Report Writing for Employees of Ethical Trading Group
Staff and managers in our organisation may have many occasions where they need to write reports to disseminate information to internal and external stakeholders. Some examples include sales reports, business cases, compliance reports and project status reports. Reports range from short informal or semi-formal reports to longer formal reports. The format is determined by the purpose of the report, the amount of detail required, and the audience for whom it is intended. Your department may have templates for the common types of reports that the department prepares for stakeholders.
The aim of this fact sheet is to assist staff to prepare and produce reports which are clear, consistent and meet the needs of stakeholders. You should always seek to adapt the content, tone and language of your documents to the situation (context) and intended audience of your communication. When beginning to write you need to consider:
- Who are you writing to?
- What is the primary purpose of your document?
- Why should the reader care about your message?
- When and where does the action take place?
- What are your expected outcomes?
In our organisation, the information provided in reports should be easy to find and written in a way that the stakeholder can understand it. This is one reason why we divide reports into sections clearly labelled with headings and sub-headings. Technical information which would clutter the body of the report is placed in the appendix. In order to produce a high quality report, it is essential to include accurate, relevant and up-to-date information collected from a wide variety of sources.
A good report:
- makes the purpose of the report very clear in the introduction
- presents information that is both sufficient and accurate
- has headings and subheadings that are clear and uses a format that is appropriate to the report type
- summarises all sections of the report in the executive summary
- states recommended actions in clear concise statements and justifies these in relation to the findings of the report
- uses language appropriate to the relationship between the writer and the reader.
Reports for decision-making
Some reports, for example business cases or project proposals, provide information about an issue or idea which requires funding or a decision by more senior management. Your proposal should outline the costs and benefits of the project or idea clearly and succinctly. Ensure it contains sufficient detail to satisfy management needs. Prepare a draft and have it reviewed by staff members who can provide a fresh perspective. This will ensure your case is as strong as it can be. Although the content and length of a business case or proposal will vary according to the scope and complexity of your project, there are usually some common elements.
Clearly state your value proposition upfront - Your proposal should commence with a concise summary of your project. In some cases, it may be appropriate to mention potential project risks and how they will be managed, for example, if you know that the person considering your proposal has a particular concern.
Briefly describe the way you have developed your business case proposal - For example, it might have been developed with the assistance of external expertise or key internal stakeholders, such as the operations or finance manager.
Describe technical changes and relevant planning issues - Include a brief timetable as well as a description of who will manage the project and how. Include information about how your project will be monitored and how that information will be reported internally and externally. Planning issues might include timing implementation of the project to align with major events such as formal shutdowns or to correspond with leasing changes in a commercial building.
Briefly describe the costs and benefits of your project - Include key financial and other measures and state your assumptions clearly. You could do this in a table and/or include graphs and figures if these enhance your message. The level of detail required will vary, but make sure you have either included all relevant data in appendices, or provide a link to where they may be found on your organisation's intranet.
Ensure the level of accuracy of your data is appropriate to the type of investment required - In some cases you may want to use externally verified data to add weight and credibility to the proposal. Remember to always be mindful of key benefits that contribute to business improvement such as performance, process control, safety, risk management, compliance, corporate reputation, social responsibility and cost savings.
Mention key project risks and how you will manage them - As you compiled the data and supporting information for your business case proposal, you will have identified any potential concerns of decision-makers. In your business case it is important to clearly describe these and how they will be managed, in a table for example.
You should clearly state the funding source or support that you are aiming for, e.g. operational funds, capital budget or external funds - It may be appropriate to mention other potential funding sources in case your proposal is unsuccessful or to strengthen the financial case for the project. Some government grants need you to obtain internal funding approval first before you can formally apply for them. This should be clearly explained in your proposal. If you are after 'support' rather than funding, be clear about what you would like the decision-manager to approve, what they need to do and what actions others will need to take.
Writing your proposal
- Use a concise, clear format
- Be factual and to the point
- Write with a sense of urgency
- Use statistics and external, verified data to add weight and credibility to the proposal, while ensuring all information is relevant If you use graphs and diagrams ensure they are clear and easy to interpret
- Include other types of information if it will support your case, e.g. case studies or scenarios; benchmarking information comparing sites or competitors; interests of external stakeholders such as the community, customers and investors.
Report structure
1. Title page - include the title of the report, who has prepared the report and the date that it was submitted or written.
2. Executive summary - This covers the report's essential information and is an overview of what is in the report. In the executive summary you need to say as much as possible in the fewest words. The executive summary should be an outline of the points to be covered in the report with details of the analysis that has taken place and conclusions that have been reached. It is usually written last (so that it accurately reflects the content of the report) and is usually about 200-300 words long (i.e. not more than a page).
3. Table of contents - Consider also providing lists of figures and tables at the front of the document, immediately after the table of contents.
4. Introduction - provide an outline of the structure of the report, the background of the issue and the objective of the report.
5. Body of the report - Break your report into chunks of similar information to make it easy to understand and help it flow better from one topic to another. Make sure that it is logically divided into headings and subheadings. The body of a report will also probably contain supporting evidence such as tables, graphs or figures. Only include those that are essential for reader understanding, the rest can be placed in an appendix that is referred to in the text. Those in the body of the report must be numbered (e.g. Table 1, Figure 4). Place numbering and labelling above tables and below figures. A key or legend may be used to explain to the reader what identifying systems of colour or cross-hatching means.
6. Recommendations - These may be included depending on the nature of the report. They should be based on the information and findings contained within the body of the report. Be as specific as you possibly can. State clearly what action should be taken as a result of your recommendations, and who should take that action. Set your recommendations out step-by-step and in a logical sequence. Do not put more than one step in each recommendation. Keep your explanations out of the recommendations. If it needs explaining, do so in the discussion section of the report. It may also be important to include some alternatives in the recommendations.
7. Conclusion - This summarises the major inferences that can be drawn from the information presented in the report. It answers the questions raised by the original problem or stated purpose of the report and states the conclusions reached, the decision required or the options available (and may recommend one or all). The conclusion/s presented in a report must be related to, resulting from and justified by the material which appears in the report. The conclusion should not introduce any new material nor should it ignore information that does not 'fit', as doing this would indicate writer bias and mean your conclusion may mislead the reader.
8. Reference list - It is essential to include a reference list or bibliography of the reference material you consulted during your research for the report. A bibliography is a list of all the reference material you consulted during your research for the report while a reference list is a list of all the references cited in the text of your report, listed in alphabetical order at the end of the report.