EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS DEREK … · EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS ... CISSP—Certified Information Systems Security Professional ... Executive Summary—summarize actions

©2012

EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS

Like tides, writing styles constantly ebb and flow within society in general. This is more

pronounced today with the influence of texting, emails, and non-text-based communications.

Business writing, however, must moderate the peaks and troughs of these waves, because

business documents must stand the test of time. Learn to prepare a well-written, professional

report, understandable now, yet also to an unknown audience in the future.

DEREK KNIGHTS, CFE, CPP, CISSP, PCI

Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives

TD Bank

Toronto, Ontario

Canada

Derek recently joined TD Bank’s Global Security & Investigations group as the Senior

Manager, Strategic Initiatives. His responsibilities include enterprise-wide activities, practices,

governance, and—most recently—delivering training sessions in business and report writing

throughout GSI’s mandate.

Before TD, Derek was with Sun Life Financial. His first role there was in IT and Security

Governance, writing policies, standards, and procedures. He later became the Director of

Corporate Investigations. This team handled domestic and international investigations that fell

outside the specific areas of traditional insurance-related matters.

Here he attained three designations:

CFE—Certified Fraud Examiner (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners)

CIPP/C—Certified Information Privacy Professional/Canada (International Association

of Privacy Professionals)

PCI—Professional Certified Investigator (ASIS International)

Prior to Sun Life Derek worked for Ontario Hydro/Ontario Power Generation. He

conducted province-wide investigations and threat/risk assessments, and held management

positions in the security guard and executive protection groups. Derek worked for this

conventional and nuclear power company through the challenges of 9/11 and the 2003

blackout. He acquired his first two designations:

CISSP—Certified Information Systems Security Professional (International Information

Systems Security Certification Consortium)

CPP—Certified Protection Professional (ASIS International)

Derek spent 20 years working in Toronto public housing properties in security,

investigations, and property management, dealing with street and serious crimes, and a variety

of frauds (geared to income and procurement, etc.). His career started, fresh out of school in

©2012

the ’70s, at Toronto International Airport. As an armed guard for a number of European

airlines during the urban-guerilla era of hijackings, he protected aircraft, passengers, VIPs, and

high-value goods such as gold and medicinal narcotics (once even a guided missile!).

Derek’s post-secondary education focused on law enforcement, policing, and security. He

recently taught at the Centennial College School of Business, focusing on financial crimes and

fraud investigation.

Senior management at Ontario Power Generation singled Derek out for some specialized

education, which included training in business and report writing. He readily credits this

specific training with enabling his career advancement over the last 15 years.

He has worked his entire career in Toronto, Ontario.

“Association of Certified Fraud Examiners,” “Certified Fraud Examiner,” “CFE,” “ACFE,” and the

ACFE Logo are trademarks owned by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Inc. The contents of

this paper may not be transmitted, re-published, modified, reproduced, distributed, copied, or sold without

the prior consent of the author.


2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference ©2012 1

NOTES Everything today is about “Brand.” This is not only in the

commercial sense, but from an individual perspective, too.

In the business world, what was once called reputation is

now called Brand. Your written communications to your

peers, your superiors, or to your customers are nowadays

an “ambassador” to your Brand.

And communication today is immediate. We’ve become

accustomed to sending out messages and getting responses

back in hours … minutes … even seconds, with “instant

messaging.” The desire to get a quick response means we

might rashly send out the original message with shortcuts

and errors. The concomitant urge to respond quickly means

we usually repeat back the same language and grammar

shortcuts.

This leads to bad habits. Those habits then lead to similar

language and grammatical errors infecting our “normal”

business writing.

This can be in any communication, including emails (which

can be official business records!), statistical or staffing

reports, memoranda and confirmation letters … or

investigative reports. No matter which—it’s your Brand on

the line.

Something as simple as a consistent and understandable

file-naming protocol, to the complexities of technical

writing, to the seemingly inconsistent rules of everyday

grammar, can have enormous implications.

