About
An effective business report captures and provides the right level of information on findings or projects accurately and logically. Report Writing for Technical Professionals is designed to help technical professionals improve report writing skills, sharpen up and deliver reports that are concise, logical and persuasive.
One thing is for sure, the more effective reports are, the greater the chances for a successful outcome.
EIGHT GREAT REASONS TO ATTEND THE COURSE
- Identify your intended audience’s needs and expectations
- Organise your information with your intended audience’s needs
- Learn to plan and structure your report to ensure logical flow
- Increase the readability of your reports content
- Generate maximum impact with the right words and grammar
- Be able to write persuasive recommendations and solutions
- Create reader-friendly layouts to highlight important information
- Gain useful proof-reading techniques
Outline
DAY ONE
Overview
• Understanding the challenges around presenting technical information
• Fundamentals of effective business report writing
• The role of research and clear thinking before writing
• Factors that affect readability
• Understanding what decision-makers want from technical information
Planning the Report
• Identifying the purposes of the report
• Identifying the information needs of readers
- Senior executives
- Line supervisors
• Identifying your technical strengths
• Determining critical content for the report
Organising Relevant Content for the Report
• Distinguishing between important facts and the details that support them
• Providing effective explanations of figures and tables etc.
• Using sections, sub-sections, and bullet points as appropriate instead of continuous text, with numbering for ease of navigation
• Writing effective executive summaries
• Consolidating highly factual/technical sections into appendices for easy reference
• Providing useful headings to guide the readers and capture their attention
Using the Right Language for Maximum Impact
• Choosing words and style appropriate for the reader and context
• Writing concise sentences to increase readability
• Avoiding redundant and commonly confused words
• Avoiding jargon unless readers are familiar with it
• Using active instead of passive voice
• Using correct punctuation and grammar
Practical Exercises
• Critique of participants real examples of writing – to identify areas for improving their use of written language
• Exercises to practise achieving high levels of readability
Drafting the Report
• Planning the overall structure of the report
• Determining the components of the report
- Introduction
- Body
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
• Preparing a table of contents
• When and how to use graphics – pictures, diagrams, flow charts, tables, graphs, etc.
• Testing and revising the report framework
DAY TWO
Recommendations and Solutions
• Separating conclusions from recommendations
• Making recommendations persuasive
• Presenting analysis of evidence
• Applying decision-making criteria
• Proving conclusively that the recommendations support the project/organisation’s mission and goals
Reader-Friendly, Professional and Appealing Layout and Design
• Format
• Page size and orientation
• Margins and spacing
Self-editing and Proofreading For Outstanding Business Reports
• Spelling and grammar checks – benefits and limitations
• Checking for consistency
• Spotting commonly made errors in report writing
• Advantages of proof-reading on paper
• General principles for marking errors
Choice of Report Writing Exercises
• Option (a) a team exercise in preparing and writing a report, using all the learning points from the course
• Option (b) individual exercise applying the learning from the course to an actual work-place document
Personal Action Plans
• Preparation of personal action plans for improving report professionalism and effectiveness
Facilitator
Victor Main
For over 30 years Victor’s been turning highly complex information into plain language.
His experience includes writing instruction manuals; articles for international trade journals; research opinions; corporate briefs; web content; newsletters; systems documentation; business reports; policy and strategy papers and much more.
Victor brings valuable insights gained from working with a diverse range of organisations. He specialises in running training programmes for those who need to convey complex information on paper and online. He runs in-house training for corporate and government clients in New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East.
In-house Training
Sorry, this event currently has no dates scheduled.
