Unit Four

Summaries, notes, reports

• In business, planning and writing reports, making summaries and taking notes are important skills which may be expected of everyone.

• It’s important to take notes on business conversations, rather than rely on your memory. The main points need to be clearly recorded so that another person can make sense of them---and you have a permanent record for the files.

• －－－－好记性不如烂笔头。

Study Objectives

• The emphasis throughout is on practicing note-, summary- and report-writing.

• This unit deals with how to take notes in business contexts, how to summarize conversations and how to plan and write reports.

• This unit gives advice on making notes in different ways and also provides practice in punctuation.

Background information about reports• Reports plays a crucial role in business practice

as most major or decisive actions are based on business reports.

• On the other hand, report is also quite often used as a device to exchange information in and among business, for instance, reporting to upper management, giving instruction to the divisions, putting forward proposals, presenting a result of an investigations, and etc.

• If reports are well written, solution can be expected to draw in a wise way.

Types of Business Report

• Generally speaking, business reports can be of these types: Routine Report ( 日常事务报告 ), Investigation Report, ( 调查报告 ) Feasibility Report ( 可行性报告 ).

• Business reports may also be typed in their styles. Some may be thought as a Letter Report ( 信函式报告 ) as it is in the form of a memo or letter with the TO Line, From Line, Subject Line and Date Line; some may be taken as just a Formal Report ( 正式报告 ).

What a Report Is Made of?

• A letter report is made of two parts: Heading and Body.

• The heading’s components are From Line, To Line, Date Line and Subject Line

• The body’s components are the Introduction ( 引言 ), the Illustration ( 陈述 ), the Discussion ( 讨论 ), the Conclusion ( 结论 ) and the Suggestion ( 建议 ).

• A formal report is made of by ：

• the Title Fly ( 封面 ), • the Title Page ( 题名页 ), • the Executive

Summary ( 摘要 ), • the Table of Contents

( 目录 ), • the Body ( 正文 ), • the Appendix ( 附录 )

and the Bibliography ( 参考文献 ).

How to Write a Routine Report?• To write a routine report, one usually uses letter

formed report as it is written regularly so a format is printed and what one has to do is just filling out the format with new facts or figures.

• However, an ordinary routine report is always developed in this way:

• 1) starting with a summary of the latest development as an introduction

• 2) presentation of the major problem as an illustration

• 3) discussion on the problem presented• 4) conclusion made based on the discussion• 5) recommendation or evaluation if there is

any

• There are many things you should do before you even think about ‘writing’ or drafting the report. You should first prepare or assemble your material and then plan how you are going to write the report. The preparation and writing of a report falls into four stages (4.3 P36):

♥ Assembling the material ♥ Planning the report ♥ Drafting the report ♥ Editing the report• This is the recommended order in which the planning

and writing process can be best arranged: 2-6-9-8-3-1-13-14-4-5-16-7-10-15-11-12 assemble the material (1) → plan the report (2-7) →

draft the report (8-11)→ edit the report(12-16)

4.1 Summarizing a conversation

• Taking notes on information you hear and summarizing the main points of a conversation are very important communication skills when using English in business.

Step B

• Before you hear the conversation, please look at the extracts from the three summaries of a conversation.

• Different styles of notes may be suited to different circumstances.

♣Numbered notes may well be useful for ‘easy reference’.

♣More discursive notes may be appropriate as ‘a record for the files’

4.2 Using notes to write a report• This section gives practice in

transforming notes into a connected text. • At this stage the emphasis is on linking

up ideas and adding missing elements, such as verbs and conjunctions.

Step A & B

• Please expand the notes into paragraphs and connected text.

• Compare your own reports with a suggested draft in File 67.

4.3 Planning and editing a report• The aim behind this activity is for the you to

work through and ‘think through’ the preparation for report writing yourselves in more explicit and conscious terms.

Step B Discussion

• It’s important in any writing and –especially in business-to be clear about the aims and purposes of your writing.

• To help your reader to make sense of what you’ve written, four ‘Golden Rules” should be remembered:

Accurate→ Brief→ Clear→ Decisive

Step C Read & Discuss

• The purpose of this activity is to show that a clear statement of the aims of a business report is very important if anything sensible or useful is to be produced.

• Suggested answers: ♫ The MD is expressing dissatisfaction with

time-keeping---in an indirect way. ♫ Perhaps the MD requires a report which will

enable him or her to justify introducing clocking-in machines.