This means more than ever your reports and other business

documents must be professional and useful. These two

factors flow from “style” and “substance”—or, how your

document looks and what it contains. Style and substance

are inextricably conjoined.



NOTES Let’s consider investigation reports…

Style

Constructing (a term sometimes more appropriate than

writing) is a function of Style and Substance, and depends

on the ultimate purposes of the report.

Purpose

A report permits informed decision-making by a

competent authority.

A report needs to be informative—it “reports” back

something that happened and the steps taken to reveal

the circumstances and describe actions taken. It might

also need to be persuasive—it might contain

recommendations on some future course of action, or

preventive measures to prevent a recurrence.

A client or manager might need the report to buttress an

employee termination, an insurance claim, litigation, or

to proceed with criminal prosecution.

A report does not serve its purpose and is not useful if

The reader can’t understand it.

The reader stops halfway (or doesn’t even start!)

because reading it is too much of a chore.

The report doesn’t actually say what the author

meant.

If any of these happens, your report—and your Brand—

has lost credibility.

Plus, a goal of your report is that it answers any

questions your reader might reasonably have. Be tough

on yourself and consider it a failure (or at least a

demerit) if your reader has to call you back with



NOTES questions you should have anticipated and addressed in

the report.

“When something can be read without

effort, great effort has gone into its writing.”

—Enrique Jardiel Poncela

Credibility

A report no one has confidence in is not useful. The

report’s structure—its presentation—is as important as

its content. After all, the reader sees the report before

reading it. We all judge books by their covers.

Never underestimate the importance of appearance.

Imagine your reaction to a keynote speaker who shows

up late, in disheveled clothes, shoes on the wrong feet,

unkempt hair or make-up. Before he or she says a word,

you’ve formed a lasting impression. Or if you go to the

same restaurant for a week, order the same dish, and

each day it’s prepared differently. Since you don’t

know what you’ll get, you stop taking the menu

seriously.

Standardization denotes rigour, and rigour instils

confidence in the reader. A report from an investigator

or group should not look different every time. The

reader might assume there is no control; a shame if an

investigation itself was flawless. The absence of a

standardized format does both the reader and the writer

a disservice.

A report with inaccurate information is not useful—

worse, it could be catastrophic. A report with accurate

information but that is written so poorly that the reader

doesn’t understand it, or misunderstands the



NOTES information and makes a wrong decision based on it, is

not useful.

Timeliness

A late report doesn’t evoke confidence either. A late

report might be useless. Time is often of the essence.

A consistent structure makes a report easier to organize

and quicker to write. An investigator who is also the

report’s author and is familiar with how he or she will

ultimately arrange information has a leg up on the

clock.

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing

sound they make as they fly by.”

—Douglas Adams

Structure

Investigation reports are structured in many ways. But

there are components common to all. Let’s say your

reports contain these sections:

Background—why the investigation was conducted

Executive Summary—summarize actions and

results

Scope—statement of objective

Approach—method and participants

Findings – results of the investigation

Summary—wrap-up of the investigation

Impact—effect on the victim

Recommendations—if necessary

Appendices—those documents that will be evidence

down the line; spreadsheets, copies of letters,

invoices, etc.

—from the ACFE Report Writing Manual



NOTES These are all things a good report needs to touch on …

but no law says they have to be in this order or even in

these discrete sections. In fact, in today’s business

environment, with the speed of communications and

transactions, and the competition for an executive’s

attention, a literal interpretation of these sections and

their sequence is counterproductive.

You might find a blend of the points above is more

effective in today’s business world. Take how you like

best to write, and how your primary audience likes best

to read, balance it, and then standardize it as your

investigative report format.

And know who your audience is. Does your audience

already have a good familiarity? Or do you have to

explain all the facts, and maybe the terms, from

scratch? What if your audience is a mixture of both?

