[分享]How to make a good reprot

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Effective report writing

by Mustafa Muchhala 03 May 2007

This article on report writing covers the following areas: What constitutes an effective report? Targeting the audience. Planning a report. Generally accepted principles of report writing. Types of report. Most of us have been involved in writing a report at some time, either in our working lives or our personal lives. Be it an audit report, a director's report or simply an insurance claim report, it is very important for any report to effectively communicate information to the report user. So, what constitutes an effective report? A report is a general term that simply means 'telling' or 'relating'. It may present itself in a wide range of formats. If you give someone a verbal account, or write a message in a letter or a memorandum informing, say, your manager of facts, events, actions you have taken, suggestions you wish to make as a result of the investigation and so on, you are 'reporting'. Someone who is instructed to do so by a superior usually writes a report. A manager, who will then expect to make a decision on the basis of what the report tells him, may commission a special 'one-off' report. For example, the board of directors of a company might call for a report on the financial viability of a new product or investment, and they will expect to decide whether or not to undertake the product development or the investment on the basis of the report's findings. On the other hand, routine reports, such as performance reports, might be required because they are a part of established procedures. The managers receiving the reports will not have commissioned them specifically, but they will be expected to act on anything out of the ordinary that the report tells them. Some reports arise out of a particular event, on which regulations prescribe the writing of a report. For example, a leaving or exit interview report must be written following an employee's resignation; any accident in the workplace must be reported. Individual responsibilities often include the requirement to write reports - a representative on a committee, or the secretary at a meeting, will have to report to members, or other committees, the procedures and decisions taken. Whether the report is 'one-off' or routine, there is an obligation on the part of the person requesting the report to state the use to which it will be put. In other words, the purpose of the report must be clear to both its writers and its users. There is also an obligation on the part of the report writer to communicate information in an unbiased way. The report writer knows more about the subject matter of the report than the report user (otherwise there would be no need for the report in the first place). It is important that this information should be communicated impartially, so that the report user can make his or her own judgements. It is important that the report contains: Any assumptions, evaluations and recommendations by the report writer should be clearly 'signalled' as such. Points should not be over-weighted or omitted as irrelevant, without honestly evaluating how objective the selection is. Facts and findings should be balanced against each other. A firm conclusion should, if possible, be reached. It should be clear how and why it was reached. Targetting the audience There is an obligation on the part of the report writer to recognise the needs and abilities of the report user. Beware of jargon, overly technical terms and specialist knowledge the user may not share. Keep your vocabulary, sentence and paragraph structures as simple as possible, for clarity, without patronising an intelligent user. Bear in mind the type and level of detail that will interest the user and be relevant to his/her purpose. In a business context, the user may range from senior manager to junior supervisor, to non-managerial employee (such as in the case of minutes of a meeting, or general bulletin) to complete layman (customer, press and so on). Your vocabulary, syntax and presentation, the amount of detail you can go into, the technical matter you can include and the formality of your report structure should all be influenced by such concerns. As with all information, a report may be of no use at all if it is not produced on time, however well researched and well presented it is. There is no point in presenting a report to influence a decision if the decision has already been made by the time the report is issued. The timescales within which the report user is working must be known, and the time available to produce the report planned accordingly. Planning a report Whether you are writing a report in an exam or compiling a report at work, you will need to know how to put information together effectively. Before you can even begin to think about what information you will need and where you will find it, you need to consider the following. Who is the user? What type of report will be most useful to him/her? What exactly does he/she need to know, and for what purpose? How much information is required, how quickly and at what cost? Do you need to give judgements, recommendations and so on (or just information)? If you know who the user is, what he or she wants and why, and if you are aware of particular constraints imposed on you in terms of report size, time and money, you will have a good framework for going on to plan the structure and content of your report. When you then come to plan a report in detail, you can ask yourself some or all of these questions. What information do I need to provide? What is relevant to the user?s requirements? Do I need to follow a line of reasoning? If so, what is the most logical way in which data can be grouped, and sequenced, to make my reasoning clear? Do I need to include my own personal views? If so, at what point: final recommendation or throughout the report? What can I do to make the report easier to read? Are there suitable section or