Definition of Report:

A report is an impartial and objective collection of facts.

There are two things focused in the definition:
1) Impartial: without prejudices
2) Objective: general
So, personal opinion must be avoided in the report.
Another important factor in the definition is fact:
Fact is based on authentic (genuine) information, real occurrences, or something
believed to be true.

Types of Communication:
1) Internal Communication: among the same group, family, department,
organization, etc.
For Example: Communication between 2 colleagues, mother and children,
mother and father, siblings, class fellows or communication with boss, etc.

2) External Communication: among the people from different organizations,
places, groups, families, etc.
For Example: communication between people from NADRA with the people from
NTS. Communication with the neighbors, etc.
Types of Reports:
1) Formal Report: It is a longer report with extra parts and having more than 10 to
15 pages. It might be having formal or informal languages.
2) Informal Report: It is a short report with approximately 10 pages.
3) Voluntary Report: It is written by taking an initiative and no one has asked you
for doing so.
4) Authorized Report: It is written on the command of someone else.
5) Information Report: Information about anything is provided.
6) Analytical Report: Analysis of a problem is done.
7) Persuasive Report: Convincing someone for something with the help of
information and data collected by you.
8) Periodic Report: These reports are repeated after regular intervals of time, as
the higher authorities ask for a report based on the data collected after every
week. So, it is based on weekly period.
Periodic report is further divided into two types:
i. Annual Reports: these are based on the data collected over the year.
ii. Monthly Reports: these are submitted after every month and based on
the data collected during that month.
Communication Process:
It is basically based on Sender (who sends a message), Receiver (who receives the message or
report, to whom the message is sent), and Feedback (response of the receiver).
There are 5 elements of communication process:
i. Sender
ii. Receiver
iii. Message
iv. Medium
v. Feedback
Following would be included in communication process:
Specific facts and figures (only actual information should be provided)
Necessary information
Reader benefit and interest
Coherent and clear meaning (with one basic idea in the whole report)
Unity to express the main idea (only one idea or problem should be
shared in the report)
Right level of language (based on the level of the person whom you are
writing)
No emission or errors (important information must not be omitted or
erased from the report and errors must be avoided)
7 Cs of Communication:
1) Completeness (answering all the questions asked by the receiver and also focusing on
the question that might be asked, means covering all aspects of the topic)
2) Conciseness (extra or useless information must be avoided, like repetition, lengthy
terminologies (like instead of Benazir Income Support Program, BISP should be used),
wordy expressions (sentences occupying more words than necessary, as instead of As a
matter of fact, this information is wrong, Actually, this information is wrong),
irrelevant material (unnecessary information or useless sentences or extra words may
be avoided).
3) Consideration (show respect to the receiver in your report. In this regard, focus on
You in order to make the receiver feel that he/she is being respected by you and also
try to avoid I in most of the situations because it would create negative impact as it
shows that you value your ideas and points more than the receivers)
4) Clarity
5) Concreteness
6) Courtesy
7) Correctness (These 4 points are discussed in Lecture 2)