Teaching Suggestions
Lecture, discussion, and illustraon 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 quesons at the end of the chapter (and the suggested answers in the following
secon).
Showing examples of actual reports (with explanatory comments) also helps. We have included *ve illustraons 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 applicaon. So probably you will assign some problem work. In-class
analysis of these exercises a/er they have been completed is an e0ecve teaching technique. It is especially
e0ecve to show good and bad reports—with appropriate explanaon 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 relavely comfortable when wring them. This chapter will help your students with wring 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 collaborave e0orts.
Slide 9-5
The in3uence of report formality and length on report form is depicted in the illustraon.
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 informaon. It typically contains the tle, iden*caon 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 expectaons for the rest of the
report.
The leer of transmial is the message that hands the report over to the reader. It describes the report’s purpose
and main *ndings and includes any other informaon 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
conversaonal 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 wring a short
report, one can embed a guide to the contents in the introductory secons of the report itself (for example, as a
preview sentence or a bulleted list).
The execuve summary (somemes 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 secon 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 characteriscs.
Lile Need for Introductory Informaon
Slide 9-8
If shorter reports need introductory informaon at all, it is small.
Short reports are roune and unlikely to be kept on *le for long.
Thus, the need for introductory informaon is slight.
Slide 9-9
Predominance of the Direct Order
Direct order means that the conclusions and/or recommendaons begin the report.
Most short reports use it because readers want answers *rst in roune situaons.
Direct order follows this pa,ern:
Summary/conclusions/recommendaons
Introducon (if needed)
Body secons
Recap of conclusions/recommendaons
Use the direct order when readers expect an answer and when you expect them to respond posively to your main
*ndings/recommendaons.
Use the indirect order when readers need to see the facts before the conclusions/ recommendaons.
Indirect order follows this arrangement:
Introducon
Body Secons
Conclusions/recommendaons
Summary
More Personal Wring Style
Slide 9-10
Shorter reports use more personal wring (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
invesgaons, and deal with roune 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 secon 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.
Leer Reports
Le,er reports—reports in le,er form—present informaon to readers outside an organizaon. Although
excepons 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 Illustraon 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 somemes have graphics.
See the Case Illustraon 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.
Roune Operaonal Reports
As the text says, these are the workhorse of business. Virtually every organizaon relies on them to get the
informaon where it needs to go, and on me.
They can be yearly, quarterly, weekly, or even daily. Most are wri,en on a relavely regular schedule since they
provide informaon on roune operaons.
Their form can vary widely from company to company. The text menons one innovave 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 informaon across as directly and clearly as possible.
Those who regularly write roune reports should consider creang forms or templates for these.
Progress Reports
Progress reports can be viewed as a type of roune operaonal report.
They review progress made on an acvity.
They may also include problems encountered and future projecons of progress.
But since you want to convey the point that you are making progress, use a posive tone whenever possible.
Most progress reports are informal, narrave reports.
Problem-Solving Reports
While all signi*cant forms of business communicaon 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
acon 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,enon).
One common type of problem-solving report is the feasibility study. For these reports, writers study several courses
of acon 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 soluon. Somemes execuves
just want you to give them a thorough invesgaon 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 organizaons accountable to standards that they are required to meet.
While audit reports can assess an organizaon’s *nances, operaons (for example, do they comply with safety or
environmental-protecon standards?), or compliance with a contract (is the new assembly line being built to
speci*caons?), the most common type is that wri,en by an accounng *rm to verify the truthfulness of a
company’s *nancial reports.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has exponenally increased the number of audit reports that companies must
prepare and submit to various regulatory pares.
Audit reports can be short or long in form. In accounng, short forms are a statement of the auditor’s opinion. Long
forms vary greatly, defying any typical form.
Meeng Minutes
Meeng 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 acvies and decisions during a meeng.
Announcements, reports, signi*cant discussions, and decisions are usually included in summary form.
Minutes should be recorded in objecve language, and only resoluons 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 parcipants’ polical interests and not others.
Minutes should be forma,ed for easy readability; somemes 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
recommendaon. Somemes this main point is preceded by brief introductory informaon. Another opon 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 informaon, 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 wring is more important in “the informaon age” than it has ever
been.