Report writing A report is a statement of the results of an investigation or of any matter on which definite information is required.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
One of the key skills in management is being able to present your ideas, proposals, observations and updates in a way that is easily understood by other people.
Pulling together a good report, is of course is at its core, a subjective exercise, with the judgement being very much down to personal taste. However, certain principles or techniques are extremely useful in developing your own style and in maximising the likelihood a report will be well received.
Useful techniques are:
• Think carefully about who your intended audience is and tailor your style to that audience (use of language, slang, jargon, technical terms, length etc) – the higher the number of groups you are trying to communicate with, increases the difficulty of writing an effective report. In this situation, think about having different reports (e.g. one version for senior managers and one version for service users)
• Consider using the format of other reports that have been well received in your organisation or any examples of reports which you have read that have been useful e.g. clear training material you may have been given on a course. You may wish to use a format as a starting point for your report.
• Decide what you are trying to say – this may sound obvious, but often reports are trying to say too much (and rambling) or in a way that may be clear to the writer but not the reader (!).
• Work out a structure first (!) – it can feel ‘awkward’ to start planning the structure and headings, as often you will have a clear idea about what you want to say and just want to get it down on paper. This is natural, but often one’s thoughts will come out in a fairly uncoordinated way. By deciding the structure first, it is possible to give a report a much better ‘flow’ and so it is more likely to be accessible, persuasive and actually read.
• Avoid jargon as it can be hard to understand and try to write in straightforward way. E.g. avoid, ‘the strategic thrust underpinning the proposed actions going forward, need a rigorous evaluative framework to assess their efficacy’ (!) and aim for something more like ‘the overall aims that led to the actions suggested in this report, will need to be reviewed to see how sensible and relevant they are’.
• Avoid clichés or common but unhelpful phrases – whilst its good to keep it straightforward, avoid like the plague, phrases such as ‘at the end of the day’ or ‘thinking outside the box’.
• Adopt a discursive approach – one which helps the reader work though issues in a balance way. E.g. if proposing change, one can work through the other options, even if you have a favourite, which can
• Be careful to distinguish between opinion and fact – its fine to have opinions – everyone has them and as a manger, you are paid to make judgements based on your and others opinions.
• Write in the third person (passive voice) e.g. ‘A series of experiments were conducted’ rather than in the first person ‘I conducted a series of experiments’.
• Use Appendices to help the report remain focused, together with an ‘Executive Summary’ type approach (short summary of paper, with more detailed paper attached if you need to for some members of your audience). As a rule of thumb, 2-3 pages is the maximum for many readers and audiences, but the Appendices can contain all the evidence and discussion, should individual readers want to ‘drill down’ into the information.
• One can become too close to a piece of written work and there is a need to step back from the report itself, so use ‘peer review’ or less formally, ask someone else to have a look at your report to give you a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ on it. This can be someone in your team, another manager or subject to issues such as confidentiality, someone outside of the work place or in another organisation.
• Print off a ‘hard copy’ and read it after leaving some time after the initial report was first drafted. Reading reports on a PC screen is rarely as good as reading a hard copy – the ability to physically see the report can also help with checking the structure is right. This is also part of the redrafting and formatting phase. Formatting, particularly for longer report or ones with complex prescribed formats, can take a very long time – plan for this linked to any deadlines you’ve been set.
reports
Stages in report
writing
For those who have had a more academic background, report writing on the face of it is more familiar, but it should be noted that taking an academic approach to report writing in the work place, should be avoided as the context and audience is very different. The key differences include:
• The aims in the work place are often very different to academia – saving time and money is often more paramount than intellectual investigation.
• People at work, rarely enjoy reading reports. Academics might enjoy reading written work.
• Reports need to be shorter on the whole.
• Referencing at work is less important, but not to be ignored.
In essence, reports are not essays.
