METHODOLOGY FOR WRITING A REPORT
Background: A report is the single most important management tool because it is the basis for most management decisions. These management decisions influence the direction of future actions that are taken by the organisation. Reports are the main way in which information can be shared with others inside and outside of the organisation and the main way in which lessons can be learnt for the future. Writing a good report is extremely difficult and it can be time consuming. However, if a report is not written well and is not easy to read then it will probably not be read at all. Good Preparation: This is key to writing a good report that people will want to read. Points to be followed are: Decide what kind of information needs to be in the report. Be precise. Determine the purpose of the report. Why are you writing it? Determine the layout. Is it a standard format or can you design your own format. If so, check how the contents of the report need to be arranged. Determine your target group. Who do you want to read it? Keep them in mind all the time. Do not tell them what they already know. Determine the length of the report with whoever requested that the report be written. In general shorter reports get read more often than long ones. Write the report as soon as possible after the information has been collected or the event has taken place. Fix a tight deadline to write the report and stick to it. Actual Writing Of The Report: Collect the information needed to write the report from meetings, interviews, notes, the internet and reports which may have been written earlier. Arrange your information in a logical way according to the layout of the report that you decided upon earlier. Use chapters and logical paragraphs within each heading. Use the language that will best suit the reader. Do not be over sophisticated or academic. You want the reader to enjoy reading your report and to understand it. Avoid long and complicated sentences. The reader will give up quickly if it takes too much effort to follow the line of your argument. Do not make spelling or grammatical mistakes. Use the spell check. Check What You Have Written: Does the report answer the questions raised by whoever asked for the report. Is the structure of the report logical and well balanced. Are the pages numbered and according to the Index Get somebody else to read your report and ask then for honest feedback before you send the report out.
The Different Parts Of The Report: These will vary according to the purpose of the report and you can choose different ways of arranging the content. However, the most common arrangement is: A cover page which may contain the organisations logo or letter heading and is often of a heavier quality or in colour. It would show the title of the report, the name of the author and the date the report was written. An Index page also known as a contents page showing the different chapters and paragraphs if necessary with the appropriate page numbers against each line. An executive summary is essential and must be included as not everybody has the time to read all of your report. It is written after you have written the main report. It must include the reasons why the report was written; the questions/problems which are raised in your report; the solutions; the arguments/logic which was used to reach the solutions; important conclusions and finally recommendations or advice. It should be no more than 2 or 3 pages and the focus must be on the key issues only. The main text of the report itself. This can be structured according to the type and purpose of the report but in general you need to cover: Introduction. This is where you describe what is not obvious to the reader so that the reader can understand exactly what the report is all about; which topics are included and which are not; how the information was obtained; why the report was written; what are the aims of the report (is the report written to present information, to advise, to evaluate etc). Clarification of the problem. This explains what the problem is; why the problem needs to be solved and which information is needed to be able to solve the problem. Methodology. A short description of how the information was obtained. Results or Findings. A description of the information obtained and an analysis and interpretation of the information leading to you drawing conclusions from your results. Conclusions of the results. The conclusions are your conclusions based on your results and should be shown separately. The should be a logical derivation of the information contained in your report. Recommendations. This is where you can be creative and reflect deeply on what you have found and what you have concluded from your findings. It is then necessary for you to propose recommendations to improve the situation, solve the problem etc. Your recommendations must be realistic and achievable so that the organisation can actually accomplish them. This is the most important section and it needs careful and creative thought. There are always more than one way to solve a problem and you must propose alternative solutions/recommendations. It is more logical to make recommendations against each conclusion or group of conclusions. Annexes. You create annexes if you need to present detailed information that would take up a lot of space and attention in the main body of the report and hence make it difficult to read. In such cases you would put this information into an Annex so as not to divert the readers attention away from the key issues in your report. Annexes should be numbered and have a title and listed in the index or contents page. Make sure that you refer to the Annexes in the main report as appropriate.