An Executive Summary That Is Really an Introduction
It should state the findings and the recommendation, so a busy reader could stop there. Most drafts use it to explain what the report is about — which is the introduction's job, done twice.
THE REAL PROBLEM
Why Do I Lose Marks on Report Assignments?
A report is the one assignment where the format carries real marks. Markers open it expecting a specific sequence — summary, then what you did, then what you found, then what should happen next — and they can tell within a page whether that sequence exists.
Essays forgive a wandering structure if the argument is good. Reports do not. Put discussion inside your findings, hand in an executive summary that is really an introduction, or leave a chart without a caption, and marks disappear from criteria that had nothing to do with your research.
The work you did is usually fine. It is sitting under the wrong headings, in the wrong order, for a reader who was given a checklist.
Send My Report Brief
Headings That Ignore the Brief
When a brief lists required sections and numbering, that list is the marking scheme. Renaming or reordering it costs marks no amount of good content gets back.
Findings and Discussion Blended Together
Findings say what the data shows. Discussion says what it means. Merged into one section, the marker cannot award either criterion cleanly.
Tables and Charts Dropped In Unexplained
An unlabelled figure with no caption, no source and no sentence interpreting it is decoration. Every visual should be doing an argument's work.
Recommendations That Do Not Follow the Findings
A recommendation appearing from nowhere in the final section tells a marker you decided it before the analysis. Each one should trace back to a specific finding.
Lab Reports Written as a Story
Method in past-tense narrative, results without uncertainty, no error analysis. In a lab report those sections are where the technical marks actually sit.