Introduction
Report writing is a time-consuming business, so it’s a great shame if, after you’ve spent all that time writing your report, the quality is such that hardly anyone bothers to read it. Frankly, most readers of the report don’t actually read the entire report; they are too short of time. It is better that you know and accept it, that is normal. They only read the parts that interest them. Often these are the abstract, conclusions, and recommendations.
Of course, some readers need all the details you carefully included, they are specialists, but most do not. Most readers only need two things: the information they want is where they expect it to be so they can find it, and it is clearly written so they can understand it.
It is similar to reading a newspaper. You expect news headlines to be on the front page; sports coverage to be in the back; the TV listings on whatever page and the editorial comment in between. If what you want is not in its usual place, then you have to look for it and you may get irritated. So it is with a report.
There is a convention as to what goes where. Stick to convention and please your readers. Break convention and people may get a little irritated and throw your report away.
So what is that convention, the standard format?
standard sections
title section. In a short report, this may simply be the cover page. In a long one, you could also include terms of reference, table of contents, etc.Summary. Give a clear and very concise explanation of the main points, the main conclusions and the main recommendations. Keep it very short, a few percentage of the total length. Some people, especially senior managers, may not read anything else, so write as if it were a stand-alone document. It’s not, but for some people it might be too. Keep it short and jargon-free so that anyone can understand it and understand the main points. Write it last, but don’t copy and paste from the report itself; which rarely works well.
Introduction. This is the first part of the report itself. Use it to paint the background of the ‘problem’ and show the reader why the report is important to them. Please provide your terms of reference (if not in the Title Section) and explain how the details below are organized. Write it in plain English.
hand bodysuit. This is the heart of his report, the facts. You will probably have multiple sections or subsections, each with its own subheading. It is unique to your report and will describe what you discovered about ‘the problem’.
These sections are most likely to be read by experts, so you can use the appropriate jargon, but explain it as you present it. Organize information logically, usually putting things in priority order, most important first. In fact, follow that advice in every section of your report.
You may choose to include a Discussion explaining the importance of your findings.
recommendations. Present the logical conclusions of your investigation of the ‘problem’. Bring it all together and maybe offer options for the way forward. Many people will read this section. Write it in plain English. If you have included a discussion, then this section can be quite short.
recommendations. What do you suggest should be done? Do not be shy; You did the work, so state your recommendations in order of priority and in plain language.
Appendices. Put the heavy details here, the information that probably only specialists will want to see. As a guide, if any detail is essential to your argument, include it in the main body, if it just supports the argument, it could go in an appendix.
Conclusions and recommendations
In conclusion, remember that readers expect certain information to be in certain places. They don’t expect to hunt what they want and the harder you make it for them, the more likely they are to brush your report aside and ignore it. So what should I do?
1. Follow the generally accepted format for a report: Summary, Introduction, Main Body, Conclusions, Recommendations, and Appendices.
2. Organize your information in each section logically with the reader in mind, generally putting things in priority order, most important things first.
Good luck with writing your report!
Author: Tony Atherton
© Tony Atherton 2005)