How to: Submit an Incident Report
Writing an incident report can seem like a daunting task if you’ve never completed one. Even those who are experienced in professional writing can find incident reporting difficult because many of the rules and expectations are unique to this type of writing. The incident report is the first experience the receiving office will have to learn about an incident you witnessed or experienced. Today, we are going to share some tips to make the process easier and to allow you to focus on sharing factual evidence rather than focusing on writing rules.
The first part is easy. It’s important to write the incident report as soon as possible. As time passes, facts become difficult to remember and information fades. Aim to submit your report on the same day as the incident.
Next, an important element is to identify all involved parties and share how they are involved (alleged, victim, witness). It’s necessary in incident reporting to always write in the third person, using the correct pronouns. When writing a report involving multiple individuals, using generic pronouns such as he, she, or they, can at best make your narrative incredibly confusing for the reader and at worst, lead to the misidentification of those who were involved. There are usually multiple people listed in an incident report so upon first identification, include their full name, position or title, and university dot number. After first reference, you may abbreviate titles or focus on using first name only. If your report includes multiple individuals with the same name, be sure to use an initial to differentiate among them. Please refrain from writing in all capital letters.
Feel free to provide quotes if applicable; however, do not use quotation marks unless you are sharing the information exactly as it was said. Avoid paraphrasing and try to avoid slang unless using a direct quote. Be sure to remain objective. You do not want to make any assumptions or include your opinions.
To ensure you’ve provided all the necessary context, be sure every incident report includes the 5 Ws and an H. Each report should identify who was involved, what happened, when (time) and where (location) and incident occurred, why this is a concern and how you became aware of the incident. Before submitting your report, double check that you have included all 5 Ws and the H.
For more information about incident reporting, or for any questions you may have, please visit studentconduct.osu.edu. You may also call our office at 614-292-0748.
Example Report:
At approximately 3:15pm on 2/14, Exam Program Assistant (EPA) Brutus Buckeye heard a loud banging coming from Studio A in the Exam Office. EPA Brutus walked over to student Scarlett Greyson in Studio A and asked if she was ok. Scarlett yelled “I hate this freaking professor. I should wring their neck!” while slamming her hands on the desk in frustration. Scarlett was not responsive to EPA Brutus’s requests to self-regulate nor did she engage with EPA Brutus. EPA Brutus called OSUPD for assistance around 3:20pm. OSUPD arrived and spoke to Scarlett. While OSUPD was speaking with Scarlett, EPA Brutus worked with students who were visibly upset with Scarlett’s actions to relocate them and continue their exams. OSUPD then left and Scarlett finished her exam without further incident. Two students were unable to complete their tests in neighboring rooms due to the incident.