Report Writing

Business Reports

What are Reports

​Business Reports

A Report is a document that gives information about a decision, a plan, a proposal, or a situation. It can be prepared for employees or people outside the company. Reports can be long or short, formal or informal.

This type of report is generally longer and more complex than an informational report. It often requires extensive research and may require in-depth analysis of data or situations.

Analytical Report

These types of reports are typically based on data gathered within the normal operations of the company. When writing an information report follow the guidelines used for a direct approach message.

Informational Report

Types of Report

Business reports give information about a decision, a plan, a proposal, or a situation.  Reports can be long or short, formal or informal.  Whatever the content, all reports have a common purpose – to present information in a form that is easy to read and easy to use.

There are usually three stages in the preparation of a business report:

(i)        Preparation of an outline

(ii)       Preparation of a rough draft

(iii)     Preparation of the final draft.

An outline lists the main ideas in the order in which they will be discussed.  Outlines may be prepared in two formats:  Topic or sentence format.  The topic outline uses a word or short phrase to identify the contents to be discussed in each section of the report.  A sentence outline uses complete sentences to describe the content.

​Report Format

Reports are set up according to how they are to be bound: 
Topbound
Leftbound
Unbound

 Introductory report pages are numbered with Roman numerals; Arabic numerals are used for the body and supplementary pages. Most pages in a manuscript report are double-spaced.  Quoted material of four lines or more is indented and single-spaced; listed items are single-spaced with double spacing between items.

 The title is centered and keyboarded in all caps.  Section headings are centered, blocked at the left margin, or positioned in the first line of a paragraph. Tables and graphs present large amounts of information in picture form and very little space.

 

 The three most common types of graphs are line, bar and circle graphs.  Graph parts should be clearly labeled.
Margins for a formal Report are:

	Unbound	Leftbound	Topbound
Top margin	2”	2”	2½”
Left margin	1”	1½”	1”
Right margin	1”	1”	1”
Bottom margin	1”	1”	1”

Multiple Choice

References for an Unbound Report are keyed

• Double Space (DS) after the last line of the body

• Quadruple Space (QS) after the last line of the body

• At the end of the first page

• On a separate page

• Rough Drafts

The purpose of the rough draft is to get the writer’s thoughts on paper.  Proofreader’s symbols are used to mark changes and corrections on a rough draft. A rough draft is prepared so the writer can improve the wording, writing style and content of the report.

• Final Drafts

   Once the content of the rough drafts has been finalized – corrected and changed for the last time – it is prepared in final form.  The content of the report may be presented in letter, memorandum or manuscript format. Reports prepared in letter format use standard letter parts.  Letter format is generally used for shorted, less formal reports. 

Short informal reports can also be prepared in memorandum format.

Lengthy, formal reports are usually prepared in manuscript format.

The manuscript format consists of paragraphs with headings that divide the paragraphs into sections. 

 

Parts of a Formal Business Report

Introductory Pages:
Cover                        
Preface
Title Page                
Table of Contents

Body:

Introduction
Text of the Report

Conclusions

Supplementary Pages:

     Notes

    Appendix – contains additional information that is related to the content eg.

     questionnaires, graphs and tables.

     Bibliography – An alphabetic listing of all sources referred to or used by the

     writer in preparing the report.

      Index