Report Strategies
Business reports provide essential information to decision makers and may be shared beyond their original audiences. The Business Writer’s Handbook lists the most common report types:
- annual reports
- feasibility reports
- formal reports
- incident reports
- investigative reports
- progress and activity reports
- trip reports
No matter what type of report you are writing, you must provide credible information to your audience and present that information so that it meets your audience’s needs.
Shorter reports will need a concise introduction that prepares readers to understand the content that follows, headings to guide readers through the report’s main ideas, well-organized paragraphs, and a short conclusion.
Longer reports add a title page, a table of contents, an executive summary, and may add additional levels of headings. The purpose of these extra pieces is to ensure that readers can quickly find specific details no matter where they are in the report.
Title Pages & Titles
By convention, the title page should include the following information:
- report title
- subtitle, if any
- date the report was finalized and submitted
- name of the person or group the report was prepared for
- name of the author
Like an email subject line, a report title should be clear and comprehensive–the title is the first thing your reader will read, and it should prepare them to understand exactly what the report is about.
Table of Contents
The table of contents serves two purposes:
- It provides readers with an outline of your main ideas
- It allows readers to navigate to specific sections of the report
The easiest way to create a table of contents is to use the Word function–it uses your report’s headings to create the table. This means that your headings need to stand alone–if your headings are too vague, then the table doesn’t communicate what your report is about to readers. If they are excessively long, the table becomes an overwhelmed by too much text.
Executive Summaries
The Executive Summary is the most important section of longer reports, because it provides meaningful perspective intended to guide the decision-makers who read it. It is a highly condensed version of your report for those who do not have time to read the whole report. The Executive Summary must stand on its own and deliver the most compelling insights in the report in five to ten percent of the number of words.
To create an effective Executive Summary
- Articulate the purpose of the report including the audience and brief context.
- Describe the content and key findings of each section in short, crisp paragraphs that grab the reader’s attention.
- Include any necessary information about the scope or resources in the section descriptions.
- Replace the introduction’s report preview with the section descriptions.
- Reflect the order of the report in the organization of the Executive Summary.
- Match the headings to the main sections of your report.
- Engage the reader by using simple, persuasive language; avoid stiff, formal wording and jargon.
Note: Do not copy your introduction into the beginning of the Executive Summary; this will create unnecessary repetition.
Introductions
Report introductions provide information to the reader that prepares them for what they are about to read. Different audiences and different kinds of reports require different types and amounts of preparation and thus different introductions.
Possible Elements of Introductions
- Topic. What is the report about?
- Purpose. Why does the report exist and what does it do? Business reports get things done.
- Bottom Line. What’s the key finding, result, conclusion, or recommendation?
- Audience. Who is it for? Who will benefit from reading it?
- Context. Why is it important or useful? Did someone request it? Include any information surrounding the report’s topic or the reason it was requested that will be helpful for your reader to understand the report.
- Scope/research. How broad or narrow is the topic? What topics are not included that the reader might expect?
- Preview. What order is the material presented in? (mapping thesis).
Audience & Purpose Considerations for Introductions
A long, formal research report introduction might require all of these elements. A very short report prepared for, and at the request of, an individual might only need the topic and the bottom line. Even a short report might need a scoping statement: for instance, if it covers both the pros and cons of a course of action. It depends on whether the reader needs to know up front that the two sides will be covered.
In the end, it is up to you as the writer to determine what information your audience needs. An elaborate introduction for a simple, short report will probably irritate the reader (and take up valuable space). Leaving important information out of the introduction of a longer, more complex report may cause confusion or lead the audience to expect something different than the report provides.
Conclusions
The purpose of a report conclusion is to briefly review everything you have covered and remind readers how these topics are helpful and why the information is important. The conclusion should be succinct and make readers feel they have accomplished something by reading this report.
The conclusion should include the following pieces:
- Summary of main points in the same order as the topics in your report
- Reminder of key findings – keep this very short
- Emphasis on the use and/or importance of the topics and findings
Edit the conclusion carefully so that you end on a strong note.
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This guide details strategies for effective workplace communication and approaches for research in professional settings.