17
“Information is a source of learning.
But unless it is organized,
processed, and available to the
right people in a format for
decision making, it is a burden, not
a benefit.”
― William Pollard,
Minister and Scholar
Writing Reports
After completing the chapter, you will be able to:
• Explain what a report is.
• Develop plans for informal and formal reports.
• Write an informal report using standard guidelines
for formatting.
• Research information for formal reports using
primary and secondary research.
• Write a formal report using standard guidelines for
formatting.
• Describe the parts of a formal report.
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Reports
• Reports are documents used to present information
in a structured format.
• Progress reports are written in a specified format
and periodically submitted (monthly, quarterly,
annually).
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Reports
1. What is a report?
2. Describe a progress report.
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Planning Reports
• First step is to identify the purpose and audience
– Focus and organize the topic.
– Develop an outline.
– Select an approach.
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Planning Reports
• Focus and organize your topic (planning stage).
–
–
–
–
Identify and name the topic.
Plan the introduction.
Outline the main ideas.
Think ahead to the closing.
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Planning Reports
• Develop an outline
–
–
–
–
chronological/sequential
order of importance
cause and effect
problem-solution
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Planning Reports
• Select an approach
– direct
• start with a general statement of purpose
• follow with supporting details
• works best if message is positive or neutral.
– indirect
• list supporting details to prepare the reader
• works best for tough arguments or if the message is
negative
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Planning Reports
1. What is the first step in writing a report?
2. List four steps in the planning stage of a report.
3. What are the four basic types of organization?
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Writing Informal Reports
• Informal reports are documents that do not require
formal research or documentation.
– short, no more
than a few
pages long
– may be first
person
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Writing Informal Reports
• Parts of an informal report:
– introduction states the purpose
– body contains the information
– conclusion states a brief summary of main points
• Types of informal reports:
– periodic reports
– informal study reports
– idea and suggestion reports
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Writing Informal Reports
• Periodic reports
– written according to a specified schedule: daily,
weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
• provide status of a project
• report facts and figures over a specified period
• summarize an ongoing activity
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Writing Informal Reports
• Periodic report in body of e-mail
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Writing Informal Reports
• Periodic report as e-mail with attachment
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Writing Informal Reports
• Informal study reports
– information gathered by:
• reading related documents
• conducting informal interviews
• reviewing competitive products
• making observations after a site visit or meeting
– sections of report:
• method (describing the method used to obtain the data)
• findings and conclusions (including the procedure
used)
• recommendations
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Writing Informal Reports
• Example of informal
study report
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Writing Informal Reports
• Idea and suggestion reports
– be assertive in offering your opinion
– begin with positive remarks, then tactfully make
suggestions for change
– be specific
– group your ideas by subject
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Writing Informal Reports
• Idea and
suggestion report
in memo
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Writing Informal Reports
1. What are the three basic parts of an informal
report?
2. List three types of informal reports.
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Researching Formal Reports
• Formal reports focus on a main topic that can be
divided into subtopics for complete and clear
coverage.
• Research includes
– primary research (conducting your own research)
– secondary research (using someone else’s research)
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Researching Formal Reports
• Primary research
– interviews
• effective method of gathering qualitative data
• may be conducted individually or as a focus group
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Preparing for Personal Interviews
• Interviewing to obtain information is a skill that
requires preparation and practice. These guidelines
will help you conduct successful interviews.
– Identify the topic of the interview and the
information needed.
– Develop objective questions and maintain your
objectivity during the interview.
– Explain the purpose of the interview when setting up
the appointment.
– Establish the time, place, and duration of the
interview.
(continued)
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Preparing for Personal Interviews
– Indicate how long the interview will take.
– Choose a comfortable setting where you will not be
interrupted.
– Explain the purpose again at the beginning of the
interview and ask the interviewee if there are any
questions before getting started.
– If you are going to record the interview, ask for
permission to do so in advance.
– If you take notes, use abbreviations and record key
phrases. Do not attempt to create a word-for-word
record. If necessary, stop at the end of each answer to
summarize and confirm what you have written.
– Follow up the interview with a thank-you note.
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Researching Formal Reports
• Primary research
– surveys
• effective method of gathering quantitative data
• use representative sampling
– experiments
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Creating a Survey
• Make the questions easy to answer.
– Write questions that have a choice of answers, such as
yes/no, multiple choice, or agree/disagree/strongly
agree/strongly disagree. These are known as closedended questions and make it easy for the responder to
give an answer. Open-ended questions, those that are
subjective, take more time to answer and tally.
• Write objective questions.
– Write questions that do not lead respondents to a
particular answer. Biased questions produce biased
data.
(continued)
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Creating a Survey
• Put the questions in a logical sequence.
– Group items and, when possible, give them headings.
• Keep the survey short.
– If you ask too many questions, the respondent may
not want to take the time to complete the survey.
