basics of report writing
DESCRIPTION
Basics of business report writingTRANSCRIPT
TEAM 1 PGDM 12’14
Anju
Aishwarya
Neeru
Amit
Ajay
BASICS OF REPORT WRITING
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
REPORT WRITING - MEANING
WHAT IS A REPORT ?
Assessment of a situation or results from data analysis
Precise, concise and succinct (to the point)
Tightly focused
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
WHAT IS A REPORT?
A document in which a given problem is examined, for the
purpose of conveying information & findings, putting
forward ideas first & sometimes making recommendations.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Preparation before writing:
Define the problem, purpose, scope and ask: What is wanted?
How much?
Why?
When?
This will determine the purpose that can be written in one clear
statement.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Determining the report’s scope
Common fault of many reports - making the scope of a
report too general or too vague
After choosing the subject is to narrow the scope to the
report’s length
Scope is determined by the factors you will study
Limit amount of information to the most needed and most
important factors
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
STEPS FOR WRITING REPORTS….. Make an initial plan
Locate your information and take notes
Prepare the first draft
Evaluate your draft carefully
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
THE OBJECTIVE…
It defines the scope of our investigation
Identify the purpose
To inform
To convince
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Planning your report
How much time do you have to write the report?
How can your work be divided into stages?
Set yourself deadlines for the various stages?
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Collecting information
What is the information you need?
Where do you find it?
Survey
Organizations
Online
Publications
How much do you need?
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Organizing Information
Discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information
Sort/ organize information under main ideas/ details
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Analyse your information
After gathering info, you need to analyse it
The purpose of the analysis is to make sense objectively, out
of the information you have gathered
Avoid personal bias of any kind entering into analysis
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Characteristics of report
Reader-centered beginning and ending
Objectivity
Time consistency
Present
Past
Transition
Interest
Personal and impersonal writing
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Wording of Headings
Parallel Construction: Equal level headings should be in the
same grammatical format—for example, all noun phrases, all
sentences, or all truncated (headline-style) sentences.
Conciseness in Wording: Headings should be as short as
possible while still conveying clear meaning
Variety of Expression: Replace monotonous repetitions
of words in topic headings with a variety of words.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Write the Report
Put the report in context with your beginning and ending.
Be objective.
Believability
Impersonal vs. personal writing
Maintain a consistent time viewpoint.
Use smooth transitions.
Maintain interest.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Beginnings and Endings
A good beginning . . .
states the subject of the report
reveals what kind of data it is based upon
indicates its likely significance to the reader
A good ending . . .
may summarize; or summarize and interpret; or summarize,
interpret, and recommend—depending on the reader
must make the informational “gist” clear
must make the contents’ significance clear
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Impersonal v/s Personal Styles
Impersonal With the Jones project completed, work now is continuing
on the next annual report, with a special focus on the new
high-temperature technique.
Personal During the first week of the period, I was completing the
Jones project. I now am writing a description of the new
high-temperature technique for the next annual report.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Contd..
Impersonal The current period has been devoted to training on the use of
the new equipment.
Personal I have spent the current period getting trained on using the
new equipment.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Maintain Logic and Consistency
in Time Viewpoint
Consistent Present
Since Dixie Cola is produced and distributed in the south,
there is little difficulty in establishing its identity in that
region.
Strong markets are designated as those that require little or
no local adaptation of commercials. Mississippi, Louisiana,
and Alabama fall in that category.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Contd..
Consistent Past
Since Dixie Cola was produced and distributed in the South,
there was little difficulty in establishing its identity in that
region.
Strong markets were designated as those that required little
or no logical adaptation of commercials. Mississippi,
Louisiana, and Alabama fell in that category.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Need for transition
Transition means “bridging across”
Transitions are used to connect the parts of the report
For connecting large parts, transition sentences may be used
Transitional words show relationships between lesser parts
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Transitions are Bridges for Moving the
Reader Through Your Report
Idea Idea Idea
Transition Transition
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Language Present facts as they are
Paragraph length about 7 type written lines
All paragraphs should have topic sentence as the opening line even if there is a heading
Apply the seven Cs
Sentences averaging 16-20 words
Concrete nouns
Few adverbs & adjectives
Generally written in past tense
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Maintaining interest
Interesting writing is necessary for good communication
Attention should be on main information
Use concrete words and active-voice verbs
Avoid rubber stamp jargon
Select words carefully.
Watch the rhythm of expression.
Stress content over techniques.
Be complete without using more words than necessary.
Era Business School
Ajay K Raina
Thank You