English · Report Writing
Report on a Tree Plantation Programme
A model report on a tree plantation campaign, with the standard structure.
Open with the programme and its scale — how many saplings, where, organised by whom — then cover who took part, what was said at the opening, and why the campaign matters locally. Close with what happens next, because a plantation report that ends at the planting leaves out the part readers ask about.
The question: Write a report on a tree plantation programme held in your school.
The format
Lead with the number of saplings
How many, where, planted by whom, and on what day. The scale is the news; the value of trees is background and belongs at the bottom if anywhere.
- Give the figure in the first sentence.
- Name the organising group and the supplying office.
Name the species and the reason
The second paragraph says which trees and why those — soil, maintenance, fruit. Attributed to forest officials, it turns a ceremony into a report.
- Four species is enough.
- Attribute the choice to officials.
Follow the story past the planting
Who waters them, who records survival, what the district total is. Most plantation reports end at the ceremony; carrying on is what distinguishes this one.
- Name the follow-up arrangement.
- ⚠️ Keep the environmental argument to a clause.
Model answer
Model answer (about 190 words)
Students plant 2,000 saplings in campus drive
Staff Correspondent
Jashore, 5 September: Students and teachers of Jashore Government Girls' School planted about two thousand saplings on the school campus and along the adjoining road on Thursday as part of a week-long plantation programme.
The drive was organised by the school's scout group with support from the district forest office, which supplied the saplings. Mahogany, neem, jackfruit and several fruit varieties were planted, chosen, forest officials said, because they suit the local soil and require little maintenance once established.
The Headmistress inaugurated the programme in the morning. Class captains have been made responsible for watering the saplings in their sections, and the scout group will record survival rates at the end of the season.
District forest officials said plantation drives frequently fail because nobody is made responsible for the saplings after the first week, and described the school's arrangement for follow-up as unusual. About eleven thousand saplings have been distributed to educational institutions in the district under the programme this year.
What earns and loses marks
- Report what happens after the planting. Most tree plantation reports end at the ceremony; one that mentions watering rotas and survival rates reads as journalism rather than a press release.
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Following the story past the event. Who supplied the saplings, which species and why, who will water them, how survival will be measured. Those details are what a reporter would ask and what most exam answers leave out.
Barely, and not in your own voice. A clause attributed to forest officials about soil suitability or maintenance does the job. A paragraph on the importance of trees for the environment is composition material and pushes the news downward.
The main figure — how many saplings — belongs in the first sentence, because it is the scale of the event. Secondary figures, such as the district total for the year, belong in the last paragraph as background.
Keep going
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