INTRODUCTION

A document containing information organized in a narrative, graphic, or tabular form, prepared on ad hoc, periodic, recurring, regular, or as required basis. Reports may refer to specific periods, events, occurrences, or subjects, and may be communicated or presented in oral or written form. A good report should be readable, interesting and well presented. Naturally the treatment will vary greatly according to the nature of the work done; nevertheless certain standards are generally applicable.

Five Important Steps to Report Writing Define the problem Gather the necessary information Analyze the information Organize the information Write the report The cover page and Acknowledgement are the starters of the report. Next in line come the Contents. For most people, the contents list is a summary of the chapter and section headings, together with a page index, and is normally written when the document is already complete. However, the contents list is the one place in the document where overall structure can be examined.
The Executive Summary should be concisely written and should present the proposed report clearly. The main body of the report should be organized into logical parts or sections that follow along in an orderly manner. Care must be taken while choosing the illustrations (form, quality & size). Just as a good image can strengthen an issue or point a wrong comparison graph or a poor quality (resolution) image can reduce its impact. Each figure and table must be numbered and given a brief caption that adequately explains the information displayed without unnecessary duplication.

Your conclusion can go beyond the confines of the assignment. Synthesize, don't summarize: Include a brief summary of the paper's main points, but don't simply repeat things. Propose a course of action and a solution to the issue. Distribution of responsibilities and functions during the execution and later (for operation & maintenance) is very important for the report to be called actually successful. Thus calls for the importance of a proposed management structure. Appendices are useful for presenting raw data, questionnaire forms, theoretical background or any material that is necessary for the reader but does not fit appropriately in the main body of the report. It may help to decide very early on in your report about the major sections (main headings) to be used. Then systematically build up the contents of each section (using sub-sections) as your work progresses. Check that your presentation is in a logical sequence and the sections are coherent. With a technical document, it is often beneficial to write the technical chapters first i.e., the core material, leaving the introduction, discussion and conclusions & Proposals for the end. Critical assessment should be made of your results giving proper rationale to all the assumptions taken. As for format, reports range from a simpler format with headings to indicate topics, to more complex formats including charts, tables, figures, pictures, tables of contents, abstracts, summaries, appendices, footnotes and references. A report can contain information in a variety of forms. These include text, figures, tables and pictures. In cases where several options are available for representing a particular piece of information, the author can choose appropriately to make the document a less daunting prospect to the reader through visual balance. In most cases, however, the appropriate choice of medium is dictated by the type of information to be communicated.

Text is the `filler' and provides the bridge between the figures, tables, pictures and references. Having completed the major chore of writing the document, you may consider that your work is complete. It is worth taking that extra small amount of time to ensure that your document is professional and is free from grammatical and spelling mistakes.

ANATOMY OF REPORT
COVER PAGE
Attaching a cover letter to a Report is expected if you're an outsid independent contractor hired to write the report for a client. But even if you're an employee of a company and wrote the report for your boss, a cover letter is an appreciated finishing touch to the project. When preparing a cover letter for a report, follow a standard format and include some basic information. The cover page is the first impression and it should be the best. The cover page should have the following features: Name of the report / Title Name of the Organisation / ULB who has made the report Date (Month, Year) A typical format of the cover page is shown in

Project Title Date (Month, Year)

Graphic

Submitted by:

TITLE PAGE
The Title Page is the Cover Page without graphics.

In addition to the cover page the report may have the title page. It provides the same set of information but without graphics. The major differences with respect to the cover page are: No Graphics Details on the report submitted to * Details on the report submitted by * (* in case these are not provided on the cover page) The figure 8.4 shows the typical layout of the Title Page.

report Title Date (Month, Year)

Submitted to:

Submitted by:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Acknowledgements are made to remember all the support obtained from other departments, organizations and individuals. It is a way of establishing a relationship with them This section is used to thank and acknowledge the support and help provided by various departments, officials and independents. The name of the people is mentioned as per their seniority in department and position. Figure shows a sample acknowledgement page.

