Fundamental-Concepts-of-Report-Writing.pptx

Fundamental concepts of report

1. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF REPORT WRITING

2. Aside from writing business letters, another way to communicate in business or in organization effectively is writing a report. Everyday, there is a tremendous number of reports written and circulating in the corporate world.

3. There are two vital questions that every report writer should consider: Who is my audience? 1 What is my purpose? 2

4. Before writing any report, we should bear in mind the destination of our report. In business, the audience might be your boss, supervisor, manager, fellow employee, or client. Furthermore, written reports may supply a record of work accomplished, record and clarify complex information for future reference, present information to a large number of people and record problems encountered (Gerson, S.J. & Gerson, S.M., 2003).

5. Your purpose is your reason for writing a report. It may be for the purpose of informing important details or progress about the company… …analyzing the costing or strengths and weaknesses of the company, or recommending possible actions or solutions based on certain facts and data.

6. FOUR FUNDAMENTALS OF REPORT WRITING

7. THE KISS CONCEPT 1 Is an acronym for Keep It Short and Simple . This concept highlights the use of simple but concise words rather than the use of jargons and complex words. This concept also emphasizes expressing rather than impressing.

8. QUOTING, PARAPHRASING, AND SUMMARIZING 2 Quoting is the exact copying of a portion of an original text. In doing this, certain punctuations must be observed.

9. In paraphrasing , you will need to use your own words in restating author’s ideas or words. In doing this, the same number of words like the original is observed. Summarizing is recapitulating author’s ideas or words. This is shorter restatement of the original text in your own words.

10. USE OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS 3 It may be classified as tables or figures. Tables are compact summary of data information which is systematically presented in columns. Furthermore, figures may include graphs and charts in presenting the data or information.

11. DOCUMENTATION & CITATION 4 These are ethical practices used in developing your report. These are the proper acknowledgment of references or sources that you used. It is composed of the author’s last name and the date of publication placed within parentheses.

12. The most commonly used citation styles are American Psychological Association (APA) style and Modern Language Association (MLA) style.

13. CATEGORIES OF REPORT

14. A Report should be well-planned and organized, logically sequenced, and easy to read. There are two main categories of report , according to Roberts (1999).

15. INFORMAL REPORT 1 It can range from a few paragraphs to several pages. Whether an informal report is written as a letter, memo, or email message, it generally includes an introduction, body, and conclusion recommendations.

16. This report may function to inform, sell, direct, clarify, or recommend. The introduction elaborates the subjects and procedures of the report while the body presents the findings from thorough researches. All findings are arranged in order of priority. Lastly, the conclusion/recommendation tells what the diagnosis is all about.

17. FORMAL REPORT 2 Is generally lengthy. It may include title page, executive summary, table of contents, list of figures and tables, list of abbreviations and symbols, body, conclusions or recommendations, appendices, index, and more.

18. This report may function to inform, document, direct, clarify, examine, analyze, propose, and recommend. A report should be long enough to be through and short enough to be concise. To ensure that your report is thorough, cover all the key issues. To ensure that it’s concise, KISS.

19. THREE LEVELS OF REPORTS

20. INFORMATION ONLY 1 Sales reports (sales figures for the week or month). Quarterly reports (figures showing a plan’s productivity and profits for the quarter)

21. INFORMATION PLUS ANALYSIS 2 Annual reports (financial data and an organization’s accomplishments during the past year) Audit reports (interpretations of the facts revealed during an audit) Make-good or pay-back reports (calculations of the point at which a new capital investment will pay for itself)

22. INFORMATION PLUS ANALYSIS PLUS A RECOMMENDATION 3 Feasibility reports (evaluate two or more alternatives and recommend which alternative the organization should choose) Justification reports (justify the need for a purchase, an investment, a new personnel line, or a change in procedure) Problem-solving reports (identify the causes of an organizational problem and recommend a solution)