• Include space for comments.
– Often the best information comes from unstructured
responses.
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Researching Formal Reports
• Sample survey
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Researching Formal Reports
• Secondary research
– information assembled and recorded by someone else
– consider reliability and credibility of sources
• What are the author’s credentials?
• What is the reputation of the publication in which the
source material appears?
• Is the source a mainstream publication or an unknown?
• Is the information current?
• What is the copyright date?
• Are more current sources available?
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Researching Formal Reports
• Researching online
– Much misinformation on the Internet, so verify
everything
– Reliable sources
• government
• trade
organizations
• educational
institutions
• news outlets
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Researching Formal Reports
• Crediting sources
– Plagiarism is the use of another’s work without
permission and is illegal.
– Copyright legally protects the material’s owner from
the distribution of his or her work without
permission.
• automatic as soon as a creative work is in tangible form
– Materials published by the US government are
usually in the public domain.
– Footnote to cite a source and follow the format in an
appropriate style guide.
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Researching Formal Reports
1. What is the difference between primary research
and secondary research?
2. List three types of primary research.
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Avoiding Plagiarism
• You can avoid plagiarism when referencing the
work of others by using the following guidelines.
• Keep in mind, there is a difference between
referencing and copying the work of others.
• Referencing the work by paraphrasing it or even
making a direct quotation from it is acceptable if the
source is credited.
• However, copying the work of others is illegal,
unless the owner has given you permission to do so.
(continued)
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Avoiding Plagiarism
– Place material that is directly quoted inside of
quotation marks.
– When quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing
information from any source, use a consistent system
for crediting these sources. Depending on the number
and types of sources, you may choose to use
footnotes, a bibliography, or text references to a
works-cited list.
– Consult a style manual, such as The Chicago Manual of
Style or the Modern Language Association (MLA)
handbook, for guidance and examples of various
styles for footnotes, bibliographies, and other
methods of listing sources.
(continued)
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Avoiding Plagiarism
– Always look for copyright information on sources
you use.
– If you plan to rely on or quote an extensive amount of
the source material, you must obtain permission from
the copyright holder to do so.
– Never cut and paste material from any electronic
source, such as the Internet or electronic books. This
is a bad habit that can easily lead to accidental
plagiarism (it is still plagiarism whether or not you
intended to plagiarize).
(continued)
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Avoiding Plagiarism
– Most information on the Internet is copyrighted and,
therefore, you cannot use the material without
permission. You may, however, reference the
material.
– Be aware that material does not have to bear a
copyright notice to be copyrighted. Any material is
automatically copyrighted as soon as it is in tangible
form.
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Avoiding Plagiarism
1. What is plagiarism?
2. When is material copyrighted?
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Writing Formal Reports
•
•
•
•
Know the readers
Make the purpose clear
Make the report believable
Make the report readable
– graphics can improve readability
• tables
• illustrations
• charts
• graphs
• photographs
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Writing Formal Reports
1. List the four basic guidelines that pertain to all
narrative business reports.
2. Identify three graphic elements that may make a
report more readable.
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
•
•
•
•
•
•
Title page
Table of contents
Executive summary
Introduction
Body
Conclusions and
recommendations
• Citations
• List of illustrations or
tables
• Glossary
• Appendix
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
• Title page
– name of report
– name of person or
group for whom
report was written
– name of author of
report
– date report is
distributed
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
• Table of contents
– necessary to show
what is in report
– may be labeled Table
of Contents or
Contents
– lists the major
sections and
subsections with
page numbers
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
• Executive summary
– summarizes main
points
– provides overview
for entire report
– appears before
introduction
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
• Introduction
– history or background
– purpose or
justification for report
– tells method of
gathering information
– scope of the report
– defines terms
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
• Body
– subject information
– presentation is
influenced by:
• subject of the report
• your place in the
organization
• reader bias
• reader knowledge
• readability
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
• Conclusions are the
summary of what
reader should take
away from report.
• Recommendations are
actions the writer
believes the reader
should take from the
report.
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Standard Parts of
Formal Reports
• Other elements
– citations
– list of illustrations
or tables
– glossary
– appendix
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Standard Parts of Formal Reports
1. What four elements appear on the title page?
2. What does the table of contents list?
3. What is an executive summary?
4. In which section is all of the information, data,
and statistics presented?
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• Reports are documents that communicate
important information to individuals within or
outside of the organization.
• Planning a report is the most important stage
of writing a report.
• Informal reports cover routine matters, are
typically short, and generally do not require
formal research.
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Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.
• Formal reports require gathering data and
information through primary research (that
you do) or secondary research (research by
someone else).
• When writing a formal report, know your
readers, make the purpose clear, make the
report believable, and make the report
readable.
• The parts of a formal report vary according to
the purpose and topic.
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Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.