Introduction

Report writing is a time-consuming business, so it’s a great shame that after you’ve spent all that time writing your report, the quality is such that hardly anyone bother to read it. Frankly, most report readers don’t read the entire report; they have very little time. You better know and accept it, that’s normal. They only read the parts that interest them. These are often the summary, conclusions, and recommendations.

Of course, some readers need all the details that you included so carefully, they are specialists, but most do not. Most readers only need two things: that the information they want is where they expect it to be so they can find it, and that it be written clearly so they can understand it.

It is similar to reading a newspaper. Wait for the news headlines to be on the front page; sports coverage must be in the back; the TV lists on any page and the editorial comment in the middle. If what you want is not in its usual place, then you have to look for it and you may get irritated. So it is with a report.

There is a convention about what goes where. Follow the convention and please your readers. If convention is broken, people can get a bit irritated and trash their report.

So what is that convention, the standard format?

Standard sections

Title section. In a short report, this may just be the cover. In a long one, you could also include Terms of Reference, Table of Contents, etc.

Summary. Give a clear and very concise description of the main points, the main conclusions and the main recommendations. Keep it very short, a small percentage of the total length. Some people, especially senior managers, may not read anything else, so write as a separate document. It isn’t, but for some people it could be too. Keep it short and jargon-free so anyone can understand it and get the main points. Write it last, but don’t copy and paste the report itself; that rarely works well.

Introduction. This is the first part of the report itself. Use it to paint the background for the “problem” and to show the reader why the report is important to them. Please provide your terms of reference (if they are not in the title section) and explain how the details that follow are organized. Write it in plain English.

Main body. This is the heart of your report, the facts. You will likely have several sections or subsections, each with its own subtitle. It is unique to your report and will describe what you discovered about “the problem.”

These sections are more likely to be read by experts, so you can use the proper jargon, but explain it as you introduce it. Organize information logically, usually by prioritizing things first. In fact, follow that advice in every section of your report.

You can choose to include a discussion explaining the importance of your findings.

Conclusions. Present the logical conclusions of your investigation of the “problem”. Put it all together and it might offer options for the way forward. Many people will read this section. Write it in plain English. If you have included a discussion, this section can be quite short.

recommendations. What do you suggest be done? Do not be shy; you did the work, so please list your recommendations in order of priority and in plain language.

Appendices. Put the heavy details here, the information only specialists will want to see. As a guide, if some detail is essential to your argument, include it in the main body, if it simply supports the argument, then it could go in an appendix.

Conclusions and recommendations

In conclusion, remember that readers expect certain information to be in certain places. They don’t expect to find what they want and the harder you make it for them, the more likely they are to throw your report aside and ignore it. So what should I do?

1. Follow the generally accepted format for a report: summary, introduction, main body, conclusions, recommendations, and appendices.

2. Organize your information in each section in a logical way with the reader in mind, generally putting things in order of priority, most important first.

Good luck writing your report!

Author: Tony Atherton

© Tony Atherton 2005)