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I find the process of communicating as far of flying interesting and fun. It's something that takes a while to learn, and I've spend a lot of time studying books on the subject, and I used to listen to air traffic control on a radio.
Training for radio communication is something that's covered lightly in the pilot training curriculum. It's something that one seems to mostly learn by practice and apprenticeship, rather than having a how-to-do-it manual. So information that contains specific information and examples are hard to come by.
I discovered such an example this weekend that had an example that's different than the way I've learned to call approach control. The way I've done it is:
Tri-Cities approach Cessna 7-0-4-Yankee-Echo At Chimney Top over the interstate 3 thousand 5 hundred squawking VFR inbound for landing Tri-Cities with Alpha
I have copies of copies of the Flight Guide. It's a useful publication; it has diagrams of airports that I don't think are available anywhere else. The listings are by state, and the dividers have generally useful information about flying and aviation. In the Central States guide, on the Texas divider, it has a summary of communications. This is how their example goes:
Tri-Cities Approach Cessna 7-0-4-Yankee-Echo At Chimney Top over the interstate with Alpha for landing Tri-Cities
This wasn't what I learned. The big thing I noticed was that the destination is last, after the ATIS code. The other thing is that it doesn't list your squawk code.
This made me curious, so I got out my other books. Say Again, Please has exactly the same pattern as the Flight Guide. I wonder if they got theirs from the same source.
The other book that I have that I've read a lot is The Pilot's Radio Communication Handbook. It has a different sequence:
Tri-Cities Approach Cessna 7-0-4-Yankee-Echo At Chimney Top over the interstate 3 thousand 5 hundred landing Tri-Cities squawking VFR with information Alpha
I expect there's a definitive guide somewhere official for air traffic control, but I haven't been able to find it. As far as being a pilot, the official guide should be the Aeronautical Information Manual. However, this morning, the only thing that applies that I could find is 4-1-17.a.3. It states:
3. Pilots of arriving aircraft should contact approach control on the publicized frequency and give their position, altitude, aircraft call sign, type aircraft, radar beacon code (if transponder equipped), destination, and request traffic information.
Which interestingly doesn't contain the ATIS code.
So I'm not sure what the definitive answer is.