EXAMPLE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We sincerely acknowledge the valuable inputs and support rendered by the following individuals: Shri D. Rajagopalan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries & Mines, GoG Ms. Gairi Kumar, IAS, Industries Commissioner, IC, GoG Shri. Arvind Aggarwal, IAS, Ex. Industries Commissioner, IC, GoG Shri P.K.Pujari, IAS, VC & MD, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) Smt D. Thara , IAS District Collector, Ahmedabad. Shri R. J. Shah, Principal Chief Industrial advisor, Industries Commissionerate, Gandhinagar Smt Shobhna Ben Desai, D S, Industries & Mines department Shri G. I. Desai, Dy. Commissioner of Industries (Infra), Industries Commissionerate Shri C. B. Desadia, Joint Industries Commissioner, DIC, Ahmedabad
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
contents page gives a list of all sections of the report , with major and minor headings and the member of the page on which each section begins. The most people, the contents list is a summary of the chapter and section headings, together with a page index, and is normally written when the document is already complete. However, the contents list is the one place in the document where overall structure can be examined.
Early organisation of the contents list is certainly not a trivial problem and may take up to a few days to draft. The level of detail should go down to (probably) sub-subsections, where the final level contains one key idea and takes up, at most, two to three paragraphs of text. It may even be useful to title each paragraph, though this may not appear in the final contents list as a formal heading. Again, it is important to stress that laying out the contents list is not easy. However, some hard work at this stage will save a lot of grief later on and is pro-active in ensuring good structure. A badly structured document inherits its own inertia and will be very difficult (and laborious) to correct at a later stage. However, if one finds it difficult the table of contents can be prepared manually also. Care should be taken while formulating the Contents page: 1. After the chapter name up to two levels of headings are sufficient (giving more sub-subsections in the contents page will make it loose 2. Page numbers should be written on the right side of each heading. However, this should be done at the end after the report is complete (as this may change during editing). 3. Alternatively, one can even write the range of page numbers against the chapter name .

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (TABLES / FIGURES / MAPS)

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS . IN A REPORT THE TABLES / FIGURES / MAPS AND ANY FORM OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLAY THE ROLE OF ACTIONS. Care must be taken while choosing the illustrations (form, quality & size). Just as a good image can strengthen an issue or point a wrong comparison graph or a poor quality (resolution) image can reduce its impact. It may even be useful to title each paragraph, though this may not appear in the final contents list as a formal heading. Again, it is important to stress that laying out the contents list is not easy. However, some hard work at this stage will save a lot of grief later on and is pro-active in ensuring good structure. Each figure and table must be numbered and given a brief caption that adequately explains the information displayed without unnecessary duplication. A reference to each figure or table must be made in the main body of the report, e.g. For the convenience of the reader, you should put each graph and table as close as possible to the relevant text in the report.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The most important results and recommendations of the report should be summarized for the convenience of the readers in the form of an executive summary. Executive summary of the report should be about 500 to 1000 words long including the purpose of the study; the methodology used; and a summary of the major findings, conclusions and recommendations. The summary should be concisely written and should present the proposed report clearly.
Following outline can help one formulate a concise and good executive summary: Introduction to the report area Need of the report Main objectives Brief of Methodology and various analysis done Existing Situation Issues of concern and identified problems Recommendations & Proposals Concluding Remarks (if any) and the road ahead

The Main Body

The main body of the report consists of existing situation, analysis, issues identified, recommendations & proposals, cost estimates and implementing structure. The main body of the report should be organized into logical parts or sections that follow along in an orderly manner. The sections ahead outline the various parts of this main body of the report.
Introduction
Project Objective, Purpose and Scope/ Limitations, Assumptions, and Methods

This chapter should describe the history of the proposed report and explain how it fits into the national sector strategy and the long-term development program. Plus municipal responsibilities and roles of stakeholders involved. This chapter briefly explains the reasons for the report and how it was prepared. Preferably, the introductory chapter will contain information about: - The report Origin A description of how the proposed report idea was developed. - The Organization and Management of the Study An explanation on the how the whole analysis (methodology/ framework etc) was carried out. - Scope and Status of this Report An explanation of how this report fits in the overall process of report implementation.

