writing business reports examples
Skilful business writing involves getting your message across simply and quickly. This often means writing in a style that is easily read and understood by a broad audience.
Yet, writing simply is often difficult for most of us.
Why? The answer lies in our school education. We learnt that if we used big words and complex sentences, we were more likely to get an ‘A’ by our English teacher or University lecturer. The education system taught us that people who use a broad range of vocabulary are more intelligent that the rest of us.
There is nothing wrong with writing beautifully pieces of prose that feature a stunning range of vocabulary knowledge. However, such writing is unsuitable for a business market.
No business manager has the time to wade through material that meanders and weaves before a point is made. They are even less likely to have time to grab a dictionary to work out what the writer is trying to say.
When I used to work as a market research consultant, I had the impossible task of trying to write market research reports that seemed interesting. My immediate response was to write a report that would make my University lecturer’s proud. Sadly, my colleagues all felt the same way.
It wasn’t until we had a business writing consultant come in to train us about how to write at the level of a Year 8 student that we realized the folly of our ways.
Using my newly found skills of writing a report using simple English, I proudly produced my ‘easy on the brain’ report to my manager (who missed the writing class). He told me ‘You write like you talk’. To this day, I still don’t know if he was criticizing my talking or writing ability, but I gathered either way he wasn’t happy.
However, from a communication point of view, this style of writing is perfect for getting your message across quickly.
Later on in my career, I worked at a company that prided itself on its easy to read reports. While this was true (to some degree), one of the directors loved to throw in a difficult word in every report he wrote to make the marketing manager reach for his dictionary. He thought this was really clever and that his clients would be in awe of his knowledge. I’m guessing his clients thought he was a tossed (interestingly, I met an ex-client years later who told me that when their company received one of his reports they would quickly scan it to find the unusual word and then erupt into hysterical laughter).
Articles that are written to impress your audience about how clever you are, does nothing more than distance them. No matter how learned your market is, they still prefer to read information that is easy to digest.
A great way to test whether your writing is easy to comprehend is to read it out loud. If someone spoke to you, using those words, could you instantly understand what they were getting at or would you have to really concentrate?
Scripts for marketing videos are no different. In fact, they need to be extremely simple in order to quickly grab the attention of people walking past at a trade show, for example.
Writing that is heavy on technical terms and jargon can be a real turn off. The beauty of a marketing video is that it uses both pictures and words. The saying “A picture tells a thousand words” is a powerful concept with corporate movies. It means you can actually get away with saying less, but easily get your message across, because the pictures do all of the talking.
Surprisingly, clear writing can be quite a difficult writing style to master, but the effort is well rewarded. And look at the bright side, at least people won’t burst into fits of laughter when they read your masterpiece.
About the Author:
For More Free Resources visit www.allfreereports.com
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – The Secret to Good Writing
Creative & Practical Writing Tips : How to Write a Business Report
|
|
Mead 8.5×11-inch Zippered Padfolio $12.99 This padfolio by Mead has an 8.5-by-11-inch design to fit full letter-size documents. This padfolio includes a letter-sized writing pad. |
|
|
General Report Writing and Case Studies (Paperback) $64.35 AQB approved, this 30-hour text gives users an in-depth understanding of narrative report writing, reasoning, and effective communication — plus, it covers USPAP compliance. Using an open instructional design, each lesson blends theory and practice to… |
|
|
The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course Business Writing and Communication (Paperback) $19.01 Hands-on exercises expert insights, and tools and techniques to make anyone sound more polished and professional — whether crafting a three-line message or a 300-page report. 1st edition of this book has sold nearly 17,000 copies—… |
|
|
The Case Study Handbook (Paperback) $13.58 Description not available. |
|
|
Mead Faux Leather 8.5×11-inch Padfolio $13.69 Use this Mead padfolio for your meetings and conference calls to keep your notes and information organized. With an interior pocket and business card holders, this padfolio and lined paper writing pad are a must-have at the office. |
|
|
Franklin Covey Executive-line Monarch-size Spiral Journal Refill $14.69 This quality paper refill from Franklin Covey features a wide-line design for easy writing. This journal refill showcases beautiful landscape images for add color to each page. |
|
|
Executive Black Leather Look Legal-size Writing Case $16.99 Carry all your essentials with a black leather look portfolio caseBusiness case features Koskin leather look legal-size pad holder Briefcase has a lined pad and organizer section for papers, CDs and diskettes |
|
|
Leading Quietly (Hardcover) $18.72 Written for middle managers, whom the author sees as the real movers in a successful organization, this leadership guide offers eight strategies for sound decision-making and backs them up with case studies. |
|
|
A Writer`s Reference (Spiral) $53.94 To help your students write in composition and in other college courses, A Writer`s Reference with Writing in the Disciplines includes a tabbed section with advice and model papers in nine academic disciplines: biology, business, criminolog… |
|
|
Preludes to the Icelandic Financial Crisis (Hardcover) $105.98 Iceland became one of the symbols of the global financial crisis. It provides an ideal test case for the perceptions of economists, in particular their ability to anticipate crises. The book contains papers and reports, written prior to … |
|
|
Leading Culture Change in Organizations (Hardcover) $32.58 Filled with case studies from firms such as Henkel, TI Automotive, GE Healthcare China, Vale, Dominos, Swiss Re Americas Division, and Polar Bank, among others, this book (written by Dan Denison and his co-authors) combine twenty years of research and … |
|
|
In the Name of Love $7.91 Noted true-crime writer Ann Rule reports the story of Susan Harris who, for eight years, searched for her missing husband, Jerry. In 1987, during a phone conversation between Jerry and his brother, the line was suddenly cut off and Jerry vanished…. |
|
|
Intermediate Accounting Reporting Analysis With Fasb Codification Guide (Loose-leaf) $176.34 Wahlen/Jones/Pagach`s Intermediate Accounting provides the context you need to understand accounting`s unique value to an organization. Wahlen`s approachable writing style infuses this context through the use of a Starbucks running thread case, and wit… |
|
|
A Bull in China (Paperback) $11.88 An investment writer offers his best views on how to do business with, and in, China. Jim Rogers sees opportunity galore, as he provides a quick intro on how money and business work in China, while providing specific case studies of businesses and sect… |
|
|
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Paperback) $11.43 A study of a monarch butterfly as it migrates north in springtime. Color illustrations accompany the text. This is one of the thirteen “Moon” books written about different animals of North America. Each title explores the intricate relationship between… |
|
|
While America Aged (Paperback) $12.36 Business writer Roger Lowenstein addresses the compellingly urgent issue of pensions in America, as he presents case studies of how overly generous (and, in his view, foolhardy) contracts locked employers in to promises that cannot reasonably be fulfil… |
