Tips for Completing the Progress Report-2
Table of Contents
Tips for Completing the Progress Report

1. Complete the prewriting for the progress report:
- Prewriting prepares you to write and helps you organize your ideas.
- You may print the lesson and jot notes for yourself on the paper, or you may write notes on your own.
- You do not have to submit prewriting for any points, but don’t skip this important step!
2. Complete a draft of the progress report:
- Remember to use the memo format style in typing this progress report.
- This report should be two or more pages when you are completed.
- The draft will be much shorter than your final report.
- Follow a logical structure: introduction, what is finished, what is underway, what is left to do, and a conclusion.
- Use specifics such as dates, proper names, numbers, costs, etc.
- Include one or more visuals may such as pictures, graphs, charts, tables, etc.
Tips for Completing the Progress Report

Follow these guidelines below for writing the draft of your Progress Report.
1. You will be writing about one of your own current projects from school, work, home, or community. Your topic must be something that you are able to show progress on, such as working on your college career, job, building a house, applying for a loan, starting a soup kitchen for the homeless, volunteering in your community, etc. These are just a few of the topics students in the past have written about. You may use one of these, or create your own based on one of your current projects.
2. Your report must have at least three headings. More are fine.
3. Your report may be written for an internal audience (in memo format) or an external audience (which requires a letterhead). You may use your own information in the letterhead such as: your name, address, email address and phone number.
4. The report will be several paragraphs with 3-5 sentences in each paragraph. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence.
5. In your report, show how you have overcome some obstacles; explain how far you have come (or, how much has been completed), and how far you have left to go before completion. Do not just make up a list of courses you have completed and count this as a paragraph.
6. Use visuals that relate to your subject: pictures, charts, graphics, etc.
7. End with a positive paragraph that focuses on the future.
8. Be specific! Details about dates, costs, names, measurements, etc. are key.
9. Proofread for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.
10. Show your audience why you chose this topic and its importance to you.
Progress Report Assignment and Criteria:

1. Your report must cover a project your are currently working on from school, work, home, or community.
2. Three or more headings required: Work Completed, Work Underway, Work Not Started, Conclusion. These will vary depending on your progress.
3. Use memo format for this progress report and address it to either your instructor or the most logical person.
4. The report will be several paragraphs with 3-5 sentences in each paragraph. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence. This report should be about two pages or more.
5. Show how you have overcome some obstacles; explain how far you have come (or, how much has been completed), and how far you have left to go before completion. Do not just make up a list of courses you have completed and count this as a paragraph.
6. Use one or more visuals. Don’t make them too large and place them where they go with the text.
7. End with a positive paragraph that focuses on the future.
8. Be specific! Use numbers, costs, dates, proper names, measurements, etc.
9. Proofread for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.
10. Show your audience why you chose this topic and its importance to you.
Subject: Progress on Document Retention and Destruction Project
I have been currently working towards identifying and cleaning out our document storage area. The task is to reduce the amount of documents by at least 25%. Along with destroying our document inventory all remaining documents marked for retention need to be brought up to government compliance.
Logistics prior to starting task

Our document inventory has around 1500 documents, of those 1500 documents about 40% of the documents are out of compliance with government regulations. To accurately identify documents out of compliance I first need to identify which documents are able to be destroyed. To do this, help from program managers and other parties from the technical staff will need to be involved.
Once documents have been reviewed and approved for being destroyed I will bring in an outside contractor such as Data Destruction. This will save the company time and expense with me personally not destroying the documents. The costs will be discussed in the next section. While documents being reviewed are marked for destruction, the documents needing to be retained will be managed and logged into our company database by me.
What has been Completed
With the amount of documents being stored there were numerous programs involved. I have worked with technical staff and program managers and have completed the review of about 90% of the documents. Out of that percentage about 30% have been marked for destruction and have been destroyed.
Bringing in the contractor has been a tremendous help to the organization. The first day she was on site she destroyed over 150 documents and worked six hours to support this project. Bringing her in has saved the company over a $100 and 6 hours of time it would have tied my schedule up.
There have been 200 documents that were marked for retention for future projects and all have been uploaded into our company database. Along with uploading the documents into the database I have brought each of the 200 documents into government compliance.
What still need to be Completed
There are still documents that have not been reviewed and staff has not determined whether some documents can be destroyed or retained. I am continuing to push on this to be completed. One program manager is too busy with current projects of his own and has not had free time to complete his review. Another group of documents that we are in need of a resolution are on hold because of communications between our contracts department and the government.
Conclusion
The next government audit is not until the fall and I am pretty positive that this task will be completed by then. It is important to me that we stay compliant and I have a personal goal of completing this project before June 2013. The initial task of reducing the inventory by 25% has been surpassed and I am now attempting to reduce the inventory by 50%.