Quote Originally Posted by Nessus View Post
Reports are a very early part of learning to write article level text, and as such definitely belongs in the basic studies. However, I would discourage "out of the box" thinking for these writing exercises, that comes later. You have to know the basics before you can develop your own style.
I'm not sure it's possible to expect someone from not doing this at all to doing it well in a few years. It's a skill that has to be developed over time, just like all the other ones.