sub-headings I can use to indicate effectively each stage of the information/argument? Is the subject of the report too technical for the users? What vocabulary should I use to help them understand? Do I have a clear introduction to 'ease' the readers in to the subject, and a clear conclusion that will draw everything together for them? You could use the above questions as a checklist for planning your report. If you can then jot down a 'skeleton' of the headings and sub-headings you have decided to use (with notes of any particular points that occur to you as you go along) you will be ready to write. The formal headings of standard business reports may be useful to help you to organise your thoughts - but may not be necessary, or even advisable, if they simply act as a constraint on what you actually want to say, and how you want to 'shape' it. There are certain stylistic requirements to bear in mind, whether writing formal or informal reports. In a report designed to persuade as well as inform, subjective value judgements and emotions should be kept out of the content and style as far as possible. Any bias, if recognised, can undermine the credibility of the report and its recommendations. Emotional or otherwise loaded words should be avoided. In more formal reports, impersonal constructions should be used rather than 'I', 'we' etc, which carry personal and possibly subjective associations. In other words, first person subjects should be replaced with third person. For example, avoid saying 'I/We found that'. Instead the sentence can be framed as 'It became clear that' or 'Mr. X found that' or even 'Investigation revealed that'. Colloquialisms and abbreviated forms should be avoided in formal written English. Colloquial (informal) words such as 'I've', 'don't' and so on should be replaced by 'I have' and 'do not'. You should not use expressions like 'blew his top', instead formal phrases should be used, such as 'showed considerable irritation'. Make the report easy to understand by avoiding technical language and complex sentence structures for non-technical users. The material will have to be logically organised, especially if it is leading up to a conclusion or recommendation. Relevant themes should be signalled by appropriate headings or highlighted for easy scanning. The layout of the report should display data clearly and attractively. Figures and diagrams should be used with discretion, and it might be helpful to highlight key figures that appear within large tables of numbers. Various display techniques may be used to make the content of a report easy to identify and digest. For example, the relative importance of points should be signalled, each point may be referenced, and the body of text should be broken up to be easy on the eye. These aims may be achieved as follows. Headings - spaced out or enlarged CAPITALS may be used for the main title. Important headings, eg of sections of the report, may be in CAPITALS. Underlining or italics may be used for subheadings. References - each section or point in a formal report should have a code for easy identification and reference. You can use different labelling for each type of heading or alternatively a decimal system may be used as shown below. Main section headings I, II, III, IV, V etc. 1 Heading 1 A, B, C, D, E etc. 1.1 Sub-heading 1 Subsections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. 1.1.1 Sub-heading 1, Point 1 1.1.2 Sub-heading 1, Point 2 1.2 Sub-heading 2 Points and subpoints (a), (b), (c) or (i), (ii), (iii) etc. 1.2.1 (a) Sub-heading 2, Point 1, Sub-point (a), 2 Heading 2 Spacing - intelligent use of spacing separates headings from the body of the text for easy scanning, and also makes a large block more attractive and 'digestible'. Generally accepted principles of effective report writing The purpose of reports and their subject matter vary widely, but there are certain generally accepted principles of report writing that can be applied to most types of report. Bear in mind that all these principles may not strictly apply to all reports but can be used as necessary. They will help you further develop your report writing skills. Title The report should have a title, and the title should be explicit and brief. In other words, it should indicate clearly what the report is about and should be as short as possible. Identification of report writer, report user and date Reports should indicate in a clear place, possibly before the title itself, whom they are directed at, who has written them and the date of their preparation. Confidentiality If the report is confidential or secret this fact must be printed at the top of the report and possibly on every page. Contents page If the report is extensive, it should open with a list of contents. Terms of reference The introductory section of the report should explain why the report has been written and the terms of reference. The terms of reference will explain not only the purpose of the report but also any restrictions on its scope. For example, an internal auditing report might state that its terms of reference have been to investigate procedures in the credit control section of the accounts department, with a view to establishing whether the existing internal checks are adequate. Similarly, the terms of reference of a management accounting report might be to investigate the short-term profit prospects for a particular product, with a view to recommending either the closure of the product line or its continued production. These terms of reference would exclude considerations of long-term prospects for the product, and so place a limitation on the scope of the report. When timescale is important, this should be specified in the terms of reference. For example, the board of directors might call for a report so that they can take a decision by a certain cut-off date, eg whether to put in a tender for a major contract and if so at what price, in a situation where a customer has invited tenders which must be submitted by a certain date.