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THE REPORT AREA AND THE NEED FOR A REPORT

The report Area, Background/History of the Problem, Need of the report Why? This chapter explains why a report is needed. The following sections should be dealt with in this chapter:
-

The report Area

Description of the report area in terms of its location, District, Taluka and the report area. Maps / Figures explaining the relationship of the report area with surrounding important areas is important.
-

The issue of Concern & The need for the project

This explains the need of the project. It is like an introduction to why the report is important and needs to be taken up e.g.. a DPR on construction of an STP will talk about the increasing sewage in the city and the existing inefficient treatment system. This is the key section of this chapter. In this section conclusions are drawn about the need for a report in light of existing situations, standards and issues of concern. Basically in this section it is summarized why the existing systems cannot cope with present (and projected) demands for services. - Objectives Objectives that the report should achieve should be expressed both as general development objectives and operational objectives. General development objectives include aspects such as expected improvements, improved living standards, institutional improvements etc. Operational objectives for the report concern improvements in existing systems and coverage. Each objective should be quantified (to the extent possible), and a schedule for achieving these objectives should be presented.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
Proposals, suggestions, recommendations What needs to be done The final suggestions and recommendations are put together to form this chapter. This is the chapter what everyone (who looks at the report) is interested in. Introductions and conclusions can be the most difficult parts of report to write. While the body is often easier to write, it needs a frame around it. An introduction and conclusion frame your thoughts and bridge your ideas for the reader. Your conclusion is your chance to have the last word on the subject. The conclusion allows you to have the final word on the issues you have raised in your paper, to summarize your thoughts and to demonstrate the importance of your ideas. It is also your opportunity to make a good final impression and to end on a positive note. Your conclusion can go beyond the confines of the assignment. Synthesize, don't summarize: Include a brief summary of the paper's main points, but don't simply repeat things that were in your paper. Propose a course of action and a solution to the issue. Here the proposals given should also be phased out over time e.g. which roads should be widened and strengthened in the first 2 years, 5 years, 10 years so on and so forth.

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WRITING EFFECTIVELY AT THE SENTENCE LEVEL

The entire goal of writing is to produce clear text with unambiguous meaning. Contrary to popular belief, it is not an easy task. Your writing should be free of mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar. Blatant mistakes jar your reader out of your report to think about you in unflattering terms. More subtle mistakes work against you more subtly by forcing your reader to expend more effort just to understand what you meant to say. Good spelling, punctuation and grammar are not important in themselves. When they serve your purpose of communicating clearly the substance of your report, they are invisible.

Maximize the effectiveness of your written presentation Demonstrate your familiarity with the problem Establish your modeling expertise Maximize reader insight Minimize reader effort Avoid forcing reader to repeatedly read text for understanding

Write effectively at the sentence level: Avoid passive voice. Avoid dangling participles. Avoid mixing tenses. Avoid unexplained terminology or notation. Avoid ambiguous phrasing.

Figure : The primary purpose of writing well at the sentence level is to minimize reader effort by not forcing him/her to repeatedly read text for understanding.

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Avoid the passive voice

The active voice X did Y is usually preferable to the passive voice Y was done by X or Y was done. The latter form of the passive (where you omit the agent X) is particularly dangerous because it results in ambiguity concerning the agents identity. In a consulting environment, both you and your client may perform actions, and sloppy use of the passive voice may obscure who is acting. For example, consider the following sentences from a hypothetical report report: On the first day of our trip, the assembly floor was visited by team members to collect time-study data. Initially, molds were placed on a conveyor belt followed by a retail box. The passive voice is particularly likely to creep into lists or headings from which you have omitted the agent for brevitys sake. The passive voice is often essential for lists and headings, but if you must use it, try to use the form "Y was done by X" in which the agent is identified. Suppose, for example, that in a clients quality control procedure, a quality control officer (QC) rejects or accepts a lot of manufactured items prior to shipping by counting defects in a sample taken from the lot. To evaluate this procedure, your team has done a full count of the defects in both accepted and rejected lots

Using Appendices

In reports that have a substantial technical component, it is often a good idea to include one or more appendices. Again, this strategy minimizes reader effort by providing a top-down strategy and allowing him/her to avoid technical detail should he/she desire. Items that go into an appendix include: 1. Background material and data. Examples include excerpts from previous studies, data previously collected by the client, and architectural drawings 2. Computer input or output. A computer program or your input to a simulation or optimization package may be listed, as well as the output from such packages. However, if these are very long, they should be included on a disk instead. 3. Raw data. You may wish to provide detailed tables or graphs showing the numbers that you summarized in the Analysis
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section of the report. 4. Derivation of analytical expressions. If you took an expression from a book or article, simply citing it is enough; but it you derived the expression and it is not obvious, you should give the derivation in a appendix.

