English · Report Writing
Report Writing Format for SSC & HSC
Headline, byline, dateline and body — the four fixed parts, with a worked example.
A newspaper report has four fixed parts: a headline in a few strong words, a byline naming the reporter, a dateline giving the place and date, and a body that puts the most important information first and the background last. It is written in the third person and the past tense, with no opinions of your own.
The format
The four fixed parts
Every newspaper report the board sets has the same four elements, in the same order. Learning them once means the only thing you have to think about in the exam is the content.
The structure of a report
| Part | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | a few strong words naming the event | Three killed in Savar road crash |
| Byline | who wrote it | Staff Correspondent |
| Dateline | where and when it was filed | Savar, 5 September: |
| Lead | the essentials in one or two sentences | Three people were killed when… |
| Body | how, who, what officials say | — |
| Background | context, last | — |
Writing a headline
Headlines have their own grammar. Articles and forms of be are dropped, the present tense is often used for past events, and an infinitive marks the future. This is not carelessness — it is a convention that saves space, and examiners expect it.
| Full sentence | Headline |
|---|---|
| Three people were killed in a road accident | Three killed in road crash |
| The price of rice has increased again | Rice prices rise again |
| The minister will visit Khulna tomorrow | Minister to visit Khulna |
| A fire destroyed a market in Chattogram | Fire guts Chattogram market |
The inverted pyramid
A report is written so it can be cut from the bottom. The first paragraph carries the essentials; each following paragraph is less important than the one before; background comes last. An essay does the reverse, building to a conclusion, and writing a report as an essay is the commonest structural error in this question.
- Paragraph 1 — what happened, where, when, how many.
- Paragraph 2 — how it happened, in sequence.
- Paragraph 3 — what officials, witnesses or victims say.
- Paragraph 4 — background: is this part of a pattern? what has been done before?
Register
Impersonal, factual and past tense. A report has no I or we, no opinions, no exclamations and no advice to the reader. Everything the reporter did not witness is attributed to a source, which is what separates a report from a composition on the same subject.
Model answer
Skeleton with commentary
Three killed in Savar road crash
Staff Correspondent
Savar, 5 September: The lead sentence carries the essentials — how many, what, where and when — in one sentence of about twenty-five words. Everything an editor would keep if they had room for only one paragraph belongs here.
The second paragraph explains how it happened, in sequence and in the past tense. It is the narrative of the event, and it is where most of the detail sits.
The third paragraph carries what other people say, attributed: the police, a doctor at the hospital, a witness. Attribution is what makes a report a report rather than an account.
The last paragraph gives background — how many similar events this year, what the authorities have promised before. It is last because it is the paragraph an editor cuts first.
What earns and loses marks
- Learn the four parts once. In the exam, write the headline, byline and dateline before you think about content — they take twenty seconds and secure the structural marks.
- Headline grammar drops articles and be. Writing a full sentence as a headline is a small but visible error.
- 🚨 The inverted pyramid is the opposite of essay structure. If your last paragraph is the most important one, you have written an essay.
- Attribute everything you did not witness. It is the single habit that most improves a report answer.
- Never use I or we, and never advise the reader.
Mistakes to avoid
- ✗ A terrible road accident happened yesterday in Savar and it was very tragic. ✓ Savar, 5 September: Three people were killed and eleven injured when a bus collided with a covered van on the Dhaka–Aricha highway on Thursday morning.
- ✗ We should all be more careful on the roads. ✓ (delete — a report carries no advice)
Frequently Asked Questions
Headline, byline, dateline and body. The headline names the event in a few words, the byline says who wrote it, the dateline gives the place and date at the start of the first paragraph, and the body runs from most important to least important. All four carry marks.
The convention that a news report begins with its most important information and ends with its least, so an editor can cut from the bottom without losing anything essential. It is the opposite of essay structure, where the argument builds to a conclusion — and writing a report as an essay is the commonest error in this question.
No. A report is impersonal and written in the third person. Where you need to refer to the reporter, the convention is “this correspondent” — as in “the civil surgeon told this correspondent”. Using “I” or “we”, or offering advice to the reader, loses the register mark.
It is a space-saving convention of newspaper English, and examiners expect it. “Three killed in road crash” rather than “Three people were killed in a road accident”. Present-tense verbs for past events and infinitives for future ones belong to the same convention.
Keep going
Model answers, formats and grammar rules for every SSC and HSC writing question.