Report Writing

In essence, all reports are essentially news stories that follow the same formula: who, what, when, where, why and how. Every report has a structure including purpose, summary, findings or facts discovered, conclusions based on data patterns or trends, recommendations of action and next logical steps to take to address the issues presented. In effect, you’re a reporter whose job is to present the facts, good or bad, and let the reader draw his/her conclusions. You can learn how to do this by studying how quickly a reporter gets to his main point in any news story, if the story is well thought-out and written. Unfortunately, in today‘s news stories, you can also see opinion barely disguised as fact, or an agenda presented as news.

Good Report Writing Requires Facts

Every report is written for a purpose: to report a conference or meeting, rate the competition’s products and impact upon market share, identify problems or report progress. Your report should be based on first-hand research. Anything else is an academic exercise that can quickly become murky and vague. Get into the field and see for yourself what is happening at your branch offices, on the sales floor or production line, to see what conditions are really like.

Field work uses your senses, absorbing data and gathering impressions. Use a recording device. First impressions are what your customer sees or what you notice because you don‘t look at the same scene every day. Check out the production line. What was good planning on paper may not have translated well into nuts and bolts on the floor.

Once your field trip is done, weave your impressions into your report as background. Make direct references if your impressions directly affects your business, production, identifies a problem or supports your conclusions.

If you have a lot of numbers to present, make a table or chart that can communicate at a glance more efficiently than words.

Hold Your Opinions

Not always an easy thing to do. In a sense, report writing is a little like walking a tightrope: one misstep and you fall into the abyss, never to be heard from again.

Report the facts as you see them, good or bad. “It’s 100 degrees today,” and “The time is 12 noon and the sun’s UV intensity is 2.4” are statements of fact. “It’s hot as all get out!” and “The sun is really hot,” are opinions based on facts and don’t carry much weight. Make sure you separate facts from opinions. You can and should strive for balance. Should your report come under fire, a solid report consisting only of facts will stand long after an opinionated piece is shot full of holes.

Minimize Bias In Your Report Writing

All reports reflect the viewpoint of the individual who wrote it, or the company or organization that funded the report. Bias is nearly impossible to eliminate. Even the way you present your facts can lead the reader to conclusions you wish him/her to get to. It’s simply the way things are.

How you choose your facts is just as important as how you present what you find. Any set of facts can be filtered to present a certain point of view. This occurs in scientific studies all the time. Who pays for the report has a direct influence on what the facts “reveal” and how they are presented. Sometimes facts that don’t represent the desired view are simply discarded as being “insignificant.” Not so yours. A report needs to be based on facts and the reader draws her own conclusions from reading it.

Draw Your Conclusion

The facts you discover will lead you down a path to an inevitable conclusion about issues being considered. Data naturally forms a flow of ideas. Trying to cram these into a preconceived conclusion or divert the flow won’t work. When data is combined from several areas, such as marketing, market changes, production techniques, emerging technology, sales, financial and economics, your finished report will be strong and able to stand on its own. The more data you can gather, even if it’s never directly used, the more solid your conclusions will be and the less you’ll have to defend what you’ve written. Consider a report to be an informational iceberg. About 11% of the data is presented, while 89% remains unseen but supports your conclusions.

Keep It Plain And Simple

Language can either be a barrier or a great aid to understanding. Plain English is always better than elaborate puffery or droning. Keeping a report lively is sometimes difficult because of reader expectations. Don’t forget, to the reader, your report is just another in a long line. But how you write it is the key. Words don’t have to be long or overblown to communicate. Shorter words and short sentences do remarkably well. When writing your report, don’t listen to well-meaning but misguided advice from those who believe reports should be formal and stuffy. They don’t. But they do have to be informative, logical, flowing and crystal clear. If a reader starts reading and is caught up by the flow of ideas until he reaches the “Oh!” point, then you’ve done your job.