, and hold debates three times a week. By using these sheets, you could learn not only logic but also how to stack that logic. We would have our seniors look at them, receive feedback, and then head into the debate.
After repeating that, writing reports was no trouble at all. It was hard to get used to it during my first year, but by the time I was a second-year student, I don’t remember struggling with report assignments around the summer. My grades for report-writing classes were on the good side.
There are many ways to write reports, and this method is not absolutely the best. There are many types of reports, so there are cases where the method above does not fit. However, just knowing a certain form does not mean you will suddenly become good at writing reports. At this point, there is no choice but to write a lot, have many people read it, and learn from it. Even if you learn logic—in the ESS, we used a “triangular logic” which was a simplified version of the Toulmin model—simply remembering such a model does not mean you can write a good report immediately. Students who participate in the workshops I mentioned earlier are under the ridiculous misunderstanding that they will be taught “how to write a report with immediate effect” (books with titles that cater to such needs sell well, don’t they… Hahaha. It’s like a shady consultant bluffing their way through).
Reports have a form, and knowing it might be a good thing, but unless you work on it continuously outside of class, you will not be able to write a report that people around you will read and say, “This is good.” It is important to learn the basic form, try it out continuously outside of class, and add substance to the basic form as needed. As long as you keep repeating the process of learning how to write a report only when you think, “Oh, I have to do this” before a test, you will never become good at writing.
Well, even I find it difficult. Writing a research paper is a struggle. No matter how much I write, it is difficult. Even when I write alone, I wonder if this is okay, and I feel anxious. That is why I have the teachers I am close with read it. Even when I think, “Will this work?” they point out various things. That is how difficult it is to write a good report (or a research paper, in my case).
I teach classes on learning support and examine learning support systems and methods in learning commons. Regarding reports, I intend to teach using the traditional sheets that I was able to learn from effectively when I was a student, and I plan to use them in the report support system at the learning commons as well. However, I will not provide “hand-holding” or close-contact guidance. They are university students, so I will have them think for themselves and do their best. I only create the trigger (though creating that trigger is quite difficult. I still have a long way to go, lol).