Instructor’s Manual
Chapter 2 Planning the Report
Contemporary Business Reports, 5th edition
Chapters 1 - 9 help students understand the context in which they will plan and write/ present business reports. Reports are essential tools in organizational communication, affecting
the decision-making process at all organizational levels. Since reports are so vital to organizational success, they will also influence your students’ career success. Reports originating
with other people will convey information your students need to perform their duties effectively; and reports that your students generate, as business employees, will provide information that others need to meet their responsibilities. The success of those reports may also
be used to evaluate an employee’s performance.
Chapters 1-4 deal with report basics (characteristics, planning, writing styles, common
lapses); Chapters 5 and 6, with ways to illustrate and format a report. Chapters 7 and 8 give
guides for and examples of simple (minimum-research) business reports used in straightforward situations. Chapter 9 gives strategies for preparing oral reports, including slides.
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Links – Objectives – Teaching Suggestions: Planning – Outlining – Collaboration – Wiggio – Ethics – End-of-Chapter: Discussion – Applications
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Chapter 2 emphasizes the importance of process in planning a report. The chapter emphasizes that planning both simple and complex reports requires decisions about the report's
purpose, audience, context, content, medium, and structure. Students are reminded that the
steps in the process are dependent upon the complexity of the situation and the message.
The chapter includes examples of different message structures and strategies for outlining
a report. The chapter concludes with a discussion of ethical issues that may arise as a writer plans and outlines the report.
The concept of careful planning must be combined with the techniques for outlining.
You may find the material more manageable by splitting the material into two readingdiscussion-and-application assignments. For example, you might assign the planning section (pages 27–40) for one reading assignment, followed by a class discussion focused on
the planning aspects of the scenarios in Application 1. Tip: Include “Ethical Considerations”—pages 51 and 52 in this first assignment.
This assignment could be followed by the outlining section (pages 40-48), after
which students could work in groups to develop and present an outline for assigned sceContemporary Business Reports, 5th edition
Instructor’s Manual – Chapter 2.1
narios from Application 1. Tip: Include “Collaborative Writing” (pages 48-50) in this second assignment. The section about Wiggio software relates closely to collaborative writing;
so if you want to include the special technology topics, make it part of this second assignment.
Learning Objectives
Again, direct students’ attention to the learning objectives; and remind them that each section of the chapter moves them toward meeting those objectives.
Upon completion of Chapter 2, students should be able to do the following.
1. Identify the purpose, audience, and context for a report.
2. Select appropriate report content.
3. Choose an appropriate medium.
4. Choose a report structure that complements its purpose, audience, context, and
content.
5. Apply outlining strategies and electronic technology to develop report structure.
6. Collaborate effectively to plan a report.
7. Optional: Use groupware to enhance collaboration.
8. Consider ethical implications that arise during the planning process.
Chapter Outline & Teaching Suggestions
A. Planning the Report
To discuss the planning process, use a PPT slide, transparency, or other form of Illustration 2.1 (the planning process).
1. Identify purpose. Discuss the difference between general purpose (production, innovation, maintenance) and specific purpose (desired reader action) of a message.
2. Identify audience. Define primary and secondary audience and explain the relationship of audience identification to other factors such as message content, structure,
style, and medium. Solicit examples from students.
3. Identify context. Review the importance of the physical and psychological environments in the communication process. Discuss how context analysis will influence
other factors such as report content, structure, and medium.
4. Identify content. Emphasize the importance of completeness—including all that
must be said. Remind students of the importance of conciseness—excluding anything that is not essential for the report user.
Contemporary Business Reports, 5th edition
Instructor’s Manual – Chapter 2.2
5. Select medium. Discuss Illustration 2.2 (Lengel and Daft's Media Richness Hierarchy) and Illustration 2.3 (interaction of media richness and problem complexity) in
predicting relative effectiveness of various media. Ask students to suggest kinds of
messages that would be appropriate for the different media examples.
6. Choose report structure. Discuss the structures (direct, indirect, chronological,
problem-solution, cause-effect, spatial, topical, and comparison or contrast). Remind
students that those structures may apply to paragraphs or parts of a report as well
as to an entire report. Emphasize that many writers employ combinations of those
structures in a report.
Throughout the discussion, emphasize the recursive and interdependent nature
of the process. For example, a writer may modify choices about content, medium, or report structure as he or she changes the view of the audience.
