Writing a Report and How to Revise It
If sufficient time and thought have been devoted to preparing and planning, and possibly revising, the skeletal framework, and to collecting and handling the information, you will now have a practical blueprint for the entire report. Writing will entail amplifying the points in each section and 'putting flesh on the bones'.
The order of writing and reviewing is important, and should be as follows:
- Pre-write.
- Draft the main body and appendixes.
- Review the main body and appendixes.
- Draft the conclusions, recommendations, introduction and summary.
- Check and amend the report.
- Issue the report.
Pre-Writing
Take an overview of your report before you begin to draft it. There are three aspects to this (five if you are making recommendations), namely:
Targeting. Remember your readers. It is all too easy to write for yourself and not for them.
Outlining. Remember your purpose and objective(s). Make sure your outline (general plan) is just wide enough to encompass them - no more and no less.
Structuring. Refer to your skeletal framework. Is it still the most Writing and Revising Your Report suitable, or will it need to be revised, perhaps to highlight some particularly important finding?
Developing. What will you recommend to overcome problems identified?
Checking. Are you sure that these recommendations are practicable?
Drafting the Main Body and Appendixes
These components should be written first. Begin with the section or subsection of the main body, or with the appendix you feel most confident about.
Reviewing the Main Body and Appendixes
Once you have written your detailed findings, try to forget about them for a while. Then come back with a fresh mind. Assess what you have actually written and how it comes across, rather than still thinking about what you had intended to write and get across.
Drafting the Conclusions, Recommendations, Introduction and Summary
These sections should not be written until after the main body and appendixes have been completed, reviewed and, where necessary, redrafted. Each of these sections can now be directly related to what has actually been written in the main body and appendixes. The first section can now be an accurate summary of the report. Another advantage of this approach is that it avoids the danger of writing the report twice: it is very easy for an introduction to develop into a report if the detailed findings have not been written first of all.
Most writers draft these sections in the order in which they appear above, namely:
- conclusions
- recommendations
- introduction
- summary.
Checking and Amending the Report
Hold it two weeks is a classic rule in advertising. For the report writer this may not be practicable. However, once you have completed your first draft, try to forget all about it for a few days -or at least a few hours. Then re-read it. Does it flow? Are there adequate links and signposts for the reader? Can you justify everything that you have written? Finally, ask yourself whether you would be willing to say what you have written to the recipients, face-to-face. If you would not be willing to say it, do not write it either.