How do you inform one part without boring the other?

What is usually the hardest part of report-writing?

Content. Often the necessaries for legal action will

dictate what goes into the report, but how and where is

up to the writer. The writer must base this on the needs

of the audience and report’s structure. Much of the

detail should go in the appendices.

The narrative needs to be able to tell the story

understandably and easily. So, how does the writer tell

a 25-page-worthy tale in 4-page document? A wise use

of a report’s layout and structure, coupled with some

great tools in word-processing software is a big help. So

are headings and appendices … and charts and tables

are also helpful. These might not be worth a “thousand”

words, but they’re worth a bunch. A carefully

constructed table can replace several paragraphs of



NOTES explanation. Form and content … what you write and

how you write it.

Here Style starts to blend into its partner, Substance.

Front-Load

Judge Mark Painter from Ohio says this in his book,

Write Well:

“Too many memos, letters, reports, and

other documents start out by stating the

facts. That is a mistake. Unless you are

writing a mystery, do not leave the reader

wondering where you are going. Do not

start out giving facts without giving the

context. Organize your document to be

front-loaded; that is, educate the reader as

to what is coming.”

Consistent Appearance

Here’s a sample format for the narrative sections, and

some discussions on the rationale:

“ISSUE”

This is a blend of “Background” and “Scope” points above.

In two or three brief paragraphs it should state what

happened that needs investigating. It could also describe

who (which department or agency) is investigating, which

brings “Approach” in a bit, as well.

This section identifies the “predication” for the

investigation.

Judge Painter again:



NOTES “Do not start writing until you have a

succinct statement of what you are writing

about. And you must do this in 50-75 words.

If you can’t explain the issue in 75 words,

you do not understand it very well, and

neither will your reader.”

So, something like this:

On Monday, June 15, 2010, two employees at Branch

#1245, Toronto, ON, observed a colleague remove

funds from a cash drawer, and put it in a bag. This

employee put the bag in the lunchroom. The witnesses

advised the manager who made further inquiries.

Ultimately the funds were recovered, and the employee

was sent home pending the investigation. The Branch

consulted Human Resources and Corporate Security.

“FINDINGS”

This section is what the client or applicable business unit

needs to make any decisions. It says who did what, how,

and sometimes why.

The “ISSUE” section above and this “FINDINGS” section

are, in effect, the “Executive Summary.” This is what the

boss or client needs to know. If they only read this far, they

understand what happened. Everything that follows is

support and, to some, merely window dressing. Don’t

misunderstand—it’s very important window dressing—but

it’s not what the CEO needs to deal with.

Derived from the resolutions section below, it might look

something like this:



NOTES The subject employee was Joe Blow, Counter Teller, at

Branch #1245. He started employment in October 2005,

and assumed his current position in 2009.

Security and HR interviewed Mr. Blow on June 18, and

he admitted taking the funds on June 15. A subsequent

review of his activities revealed a number of other

matters, which Mr. Blow also acknowledged he had

done. They are:

1. He did this.

2. He did this.

3. Etc.

Security found sufficient evidence to file criminal

charges. The Branch manager and HR determined that

Mr. Blow knowingly breached the company Code of

Conduct.

Security consulted the business, HR, and Legal, and has

reported this matter to the police. HR terminated Mr.

Blow’s employment effective June 25, 2010.

“INVESTIGATION”

This is the meat and potatoes of the report. In here is

comment on the five Ws, synopses of interviews,

descriptions and assessments of evidence, and so on. This

section builds on Approach and Summary from the points

above.

This section needs to address, at least, whatever was

discussed in “ISSUE” and “FINDINGS.”

Opinions rarely have a place in an investigative report

unless they are comments in an expert’s report (a type of

report that would be in an appendix). But remember that a



NOTES careful analysis of facts and pointing out the logical

conclusion is not necessarily an opinion. The author of an

investigative report—for example, a CFE—knows what he

or she is talking about, and their analysis of facts is

important.

