Short Investigation Reports
Investigation reports tend to be longer reports and semi-formal. They examine a problem, detail its cause, suggest ways to fix or improve the problem, evaluate if these solutions will fix the problem, then select the best solution. We will discuss these reports later in the course.That said, short investigation reports, as we will discuss in this lesson, examine a minor or local problem and only a brief report is needed to detail it.
The report pyramid for a short investigation report is pictured below
- The Summary compartment identifies the problem. It tells how it can be or how it was resolved.
- The Background compartment details what caused an investigation to be started.
- The Investigation compartment tells the steps to find out the cause of the problem and discover a remedy.
- The Outcome compartment tells what has been done to fix the problem – or it tells what actions need to be taken to fix the problem. It can even detail who should fix the problem.
- The Evidence compartment is optional. It contains supporting data from the other three compartments.
Short investigation reports are generally written as memorandums. However, they can also be written as letters, or even emails.
Section Review 3
Below are excerpted paragraphs from a draft of a short investigation report. Read the paragraph, then choose the compartment in which the paragraph belongs.- I installed and ran a free trial of another anti-virus program suggested by Lou Smith in IT. As a result, I found the same virus on all affected computers and removed them using the same program. I suggest that we upgrade our firewall and purchase a new, more effective anti-virus program. The total cost would be $3300, as shown on the attached cost sheet.
- ___ Summary
- ___ Background
- ___ Investigation
- ___ Outcome
- Re-read the paragraph above. Where would you place the cost sheet mentioned in the paragraph?
- ___ Attach it to the report.
- ___ The Outcome compartment
- ___ The Evidence compartment
- I noticed the affected employees' computers were not running at optimal speeds and were crashing frequently. To figure out the problem, I first cleaned out all temporary files, deleted the cookies, and cleared the browsers' cache. The computers still weren't running up to speed, and they were still crashing. I ran the anti-virus programs installed on the computers. No viruses were detected.
- ___ Summary
- ___ Background
- ___ Investigation
- ___ Outcome
]]>