Lecture 24

Writing Long Reports

In this lecture you will learn to
• Describe how organizations produce formal reports and proposals
• Prepare all necessary parts of a formal report
• Select and prepare the visual aids to support the text of your report
• Assemble all the parts of a formal report in the proper order and use an
appropriate format
• Prepare and assemble all the parts of a formal proposal
• Critique formal reports prepared by someone else

Report Production
• Planning formal reports and proposals, conducting the necessary
research, organizing the ideas, developing visual aids, and drafting the
text are demanding and time consuming tasks.
• After careful editing and rewriting, you still need to produce a polished
version.
• How to produce your report also depends on the equipment you have
available.
• Personal reports automatically handle many of the mechanical aspects
of report preparation.
• Be sure to schedule enough time to turn out a document that looks
professional.
Composing a formal Report
• A professional report conveys the impression that the subject is
important.
• The three basic divisions of a formal report:
– Prefatory parts
– Text
– Supplementary parts
Prefatory Parts
• Prefatory parts may be written after the text has been completed.
• Many of these parts such as table of contents, list of illustrations, and synopsis
are easier to prepare after the text has been written.
• Other parts can be completed any time.
 Cover
• Many companies have standard covers for reports, made of heavy paper and
imprinted with company’s name and logo.
• Put the title on the cover that is informative but not too long.
• You don’t want to intimidate you audience with a title that is too long,
awkward and unwieldy.
Title fly and Title Page
• The title fly is a plane sheet with only the title of the report on it.
• The title report includes four blocks of information
– The title of the report
– The name, title and address of the person that authorized the report
– The name, title and address of the person that prepared the report
– The date on which the report was submitted
Letter of Authorization and Letter of Acceptance
• If you received a written letter of authorization to prepare the report or
proposal, you may want to include that in your report.
• A letter of authorization usually follows the direct-request plan.
• Use good-news plan for a letter of acceptance.
Letter of Transmittal
• The letter of transmittal conveys your report to your audience.
• Use a less formal style for the letter of transmittal than for the report itself.
• Generally the letter of transmittal appears right before the table of contents.
• The letter of transmittal follows the routine and good-news plan as descried in
earlier lectures.
Table of Contents
• The table of contents indicates in outline form the coverage, sequence, and
relative importance of the information in the report.
• The table of contents is prepared after other parts of the report have been
typed, so that the beginning page numbers of each heading can be shown.
List of Illustrations
• For simplicity sake, some report refer to all the visual aids as illustrations
or exhibits.
• Put the list of illustrations on a separate page, if it wont all fit on one page
with the table of contents; start the list of figures and list of tables on a
separate page if they won’t both fit on one page.
Synopsis or Executive Summary
• A synopsis is a quick overview of the report’s important points, designed to
give readers a quick preview of the contents.
• Because it is a concise representation of the whole report it may be
distributed separately to a wide audience.
• The phrasing of a synopsis can be either informative or descriptive,
depending on whether the report is in direct or indirect order.
• An informative synopsis summarizes the main ideas; a
descriptive synopsis describes what the report is about.
• Informative synopsis
– Sales of super premium ice-cream make up 11% of the total ice-
cream market.
• Descriptive synopsis
– This report contain information about super premium ice-cream and
its share of the market.
• Use a descriptive synopsis for a skeptical or hostile audience, an
informative synopsis for most other situations.
• An executive summary is a fully-developed ‘mini’ version of the report
itself, intended for readers who lack time or motivation to read the
complete text.
• Put enough information in a executive summary so that an executi ve can
make without reading the complete text.
Text of the Report
• You will need to make the decisions about the design and layout of the
report.
• Aids to understanding the text of the report include
– Headings
– Visual aids
– Preview and summary statements
Text of the Report
• You will need to make the decisions about the design and layout of the
report.
• Aids to understanding the text of the report include
– Headings
– Visual aids
– Preview and summary statements
• Headings are most powerful format tool available to you.
• By skimming along from heading to heading the readers should be able to
pick up the structure or outline of the report.
• This process is easier if the headings are phrased and typed in a consistent
way.
Text of the Report
• Visual aids are also useful tools for calling attention to key points and helping
readers grasp the flow of ideas.
• Eye-catching graphics dramatize the high points of the message, and
informative captions explain their meaning.
• It is also useful to preview summary points at the beginning of each major
section or chapter and to sum them up at the end.
– Tell them what you are going to tell them
– Tell them
– Tell them what you told them
Introduction
• The introduction to a report serves a number of important function
– Putting the report in a broader context by tying it to a problem or a
an assignment
– Telling the readers the report’s purpose
– Previewing the report’s contents and organization
– Establishing the tone of the report and the writer’s relationship with
the audience
• Authorization
– When, how and by whom was the report authorized; who wrote it; and
when it was submitted.
• Problem/purpose
– The reason for report’s existence what is to be accomplished as a
result of the report being written.
• Scope
– What is and what isn’t going to be covered in the report. The
scope indicates the report’s size and complexity.
• Background
– The historic events and conditions that have led up to the report.
• Sources and methods
– The secondary sources of information used and the primary sources
such as interviews, surveys, experiments and observations.
• Definitions
– A brief introductory statement leading into a column of terms used in
the report and their definitions.
• Limitations
– Factors indicating the quality if the report, such as the budget too small
to do all the work that should have been done, time constraints and
other events beyond your control.
• Report organization
– An organization of the report, along with the rationale for following this
plan.
 Body
• The body of the report follows the introduction.
• It consists of major sections or chapters that analyze, present and interpret
the material gathered as a result of your investigation.
• One of the decisions to make when writing the body of your report is how
much detail to include.
• In general provide only enough information in the body to support your
conclusions and recommendations.
• Another decision to make is whether to put the conclusions in the body, in a
separate section for it or in both.
Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations
• The final section in the text report tells readers ‘what you have told
them.’
• Summary
– The key findings of your report, paraphrased from the body and stated
or listed in the key order in which they appear in the body.
• Conclusions
– The writer’s analysis of what the findings mean. These are the answers
to the questions that lead to the report.
• Recommendations
– Opinions, based on reason and logic, about the course of action that
should be taken.
• If the report is organized in the direct order, the summary, conclusions and
recommendations are presented before the body, and are reviewed only
briefly at the end.
• In action-oriented reports put all the recommendations in a a separate
section and spell out precisely what they mean.
Notes
• When you are writing the text of your report, you decide to acknowledge
your sources.
• Give credit where credit is due.
• Plagiarism occurs when one person misappropriate without permission,
any ideas, facts or words that were originated by others
• In general you have flirted with plagiarism when your business
documents fail to alert your audience that you have
– Repeated someone else’s information word for word
– Paraphrased another’s material too closely
– Lifted a series of phrases and put them together with your own
words
– Borrowed a unique term that originated elsewhere
Plagiarism
• Although your company may have more specific guidelines,
here are a few general tips on how to handle situation that
commonly arise
• Repeating information from another company document
– If you reuse information appearing another report, your audience
may believe that you have independently verified material and
eliminated any errors in the original report.
• Using same sources as another Document
– Consulting someone else's sources for further information is perfectly
acceptable.
– Plagiarism deals with the way information is reported, not with
whether you access the sources used by someone else.