This section might not grab the attention of the CEO, but it

is the part the lawyers and law enforcement will focus on. It

can get much more detailed, like this:

Initial incident

On June 15, 2010, at approximately 3:45 p.m., Jane

Doe, CSR, and Mark Twain, Financial Advisor (FA),

approached their Branch Manager, John Drysdale. They

reported that minutes before, they had seen Joe Blow

take several bundles of cash from his cash drawer and

put it in a small gym bag. They watched him go into the

lunchroom, and from where they stood, they could see

him put the bag behind the water cooler. He then left

the lunchroom and returned to his workstation.

Ms. Doe and Mr. Twain did not believe Mr. Blow had

noticed them watching him.

Mr. Drysdale followed up on this. He went to the

lunchroom and saw the bag. He called Mr. Blow into

the lunchroom, and … blah, blah, blah.

Interview with Joe Blow

On such and such a date, I interviewed Mr. Blow …

blah, blah, blah.

Contents of Mr. Blow’s Workstation



NOTES And so it goes.

“RESOLUTION”

This section fleshes out the results of the investigation, and

is what the preceding “FINDINGS” section digested.

“APPENDICES”

Here is everything else, such as: interview transcripts,

invoices and transactions, emails messages, photos, CDs of

audio and video data—in electronic versions, these could

be audio and video files attached.

It’s likely that there will be a number of references—e.g.,

“See Appendix A”—in the body of the narrative; that’s

much more effective than interrupting the flow of the report

with large clunky chunks.

When devising a report template, include two types of

headings: Main Headings for the sections, such as “ISSUE”

and “FINDINGS” in the example above, which are

constant, and sub-headings unique to the circumstances of

the particular report. In other words, an audience should

know that

ISSUES/FINDINGS/INVESTIGATION/RESOLUTION

will be in every report they see. Sub-headings like

“Interview with Joe Blow” or “Forged Cheques” can pop

up when appropriate for clarity. Use a change in formatting

between the main and sub-headings to differentiate them.

Avoid further levels of sub-headings—headings should

enhance understanding, not create complexity. (And don’t

be flashy—bolding or underlining is okay, but save

gigantic fancy fonts and colours for garage-sale flyers.)



NOTES It’s not the “names” of the headings that’s so important.

“ISSUE” could be “EVENT” or “INCIDENT”;

“INVESTIGATION” could be “SYNOPSIS” or

“SUPPORTING INFORMATION” … whatever works

best for you or your organization. All that matters is the

headings are logical, and, once they’re set, they’re set.

Consistency is important.

Reports don’t necessarily need a title page. Sometimes it’s

a good idea; particularly if the first page of the report or the

table of contents contains sensitive information and you

want to keep it covered. Don’t make the title page a canvas

to display prowess with graphics. Title pages, like titles

themselves, should be distinct and succinct.

Use headers and footers. Headers may contain a logo, but

must contain the report’s title, last revision date, and

security classification (if any). Don’t use the word

processor’s “date field” function—it inserts the current date

when anyone opens the report. The date needs to static.

Footers should have the author’s name and details, and

page numbers (page x of y). If individual copies of the

report itself are also numbered, that should be in the footer

as well. Headers and footers are not only for the ease of the

reader, but in case pages get lost or separated during

printing or tumble out of a file folder.

Substance

Readability

Look at these two paragraphs. Which is easier to read?

Operationally, UNO teaching effectiveness is

measured by assessing the levels of agreement

between the perceptions of instructors and students

on the rated ability of specific instructional behavior

attributes that were employed during course



NOTES instruction. Due to the fact that instructors come

from diverse backgrounds and occupy different

positions within a given university, both individual-

and organizational-based factors may contribute to

the variance in levels of agreement between

perceptions.

At the University of Northern Ontario, we measure

in-class teaching effectiveness by asking:

How well students think their instructors speak,

present, and explain; and

How well instructors think they speak, present,

and explain.

