Business Writing by Baden Eunson

Author:Baden Eunson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-01-03T16:00:00+00:00

What is involved in preparing a report? A production model

All reports have some similarities in the way in which they are produced. Figure 5.2 is a model of production that shows how a report should — and should not — be produced.

Figure 5.2: the report-writing process

Commissioning the report

Routine reports do not require commissioning — the normal flow of work provides a structure of trigger points for report generation. Non-routine reports, however, require a specific commissioning decision. The person who commissions the report is normally part of your audience. The actual commissioning may be informal and verbal — ‘Oh, Joe, can you do me a report on your monthly sales figures?’ — or formal and written, set out in a letter or memo. The scope or focus of the report (its terms of reference) is defined at the time of commission.

Individual or team?

A decision needs to be made as to whether the report will be generated by an individual or a team. This will be determined by the complexity of the task and the mix of skills required. Sometimes, especially with non-routine documents, you will need to put together a writing group. On other occasions, particularly with routine documents, you will need simply to contact individuals in a loose network around you to get facts and figures.

Plan, scope, outline, tasks and scheduling

What is the report about? What is it not about? In non-routine documents, questions of scope will have a strong influence on the title of the report. The scope will also determine the structure of the report. At this stage, a detailed structure is not required, but an outline is. The outline should set out the sections, headings, points and subpoints of the overall document. Your report’s outline will bear more than a passing resemblance to the final document’s table of contents.

The scope and outline will help to determine the tasks of research and production, and the time frame or schedule within which these tasks need to be achieved. At this stage the types of questions that need to be asked include: how long do I have to complete the report? What resources do I have? What specific tasks can the report be broken down into?

Primary and secondary sources of data

Once decisions about scope, structure, tasks and scheduling have been made, primary data can be collected and analysed, and secondary data can be studied. Sources of primary data include questionnaires, interviews, experiments, observations and company records. Primary data does not exist until it is created by researchers or people who collect data as part of their jobs. Once such data exists, it can form the basis of secondary data, which is published in various forms, including books, journals, statistical bulletins and electronic databases.

Report writers must determine whether there is a need for primary data, secondary data or both. Secondary data is easier and cheaper to collect than primary data, but it may be too general or out of date. Much will depend on the situation, the problem to be studied,

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