To group findings, sort your notes by what the reader wants to know, then give each group a heading that names its content. A report is easier to read when related facts sit together, and easier to mark when the organisation is visible.
This skill appears at the planning stage of any report or longer response in reports and extended responses. It also helps in emails and articles, where paragraphs need one clear job each.
How do you decide what belongs together?
Two notes belong together when they answer the same question for the reader. “Library closes at 1.30 p.m.” and “Students want it open after school” both answer the question “When can students use it?” They belong under one heading.
A heading is useful when a reader could guess the content from the heading alone. “Opening hours” works. “Point 1” and “Other” do not.
How to group notes, step by step
- Read all the notes once without writing anything.
- Ask who the reader is and what decision they need to make. A school council needs different groups from a classmate.
- Mark related notes with the same letter or colour.
- Name each group with a short noun phrase, such as “Study space”.
- Check the size. Aim for three or four groups. One note alone usually belongs with another group, and a group of ten usually needs splitting.
- Put the groups in a logical order, usually the most important or most general first.
Worked example
Task: report to the school council on how Form 4 students use the canteen. You made these notes after talking to 24 students.
- Queue takes 15 minutes or more
- Nasi lemak sells out by 10.30 a.m.
- Only one payment counter
- Few vegetable dishes
- Tables too close together
- Students bring food from home on busy days
- Not enough seats at recess
Step 1, read: the notes are about waiting, food and space.
Step 2, reader: the council wants to know what to change, so the groups should point to things they can change.
Step 3, mark:
- Waiting: queue takes 15 minutes or more; only one payment counter
- Food: nasi lemak sells out by 10.30 a.m.; few vegetable dishes; students bring food from home on busy days
- Space: tables too close together; not enough seats at recess
Step 4, name: “Queues and payment”, “Food choices”, “Seating space”.
Step 5, check the size: three groups with two or three notes each. Good.
Step 6, order: queues first, because it was the most common complaint.
The plan now reads as three short sections the council can act on, instead of seven loose remarks.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to make one heading per note, or to put a leftover group at the end called “Other”.
Mistaken plan: Queue / Nasi lemak / Payment / Vegetables / Tables / Food from home / Seats / Other
There are seven headings for seven notes, so nothing has been grouped and the reader still has to sort the ideas.
The correction is to ask “what question does this note answer?” and to merge notes that answer the same one. If a note truly fits nowhere, it may not belong in the report. The writing revision compare view is useful for checking an old plan against a regrouped one.
Check yourself
1. Group these notes under two headings and name them: “Hall is hot at midday”, “Microphone often fails”, “Seats are hard”, “Sound echoes at the back”.
Show answer
One possible answer: Comfort (hall is hot at midday; seats are hard) and Sound quality (microphone often fails; sound echoes at the back). Other names are acceptable if each heading describes the content and each note has a clear home.
2. Is “Other points” a useful heading? Give a reason.
Show answer
No. It does not tell the reader what to expect, and it usually hides notes that were never sorted. A better heading names the content, such as “Transport to school”.
3. A report has ten notes and six headings, each with one or two notes. What should you try?
Show answer
Merge headings that answer the same reader question, aiming for three or four groups. For example, two headings about waiting time and queue length can become one heading called “Queues”.
Where this leads next
Once your groups are clear, the next step is to keep facts apart from recommendations, which is covered in distinguish observations from suggestions. You can then test the whole module with the reports practice set.
Some students plan well in practice but freeze when the real task has a slightly different reader. A teacher in online one-to-one English as a Second Language tuition can give you fresh tasks and watch how you choose groups.