Business reports are a company’s primary tool to disseminate information and support critical decision -making ideas. A well-written report is one’s best advocate for almost any course. It takes a great amount of skill and practice to communicate information in a document. This course has been designed exclusively to coach participants on writing a report with ease and great style, whilst learning the secrets of writing a perfect report.

Objectives:

Upon completion of this training programme, participants will be able to:

  • Analyse their audience and tailor the content to their specific needs
  • Gather data efficiently and select the relevant information for the readers
  • Use best practice in structuring the document by using a number of easy-to-learn report-writing techniques
  • Avoid the top-10 catastrophic mistakes made during report writing
  • Ensure that their reports are well-structured
  • Create reports that flow logically and look professional
  • Assess the best places to use graphics, and choose the right image to support your content
  • Produce reports that enhance the image of both the report writer and the organisation

Outline:
1. The Objectives of Report Writing

  • Reports- The Definition
  • The Purpose of Reports
  • The Type of Reports
  • Setting Clear Objectives

2. The Audience

  • The Wide Array of Readers
  • What Readers want to Read
  • Understanding their Preferences
  • Reaching Out to the Masses

3. Planning the Report: The Structure, Outline & Design

  • The Backbone- A Great Structure
  • Mind Mapping the Outline
  • Deciding on the Burger- The Introduction, Body & Conclusion
  • Organising the Content in Accordance to the Objective

4. The Data Collection Process

  • The Mind & Data Dump
  • Gathering Data Efficiently from Various Sources
  • Data Consolidation- What’s Needed and What’s Not

5. Developing a Great Style

  • K.I.S.S (Keep it Short & Simple)
  • Simplistic, Not Bombastic
  • Get them Hooked (The Hook)
  • British versus American
  • The Top 10 Mistakes

6. The Drafts

  • Staying Focused to the Objectives
  • The Four Step Drafting Process: Prepare, Draft, Relax & Polish
  • Using the Right Headings to Capture the Reader’s Attention
  • Coherence & Cohesion
  • The Graphics: Adding bullets, tables, charts, graphs, diagrams
  • Crediting the Sources: Cross-Reference & In-Text Citations

7. The Front & End Matters of Reports

  • Cover Page
  • Title Page
  • Abstract & Executive Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Table of Contents
  • Appendices
  • Glossary
  • Reference

8. The Finale

  • The Final Glance Over
  • Strategies for Proofreading
  • Spell-Check, Punctuation-Check, Grammar-Check & Vocab-Check
  • The Perfect Report Checklist: The Last Glance Over

Method:

  1. Presentation
  2. Discuss
  3. Case Study
  4. Evaluation

Who should attend:
Anyone who produces reports and needs them to be understood and acted upon.