Field reports are written in office environments to state the results and other data obtained from a trip. These reports are also known as field trip reports and are written to summarize details of fieldwork, experiences, observations, and conclusions to clarify both types of qualitative and quantitative data collection. A field report is usually written to explain all procedures and how different sets of data work together to answer the research questions related to your objectives. Field reports can be written on different subjects such as observation of wildlife or evaluation of coal mines etc. Field reports may be written on the functions and relations of an organization’s network with the specific branch. Any kind of field report requires some steps to follow to make sure that the report is effective and professional.
Practical knowledge is as necessary as what students learn in the classroom. The modern education system is working on a collaborative model of theoretical and practical knowledge for better learning of students during their school, college, and university life. Practical work requires full attention and interest and the students need to relate the experiences to their theoretical knowledge of the subject. There is one report writing task adjoined to the practical or fieldwork, called Field Report. Students are required to submit a field report to get evaluated for their knowledge of the fieldwork they have worked on.
Here is a preview of this free Field Report Template created using MS Word,
Field reports are presented after the fieldwork has been performed by the students. This report covers the current fieldwork and all the details, which students have learned. Field reports are a source of evaluation of students’ learning and their performance in practical fieldwork. Field reports often written and submitted, do not yield good grades. This is because they are not written efficiently and in an effective manner. We will focus on how to write a field report effectively, in the coming few lines. However remember, field reports’ success also depends upon the interest in fieldwork; one needs to pay attention and show full interest while in a field otherwise he or she would not have anything to write about in the report.
To write a field report effectively, the first step is to plan your writing. Yeah, you heard me. You also need to do planning in writing; make up your mind, revise all that you observed and learned in the field today, and try to categorize all the jumbled facts and figures revolving in your thinking box.
It is a successful and practical approach to divide the report into several portions, which also helps gather material in the field report as well as provides the right space for expressing the right learning. The most commonly used sections of a field report are:
- Introduction
- The objective of FieldWork
- Background Knowledge
- Equipment Required (if any)
- Procedures
- Observations
- Results
- Discussions and Conclusions
These however can be altered depending on the type of fieldwork. Other sections can be added or removed from the field report as per requirement.
Another important factor in effective field report writing is choosing correct terminologies and sticking to the point. Do not wander here and there in your report just to add up material in the field report, instead stick to the report’s topic and express only what you have learned and what your observations are.
Remember, making notes during the fieldwork can be of much help at later times, both during field report writing and also for revising the field experience if ever needed. Also, pay attention to the instructor’s instructions and stay interested in the work, since it is going to help you both in field report writing and also in exams.
Do not commit grammatical mistakes and follow the format instructions if there are any, given by your instructor.
Here is the download link for the above-mentioned report template,
