REPORT WRITING

REPORTS
Reports are a very important vehicle for gaining or giving information. Reports are used as the basis for Decision Making in organizations. Reports involve collecting, summarizing and organizing large quantities of information and making recommendations

Purpose
Monitor and control operations. Implement policies and procedures. Comply with legal or regulatory requirements. Document work performed for clients. Guide decisions on particular issues. Get products, plans or projects accepted by clients.

Criteria
Source: who initiates the report. Frequency: how often they are needed. Target audience: where they are sent to. Length: how much details they contain. Intent: whether they are designed to simply educate or to present a decision and require action.

Source
Voluntary Reports- They are prepared on your own initiative. They are very detailed, give a lot of background on the subject and explain the purpose carefully. Authorized Reports- They are prepared at the request of someone. This report is organized to respond to the readers request.

Frequency
Routine/Periodic Reports- These are submitted on recurring basis (weekly, monthly). Routine reports like sales report or financial reports are prepared on preprinted forms. Since they are routine, they require less introductory or transmittal material. Special Reports- They are non-recurring reports that present the results of specific, one-time studies or investigations.

Target Audience
Internal Reports- They are designed for use within the organization. They are less formal and are under 10 pages and written in the Memo format. External Reports- They are sent to people outside the organization. They may be in letter format if they are written within 5 pages and in manuscript format if they exceed 5 pages.

Length
Short Reports- They are about 1-9 pages, usually discuss one part of the problem and may not require formal research. A Summary report is a special kind of short report that gives a concise overview of a situation, document or publication. Summaries highlight important details but do not include background material, examples or specific details. Long Reports- They are 10 or more than 10 pages. They examine the situation in detail and generally require extensive research and preparation time.

Intent
Informational Reports- These reports focus on facts and are designed to explain something or educate others. They usually contain facts and data without analyses and recommendations. Analytical Reports- They are designed to solve a problem by convincing the reader that the conclusions and recommendations reached are justified, based on the data analyses and interpretations presented in the report.

Informational Reports
Operating reports- They contain detailed info. from the Management Information System. It is the data about everything happening in the organization-sales, products, inventory, shipments, backlogs, costs, personnel. Such data is sent to managers on preprinted formats.

Informational Reports-1
Periodic operating reports- These reports tells us about what is happening in a department or division during a particular time. They could be daily, weekly or monthly sales report or Corporate annual report.

Informational Reports-2
Personal Activity reports- These reports describe what happened in a conference, convention, trip or any other activity. They are intended to report important decisions that emerged during that activity. The report keeps track of what is happening in the marketplace or the with customers. Sales call reports, Expense reports, Performance reviews, and Recruiting reports are some such reports used in the organization.

Analytical Reports
These reports contain supporting info., analyses and recommendations to make important decisions. It requires a strong foundation of facts combined with good insight and excellent communication skills on the part of the writer. The body of the report presents all the facts (good and bad) and persuades the reader to accept a stated decision, an action or recommendation.

Analytical Reports-1
Problem-solving reports-These provide info and analyses. These require primary and secondary research. Trouble-shooting reports- They are a type of problem-solving report. When a problem exists, investigation is done and a solution is proposed. They have all the info, which answer to questions like what, when , why and how.

Analytical Reports-2
Feasibility reports- They have information evaluating the practicality or advisability of pursuing an option or course of action such as hiring a consultant or changing a procedure. Justification reports-They are similar to FR except for timing. Justification reports are written after a course of action is taken, to justify the decision that has been taken from analyses.

Gathering Data
Primary Research- Information got from Surveys,Personal Interviews,Telephonic Interviews,Personal Observation and Experimentation. Secondary Research-Data collected from books, periodicals,magazines,newspapers,dictionaries, manuals,websites,encyclopedias,journals, and government publications.

Selecting an Approach
The Chronological Approach The Reasoned Approach The Ordered Approach The Direct Approach The Indirect Approach

Writing Process
There are three steps in the writing process of reports. Planning Writing Completing

Planning a Report
Analyze the situation- Study the situation and define the problem. Develop a statement of purpose, which very clearly defines why you are writing the report. Compose a preliminary outline. Gather primary and secondary information. Establish good audience relationship and choose the right channel.

