Technical Report Writing

technical report writing_2"technical report writing"

5 Tips for Writing Business Reports

There are many formats to choose from for business reports. From charts and graphs to spreadsheets, they are different variations on information stored on your database.

Whatever format you choose for your report, strive to make your report easy to understand, interesting, and valuable to the party receiving your information. Try to tailor your information to have the maximum effect for the specific audience it is intended. Before writing your report it will be useful to review some business report writing tips. Five business report writing tips are:

1. Research the audience for whom the report is intended. For example, if you will be presenting to a group of highly technical computer professionals try to include scientific facts, figures, and concrete reasoning in your chosen report format. One format that would be able to convey this type of information would be an Excel spreadsheet that includes facts and figures. Another example might be a group of technical diagrams presented in a PowerPoint slide presentation. Still another example might be a report derived from data stored in a SQL Server, Access, or Oracle database.

2. Be clear when explaining the purpose of your presentation. One example might be to provide a Word document that provides a description of a new technology change that includes data and diagrams from industry data supporting the reason a technology change is needed.

3. Determine what your readers hope to gain from your report. Do they want to know how many sales are projected for next year? Do they want to know how much their production costs will increase if they change an ingredient in their manufacturing process? Try to figure out how to provide the most useful information to your intended audience.

4. Try to gain an understanding of how much your particular audience might already know about the subject on which you are reporting. You don't want to spend most of your report reiterating information that your intended audience is already aware of. For example, you wouldn't want to include a history of the American space program to a group of NASA scientists. Provide them with new and relevant information, don't introduce things they already know. If you're presenting to a group of your peers in charge of writing reports don't provide business report writing tips.

5. Try to include information that is helpful to everyone if your group has a mixed amount of knowledge on the subject. For example, don't provide a statistical analysis report to a group of administrative assistants and computer programmers. Include some of the statistics and at least a brief description of what they actually mean and how to read them so that both groups can glean some knowledge from your report.

The main reason for writing reports is to convey important information to specific groups who then can use that information to accomplish their goals whatever they may be. Whether you're typing up a document, spreadsheet, or creating a slide presentation or database report always try to remember what audience you are creating the report for and what information you are trying to provide to that audience.

About the Author

For Scott Duglase, finding a balance between client time and office time can be a challenge. His search for
business reporting products
has led him to Windward Reports.Their
SharePoint reporting services
allow him to maximize his productivity by streamlining his process all while creating an informative and powerful presentation.

Forage Fish Report Writing Guidelines

technical report writing
technical report writing