Effective Reports

7/25/2019 Effective Reports

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PIM- Pakistan Institute of Management

What is a Business Report?

A business report is an impartial, objective, planned presentation offacts to one or more persons for a specific, significant business purpose.

The report fact may pertain to events, conditions, qualities, progress,results, products, problems or suggested solutions.

Reports function is to give an account of something, to answer aquestion, or to offer a solution to a problem

Reports travel upwards to supervisors and management policymakers,downwards and horiontally to those who carry out the work andpolicies! and outward to stockholders, customers, general public,specific firms or individuals.


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"haracteristics of an effective report

An effective report is:

appropriate to its purpose and readers

accurate

logical

clear and concise

well organied with clear section headings


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#eterminant "lass #escription

!ource

Authoried Prepared at the re"uest of someone else

#rganied to respond to the reader$s wishes

%oluntar& Prepared on &our own initiative

Re"uire more support' more (ackground detail'and more careful e)planation of purpose

*re"uenc&

!pecial Prepared for uni"ue situations or one-time+nonrecurring, events

*orm and organiation depends on purpose

Routine Prepared for recurring events +dail&' weekl&'monthl&' "uarterl&' annuall&,

#rganied in a standard wa& +often on preprintedor computeried forms that the writer can simpl&fill in,

Re"uire less introductor& and transitional material

estination

Internal .sed within the organiation

#ften in memo format +especiall& if the&$re lessthan /0 pages,

1)ternal !ent to people outside the organiation

#ften in letter format +2 pages or less, ormanuscript format +more than 2 pages,

COMMON REPORT CLASSIFICATIONS - 1


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#eterminant "lass #escription

3ength

!hort Prepared as a letter' memo' or e-mail report of /0

pages or less .suall& prepared as a routine report

3ong Prepared as a manuscript report of more than /0pages

.suall& prepared as a special report

*ormalit&

Informal .suall& prepared as a routine' internal report

Includes less formal tone' fewer introductor& andtransitional materials

*ormal .suall& prepared as a special internal or e)ternalreport

Includes more formal tone' more introductor& andtransitional materials

4&pe

Informational Prepared to inform and educate

5an (e either internal or e)ternal

Anal&tical Prepared to anal&e data' draw conclusions' andsometimes make recommendations

5an (e either internal or e)ternal

COMMON REPORT CLASSIFICATIONS - 2


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$reparation %efore &riting a Report

'. #efine the $roblem,$urpose and (cope

). "onsider who will receive the report *. #etermine +deas to +nclude

. "ollect needed material

(econdary$rimary

-lectronic #atabase

. (ort, Analye and interpret #ata

/. 0rganie data and prepare final outline.


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Title

fly

Title

page

Letter of

Trans-

mittal

Table of

contents

Synopsis/

Ex. summary

TitlePage

Letter of

Transm-

ittal

Table ofcontents

Synopsis

Title

page

Table

of

contents

Combinat-

ion trans-

mittal syn-

opsis

Title

page

Combi-

nation

Trans-

mittal

Synopsis

Title

page

MEMO

REPORT

LETTER REPORT

TE REPORT

PROPER

TE REPORT PROPER

TE REPORT PROPER

TE REPORT PROPER

TE REPORT PROPER

!st

ste

p

"n#step

$r#step

%t&step

't&step

(t&step


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Pagination in the Long Report

4he order of parts in a long report is as follows6 7ote the assignment of page

num(ers' involving (oth small Roman numerals and Ara(ic num(ers6*l&sheet8no num(er

4itle Page8count it' (ut no num(er

3etter of 94ransmittal8count it' (ut no num(er

3etter of Authoriation----count it' (ut no num(er

4a(le of 5ontents8small Roman numeral

4a(le of *igures8small Roman numeral

A(stract1)ecutive !ummar&8small Roman numeral

Bod&8num(ered from / in Ara(ic num(ers Appendi)8continue Ara(ic num(ers

7otes8continue Ara(ic num(ers

Bi(liograph&8continue Ara(ic num(ers


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1ain $arts of the Report

/6 +2TR0#3"T+02 %ackground Authoriation $lan of presentation $roblem $urpose (cope 1ethodology (ources #efinition of Terms 4imitations

%rief (tatement of results

). Te5t 6 All necessary -5planation and support

*. Terminal section, "onclusion, Recommendation


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"7-"84+(T 90R &R+T+2: T7- 1A+2

(-"T+02( 09 A R-$0RT6

T7- +2TR0#3"T+02

(ome of these elements will be included when

necessary6 purpose ;always is omitted


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"7-"84+(T 90R &R+T+2: T7- 1A+2 (-"T+02( 09 A R-$0RT6

T-?T ;#+("3((+02, %0#@ a&ear


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#egrees of 7eadings

After choosing &our organiational plan and the wording of &our main headings'

&ou ne)t choose a wa& to show @degrees for various items in &our outline6

*or long report' three wa&s to num(er heading degrees6

Numeral-Letter Combination:it is used in (usiness6

Decimal System:it is used in scientific and technical reports6

Letter-NumeralCombination:it is used (& those who prefer letters (efore

main heading


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egree of Ceading Numeral-Letter Combination:

/st I6

Introduction


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")

/st III6

d /6

iscussion >d d


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dd

Seri

f

Sans

serif

!erif or !ans !erif E 4hat is the =uestionF


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Reports that are to (e t&pewritten or printed

should (e done in serif t&pe

A serif is a st&le of letters that have a little piecesticking out of the vertical part of the letter

4he serif helps tie the letters together and makereading easier

1lectronic reports' meant to (e seen onl& on acomputer' should (e done sans serif (ecausethe resolution tends to deform the serif andmake the reading more difficult


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"7-"84+(T 09 " D3A4+T+-( 90R R-$0RT(6

"01$4-T-2-(( E "02"+(-2-((

+nclude in the report all facts needed to answer both primary

and secondary readers questions relevant to the reports

purpose use an appendi5 for relevant facts too detailed to be

in the body

"over the what, why, when, where, who and how

:ive the person who requested the report what he or she wants

Trim the report to essentials that fit the purpose and reader

requirements

Avoid wordy, trite e5pressions, unnecessary repetitions and

overuse of articles and prepositional phrases $resent both favorable and unfavorable factors

+nclude whatever prefatory and supplemental parts are

desirable


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"7-"84+(T 09 " D3A4+T+-( 90R R-$0RT(6

"02"R-T-2-((, "02C+"T+02 E 0%F-"T+C+T@

3se specific words and figures +dentify the information source (ubstantiate a sources reliability %e sure you yourself are objective in your quotations,

paraphrasing and abstracting

"onsider carefully the basis for your inferences Avoid emotional writing and present facts impartially 3se mostly active and not passive verbs +nstead of would, could, use will, can or may &rite in the present tense whenever possible

%ase your conclusions or your summary statement on adequatefacts and be sure your written presentation is logical


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"7-"84+(T 09 " D3A4+T+-( 90R R-$0RT(6

"4AR+T@

$hrase all statements so the reader can easily understand them

+nclude definitions of any technical terms or abbreviations

+n computing figures use percentage, ranks, ratios or round off

figures for easier reader comprehension

3se headings to guide the reader, but be sure your writing is clear and

coherent without them

3se transitional words and phrases ;such as, also, on the other hand

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Effective Reports