5. Tedious calculations. You may not want to interrupt the readers train of thought by including, say, the details of a long present-value computation. Instead, simply say the present value of Alternative 3 is $352,000 (see Appendix A for details) and let the interested reader consult the appendix for the complications involving taxes, depreciation and the like. If you have several of these items to include, put each in a separate appendix. Identify the appendices by letters A, B, C, and so forth.

Using References and Citations A References section is not always necessary, but should be included if you cite results from books or articles. In the main text of your report, you should cite your sources in a uniform way, and in the references section, your list of references should have a uniform style. In one style, book titles may be bolded, journal articles italicized and authors names listed "last,-first". In another style, book titles might be italic, journal articles quoted, and authors names listed firstlast. You can adopt any style as long as you use it consistently. There are style books in all libraries, and on the internet, but you can also adopt a style from a textbook or article. Most journals have an Instructions to Contributors section which appears annually, in which citation and reference style for that journal are described. Appendix 1 contains examples of citation and reference styles. If you use one your readers are more likely to have seen, your style will seem invisible to them

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CONTENT FORMATION
It may help to decide very early on your report about the major sections (main headings) to be used. Then systematically build up the contents of each section (using sub-sections) as your work progresses. Check that your presentation is in a logical sequence and the sections are coherent.

Writing Sequence
With a technical document, it is often beneficial to write the technical chapters first i.e., the core material, leaving the introduction, discussion and conclusions & Proposals for the end. This is especially important when some results are still not available and the time has come to begin writing your document. Even in cases where all results are available, leaving the introduction until the end allows a better perspective to be had on the document as a whole.

Justification and rationale

For each idea presented, you should establish some rationale or motivation for its undertaking and any assumptions made must be justified. Remember to mention the source of all information used in the report. Also the standards & guidelines relevant to the report and report area should be mentioned and rationally used for giving the proposals. Similarly, critical assessment should be made of your results giving proper rationale to all the assumptions taken.

Logical Structure
Logical structure means the natural unfolding of a story as the reader progresses through the document. This is achieved by going from the general to the specific, with the background material preceding the technical expose, which should lead logically to the conclusions.
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Everything should support the conclusions and naturally lead up to them. Remember this when constructing your contents list. What is the problem you are trying to solve? What is the approach (your methodology) you are taking? What is important about this work? Basically you want to motivate what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Background & Context

Describe related work and background on the subject / area / report you are doing your work in.
Results, Proposal & Future Work

What is the overall design of what you are doing? Why did you take this approach? What alternatives did you consider? What issues came up during the development of the report design? Did you have to make any changes in your design? How do you plan to implement the project? Based on the results and evaluations what work can be done in the future? This section is often included as a separate chapter.
Discussions and Conclusions

What is important about your project? What summary statements can you make? What did you learn in this project? The last section of each report report should be Summary'' and a sumup of the conclusions of the project.

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MULTIMEDIA AND VISUAL BALANCE

A report can contain information in a variety of forms. These include text, figures, tables and pictures. The following subsections contain some information regarding the appropriate use of each. However, choosing different means of representation can also be used to give visual balance to the document, for example by breaking up long sections of text with equations, tables or figures. In cases where several options are available for representing a particular piece of information, the author can choose appropriately to make the document a less daunting prospect to the reader through visual balance. In most cases, however, the appropriate choice of medium is dictated by the type of information to be communicated. The example here shows the same set of information in a Table, Chart and a Map.
AREA IN SQ TOTAL KM POPULATION DENSITY PERSON / SQ.KM GROWTH RATE (%)1991-2001 FAMILY SIZE SEX RATIO

NAME KUDATHINI THIMMALAPURA BUVVANAHALLI DHARAMSAGAR GADIGANUR UPPARAHALLI KOTTIGINAHAL CHIKKANTAPUR KURREKUPPA NAGALAPUR DAROJI S.BASAPUR TALUR TORANGAL VADDU Y.HALLI KODALU BELLARY DISTRICT KARNATAKA

LITERACY

WPR

78.3 15.8 3.0 13.2 14.6 15.2 10.5 14.7 21.7 4.5 39.7 8.8 13.6 25.1 13.0 12.5 21.4 8450 1,91,487

12247 1958 1147 1554 4513 1776 425 1094 10817 1538 8851 1371 3371 6324 5652 488 1616 1320290 34889033

