Introduction to Report Writing

Getting Started on Writing Reports

There are three things you need to know up-front before you begin to write any report. Think of these three things as the seasoning that will help give all your reports the flavor that they need. These three things are:

The company image you need to convey

Your image that you need to convey

The message you need to get across

The company's image, as well as your image, will help determine the tone you need to take when writing the report. You'll be able to use the same tone for most reports you write, which means that once you understand what needs to go into the tone of your reports, writing them will become easier.
Ask yourself these three questions to help establish the tone:

Why are you writing the report?

Who are you writing the report for, and what do you need them to understand?

What tone should you use?

With the majority of business reports, your tone should always be:

Confident, but not arrogant. For example, don't write, "You must agree that I am the expert on this subject." Instead, write, "My experience with X, Y, and X have provided the insight I needed to conclude that…"

Courteous and sincere, not condescending or accusatory. Don't write, "You didn't do this, so that happened." Instead, write "There was an error with this, so that happened."

In addition, you should:

Write at the required level of difficulty. For example, if your position within your company requires extensive knowledge of technical terms, but the audience that will read the report will not be familiar with those terms, try instead to use terms they will be familiar with and won't cause confusion when they read the report.

Make sure to use non-discriminatory language. This means using gender-neutral job titles (salesperson instead of salesman). Avoid demeaning terms, masculine pronouns, and implying gender if it's not necessary.

Stress benefits. For example, avoid saying, "I will look into this matter tomorrow." Instead write, "I will have an answer for you on Friday."

Use subordination. "The Human Resources Department has finished reviewing employee time sheets and has concluded that tardiness will no longer be tolerated and will result in disciplinary action." Use subordination in the middle of the report where you are presenting information.

Use emphasis. In other words, let your words be firm. "Tardiness will no longer be tolerated," instead of, "We ask all employees to avoid being tardy from this date forward." Emphasis should be used in the beginning paragraph of the report, then at the end of the report.

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