Atul Mathur: Writing good reports

Writing good reports - Part 1
Get a headstart with a good report

This article first appeared in The Straits Times on 20 November 2006.

SUPPOSE you are working for an engineering company and are grappling with the following questions:

- How can customer complaints be reduced?
- How can the cost of operations be reduced?
- Would it benefit us if a new sales office were opened in India?

If you feel there are no ready-made answers, you are right.

Important questions such as these cannot be answered without a proper study of the issues involved. For example, for the customer complaints issue, you would need to study the types and frequency of complaints, product or service problems, business processes, people involved and so on.

But after you complete the study, you will not be able to share your findings and conclusions and make recommendations in a coherent and logical manner, unless you put them down in writing.

That is where the need for a report comes in. Though reports are often seen as long, thick documents, they are more of a tool to make sense of complex issues, seek direction and make important decisions.

The aim of a report is to communicate specific information, which is compiled as a result of research and analysis, to specific audience to serve a specific purpose.

Your stakes
Many people dread writing reports, but as you rise in the corporate hierarchy, your involvement with reports is also likely to go up.

Acquiring skills to write good reports will enable you to make more valuable contributions to your employer — and also enjoy brighter prospects in your career.

Tangible outcome
In many cases, such as an investigation, a feasibility study or a market study, a report is the only tangible thing that comes out after you have spent hundreds of hours studying and analysing the issues involved. Indeed, the quality of your work is often judged by the quality of your report.

You will be able to produce a good report, if you carefully consider the following:

- Purpose: A good report focuses on and fulfils the purpose it was commissioned for. Sounds obvious? Believe it or not, many reports fail on this account. A report is not about packaging and supplying information. Information as such is of little use.

A good report provides relevant information that helps the target audience to solve problems, make informed decisions or create new policies or strategies.

- Accuracy: By nature, reports deal with important issues, often involving substantial stakes in terms of money and other implications. That is why a report should be based on factual and accurate information, or else, it could lead to wrong and costly decisions.

- Objective: In essence, a good report should be like a lens through which people can see the real situation objectively — without any biases and personal opinions.

- Clarity: The very reason reports are required is for clarity on complex issues. A good report should achieve this fundamental objective, but that depends on how clear the writer is about the issues. Clear writing follows clear thinking.

- Good style and structure: Even after you have done thorough research and analysis, and have reached the right conclusions, you still have to present the information using an appropriate language and structure.

- Presentation: Before people read a report, they form an impression of it depending on how it looks. That is natural! A good report should not only be good in substance but also in looks. A well-packaged, neatly written report reflects the writer’s attitude towards quality.

Go step by step
Just as “preparing dinner” does not mean getting down to cooking straight away, writing a report also does not mean hitting the keyboard as soon as you are seated at your desk. The key to writing a good report is to do one thing at a time by following a step-by-step process.

Writing good reports - Part 2
It just takes 7 steps

This article first appeared in The Straits Times on 21 November 2006.

WRITING a report may look like a tall order, but if you follow the seven-step process below, you should be able to come up with a good report without sweating too much.

Step 1: Study the terms of reference
Know the purpose, scope and audience. Just as a taxi driver always asks a passenger where he wants to go before starting the journey, you should ask, before embarking on a report writing project:

- What is the purpose of this report?
- What is the scope?
- Who are the target audience and what is their profile?

Having a clear understanding of the purpose and scope will enable you to stay focused.

And knowing your audience will provide a clue to the kind of language that would be suitable for them. For example, non-technical readers are unlikely to appreciate highly technical language.

Step 2: Plan
- Plan your activities: Prepare a written plan by allocating time for key activities such as research, writing and revision.

- Create a structure: Next, prepare a preliminary structure of the report. A typical report would include the following sections:

- Title;
- Executive summary;
- Table of contents;
- Introduction;
- Body;
- Conclusion;
- Recommendations;
- References; and
- Appendices.

The body would include sub-sections such as methodology, observations and results. Each sub-section, in turn, would include headings and sub-headings.

Step 3: Research and analyse
Carry out research: Prepare a list of all the topics on which you will need to collect information. Write against each of them the possible sources — files, manuals, papers, reports, catalogues, drawings, libraries, the public, the Internet, suppliers, clients, tests, measurements, and so on.

Analyse the information: Once information is collected, it is time to sort it out and make sense of it. During this process, you may be classifying information, interpreting data, tracing interconnections, consolidating and comparing costs, and spotting trends.

Step 4: Write the first draft
Start with the body: Start with the foundation — the body of your report. Write the simpler sub-sections, say, methodology or observations, first. Insert illustrations, diagrams, charts, photos and tables where necessary.

Conclusions: Although individual sections of your report may include conclusions, you need to finally present the key conclusions in one section. Arrange the conclusions in the descending order of importance.

Recommendations: Recommendations should be clear and to-the-point, and any associated assumptions or conditions should be clearly spelled out.

Introduction: The purpose of the introduction is to help the readers understand the report with ease and in the proper context. It should include background information, purpose, scope, terms of reference and an overview of the rest of the report.

Executive summary: An executive summary presents the gist of a report in abbreviated form to an executive audience. The challenge here is to cover the key issues while limiting the length to one or two pages.

Write other sections: Finally, include the front and back sections: Title page, contents, appendices and references.

Step 5: Revise
The time required for revision should never be underestimated, because important reports can take as many as four to eight revisions. While revising, ask yourself:

- Does it serve the purpose?
- Is the information accurate and sufficient?
- Is it objective and clear?
- Is there any superfluous information?
- Is it free of grammatical errors?
- Keep revising until you get satisfactory answers to the questions above.

Step 6: Package it
Visual impressions count. Make your report look professional and impressive by creating an attractive title page, printing it with a laser printer, including separators between sections and choosing good-quality binding.

Step 7: Present
Generally, important reports need to be presented before anyone reads them. So, prepare a brief presentation covering the key points: purpose, scope, findings, conclusions and recommendations.

There, you have done it!

Most people know how to write e-mail messages, some know how to write business letters, but few know how to write good reports. Be among the select group, and continually hone your skills.

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