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Teaching Suggestions
Lecture, discussion, and illustraon are all good for teaching types of reports. You can use lecture to summarize text
highlights. We give special emphasis to the overall makeup of reports (Exhibit 9-1 in the text, Slide 9-5). For the
discussion you can use the quesons at the end of the chapter (and the suggested answers in the following
secon).
Showing examples of actual reports (with explanatory comments) also helps. We have included *ve illustraons of
reports in the text. But you will probably want to use some of your own also. We have found that past reports we
have graded, with our wri,en comments, are especially useful.
Of course, much of the learning comes from applicaon. So probably you will assign some problem work. In-class
analysis of these exercises a/er they have been completed is an e0ecve teaching technique. It is especially
e0ecve to show good and bad reports—with appropriate explanaon and discussion, of course.
Text Summary, Lecture Outline
Slides 9-1, 9-2, 9-3
You can use the *rst slides to talk about how frequently reports are wri,en in business and therefore how
important is it to feel relavely comfortable when wring them. This chapter will help your students with wring a
variety of common types.
An Overview of Report Components
Slide 9-4
The makeup of reports is determined by their length and formality. While shorter reports are wri,en more
frequently, longer reports are also very common in business, especially those wri,en to external audiences. Long
reports are o/en collaborave e0orts.
Slide 9-5
The in3uence of report formality and length on report form is depicted in the illustraon.
Slide 9-6
To make full sense of the diagram, students need some familiarity with the prefatory components of long reports.
As the book explains:
The tle y is simply a page with the tle of the report on it. It is included as an extra touch of formality.
The tle page has more informaon. It typically contains the tle, iden*caon of the reader and writer, and the
date. You can point out that the tle needs special care, as it will form the reader’s expectaons for the rest of the
report.
The leer of transmial is the message that hands the report over to the reader. It describes the report’s purpose
and main *ndings and includes any other informaon about the project that the writer wants to include. This piece
of the report has the most personal tone of any of the parts; it typically uses personal pronouns and a more
conversaonal style than the rest of the report.
The table of contents, of course, is a guide to the structure and speci*c contents of the report. It can be
appropriate for reports that are as short as *ve pages, though usually it’s for longer reports. When wring a short
report, one can embed a guide to the contents in the introductory secons of the report itself (for example, as a
preview sentence or a bulleted list).
The execuve summary (somemes given other labels) is the report in miniature. In long reports, it is on a
separate page or pages; in a short report, it can be the opening secon of the report itself. Whichever form it takes,
it should be self-explanatory—that is, people shouldn’t have to read the report to make sense of it. One reason for
this guideline is that it is o/en the only part of the report that many readers will read. But another is that it helps
readers get the key points quickly, enabling them to digest the report itself more quickly and accurately.
Characteristics of Shorter Reports
Slide 9-7
Shorter reports are frequently wri,en in business. They generally share the following characteriscs.
Lile Need for Introductory Informaon
Slide 9-8
If shorter reports need introductory informaon at all, it is small.
Short reports are roune and unlikely to be kept on *le for long.
Thus, the need for introductory informaon is slight.
Slide 9-9
Predominance of the Direct Order
Direct order means that the conclusions and/or recommendaons begin the report.
Most short reports use it because readers want answers *rst in roune situaons.
Direct order follows this pa,ern:
Summary/conclusions/recommendaons
Introducon (if needed)
Body secons
Recap of conclusions/recommendaons
Use the direct order when readers expect an answer and when you expect them to respond posively to your main
*ndings/recommendaons.
Use the indirect order when readers need to see the facts before the conclusions/ recommendaons.
Indirect order follows this arrangement:
Introducon
Body Secons
Conclusions/recommendaons
Summary
More Personal Wring Style
Slide 9-10
Shorter reports use more personal wring (I’s, we’s, you’s).
They do so because short reports are prepared and wri,en to people who know one another, involve personal
invesgaons, and deal with roune ma,ers.
Less Need for a Structured Coherence Plan
Slide 9-11
Long, formal reports usually need a formal, structured coherence plan (summarizing, forward-looking,
backward-bending parts).
Short reports need coherence, but not an elaborate structured plan.
Forms of Shorter Reports
Slide 9-12
This secon discusses types of reports based on the nature of the medium (report, le,er, or email).