B. Outlining the Report
Discuss informal outlines as tools to help identify essential content and to organize it
appropriately. Emphasize that complexity of report content often determines the degree of outline formality. Use Illustration 2.4 (Formal Outline) to show how an outline
should reflect earlier decisions made about report structure.
Point out how a decimal outline differs from a traditional one by comparing Illustrations 2.4 and 2.5. Highlight the outline guides, which specify how to divide report content and title report topics.
Stress the five outline guides (pages 45-47) and their importance to a wellorganized, effective report. Point out that many complex reports include a table of contents, which is a detailed outline. (See an example in Chapter 16.) Draw attention to the
“Computer-Assisted Outlining” section, which refers to Microsoft Word 2010. Doing so
implies that you value proper formatting and will expect it in graded assignments. Remind students to search the Help system in whatever word processing software they
use.
C. Collaborative Writing
To help students understand the dynamics of teamwork, point up the stages of team
development: forming, storming, norming, and performing—plus adjourning. Help students understand that effective collaborative writing requires purposeful integration of
individual and collective activities. Refer to Illustration 2.6 (Group Participation Rating
Form) as you discuss the skillful coordination of individual and collective work required for successful collaborative writing. In addition, you may reproduce the Group
Participation Rating Form and request students to complete it during one or more of
your collaborative assignments.
Contemporary Business Reports, 5th edition
Instructor’s Manual – Chapter 2.3
D. Collaborative Software: Wiggio
Ask students to identify any groupware they have used for in-school or on-the-job projects and to describe key features, advantages, and disadvantages of such software. Emphasize that Wiggio was designed for college students, who often collaborate on multiple projects at a time, but it’s also popular among business people, especially those in
small businesses and nonprofits. Becoming familiar with Wiggio in your class will make
collaboration easier now and later and develop valuable software skills that can be
transferred to the business world.
If you will assign Application 1, consider asking students in advance to become
familiar with Wiggio (http://wiggio.com). You might select a few students to give twominute impromptu presentations about the six software functions (Calendar, Folder,
Links, Meeting, Messages, and Poll).
E. Ethical Considerations
Review Illustration 1.3 (Moral Obligation Relationships, page 17) and Illustration 1.4
(Questions to Direct Moral Decision-Making, page 18). Use an application such as Application 1-b or 1-e to illustrate how these decision-making guides can result in different
decisions about message content, medium, and structure.
F. Topics for Discussion
Use Topics for Discussion to review the concepts presented in this chapter. Naturally,
answers will vary. To promote collaboration and to begin building confidence for business presentations, a good technique is to divide the class into teams three or four students; then assign an item from “Topics for Discussion” to each team. Ask them to discuss the item and have a designated spokesperson share the results of their discussion
in a brief oral presentation. Encourage audience members to ask questions, thereby
helping the speakers “think on their feet.”
G. Applications
Choose from four applications—the first one offers eight report-planning options—to
develop relevant skills. Answers will vary. Select applications that best complement
your students’ current knowledge and skill levels.
Application solution guides follow:
1. The introduction to this chapter suggests ways to use scenarios in Application
1 to reinforce the concepts presented in the text. Notice that directions ask
students only to plan the report collaboratively, develop an outline, and present planning decisions to the class.
Contemporary Business Reports, 5th edition
Instructor’s Manual – Chapter 2.4
2. Since Chapter 3 deals with essential report-writing topics (drafting, revising,
editing, and producing the document), you may prefer to cover it before assigning this application. If students write the reports at this point, emphasize
applying the criteria for effective reports presented in Chapter 1 (pages 716) and guide them toward an appropriate format for each message. You can
do that by previewing the letter, manuscript, and memo formats shown in
Chapter 6.
3. In this application, students create an outline for Chapter 1’s Application 11.
Of course, students using Microsoft Word 2010 can be encouraged to use its
Multilevel List feature to create the outline.
4. Here students are directed to outline a report using their word processor’s
outline feature. Each of the seven topics will require some research and a
formal outline. You may want to narrow the topics to keep the focus on outlining. For example, you may recommend doing a keyword search on the
Web or reading Web sites and printed publications that you pre-selected.
To include topics involving an informal outline, choose from the following list:
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Someone I Admire
Best Advice I’ve Ever Received
How to Be Happy
Where I See Myself in 2.5 Years
Contemporary Business Reports, 5th edition
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Three Tips for Staying Organized
Coping with Stress
Four Time Management Strategies
Where in the World Is the Camino de
Santiago? Fill in a favorite site.
Instructor’s Manual – Chapter 2.5