In this lecture you will learn to:
•Describe how organizations produce formal reports and
proposals
•Prepare all necessary parts of a formal report
•Select and prepare the visual aids to support the text of
your report
•Assemble all the parts of a formal report in the proper
order and use an appropriate format
•Prepare and assemble all the parts of a formal proposal
•Critique formal reports prepared by someone else
Report Production:
•Planning formal reports and proposals, conducting the
necessary research, organizing the
ideas, developing visual aids, and drafting the text are
demanding and time consuming
tasks.
•After careful editing and rewriting, you still need to
produce a polished version.
Composing a formal Report:
•A professional report conveys the impression that the
subject is important.
•The three basic divisions of a formal report:
–Prefatory parts
–Text
–Supplementary parts
Title fly and Title Page:
•The title fly is a plane sheet with only the title of the
report on it.
•The title report includes four blocks of information
–The title of the report
–The name, title and address of the person that authorized
the report
–The name, title and address of the person that prepared the
report
–The date on which th report was submitted
Introduction:
•The introduction to a report serves a number of important
function
•Authorization
•Problem/purpose
•Scope
•Background
•Sources and methods
•Definitions
•Limitations
•Report organization
Body:
It consists of major sections or chapters that analyze,
present and interpret the
material gathered as a result of your investigation
Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations:
•The final section in the text report tells readers ‘what
you have told them.’
•Summary
–The key findings of your report, paraphrased from the body
and stated or listed in the key
order in which they appear in the body.
•Conclusions
–The writer’s analysis of what the findings mean. These are
the answers to the questions
that lead to the report.
•Recommendations
–Opinions, based on reason and logic, about the course of
action that should be taken.
Notes:
•When you are writing the text of your report, you decide to
acknowledge your sources.
•Give credit where credit is due.
•Plagiarism occurs when one person misappropriate without
permission, any ideas, facts or
words that were originated by others
Visual Aids:
•When illustrating the text of any report you face the
problem of choosing any specific form
that best suits your message.
•Moreover good business ethics demand you chose a form of
visual aid that will not mislead
your audience.
•Tables
•Line and Surface Charts
Conclude the text of proposals and reports with a summary,
and if
appropriate a conclusion and recommendation
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