Report on a Flood

A flood report leads with the human position: how many marooned, how many dead, which districts. Then the cause, the damage to crops and homes, the relief that has reached people and what is still needed. Attribute figures to the district administration or a relief agency rather than stating them unsourced.

The question: Write a report on the recent flood in Bangladesh.

The format

Lead with people, not water levels

How many marooned, in which upazilas, and whether the water is still rising. Rainfall figures and river hydrology are background.

• Attribute the figure to district officials.
• Name the rivers only after the people.
• 🚨 A lead about rainfall has buried the news.

Shelters, then damage

Second paragraph: how many shelters, who has gone and who has stayed and why. Third: crops, homes, schools, embankments.

• The detail that families stay on embankments with cattle is worth a sentence.
• Give crop damage in hectares, approximately.

Report what relief has not reached

Close with distribution and its gaps, and with the Water Development Board on how long levels will stay high. The gap is the reportable part.

• Attribute the gap to residents.
• ⚠️ Do not dramatise; the facts are enough.

Model answer

Model answer (about 205 words)

Thousands marooned as flood worsens in north

Staff Correspondent

Kurigram, 5 September: Tens of thousands of people have been marooned in four upazilas of Kurigram as water from the Brahmaputra and the Dharla continued to rise on Thursday, district officials said.

The district administration said around forty unions had been affected, with water entering homes in the low-lying char areas first. Roughly a hundred and fifty shelters have been opened in schools and cyclone centres, though many families have chosen to stay on embankments with their cattle rather than leave their homesteads.

Standing aman seedlings across several thousand hectares are reported to be under water, and vegetable plots in the chars have been lost. Two primary schools in Ulipur upazila have been damaged where the embankment gave way on Wednesday night.

Relief distribution has begun with rice and dry food from the district relief office, but residents on the embankments said supplies had not yet reached the more distant chars, which can only be approached by boat. The Water Development Board said river levels were expected to remain above the danger mark for several more days.

What earns and loses marks

• Report what has not arrived as well as what has. “Supplies had not yet reached the more distant chars” is the sentence that distinguishes a report from an official statement.
• Put the numbers in the first sentence. A news report leads with how many, where and when; anything else in the opening line is an essay opening in disguise.
• 🚨 Keep yourself out of it. “We should all be careful on the roads” is a sentence from a composition and loses the register mark immediately.
• Attribute every claim you could not have witnessed. Unattributed figures are the clearest sign of an invented report.
• About 180 to 220 words in four short paragraphs is the right length; newspaper paragraphs are short by convention.