Report Pyramid

Creating a Main Message

Your main audience can be one person or a group of people. No matter who your main audience is, once you've figured out what information that audience will need in the report, you can start to put your main message together.

The main message will guide you as you write the report. Once you've figured out the main message, you'll find that all the information just falls into place as you write. Needless to say, it makes things a lot easier.

To figure out your main message, ask yourself this question:

What is it that I want to tell my audience the most?

In other words, out of all the information you need to provide to your audience, what's the single piece of information that either is the lead-in for all other information you need to provide – or is the one piece of information that will ignite interest from your audience.

Using our example again, if the accountant was our main audience, perhaps the information that you would most like to share is that your department went over budget due to increased expenses, but that sales nearly doubled in your department during the same period. If the accounting department creates budgets, the accountant would most like to know that, although you went over budget, you more than compensated by increasing sales.

Once you've figured out your main message, write it down. If at all possible, keep it to one sentence. In addition, write down your main audience, as well. Keep these two pieces of information with you as you begin to write your report. It will help keep you focused and make your report more effective.

The Report Pyramid

Almost every report you write should start out with a summary statement. The summary statement tells your audience what they need to know the most – or the main message. It also tells them the results. Let's put it another way: The summary statement sums up the information you will have in the report.

By using the pyramid method to organize your reports, you can ensure that every report you write:

• Grabs your audience's attention immediately


• Is organized


• Is written correctly


• Provides the information your audience needs


• Answers all your audience's questions

The report pyramid is shown below.

When you use the report pyramid to organize your reports, the summary statement that includes the main message goes at the top of this report. It is followed by detailed information that includes facts, events, and evidence.

If you look at the pyramid, you will see the summary statement is at the top and is smaller and narrower than the supporting information section. This is because the supporting information supports – or backs up – your summary statement.

The report pyramid is similar to the way journalists write articles for newspapers and online news sources. The first paragraph always sums up the main point of the article. The rest of the article provides more information and facts.