Useful language for reports- make me say yes
A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS
Vital verbs and phrases for writing reports through a speaking game
Lesson Plan Content:
Useful language for reports make me say yes
Ask your partner Yes/ No questions about their (experiences of/ opinions on/ advice on) reports that you think they will say yes to, using vocabulary from this and/ or the next page in each question. There are also suggested questions, but any yes/ no questions on the topic of reports are fine.
Suggested questions
According to what you’ve heard/ read/ experienced/ found, …?
Are you aware of…?
Do you (generally) find that…?
Do you (generally/ highly) recommend…?
Do you (generally)…?
Does it seem to you/ appear to you that…?
From what you have heard/ read/ seen/ found, …?
Have you (ever) found/ heard/ seen/ read…?
If I surveyed (your)…, would I find that…?
In your experience,…?
Judging from what you’ve read/ heard/ seen/ found to the case,…?
To the best of your knowledge, would it be (more or less) accurate to say that…?
Would you agree with my prediction that…?
Would you agree that…?
Would you also estimate that…?
Would you (highly/ probably) recommend…?
Would you (generally)…?
(almost/ virtually/ absolutely) always
(absolutely/ virtually/ almost) all
(almost) certainly
could (possibly/ conceivably)
(very/ a/ quite a) few
(very) frequently/ often
(quite) a lot of
the (vast) majority of
(very/ not) many
may/ might (well)
a (tiny/ small/ considerable/ substantial) minority of
(almost/ virtually/ absolutely) never
(absolutely/ virtually/ almost) no
a (certain/ tiny/ small/ fairly large/ considerable/ substantial/ large/ huge) number of
(very) occasionally/ seldom/ rarely
(very) probably
Key words/ topics related to reports
- (course of) action (so far)
- (main) aim(s)/ intention/ purpose/ goal(s)
- appendix/ appendices
- (bringing a matter to everyone’s) attention
- background (information)
- based on/ built around…
- bold (script)
- bullet points
- (getting to the bottom of) (root) causes/ origins
- (bar/pie/flow)charts
- commissioning/ commissioner
- (final/ tentative/ provisional) conclusion
- (positive/ negative) consequences/ effects
- (list of/ table of) contents (page)
- (detailed/ selected/ recent/ reliable/ estimated) data/ figures/ statistics
- (first/ initial/ second/ final) draft
- emphasizing/ highlighting (important information)
- (concrete/ reliable) evidence
- feasibility study
- focus (on)
- footnotes
- (confident/ short-term/ long-term) forecasts/ predictions
- (in)formal(ity)
- (over)generalising
- (line/ bar) graphs
- introduction
- (dealing with) (ongoing/ urgent/ pressing/ imminent) issues
- overview
- (objective) point of view/ perspective
- (step-by-step/ systematic) process/ procedure
- (business/ initial) proposal
- (analysis of) (online/ feedback/ customer satisfaction) questionnaire/ survey (responses)
- (anonymous/ direct/ attributed) quote/ quotation
- (strong/ chief/ main/ additional/ secondary) recommendations
- references
- (annual/ financial/ official/ quarterly/ internal/ progress/ sales/ confidential/ joint) reports
- (market) research (findings/ results)
- (sub-)section (headings)
- (current/ present) situation
- (reliable) sources (of information/ data)
- sum up/ summarise/ (overall/ final/ executive) summary
- tables (of data/ figures/ stats)
- title (page)
- underline(d/ing)
Useful language for reports collocations
Perhaps after brainstorming possible endings for the words on this page and/ or words before the words on the next page, match the words on the left of this page to the words in the same section on the right of the next page to make collocations related to reports.
- (almost/ virtually/ absolutely)
- (bar/ pie/ flow)
- (course of)
- (final/ tentative/ provisional)
- (implementing)
- (list of/ table of)
- (main)
- (positive/ negative/ short-term/ medium-term/ long-term)
- (root)
- (absolutely)
- (confident/ short-term/ long-term)
- (deal with/ ongoing/ urgent/ pressing/ imminent)
- (first/ initial/ second/ final)
- (incredibly/ extremely)
- (line/ bar)
- (recent/ reliable/ detailed/ selected/ concrete/ estimated)
- (section)
- (strongly/ subtly)
- (a certain/ tiny/ small/ fairly large/ substantial/ huge)
- (a tiny/ a small/ a substantial/ a considerable)
- (business/ initial)
- (foot)
- (personal)
- (proof)
- (really/ desperately)
- (step-by-step/ systematic)
- (the vast/ the overwhelming)
- (annual/ financial/ quarterly/ internal/ progress/ sales)
- (anonymous/ direct/ attributed)
- (current/ present/ tricky)
- (feasibility)
- (generally/ highly/ probably/ personally)
- (online/ feedback/ customer satisfaction)
- (over-/ point of/ personal)
- (overall/ final/ executive/ brief)
- (short-term/ long-term/ possible/ practical/ full/ partial)
- (strong/ chief/ main/ additional/ secondary)
+action
+aim/ purpose/ goal(s)
+always/ all/ never/ no
+causes
+change/ innovation
+charts
+conclusion
+consequences
+contents
+crucial/ vital
+data/ figures
+draft
+emphasise
+forecast/ prediction
+graphs
+headings
+important
+issues
+majority of
+minority of
+need/ require
+notes
+number of
+perspective
+process/ procedure
+read(er/ing)
+proposal
+questionnaire/ survey
+quote/ quotation
+recommend
+recommendation
+report
+situation
+solution
+study
+summary
+view
Vocabulary for reports word formation
Make at least one different form of each word below (e.g. a noun if it is a verb).
- act
- add
- append
- certain
- conclude
- consider
- emphasis
- estimate
- feasible
- finance
- frequent
- general
- inform
- intent
- introduce
- know
- line
- major
- minor
- occasion
- office
- predict
- probable
- propose
- quote
- question
- recommend
- refer
- rely
- second
- summary
- system
- virtual
Suggested answers
- act – action/ inaction/ active/ inactive/ actionable
- add – addition/ additional/ additionally
- append – appendix/ appendices
- certain – certainty/ certainly/ certitude
- conclude – conclusion/ conclusive/ inconclusive
- consider – considerable/ inconsiderable/ consideration
- emphasis – emphasise/ deemphasis/ deemphasise/ emphatic
- estimate – estimated/ estimation
- feasible – feasibility/ unfeasible/ unfeasibly
- finance – financial/ financially
- frequent – frequently/ infrequent/ infrequently/ frequency
- general – generally/ generalise/ generalisation
- inform – information/ misinform/ disinformation
- intent – intention/ intended/ unintended
- introduce – introduction
- know – knowledge/ known/ unknown
- line – underline
- major – majority
- minor – minority
- occasion – occasional/ occasionally
- office – official/ unofficial/ officially/ unofficially
- predict – prediction/ predictable/ unpredictable
- probable – probably/ improbable/ probability/ improbability
- propose – proposal/ proposed
- quote – misquote/ quotation / misquotation
- question – questionable/ unquestionable/ questionnaire
- recommend – recommended/ recommendation
- refer – reference/ referral
- rely – reliable/ unreliable/ reliance
- second – secondary/ secondly/ secondment
- summary – summarise
- system – systematic/ systematise
- virtual – virtually
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