Business Report Writing

Time and again staff, in all other ways competent, write ineffective business reports. Reports are unclear, badly presented, offer no logical sequence and require management to spend significant amounts of time correcting and editing drafts.

This course provides a stimulating introduction to business report writing and focuses on report preparation, strategy, structure and effectiveness.

Suitability and duration

Suitability: Beginner - Intermediate

Duration: 2 days

Who should attend

This intensive hands-on course is open to all-comers. The heart of the course is not in grammar or spelling, many other courses deal with those matters – it is in the correct sequencing and presentation of content. The result is the production of compelling and insightful reports that add value.

Benefits

Skills

After completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the target audience for a report
• Write a report using information that meets target audiences’ requirements
• Bring into play writing techniques that maximise acceptance of the author’s viewpoint
• Employ tone and voice to project the report’s contents
• Apply presentation strategies to maximise conciseness, readability and clarity

Support Materials

This course is accompanied by a substantial manual that includes briefings, examples, checklists and strategies for use in business report writing.

Programme

Report writing: audience and framework

• Points of Practice - better business reports
• Understanding the target audience
• Structure of business reports - examples
• Points of Practice – cultural perspectives
• Points of Practice – reporting channels

Report writing: the storyboard system

• The 5S storyboard system
• The 5S storyboard system
• The “state”
• The “standard” or yardstick
• The “source/s”
• The “significance”
• The “supposition”
• Points of Practice – co-operative conclusions
• Points of Practice – best value conclusions

Report writing: structure

• Audience expectations
• Chapter and verse / Paragraph structure / Table structure / Action Strip Structure
• General typographic and layout considerations

Report writing: tone

• Unbiased language
• Use of Standard English
• Connotation

Report writing: conciseness and readability

• Conciseness
• Readability
• Jargon

Report writing: clarity

• Writing coherently
• Active and passive voice

Report writing: selling business outcomes

• Better reporting
• Thinking about the message