The Short Report
This report (5th step in diagram) consists of tle page and text. It has mid-level formality.
Most use the direct order, headings (but usually to the *rst or second division only), graphics, and appended parts.
Leer Reports
Le,er reports—reports in le,er form—present informaon to readers outside an organizaon. Although
excepons exist, le,er reports are usually wri,en personally and in the indirect order.
If they are wri,en directly, they use a subject line and end with goodwill closings.
See the Case Illustraon in the text as an example.
Email Reports
Email, of course, is widely used in business, and thus so are email reports.
Typically email reports are informal, use headings, and somemes have graphics.
See the Case Illustraon in the text as an example.
Types of Short Reports
Slide 9-13
Many types of short reports exist. Several of the most common are discussed as follows.
Roune Operaonal Reports
As the text says, these are the workhorse of business. Virtually every organizaon relies on them to get the
informaon where it needs to go, and on me.
They can be yearly, quarterly, weekly, or even daily. Most are wri,en on a relavely regular schedule since they
provide informaon on roune operaons.
Their form can vary widely from company to company. The text menons one innovave format—the 5-15 report.
But you and your students can share others that you know about.
Whatever the form, the top priority is to get the informaon across as directly and clearly as possible.
Those who regularly write roune reports should consider creang forms or templates for these.
Progress Reports
Progress reports can be viewed as a type of roune operaonal report.
They review progress made on an acvity.
They may also include problems encountered and future projecons of progress.
But since you want to convey the point that you are making progress, use a posive tone whenever possible.
Most progress reports are informal, narrave reports.
Problem-Solving Reports
While all signi*cant forms of business communicaon can be said to solve business problems of one kind or
another, we focus here on reports that are speci*cally focused on helping decision makers *gure out a course of
acon to take.
These are o/en assigned (or requested by a client company), but they can also be unsolicited (as when an
employee needs to bring a problem to his or her supervisor’s a,enon).
One common type of problem-solving report is the feasibility study. For these reports, writers study several courses
of acon and then propose the most feasible, desirable one.
It is possible that some problem-solving reports won’t go so far as to recommend a soluon. Somemes execuves
just want you to give them a thorough invesgaon of a problem. But even in these cases, your report will be
helping them solve a problem.
The direct order is usually best, especially for an assigned problem-solving report, but if you will be proposing
something that readers may not be immediately ready for, the indirect order (with an opening like the “common
ground” opening described in Chapter 6) would probably be wiser.
Audit Reports
Audit reports are wri,en to hold organizaons accountable to standards that they are required to meet.
While audit reports can assess an organizaon’s *nances, operaons (for example, do they comply with safety or
environmental-protecon standards?), or compliance with a contract (is the new assembly line being built to
speci*caons?), the most common type is that wri,en by an accounng *rm to verify the truthfulness of a
company’s *nancial reports.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has exponenally increased the number of audit reports that companies must
prepare and submit to various regulatory pares.
Audit reports can be short or long in form. In accounng, short forms are a statement of the auditor’s opinion. Long
forms vary greatly, defying any typical form.
Meeng Minutes
Meeng minutes are an example of reports in business that do not recommend or even conclude anything—they
simply describe what happened. Trip reports and incident reports also fall into this category, and you and your
students may think of others.
Minutes provide a wri,en record of a group’s acvies and decisions during a meeng.
Announcements, reports, signi*cant discussions, and decisions are usually included in summary form.
Minutes should be recorded in objecve language, and only resoluons should be recorded word for word. The
writer has to use his or her judgment when recording and preparing the minutes since there is a danger of
furthering some parcipants’ polical interests and not others.
Minutes should be forma,ed for easy readability; somemes items are numbered to correspond to the numbering
on a formal agenda.
Sample Short Report, Direct Order
Slides 9-14, 9-15, 9-16, 9-17, 9-18, 9-19, 9-20, 9-21, 9-22
Le,er reports either use direct or indirect order. Those in the direct order begin with the main *nding or
recommendaon. Somemes this main point is preceded by brief introductory informaon. Another opon is to
use a subject line to announce the topic of the report. Indirect-order le,ers tend not to use a subject line, and they
open with brief background informaon, such as who authorized the report and the topic.
These slides give an example of a le,er report using direct order.
Slide 12-26
This *nal quote makes clear that skillful report wring is more important in “the informaon age” than it has ever
been.