156 124 384 118 310 117 41 74 499 339 223 156 248 252 435 39 76 240 276

23.3 35.6 34.2 19.1 23.5 26.6 25.4 25.6 27.8 31.1 14.9 17.0 36.4 43.9 121.0 9.4 18.9 22.41 17.52

5.6 5.6 5.9 5.5 5.8 6.9 6.9 5.9 5.3 5.4 5.6 6.0 5.8 5.4 5.4 6.6 6.1 5.4

55.1 46 50.1 48.7 39.8 44.4 59.9 59.4 56.6 47.1 41.5 51.7 42.3 62 67.3 59.5 45.3 45.28 56.87

933.8 998.0 662.5 153.7 136.2 991.0 200.8 1033.5 911.8 912.9 991.2 1004.4 938.5 865.5 819.1 983.7 970.7 969 965

42.5 51.7 47.9 54.0 49.0 55.4 54.3 56.2 53.9 52.3 39.8 48.0 48.0 41.6 43.8 50.2 55.4 45.4 44.5

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FIGURES CHARTS OR GRAPHS

A chart or graph is a type of information graphic or graphic organizer that represents tabular numeric data and/or functions. Charts are often used to make it easier to understand large quantities of data and the relationship between different parts of the data. Charts can usually be read more quickly than the raw data that they come from. ``A picture tells a thousand words''? There is great substance in this statement, and nowhere more obvious than in Detailed report Reports. Use figures liberally to communicate specific results (graphs) and show an overview of the system being described through block diagrams, etc. Where possible, put multiple plots on the same axes, so that comparative conclusions can be drawn (e.g. comparison of growth rate in past few decades) (See Figure). Ensure that each figure has a number and a title, so that it can be referenced from the text. Certain types of charts are more useful for presenting a given data set than others. For example, data that presents percentages in different groups (such as Existing Land Use Distribution) are often best explained in a pie chart. On the other hand, data that represents numbers that change over a period of time (such as "Population Growth from 1990 to 2000") might be best shown as a line chart or a Bar Graph. Tables A table is a set of data elements (values) that is organized using a model of horizontal rows and vertical columns. The columns are identified by name, and the rows are identified by the values appearing in a particular column subset which has been identified as a candidate key. Tables are an excellent means of giving an overview of numerical results or providing information in a form which lends itself to comparison. Again, ensure that each table has a number and a title, so that it can be referenced from the text.

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Pictures / Images/ Diagrams/ Flowcharts

The text that is written in the report should be supported by relevant pictures. This is especially important to put across the existing situation and to highlight the issues of concern. Also, existing organization structure of system followed can be well explained with the help of a diagram or flowcharts. Such flowcharts can also help illustrate the proposed systems and structures for better and faster understanding.

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FORMATTING THE REPORT

As for format, reports range from a simpler format with headings to indicate topics, to more complex formats including charts, tables, figures, pictures, tables of contents, abstracts, summaries, appendices, footnotes and references. This section outlines the basic features and procedures of formatting. It also outlines some very basic procedures of the software Microsoft work (which is most frequently used for report making).

Margins
Page margins are the blank space around the edges of the page. In general, you insert text and graphics in the printable area inside the margins. However, you can position some items in the margins for example, headers, footers, and page numbers. Add margins for binding. Use a gutter margin to add extra space to the side top margin of a document you plan to bind. A gutter margin ensures that text isn't obscured by the binding.

Header and Footer

Headers and footers are areas in the top and bottom margins of each page in a document. (See figure 8.15) Generally the Header and Footer contain the data like, Chapter number, name of the Chapter, Name of the Project, Name of the Organisation, Month & Year and page number. Though there is no set format of the header and footer and can be made to look as per the writers perception, the following format shows general outline of the features, their formatting and placement.

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Page Numbering
Normally the Page numbers are provided on the bottom right corner of the page as a part of the footer. Microsoft Word provides two ways to add page numbers. In either case, the page numbers appear in the header or footer at the top or bottom of the page. The steps below show how to add Page Numbers in Microsoft Word (Also Refer Figure 8.18).

