Six Steps in Writing a Routine Business Report

1. Determine the scope of the report

A common fault of many reports is making the scope of a report too general or too vague. When you choose a subject for a report, one of the first steps is to narrow the scope to a report length.

The scope of the report is defined by determining the factors which you will study. You need to limit the amount of information you will gather to the most needed and most important factors.

For example, factors to be studied to determine ways to improve employee morale might include:

Salaries
Fringe benefits
Work assignments
Work hours
Evaluation procedures

You could study many other factors relative to improving employee morale. Some may be important, and you may want to consider them later. For any one report, however, a reasonable scope must be clearly defined by determining what factors will be included.

2. Consider Your Audience

Always consider your reader or readers. Unlike letters and memos, reports usually have a far wider distribution. Many people may be involved in a decision-making process and have need to read the information in the report.

Your job is to make it easy for the reader. In order to make reading your report easier, think in terms of the reader.

Each audience has unique needs. Some audience consideration include:

• Need (from your report)
• Education level
• Position in the organization
• Knowledge of your topic or area
• Responsibility to act
• Age
• Biases
• Preferences
• Attitudes

Some false assumptions commonly made regarding audiences are:

1. That the person who will first read or edit the report is the audience
2. That the audience is a group of specialists in their field
3. That the audience is familiar with the subject of the report
4. That the audience has time to read the entire report
5. That the audience has a strong interest in the subject of the report
6. That the author will always be available to discuss the report

To avoid making these false assumptions, writers should identify everyone who might read the report; characterize those readers according to their professional training, position in the organization, and personal traits; and determine how and when the reader might use the report. Audiences are basically of three kinds:

Additional questions to ask regarding your audience are:

1. How much background will the audience need?
2. Do you need to define any terms you are using?
3. What language level will be most appropriate for your readers?
4. How many and what kind of visual aids should you use?
5. What will the audience expect from your report?
6. Does the reader prefer everything given in detail or merely a brief presentation that touches upon the highlights?

3. Gather Your Information

Now that you have a clear understanding of the purpose and scope of your report and who you are writing to, you're now ready to gather your information.

Information you gather can be of two types: Secondary and Primary. Secondary is information gathered and recorded by others. Primary is information you gather and record yourself.

At this point you should be doing your research. Think WHERE you are going to find your information. If the purpose of your report requires purchase information, you might want to check with vendors and distributors for features and pricing information. For certain types of information you might be checking out the library (books, magazines, journals, or newspapers). Another good source of information is the internet. Conduct a search using key words to find what information that might be useful to you in cyberspace.

As you are gathering your information, create a way to manage your information. Massive information is difficult to sort through if it is not organized. One idea is to place different piece of information on note cards (with the source on that card). By separating pieces of information on cards, the information later can be "rearranged" and sorted when you are determining your plan of presentation.

4. Analyse Your Information

Now that you have information, you need to analyse it.

The purpose of the analysis is to make sense, objectively, out of the information you have gathered. You will not want personal bias of any kind to enter into the analysis.

Information is compared and contrasted in an effort to try to find new ideas or the best ideas. Separate facts and figures need to be interpreted by explaining what they mean--what significance they have.

For example, if you were doing a study to determine which computer to buy for your office, you would collect information on the type of work you are currently doing in your office and the kinds of work you want to do. Then you would gather information on computers. This information might include cost, compatibility, speed of operation, machine capacity, machine dependability, maintenance availability, potential for upgrading, and other factors. Then you would compare and contrast (analyze) the different computers to determine how well they can do what you want done, what their potential is, how dependable they are, and so on. Once all the information is gathered, you are ready to determine solutions.

5. Determine the Solution

Based on your analysis, you will be then be ready to offer a solution (or solutions) to the problem you have been studying.

For example, which computer would be the best buy for the word processing center or what office arrangement would be the best for effective work flow?

A word of caution: The gathered information should be the basis for making this decision. A tendency in business report writing is to "slant" information in the report to lead the reader to the decision the writer want. Make sure you report all pertinent information--good and bad. The credibility of the report (and credibility of you) is at stake.

Make sure, however, that a solution is even requested. Depending on your position in the organization and the particular business study, a solution may NOT be requested in the report. Your purpose would then be to present the objective facts. These facts would be used by someone else to determine the best solution.

6. Organize Your Report

You've got your topic, your information, and your decision. Now you're ready to determine how to present your information.

Before actually writing, organize your information into an outline form. You can formulate an outline for your report by choosing the major and supporting ideas, developing the details, and eliminating the unnecessary ideas you've gathered. This outline becomes the basic "structure" of your report.