• Repeating information protected by Copyright

– If you repeat information from books, published articles and other
copyright materials, be sure to avoid infringing on the originators’ legal
rights.
– To be safe talk to your company’s management before you repeat
information protected by copyrights.
Example
• One approach, especially for internal reports, is simply to
mention a source in the text:
– According to Dr. Aftab of Ganga Ram Hospital, hip
replacement operations account for 7% of all surgery
performed on women aged 65 and above.
– If your report is to be distributed to outsiders, you should include extra
information on where you obtained the data.
Visual Aids

• When illustrating the text of any report you face the problem of choosing
any specific form that best suits your message.
• Moreover good business ethics demand you chose a form of visual aid
that will not mislead your audience.
• Tables
– When your have to present detailed, specific information, choose a
table, a systematic arrangement of data in rows and columns.
– Use tables to help you audience understand detailed information.
 Sample Table

Multicolumn Head Single Single

Stub Head Subhead Subhead Column head Column head

Line Head XXX XXX XX XX

Line Head
Subhead XX XXX XX XX
Subhead XX XXX X XX
Totals XXX XXX XX XX
• Most tables have the same standard parts, as illustrated in the previous slide.
• Although formal tables set apart from the text necessary for conveying complex
information, some data can be presented more simply within the text.
• Tabular information can be introduced within the text without a formal title.
Line and Surface Charts
• A line chart illustrates the trend over time and plots the
interaction of two variables.
• Use line charts to
– Indicate change over time
– Plot the interaction of two variables
• A surface chart is a kind of line chart with a cumulative effect; all the lines add
up to the top line, which represents the total.
• This form of chart is useful when you want to illustrate the cha nges in the
composition of something over time.
Example of a Line Chart
Car size plotted against the gain or loss
of market share

40

30
Large
20 Medium
Small
10

0
1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr
Bar Charts
• A bar chart is a chart in which amounts are visually portrayed by
the height or length of rectangular bars.
• They are valuable when you want to
– Compare the size of several item at once
– Show changes in one item over time
– Indicate composition of several items over time
– Show relevant size of a component of a whole
Performance of different depertments
during the four quarters in a Soft Ware
company

100
80
60 East
40 West
North
20
0
1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr
Pie Charts
• In a pie chart numbers are represented as slices of a complete circle, or pie.
• Although they are less versatile, but are nevertheless valuable in your
inventory of visual aids.
• When composing a pie chart, try to limit the number of slices in a pie to no
more than seven.

Market Share of FastPizza

FoodHut
franchises
6% Freddy's Café
11%

Macdonalds
44%

KFC
22%

Burger King
17%
Organization Charts and Flow Charts
• Use organization charts to depict the interrelationships among the
parts of an organization
• Use flow charts to
– Show a series of steps from beginning to end
– Show relationship
Board of Trusties

President

Vice President Operations

Vice President Vice President Research
Marketing

Conclude the text of proposals and reports with a summary, and if

appropriate a conclusion and recommendation

• In a summary, recap the findings and explanations already presented.

• Place conclusions and recommendations in their order of logic or importance,
preferably in list format.
• To induce action, explain in recommendations section who should do what,
where, when and how.
• If appropriate point up the benefits if action, to leave readers with the motivation
to follow recommendations.
 FORMAL REPORTS

Title Page
Letter of Transmittal
 Table of Contents

A List of Tables and Figures

An Informative Abstract
 A PARTIAL GLOSSARY

In this lecture you learnt to

• Describe how organizations produce formal reports and proposals
• Prepare all necessary parts of a formal report
• Select and prepare the visual aids to support the text of your report
• Assemble all the parts of a formal report in the proper order and use an
appropriate format
• Prepare and assemble all the parts of a formal proposal