Then we compare the responses and consider each

instructor’s background, experience, and role. This way

we can assess any significant gaps and resolve them.

Actually, the second example is only a guess at a

translation; who knows what the author of the first

actually meant. Plain language is so much more

understandable.

Plain Language

Keep sentences short. Use common words and phrases.

Avoid jargon. DYA (define your acronyms). Use

proper grammar. And write, rewrite, obtain feedback,

and rewrite again. Your work is important; ensure your

writing does it justice.

Your job is to write reports to inform people, not to

keep understanding away from them. Write as you

would speak. Remember, it is up to you to deliver an

understandable message to them; it’s not up to them to

divine it from some unintelligible complexity.



NOTES “Don’t write so you can be understood;

write so you cannot be misunderstood.”

—Epictetus

Writing Rules and Tips

Use Plain Language Principles:

Accuracy—A document with wrong information is

no good. Always check and confirm.

Brevity—Get to the point as quickly as possible.

Don’t use extra words.

Clarity—Make sure your audience can understand

what you write, or else there is no point. It’s up to

you to deliver the message; it’s not up to the reader

to “figure it out!”

Active Voice—Always use active voice except for

the rare instances when passive voice is appropriate.

Active voice sentences are shorter and are easier to

understand—and to write. Passive voice sentences

are longer, harder to understand, and are “officious”

sounding.

Passive Voice—You can identify passive voice

when you see a form of the verb “to be”—am, are,

is, was, were, be, been, being—and a past

participle—carried, taken, kept, etc. Passive

sentences, such as “The money was taken” normally

often include a prepositional phrase beginning with

by: “The money was taken by Frank.” A better

sentence is “Frank took the money.” It’s more direct,

shorter, clearer, easier to understand, and easier to

write. Passive voice is not always bad or wrong. But

lots of it kills readability.

Gender Neutral—Use gender-neutral writing when

you can. This can be difficult because English does

not lend itself to gender neutrality easily. You may

have to use the clumsy “he or she” or “his or hers”

from time to time.



NOTES Writers trying to be gender neutral often resort to

making singular plural: “A manager should ensure

their employees follow procedures.” This is

incorrect. Say either, “Managers should ensure their

employees follow procedures,” or “A manager

should ensure his or her employees follow

procedures.”

Overcomplicated Words—Say “the guard on patrol

walked around the building,” not “the guard on

patrol circumnavigated the building.” Do not use

reports or other business documents to show off

your vocabulary. Simple words will do; for

example, say “use,” not “utilize.”

Only use big, fancy words when the specific reason

for which they were grammatically invented occurs.

You know, like “inextricably conjoined.” Don’t

sound (or be) pretentious.

Incorrect Words—Make sure you know what a

word means before you use it. If you learn a new

word, make sure you truly understand it and how to

use it. The person you heard it from might be using

it incorrectly. Remember what Inigo Montoya said,

“You keep using that word. … I do not think it

means what you think it means.”1 Your dictionary is

your friend.

Similarly, when using foreign words or terms, use

them properly. For example, “e.g.” is, in Latin, a

short form for exempli gratia, which means, “for

example.” When used, “e.g.” is followed by one or

more examples. I.e. in Latin is id est, or “that is.”

When used, “i.e.” is followed by one specific,

definite item.

“Joe looked for items that stood out, e.g., incorrect

totals, erasures, stale dates. But what he really

1 The Princess Bride, 20

th Century Fox, 1987.



NOTES needed was the thing that would bring it all together,

i.e., the missing disc.”

Contractions—They aren’t a problem. Sometimes

they’re even more appropriate than their root words.

Some people will try to tell you that contractions

have no place in business writing. Don’t listen to

them. Use contractions; you’ll be fine.

