Reports- Preposition and Determiner Pairwork

Useful phrases for reports determiners and prepositions pairwork

Student A – Prepositions

Choose one section below and read out sentences with the word in bold left out (e.g. “Moving BLANK/ BEEP/ LA LA LA to the second event dot dot dot”) until your partner guesses the missing word. They can only guess once per sentence. If you run out of example sentences without them guessing correctly, make up more examples, preferably phrases which are suitable for reports. If they still can’t guess, you can give other hints, but don’t say the answer until they guess correctly.

On

As the head of PR, I was asked to write a report on the subject of…

We obtained feedback on our products by…

Moving on to the second event,…

The effect on customer satisfaction would be…

Of

The purpose of this proposal is to…

A survey of our customers revealed that…

A substantial majority of our staff

I recommend that we look into the possibility of…

There is a comparative lack of…

Terms of reference:

For

Comments from clients have shown a need for…

For the reasons given above, we recommend…

It is essential for the company to respond by…

There is a need for action on…

Both products are suitable for…

In

In spite of the problems,…

In contrast to our competitors,…

In addition to the annual staff survey, I looked at…

This lack of preparation resulted in…

I also suggest that in future we should think about…

In order to respond to this, the company should…

In conclusion,…

The two companies have products which fit well together both in terms of compatibility and…

To

Due to the fact that…,…

It is recommended that we meet their representatives with a view to…

The agreement will hopefully lead to…

By

This report was to be submitted by 19 March 2009.

We surveyed our customers by…

At

This report will look at…

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Student B – Determiners

Choose one section below and read out sentences with the word in bold left out (e.g. “Moving BLANK/ BEEP/ LA LA LA to the second event dot dot dot”) until your partner guesses the missing word. They can only guess once per sentence. If you run out of example sentences without them guessing correctly, make up more examples, preferably phrases which are suitable for reports. If they still can’t guess, you can give other hints, but don’t say the answer until they guess correctly.

- (= no determiner/ zero article)

Most ___________ managers consider them to be…

A

A frequent comment was that…

There is a lack of…

There is a need for…

My

My chief recommendation is that…

Our

We compared our own products and those of our competitors. 

We would be able to improve our company image by…

The

As the head of marketing, I was asked to write a report on…

Due to the fact that…

Due to the reasons given above, I strongly recommend…

I recommend that we look into the possibility of…

It is not possible to reduce the number of…

…in the next quarter.

…in the coming year.

The aim of this report is to examine the advantages of…

The average was 72%.

The best location would be…

The current situation…

The main reason was…

The main advantage would be…

The purpose of this report is to outline the shortcomings of…

The purpose of this report is to summarise the findings of a survey on…

The vast majority of customers…

This has risen to the present figure of 10,700.

To summarise the information above…

The questions asked can be divided into the following categories:

The second part of the process is…

The current… is not acceptable because…

This

I have written this report in order to…

This report was written in order to…

This report examines…

The aim of this report is to…

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Useful phrases for reports brainstorming

First of all without looking above, brainstorm suitable language into these categories:

Topic/ Purpose of report

 

 

 

 

Describing/ Explaining problems

 

 

 

 

Talking about research

 

 

 

 

Changing topic

 

 

 

 

Expressions meaning “…,but…”

 

 

 

 

Expressions meaning “…,and…”

 

 

 

 

Consequences/ Effects/ Reasons/ Results (= Expressions meaning “…because…” and  “…,so…”)

 

 

 

 

Recommendations/ Suggestions

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

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Suggested answers

Compare with the phrases below. Many more phrases are possible, so please check if you wrote something different.

Topic/ Purpose of report

As the head of PR, I was asked to write a report on…

The purpose of this proposal is to compare/ describe/ evaluate/ outline (the shortcomings

of)/ summarise (the findings of a survey on)…

This report aims to/ will investigate/ examine…

….and to make recommendations for improvements/ how (future) events like this are

organised.

Describing/ Explaining problems

One issue is that…

A further problem is…

The main shortcoming is…

One major disadvantage is…

The current… is not acceptable because…

Talking about research

…. stated that they would be keen for…

A (fairly/ very/ extremely) frequent comment was that…

A survey of…. revealed that…

After studying …, it was found that…

Comments (from clients) have shown a need for…

Customers completed a feedback card/ form/ survey asking them to rate…

I have investigated…

It was (also) suggested/ found that…

The survey found that….

We are investigating ways of…

We obtained feedback on our products/ services by…

The vast majority of/ Most/ Several/ A few managers/ customers/ staff/ clients/ attendees/

visitors considered them to be/ expressed/ requested/ mentioned…

Most of our/ the/ these/ those/ them…

Changing topic

As for…,…

Moving on to…,…

Finally,…

Firstly,…

With regard to…,…

NOT At first

NOT At last

Expressions meaning “…,but…”

Although…,…

In spite of/ Despite (the fact that)…

…. However,…

…. Nevertheless,…

…. In contrast,…

Expressions meaning “…,and…”

In addition,…

…also…

Furthermore,…

Moreover,…

Consequences/ Effects/ Reasons/ Results (= Expressions meaning “…because…” and  “…,so…”)

…resulted in…

Consequently,…

Due to the fact that…,…

Effects on sales/… would be…

In order to achieve this, we will need to…

In order to obtain maximum benefit from this,…

(Other) reasons for this include…

The main/ most important reason for… is…

This could help us to…

This is (mainly) because…

This is (also) having the effect that…

This will/ would/ should result in (clear benefits for)…

This would benefit the company/… by…

This would mean that…

As a result,…

For that reason,…

Recommendations/ Suggestions

I (also) suggest that (in future we provide)…

I (also) think it would be a good idea to…

I (strongly) recommend that we (choose/ look into the possibility of)…

I feel that it is important that we should...

I suggest we (contact them to negotiate an agreement).

I therefore feel justified in recommending that (we replace our current system with)…

In my view, we should (provide)…

It is essential (for us) to…

It is (therefore) (strongly) recommended that (we consult…)

My second suggestion is that…

We should start to consider how best we can (introduce)…

We should try to improve…

Our chief recommendation is that…

In order to respond to this, the company should/ must…

It is essential that…

There is a need for…

… is necessary.

There is a lack of…

Conclusion

…it can (therefore) be concluded that…

For the reasons given above,...

In conclusion,…