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Sociology

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Reports

Report: A formal written document providing technical information and informed opinion relating to a specific task. Considered to be legal documents in the workplace, reports are typically concise and accurate to avoid misinterpretation.

Reports are written for different purposes, and types include technical reports, industry reports, business reports (such as annual reports), financial reports, feasibility studies, laboratory reports, health and safety reports, and case studies.

A report is broken into sections and subsections with headings.

A report may include the following: a letter of transmittal, a title page, an abstract or executive summary, a table of contentstable of figures and tablesscope, an introductionanalysislists, a conclusionrecommendations, and appendices.

Dwyer, J 2009, The Business Communication Handbook, 8th edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest.

Describe progress of research and development projects.

Research typically conducted by government agencies, or supported by government grants or contracts.

Reports may be published in a series if research continues over time.

Technical reports may appear in different formats, including proceedings, transactions, annual reports, or bibliographies.

Reports from federal, provincial, and territorial government departments and agencies. You may also want to search the web sites of relevant federal, provincial and territorial governments individually.

Hints

Including Canada or British Columbia (or another jurisdiction) in the author field helps to limit your search to government documents.
If you know the government department, such as Canada. Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, you can use that as an author or in word(s) anywhere.
Government departments may have changed names over the years and items will appear under the name used at the time of publication. 
For government-produced reports, you may want to try the Canadian Public Policy E-Book Collection.

Canadian Industry Reports (ISIC): ISIC reports are detailed Canadian industry reports.

Search for Reports

  • OCtopus
    • Search by author(s), title, keyword, sponsoring organization, or report number
    • Use the resource type limiter "reports"
  • Internet
    • Many reports are freely available on the Internet, many from the issuing agencies

Reports can be found in print from the Library or online
Reports that are not available in full text or in the Library may be ordered via inter-library loan
Some databases provide full-text access to reports, while others only provide citations

Key Databases to Find Reports

Search the below library databases for reports.

Find Reports Online (INDEXES)

These indexes either provide full-text access to reports, or citations, which will provide you with information you can use to find the full-text via Interlibrary Loan, or through OCtopus.

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