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HEADINGS
The following things should be kept in mind when forming headings of the document:
Hierarchy of Headings:

There should be hierarchy of headings in any documents and accordingly their formatting should be done e.g. Heading 1 can be the chapter, heading 2 the sections and heading 3 the sub sections. Care should be taken to avoid excessive use of minor headings.
Font Size:

The size of font selected for the headings should be in their order of hierarchy from largest to smallest for heading 1 to further. Care should be taken that no heading font size should be smallest than the body text.
Heading Fonts:

One should be careful while choosing the font for a heading. It should be legible and not contrasting to the other fonts used in the document. Also care should be taken not to use more that 5 fonts in one document.

Formatting text using Styles:

A style is a set of formatting characteristics that you can apply to text, tables, and lists in your document to quickly change their appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of formats in one simple task.

Table of Contents
A table of contents is a list of the headings in a document. You can use a table of contents to get an overview of the topics discussed in a document. You can create a table of contents using the built-in heading styles and outlinelevel formats in Microsoft Word. After you've specified the headings to include, you can choose a design and build the finished table of contents. When you build a table of contents, Word searches for the specified headings, sorts them by heading level, and displays the table of contents in the document.
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FORMATTING OF TEXT
Text is the `filler' and provides the bridge between the figures, tables, pictures and references. Basic formatting of the text can be done under the Styles and Formatting tab as explained earlier in the headings sub section. However, along with the style the fine tuning of the text should be taken with care as explained in the next section.

Editing and Fine-tuning the Report

Having completed the major chore of writing the document, you may consider that your work is complete. It is worth taking that extra small amount of time to ensure that your document is professional and is free from grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Spelling

This may seem a small an unimportant point for engineering text, but poor spelling makes a document seem sloppy and may convey an impression that the report content is as loose as the general appearance. There are spelling checkers in virtually every word processor now.

Grammar

Same here as for spelling. Many word processors now have grammar checkers as well as spell checkers, but the usefulness of these is debatable, so don't rely on them. If in doubt, keep your sentences short and don't be afraid to ask somebody how to use punctuation correctly .

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THE CAPITAL DILEMMA

Avoid excessive use of capital letters. One recommendation is to only use capitals for proper nouns (such as place names, company names, etc) and in places where acronyms are being defined, e.g., Urban Local Body (ULB). Acronyms should be defined at the first point of usage and the acronym can then be used freely. Try to avoid the use of capitals for emphasis, use boldfacing or italics instead. Capitals can be used effectively to differentiate between different section heading levels, such as in this document i.e., the next level up uses capitals to start each word in the subsection title. However, if you wish to do this, or differentiate between different heading levels in a different way, make sure you are consistent in the way you do this.

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DOS AND DONTS OF REPORT WRITING

This section is intended to provide practical advice on writing guidelines that followed when writing a report. These guidelines are common errors of English that people make.

Acknowledgement
While writing the acknowledgement, name the people in hierarchy of position and department i.e. General Manager, Deputy General Manager, report In-charge, so on and so forth, and Central Government Department, State Government Departments, District level Departments, so on and so forth.

Illustrations
Tables and figures are good additions to any report. A useful writing methodology is to determine the set of tables and figures you plan to use first then ``talk around'' them in your text. Each table and figure you use should have a caption. Captions for tables always go above the table and captions for figures always go below the figure. A simple rule to remember is table at top, figure at foot.''

Writing
Re-check any sentence in which you repeat the same word more than once. This situation is often an indication that one of the repeated words can be dropped or the sentence should be rewritten.

Header & Footer

There should be no Header on: The Preamble/ Preface The First page of every Chapter (1, 2, 3 and so on), Contents, List of Tables/ Figures/ Maps
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There should be no header & Footer on: The Cover Page The Title Page Acknowledgement Page Project Team Page

AVOID THE PASSIVE VOICE The active voice X did Y is usually preferable to the passive voice Y was done by X or Y was done. The latter form of the passive (where you omit the agent X) is particularly dangerous because it results in ambiguity concerning the agents identity. In a consulting environment, both you and your client may perform actions, and sloppy use of the passive voice may obscure who is acting. For example, consider the following sentences from a hypothetical report report:

The passive voice is particularly likely to creep into lists or headings from which you have omitted the agent for brevitys sake. The passive voice is often essential for lists and headings, but if you must use it, try to use the form "Y was done by X" in which the agent is identified. Suppose, for example, that in a clients quality control procedure, a quality control officer (QC) rejects or accepts a lot of manufactured items prior to shipping by counting defects in a sample taken from the lot. To evaluate this procedure, your team has done a full count of the defects in both accepted and rejected lots

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