Step D• Please read the report on Page 37 and answer the questions: 1) Do you think the report is what the MD asked for? 2) How effective do you think the report is?• These are some of the possible points which might be raised: ♥ The MD’s memo was fairly general in its aim. The report is

correspondingly vague in parts. For example: there have been a number of problems connected with the motivation…

♥ In parts the report is informative. But occasional long sentences make it difficult to follow in places, e.g. the third sentence in the first paragraph: We have also known for…, and the sentence in the second paragraph beginning: The staff think that…

•Homework Please look at File 69 (P169) for a clearer specification of what the

MD really wanted and write a clear report.

4.4 Making notes

• This section deals with making notes in general, taking notes on conversation using different styles of notes and finally with making notes as a way of planning and preparing.

Making notes & Note-taking• Making notes: noting down ideas before

writing a report or letter or before a phone call or meeting

• Note-taking: taking notes after or during a conversation or meeting

• The processes are not the same---but the techniques and styles we suggest are much the same.

Step B & C

• Some of the points in the notes are not in the correct order, please put the notes in the order you think the best.

• It can be helpful to use such methods as pattern notes, flowcharts and numbered sections when making notes for letters and reports.

Step D

• In the recording a lecturer describes a method of making notes.

• After listening to the recording, please work in pairs and draft a summary of the talk using one of the methods for writing personal notes you have encountered in this section.

4.5 Punctuation

• This section provides practice in punctuation, which even some advanced students find tricky in English.

中英文标点符号的差异 • 汉语中目前使用的标点符号是参考借鉴西文的

标点体系而制定的，它既保留了西文标点的主体特征，又带有与汉语语言特点相适应的特色。因而，中英文标点符号之间存在着一定的差异。

汉语中的某些标点符号为英语所没有 •

⑴ 顿号（、）：顿号在汉语中起分割句子中的并列成分的作用；英语中没有顿号，分割句中的并列成分多用逗号。如： She slowly, carefully, deliberately moved the box.  注意：类似的情况下，最后一个逗号后可加 and ，这个逗号也可省略 --She slowly, carefully(,) and deliberately moved the box. 

•  ⑵ 书名号（《》）：英文没有书名号，书名、报刊名用斜体或者下划线表示。如： Hamlet / Hamlet  《哈姆雷特   》Winter‘s Tale / Winter‘s Tale  《冬天的童话   》The New York Times / The New York Times  《纽约时报   》另外，英语中文章、诗歌、乐曲、电影、绘画等的名称和交通工具、航天器等的专有名词也常用斜体来表示。

• ⑶ 间隔号（ · ）：汉语有间隔号，用在月份和日期、音译的名和姓等需要隔开的词语的正中间，如“奥黛丽 ·赫本（人名）”等。英语中没有汉语的间隔号，需要间隔时多用逗点。

• ⑷ 着重号：有时汉语用在文字下点实心圆点表示需要强调的词语，这些实心点就是着重号。而英语中没有这一符号，需强调某些成分时可借助文字斜体、某些强调性词汇、特殊句型、标点停顿等多种方法。

英语中的某些标点符号为汉语所没有

⑴ 撇号 --Apostrophe （’） ⑵ 连字号 --Hyphen （ - ） ⑶ 斜线号— Virgule or Slash （ / ）该符号主要起分割作用，如It could be for staff and / or students.  也常用于标音，如 bed /bed/ 。

某些符号在汉英两种语言中的形式不同

⑴ 中文的句号是空心圈（。） 英文的句号是实心点（ . ）

⑵ 英文的省略号是三个点（ ... ），位置在行底； 中文的为六个点（ ...... ），居于行中

⑶ 英文的破折号是（ -- ） 中文的是（ ---- ）

1. While she is reading 《 Gone With the Wind 》 , I am cooking 。

2. My sister bought a lot of fruits for me, such as banana  、 orange  、 apple and pear. 

3.  Good manners can be seen in everyday life. For example : a person with good manners is kind and  helpful to others. 

 4.We are studying and living at the famous university — Peking University.

Step A & Step B • Match the punctuation marks to their names• Suggested answers: 1) single quotes/ single quotation marks/ single inverted

commas 2) full stop/ period 3) question mark 4) hyphen 5) dash 6) exclamation mark 7) double quotes/ double quotation marks/ double inverted

commas 8) semi-colon 9) colon 10) stroke/ oblique/ slash 11) brackets (parentheses) 12) apostrophe

Step C

• Work in pairs and decide which punctuation marks or Capital letters are incorrectly used. Some of the punctuation is surplus to requirements and must be deleted!

Step D

• Work in pairs and decide where to add punctuation.