An Incident Report Writing Guide for Student Staff

Writing information or incident reports is a crucial responsibility for Resident Assistants in Housing. As a student staff member, you often witness and observe more issues than graduate or professional staff due to your direct engagement with residents. By writing clear and concise reports, you serve as the eyes and ears of your Hall Director, helping them better understand and support students in need. This guide will teach you how to write comprehensive and effective reports. However, your institution may have specific requirements for report writing. Be sure to check with your supervisor to understand which aspects of this guide to follow and any department-specific guidelines.

Nature of the Report – In a vast majority of reporting forms, it will ask what the nature of the report is and choosing the correct category is critical to ensure that the right campus partners are in the know of what is occurring. The main categories include:

• Incident Report: This type of report that is most frequently used. It covers all policy violations, potential students of concern, and facility issues that are affecting a resident’s room. If the situation doesn’t fit any other categories, this is the one that staff would want to select.
• Information Report: This report is utilized to note a situation where no specific people are involved or are present. An example could be a policy violation but no one was present at the time of documentation, such as an alcohol bottle in a stairwell.
• Sexual Harassment/Misconduct: This situation will often warrant a professional staff member’s presence, so make sure to communicate if you are a student staff member.
• Discrimination/Harassment: These situations can also be complicated and necessitate the presence of a professional staff member, so call up as needed.
• Fire-Related: This could be used any time the fire safety system is triggered, if there is an issue with smoke detectors, or when there is an actual fire.

Urgency of Report – Just as the nature of the report is used to ensure that the right people are in the know, specifically when campus partners are involved, the urgency determines who the report will be sent to from the beginning. Often critical reports will already be going to these individuals based on the nature but the mark of “critical” ensures that it’s a top priority for these staff members.

• Normal: Hall Director, Assistant Director of ResLife, Assistant Dean of Students
• Critical: Hall Director, Assistant Director of ResLife, Assistant Dean of Students, Director of ResLife, Dean of Students, Title IX Officer, Chief of Campus Security.

Details of Incident – These fields cover the date, time, and location of the incident. These will be straightforward if you are documenting an incident and observe as it happens. This is a bit different if someone shares a policy violation with you after it’s already occurred; sometimes a report is written days, weeks, or even months after the incident takes place if a resident shares the information with you. For federal reporting obligations, you will need to use the date and time an incident takes place, not when it is being told to you. 

Involved Parties – While you will name the actions taken by each individual in the Description of the Incident, it is critical to make sure that you list complainants, respondents, witnesses, or other involved parties in this section. The fields to complete that are most common are first name, last name, student ID number, date of birth, and room number or address. To make sure that involved individuals are correctly identified, make sure that this information is correct when entering it into the report. 

Description of Incident – This is where report writing can get challenging for staff. Every section prior to this involves simple fields to complete. This, on the other hand, is where you share key information on your observations and information that has been shared with you so that administrators can get a well-rounded view of the situation. Here are some tips for success when writing the description of an incident:

• Remember you are writing the report for individuals who weren’t present (a Hall Director, the Director of Residence Life, the Dean of Students, etc.). The report should include all necessary details to provide a clear picture of the incident.
  • How did you become aware of the situation?
  • What did you see?
  • What did you say? What did they say? (Use direct quotes when appropriate)
  • What action did you take to resolve the situation?
  • Who else did you involve or contact during your response?
• Most often, reports are required to be written in a third-person perspective. In this format, you will not use I statements. For example, I would refer to myself as “HD Heath” when noting my observations in a report. 
• The first time that you reference someone in the report, you should use their full name and title. After the first instance, you can use their title and last name afterward. Here’s a table for titles and references you can use:

Title	First Reference	Every Following Reference
Hall Directors	Hall Director Stephen Strange	HD Strange
Resident Assistants	Resident Assistant Steve Rogers	RA Rogers
Residents	[Building] Resident Tony Stark	Resident Stark
Security Officers	Security Officer Natasha Romanova	Officer Romanova
Student, Non-Resident	Non-Resident Peter Parker	Non-Resident Parker
Non-Student	Non-Student Sam Wilson	Non-Student Wilson

• Avoid using pronouns as it can get very confusing when there are multiple individuals involved with the same gender. It’s going to feel repetitious using specific names but the clarity this provides trumps the redundancy. 
• Complete all details in chronological order. Some departments have staff number each time there is a change in the incident, such as when someone completes an action or there is a quote to share. This helps the overall organization of the report but check with your supervisor on what the departmental expectations are with numbering for chronological clarity.
• Remain objective by only including facts and observed events. Emotions, speculations and opinions are subjective; it’s more important to share the details on how you came to certain conclusions based on behaviors.
  • Instead of noting emotions, describe the behaviors that indicated that emotion. Were they yelling, crying, pounding their fist, etc.?
  • Instead of saying someone is drunk, describe the symptoms (slurred speech, loss of coordination, they told you they were drunk, etc.)
• Incident reports should be detailed but concise. Only include a high level of detail on the relevant elements connected to the policy violation. Take time to revise your report and, if appropriate, cut back where an abundance of detail was shared or include more information where it may be lacking. 

Supporting Documentation – This is typically an optional field as there may be some situations where there is no additional documentation to include. Some items you could add are photographs of prohibited items (alcohol, appliances, etc.), additional documentation as required by the department/university, screenshots of social media or written communication, etc. If it is additional exhibits that could be helpful to a decision maker, please make sure to include it with your report. 

Report writing is one of the most important administrative tasks you’ll undertake in Residence Life. While it can feel overwhelming—especially when handling complex situations—it serves as a crucial record of what you observed and how you responded. Regular practice and feedback from your supervisor will help you refine this skill, ensuring you can effectively support your department and institution. Remember: through effective report writing, you can help serve as your Hall Director’s eyes and ears, aiding them to help students.