Punctuation—Most people misuse punctuation. Oh,

they normally get periods and question marks right,

but that’s about it. Dashes and hyphens, commas,

ellipses, apostrophes, quotation marks, parentheses

and brackets, colons and semi-colons; correct use

seem to evade everyone! Use proper punctuation.

Misuse can be dangerous.

According to Toronto’s Globe and Mail, a

misplaced comma in a contract to string cable

lines along utility poles may cost “…a

whopping $2.13 million.”

Man-eating shark = man eating shark? No. The

hyphen is important.

“Let’s eat, people.” Remove the comma and

change the meaning.

The teacher wrote on the blackboard: “A

woman without her man is nothing” and asked

the students to insert punctuation.

All the boys wrote: "A Woman, without her

man, is nothing."

All the girls wrote: "A Woman: without her,

man is nothing."

Punctuation is powerful.

Footnotes or endnotes—don’t fear footnotes. They

can be quite useful for a number of purposes. From

time to time a writer might want to briefly clarify a

point made in the body of a document in an offset

manner to add, or even diminish, emphasis—as a

sort-of “whispered aside”—or more frequently to



NOTES cite a source or explain origin. Try to avoid using a

mixture of footnotes and endnotes in reports—pick

one or the other. Usually footnotes are better.

Microsoft Word makes it easy to use and track

footnotes.

Emphasis—now that I’ve mentioned it, always use

italics for emphasis. Save bold and underlining for

headings. Use italics for unusual, foreign, or

specialized words or terms, such as literati. You can

use underlining, though, for titles, such as

Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, but you can

also use italics. Or put it in “quotes.” Be consistent.

Redundancies—Watch for things like: “in order to

facilitate the organizing of a meeting….” Instead,

write, “to organize a meeting…” or “organizing a

meeting...”

“At this point in time…”—write “at this point” or

“at this time” or even better, “now” or “currently.”

“It was an unexpected surprise when a pair of baby

twins was born at 12 midnight” becomes “It was a

surprise when twins were born at midnight.”

Point of View

Point of view means the author’s perspective. It could

be first person (singular; plural)—I did this; we went

there—or third person (singular; plural)—she did this;

they went there. Second person—you did this; you went

there—is inappropriate for reports; but it is appropriate

for some things: parts of this article are in second

person.

Investigators can write reports from a first-person point

of view; “I interviewed the complainant.” Many people

dislike this because they use “I” a lot, “I did this, I did

that, I I I I I….” In his book, On Writing Well, author

William Zinsser observes



NOTES “Writers are obviously at their most natural

when they write in the first person. … I urge

people to write in the first person: to use ‘I’

and ‘me’ and ‘we’ and ‘us.’ They put up a

fight. …getting writers to use ‘I’ is seldom

easy. They think … it’s egotistical …

undignified.”

Besides, in third person—using “he” and “she” a lot—

there’s no real difference. There’s a sort-of modified

third-person method that uses terms such as “the

author,” “the writer,” “the investigator”—which

ultimately has the same issue.

Some writers use a virtual entity, i.e., “[company name]

attended the scene and interviewed witnesses.”

Point of view should be mostly a personal preference;

use what is easiest to write. But a report is a discrete

thing, so use one point of view for the whole narrative.

Don’t start out with “the writer did” but forget and

switch to “I did,” and eventually end with “[company

name] did.” Parts, such as statements from witnesses,

will be as the witness said or wrote them, and identified

as such. Present other components, such as a technical

review on a hard drive examination, as that author

wrote them—but distinguish and identify the source.

Segmented pieces, as happens in this article, can flip

points of view from segment to segment. Much of it is

in a form of third-person omniscient; others in second

person. Different parts have different tones, aims, and

possibly different authors.



NOTES In a report, everything you write should maintain the

same point of view.2

Proofreading and Vetting Reports

Proofread your reports and documents, and wherever

possible have colleagues check your report before it

goes to the manager.

