report writing

Dr Julianne Nyhan 28/11/2010
Report writing

1.0 Introduction
As you may know from your professional experience, whether working in Academia, Industry, the
Civil Service or as a self-employed Consultant, being able to write clear and effective reports is a
must. You will also find that spending some time learning about how to write effective reports will
help you outside of the office too: many of the strategies discussed here will, for example, assist
you in writing effective CVs and cover letters for job applications.
As discussed by the Purdue online writing lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/), over the past
twenty years two strategies have been identified that can be used to maximise the effectiveness of
professional writing. These are Rhetorical Awareness and the User-centered design (also known
as the reader-centered approach)1.
2.0 Rhetorical awareness
The purdue lab describe Rhetorical awareness in the following way:
“The idea of rhetorical awareness for workplace writing includes the following concepts:
• Workplace writing is persuasive. For example, when a writer composes a résumé, the
persuasive goal is to get a job interview. Similarly, a report writer may need to persuade a
client to take action to improve work conditions ensuring employee safety and timely
production
• Workplace writing, since it's persuasive, must consider the rhetorical situation:
• Purpose (why the document is being written, the goals of the document
• Audience (who will read the document, includes shadow readers-unintended
audiences who might read your work)
• Stakeholders (who may be affected by the document or project)
• Context (the background of and situation in which the document is created)”2
2.1 User-centered design
“The idea of user-centered design includes the following concepts:
• Always consider and think about your audience
• Consider your readers based on:
• their expectations. What information do your readers expect to get? What can be
provided to your readers?
• their characteristics. Who, specifically, is reading the work? Is the audience part of
the decision making process? Will stakeholders read the work? Or is the audience a
mixture of decision makers, stakeholders, and shadow readers? What organizational
positions does the audience hold and how might this affect document expectations?
• their goals. What are your readers planning to accomplish? What should be included
in your documents so that your readers get the information they need?
• their context. For what type of situation do the readers need this information?
• Identify information readers will need and make that information easily accessible and
1 See here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/624/01/ Accessed 28/11/2010
2 Ibid.
Dr Julianne Nyhan 28/11/2010
understandable
• User-centered documents must be usable, so consider how the document will be used
rather than just how it will be read. For example, if a writer wants information
regarding MLA formatting for an essay, s/he needs this information quickly in order
to start work. The MLA information must be easily accessible, so the author can find,
read, and understand it to begin writing
• Make your documents persuasive (see Rhetorical Awareness above)”3.
3.0 Linking these criteria to the exam
The exam paper that you will receive will contain key information that will help you to identify the
Purpose, Audience, Stakeholders and Context of the report. This information should guide your
approach to the 'user-centered design' of the report and help you to identify the kind of findings you
should present and the ways you should express them. For example, the report you are writing will
be read by both technical professionals and upper management (the latter are likely to be not
especially technical). So, in addition to discussing how a site may be technically improved you
should help non-technical readers to understand the implications of the issues you identify. To give
a concrete example: from the technical perspective you may note that image elements do not have
an alt attribute. In order to explain the significance of this to non-technical readers you should
mention the implications of this for users who are visually impaired.
4.0 Format of the Report
Your report should enable readers to easily navigate it and identify your key recommendations. So,
you should structure it as you would be expected to do in the “real world”. This means that your
report should begin with an executive summary and be divided into clearly labelled sections. At the
beginning of your report you should list vital information: the name of the author; the name of the
client; the date of the report; the name and url of the site that the report addresses; the date it was
accessed on.
4.1 Writing an executive summary
The Purdue writing lab discusses one strategy to writing an executive summary and calls it an
'Information Abstract'. Please use this approach in your exam.
“Informational Abstracts
• communicate contents of reports
• include purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions, and recommendations
• highlight essential points
• are short—from a paragraph to a page or two, depending upon the length of the report (10%
or less of the report)
• allow readers to decide whether they want to read the report
Steps For Writing Effective Report Abstracts
To write an effective report abstract, follow these four steps:
1. Reread your report with the purpose of abstracting in mind. Look specifically for these main
parts: purpose, methods, scope, results, conclusions, and recommendations.
3 Ibid.
Dr Julianne Nyhan 28/11/2010
2. After you have finished rereading your report, write a rough draft WITHOUT LOOKING
BACK AT YOUR REPORT. Consider the main parts of the abstract listed in step #1. Do not
merely copy key sentences from your report. You will put in too much or too little
information. Do not summarize information in a new way.
3. Revise your rough draft to
• correct weaknesses in organization and coherence,
• drop superfluous information,
• add important information originally left out,
• eliminate wordiness, and
• correct errors in grammar and mechanics.
4. Carefully proofread your final copy.”4
4 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/656/1/ Accessed 28/11/2010