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Sources of information

If the report draws on other sources for its information, these sources should be acknowledged in the report. Alternatively, if the report is based on primary research, the nature of the fact-finding should be explained, perhaps in an appendix to the report.

If there is an extensive series of documents referring to one matter, a summary of the history may be provided in the appendix. If the literature includes a lot of correspondence, a uniform code should be used to refer to letters in the summary. For example, letters between the Company Secretary and the Companies Registry might be referenced as CS/Reg [date].

Sections

The main body of the report should be divided into sections. The sections should have a logical sequence, and each section should ideally have a clear heading. These headings or sub-headings should, if possible, be standardised when reports are produced regularly, eg audit reports. Paragraphs should be numbered for ease of reference. Each paragraph should be concerned with just one basic idea.

Appendices

To keep the main body of the report short enough to hold the reader's interest, detailed explanations, calculations, charts and tables of figures should be put into appendices. The main body of the report should make cross-references to the appendices in appropriate places.

Summary of recommendations

A report will usually contain conclusions or recommendations about the course of action to be taken by the report user. These conclusions or recommendations could perhaps be stated at the beginning of the report (after the introduction and statement of terms of reference). The main body of the report can then follow, in its logically progressive sections, and should lead the report user through the considerations that led the report writer to these conclusions.

The conclusions or recommendations could then be re-stated at the end of the main body of the report. For example, a management accounting report into the performance of an operating division might summarise its findings at the beginning, as follows.

	Plan	Actual
Sales turnover	X	X
Profit	X	X
Cash movement	X	X
Capital employed	X	X
Return on capital employed	X	X

The following sections of the report would then go on to look at each of these items in more detail, concluding with an assessment of the division?s performance and perhaps recommendations as to how it needs to be improved.

Any assumptions, forecasts or conjectures should be signalled as such, and not passed off as fact.

Prominence of important items

The most significant items in a report should be given prominence.

Report summaries

Long reports should be summarised in brief. However, as suggested already it is often better to keep the main report itself brief, with the detail in appendices; a report summary would probably not then be necessary.

Implications for management

Reference should be made where appropriate to costs, savings and other benefits that might accrue, and to any other implications for management in the report's recommendations (eg implications for staff recruitment, training or redundancies and so on).

Completeness

A report should be logically complete and should not overlook any item or consideration so that its recommendations are called into question.

Types of report

Having discussed the generally accepted principles applicable to most types of reports, let us go through the three main types of report you might have to deal with.

• The short formal report
• The short informal report
• The memorandum report
  

The short formal report is used in formal contexts such as where middle management is reporting to senior management. It should be laid out according to certain basic guidelines. It will be split into logical sections, each referenced and headed appropriately.

TITLE

I TERMS OF REFERENCE (or INTRODUCTION)

II PROCEDURE (or METHOD)

III FINDINGS

1 Section heading

2 Section heading if required

(a) Sub-heading

(i) Sub-point

IV CONCLUSIONS

V RECOMMENDATIONS if asked for

The short informal report is used for less complex and lower level information. A senior accounts clerk, or similar, could be asked to prepare such a report for the accounts manager. The structure of the informal report is less developed. It will be shorter and less complex in any case, so will not require elaborate referencing and layout. There will be three main sections, each of which may be headed in any way appropriate to the context in which the report is written.

TITLE

1 BACKGROUND/INTRODUCTION/SITUATION

2 FINDINGS/ANALYSIS OF SITUATION

3 ACTION/SOLUTION/CONCLUSION

In informal reporting situations within an organisation, the short informal report may well be presented in A4 memorandum format, which incorporates title headings and can thereafter be laid out at the writer's discretion. An ordinary memorandum may be used for flexible, informal reports. Besides the convenient title headings, there are no particular requirements for structure, headings or layout. The writer may consider whatever is logical, convenient and attractive for the reader.

Conclusion

To conclude, bear in mind that your report is a vehicle for conveying information and it should pay attention to the qualities of good information being:

• relevance
• accuracy
• reliability
• timeliness
• appropriateness
• cost-effectiveness.

TCWLY

我把它打印出来，查阅不懂的单名。我几乎能看得懂，一直以来想去真正的外资企业，苦于不能说流利的英语做罢。

楼主能给点建议吗？如何才能说出英语呢。

兰桥

Thanks a lot