Writing
Organize the information gathered by deciding on the format, length, order and structure. Prepare the final outline and draft introduction, body and closing. Control your style through level of formality and tone. Establish a time perspective and provide supporting details.

Completing
Evaluate content and review readability. Edit and rewrite for conciseness and clarity. Use effective design elements like prefatory parts, text parts and supplementary parts. Review text and visuals for errors in layout, spellings and mechanics.

Structured/Formal Report
This report takes a formal tone and has FIVE parts Title page,Executive summary,Introduction, Body,Conclusion and Recommendation.

Title page
Report title Name and title of the writer( firms name also if the report is external) Date Report number (if required by the firm) Name and title of the person to whom the report is addressed (name of the firm if external)

Table of contents
Present the name of each section in the same wording and format as it appears in the text. Do not underline in the table of contents Do not use page or p before page numbers. Present only two levels of head. If the table of contents and the list of illustrations are both short, put them on the same page.Do not include illustrations with the table. Use a series of dots (leader) to connect words to page numbers.

List of Illustrations
Title it list of illustrations idif it contains both figure and tables. If it contains figures or tables, call it list of figures or list of tables. If it contains both, list all the figures first and then all the tables. List the number, title, and page of each visual aid.

Summary/ Abstract
The reports purpose and the problem. The conclusions The major facts on which the conclusions are based. The recommendations. A page at the most/ avoid technical terms/ write the summary after you have written the report.

Introduction
Purpose-State the purpose clearly, i.e., to solve the problem necessitated the report, or to make recommendations. Use the present tense. Name the alternatives (if you have researched/ investigated other areas.

Introduction
Scope- Specify the boundaries or limits of your research or investigation. Procedure statement- Explain all the actions you took like people interviewed, research performed, sources used. Write this statement in the past tense. Background statement- Explain the general problem/ Explain what has gone wrong/give exact facts/Tell the significance of the problem/ Specify who is involved and in what capacity/ Tell why you received the assignment.

Organizing a Report
Decide on format and length.
Choose a format to suit the importance of the purpose and the receiver of the report.

Choose a length to match the subject, purpose and receiver expectations.

Organizing-1
Select an approach which matches the purpose and objective.
Process the information and select only that information which supports your purpose and discard the non-essentials.

Composing a Report
Prepare a final outline.
Draft the Introduction, Body and Closing. Include purpose, background,scope and organization of the report in the Introduction.

Composing-1
Use the Body of the report to give details as proposed approach. Persuasively explain receivers benefit. Use the Closing to summarize the keypoints and main benefits. Conclude with the call to action.

Recommendation/Rationale
Number each recommendation. Make the solution to the problem the first recommendation. Mentions others too. The recommendation usually fulfils the purpose of the report. The rationale explains your recommendation. If the rationale section is brief, add to the recommendation. Otherwise, make it a separate section.

Conclusion
Relate each conclusion to specific data. Use concise, numbered conclusions. Keep commentary brief. Add inclusive page numbers to indicate where to find the discussion of the conclusion.

Appendix
Refer to each appendix item at the appropriate place in the body of the report. Name major sub-sections under Appendix in the table of contents. Number illustrations in the appendix in the sequence begun in the body of the report. For short reports, continue page number in sequence from the last page of the body. For long reports, use separate pagination system. Since the appendixes are named Appendix A or Appendix B, number the pages starting with the appropriate letter A-1,A-2

GUIDELINES
Know who your readers are Make your purpose clear Make sure that your report is believable by giving supporting facts and figures Use display elements to make the report reader- friendly.

Pagination
Place the numbers on the upper right-hand corner or bottom middle of the page, with no punctuation. Use headers and footers to identify the topic of a page or section. Consider the title page as 1 but do not number it. Give each figure or table page a number. In very long reports use small roman numerals for all the pages before the text of the discussion.

THANK YOU