Final answer:
Journal writing is often personal and informal, while report writing is formal, structured, and aims to inform a specific audience with detailed research and data. Reports follow specific formats and always cite sources, often containing visuals and analyses. Understanding the purpose and audience is key to distinguishing between the two styles.
Step-by-step explanation:
The difference between journal writing and report writing largely depends on the purpose, style, audience, and structure of the documents. Journal writing can take many forms but is often more personal, reflective, and informal, whereas report writing is structured to convey information in a formal and organized manner.
Report writing demands a formal style, avoiding contractions and colloquialisms, and following specific formats, such as using headings to delineate sections. Reports aim to inform their audience with detailed explanations of topics such as disease spread or financial spending, and they typically present findings and data from research, complete with visuals like graphs and charts. Formal reports also always cite sources, usually in standardized formats such as APA.
In contrast, journal writing may include personal reflections or accounts of daily events for a news organization. Although some journal writings, like investigative journalism, require extensive research, they tend to be more narrative in nature and are often geared toward a more general audience compared to the specialized focus of scholarly journals.
To understand the intricacies of professional report writing, one can refer to sample formal reports provided by colleges and universities for guidance on structure and content, as these demonstrate the comprehensive nature and analytical depth expected in such documents.