How to Write a Good Report..

toll managers, supervisors, administrators and employees have to write reports as part of their normal duties at work. All professionals spend at least fifty percent of their time writing, speaking and dealing with someone else’s writing. The higher their position the more they write. As an effective communicator, the higher your goals, the more efficiently you need to write all type of reports.

In reality, many professionals hold a narrow idea about the term ‘report’. To them any document emphasizing the word report in its title page is a report. Some even say that only the extended complex documents having supplements are categorized as reports, not the memos, letters, notes or the like. According to the communication specialists of the business community, a report is an account of any kind of investigation. When you are explaining something to someone, or writing an instruction for the new employee or recording minutes of a meeting, or summarizing information for someone, you are in fact reporting your responsibilities to various people on various occasions for various purposes.

So we can say that a report is a document in which a given problem is examined for the purpose of conveying information, reporting responsibilities, findings, putting forward ideas and sometimes making recommendations on the basis of which the decision makers make decisions and take action. A written report is often the only record that is made of results that have come out of years of thought and effort. Today we often rely on weather reports credit reports, budget reports, consumer reports, proposals and analytical reports, world reports before we make any move in the business world. A report also serves as a concrete measure of a person’s job performance and as the foundation for all future action on any particular project.

Reports are mainly of two types: informal or short reports and formal or long complex reports. The essential difference between the two is that latter requires some kind of investigation or research whereas the former does not.

Informal or Short Reports

There are the reports most regularly written and read at the lower levels of the organizations. In any organization, the personnel must communicate speedily and precisely.

Informal reports (most of them) require no extended planning, are quickly prepared, contain little background information, have no supplements (title page, abstract, glossary, etc) and can have a variety of formats. They usually vary in length and arrangement.  The short report function is to communicate objectively and precisely in any of these formats:

• The memorandum
• The letter
• The prepared form report or
• Other formats which fall into none of the first three categories and which we shall call, “miscellaneous”.

Whether you report your data in a letter, memo, on a prepared form or in some miscellaneous form will depend on your purpose and audience. It is quite possible that the same information you cast in a memo to a superior will be incorporated in a letter to a client.

So there is no denying the fact that memorandums and letters fall under the group of informal reports. A memorandum is just a written note sent through the internal post of an organization. There may be one receiver or several, but the number is limited since a ‘memo’ is addressed to specific individuals. It is used both at vertical and horizontal levels but not at shop floor level. a memorandum can serve as a brief reminder or as drawing attention to a specific situation or as conveying instructions. Also a memorandum should contain only one basic point. If you wish to make two entirely separate points, send two memorandums. Conciseness is the hallmark of a good memorandum. Memos simply end after the final point; no summary or closing remarks are necessary. On the other hand, letter reports typically go to people outside the organization and signature is a must in order to indicate your approval of and responsibility for the content that may be used later as a legal document. Letter writing is an art of its own, quite different from report and memo writing. The letter is an important public relation document, carrying an image of the organization and providing an opportunity to enhance relationships. That is why it is important to aways be natural in writing your letters; write, as you would speak in a classroom and avoid the temptation to copy a textbook example.

To have smooth operations, effective communications and keep track of data, many companies use prepared forms for short reports. Such forms are useful in two ways. First, a prepared form provides clear guidance for recording data. You are sure to satisfy your reader’s needs if you call fill in the information correctly in the form. Second, a prepared form standardized data reported from various sources. Information is recorded in order of importance and the fixed format allows for rapid processing and tabulating of data.

Miscellaneous reports ate written for various purposes too and they do not fit into any of the above-mentioned formats. The writer has to prepare his own format for recording information such as minutes of a meeting.

Formal Reports

Whenever your information is too lengthy and needs some research and investigation to be done then you choose to cast your information in formal report form. The purpose of writing formal reports is to check opinions against facts, to reach a conclusion that has the best chance of being valid. In the workplace, almost no major decision is made without research, with the findings recorded in a formal report. So whenever you are writing a formal report, you are not merely collecting views, but screening and evaluating facts for a definite purpose. The typical formal reports are likely to be read by many people for a variety of purposes. A formal report is always accompanied by supplements or supporting documents. Although the central message of a formal report is its introduction-body-conclusion-structure, supplements to the report help readers grasp the material by providing a place for everything.

Supplements are reference item generally added to a long (formal) report or proposal to make the document more accessible to various readers. The title page, letter of transmittal, table of contents and abstract give summary information about the content of the document. The glossary, appendixes, and the list of works cited could either provide supporting data or help readers follow technical sections. By carefully planning and designing supplements your formal reports you can accommodate the needs of diverse audiences. In its finished form your formal report should be arranged in the following order:

• Title page
• Letter of transmittal
• Table of contents
• Table of illustrators
• Information abstract or summary of the report
• Report text (Introduction-body-conclusion)
• Costing
• Recommendations
• Glossary
• Appendixes
• bibliography

A few of these sections may, in some cases, be omitted and sometimes will be unnecessary. the more non-essential information readers are given, the more likely they are to overlook or misinterpret the important facts of your report. So always take the time to carefully determine what your readers needs, and give them just that, no more no less.
Best of Luck..!!