Failing to critically examine your work (or your peers’

when you are giving them feedback; or they yours)

means sentences like these can escape:

“The ladies of the church have cast off clothes of

every kind and they can be seen in the church

basement on Friday afternoons.”

“The plot is less than the sum of its parts. It

concerns an unconventional family—a free-spirited

mother and her three young-adult children—that

visit an English seaside resort. There they meet a

young dentist, who falls in love with the older

daughter, his grumpy landlord, the mother's nervous

solicitor, the friendly waiter, and a stuffy barrister.”

“Chief Constable Gerry Hamilton this morning

discussed the problems of lodging in the jail

unconscious people suspected of being drunk with

the York County Commissioners.”

Vetting is a quality-control function performed by

supervisors to maintain professional standards for

report writing. Professional standards for reports should

be maintained, monitored, and modified as appropriate.

If such quality control and standards are not

maintained, the quality of work will rapidly

deteriorate—experience shows this is what usually

2 In case you missed it, in this section, I switched between third person

and second person (and then first person for this footnote). There’s an

exception to every rule. But not in a report.



NOTES happens. Poor or inadequate reports increase liability

and risk.

Supervisors and managers are accountable for the

quality of the report, but the writer is responsible for it.

Areas for attention are shown in the following chart.



Type of Error Examples Tolerance Level

Errors of Style

Failure to

follow

established

reporting

procedures.

These errors are

often

“cosmetic” and

should not

create serious

consequences.

Improper Format. The report is not consistent with

the proper format.

Improper File Number. The report is misidentified

by file number.

Typos. Typing errors not corrected.

Font. Ensure fonts are consistent. If general text is

Arial 10 or Times New Roman 12 in the first

paragraph, it should be everywhere else. Same with

headings—though some size differences are usually

okay. Note: sometimes it is appropriate to use a

smaller font in tables and charts. And footnotes are

usually a smaller font size.

Errors of style should

be avoided, but from

time to time a manager

may accept a report

with a limited number

of errors, in the

interest of expediency.

When time is not of

the essence, the report

should be returned to

the author for

corrections.

Errors of

Substance

Factual or other

material errors

in the

investigation, or

preparation and

delivery of the

report. These

errors could

have serious

consequences.

Incomplete Content. The report’s content is not

complete. Required information is missing: the 5Ws

& H, or persons, places, events, and things are

inadequately described. There is inadequate detail.

Incorrect Content. The report is not accurate.

Required information is wrong. Opinions might not

be distinguished from facts. Persons, places, events,

and things are described inaccurately.

Spelling and Grammar. Words are misspelled;

incorrect words used; poor sentence and paragraph

structure; poor layout.

Errors of substance are

professionally

unacceptable. Reports

with errors of

substance must be

rewritten.

Occasionally errors of

substance will indicate

some investigative

work must be redone

(or done in the first

place).

Managers must never

accept a report with

any instance of this

type of error.

NOTES



Every CFE should have one or more of these books:

The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, by

Edward P. Bailey, Jr., Oxford University Press

Plain English at Work, by Edward P. Bailey, Jr.,

Oxford University Press

The Elements of Style (any recent edition), by William

Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, Penguin Books

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, by Lynne Truss, Gotham

Books

The Little English Handbook for Canadians, 2nd

Edition, by James B. Bell and Edward P. J. Corbett,

Wiley

Garner’s Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner,

Oxford University Press

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English

in Plain English, by Patricia T. O’Conner

On Writing Well, by William Zinsser, Harper Collins

Write Well, by Judge Mark Painter, Cincinnati Book

Publishing

Report Writing Manual, Association of Certified Fraud

Examiners

I was very lucky, and I attribute any good writing skills I

have to two people: Sally McBeth of Clear Language and

Design, and my mentor, David Stolovitch, CD, CPP,

CISSP, CISM, CIPP/C. Mistakes and errors are entirely my

own.

My advice: latch onto a good writer and learn from him or

her.

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