Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
• Write purposeful business and technical reports that meet readers’ requirements
• Utilize different templates and report types to achieve reporting objectives
• Generate reliable conclusions effectively by researching, analyzing and organizing information
• Provide evidence-backed recommendations to support management decision making
• Use visual aids appropriately to support the presentation of information
• Apply advanced methodologies to make every report a winning report
Course Outline
The report writing process
• Report writing overview
• 5 easy steps to report writing
• Understanding your audience
• Articulating intended purpose
• Planning content and style
• Employing essential writing building blocks
• Business writing: express or impress?
Reporting structure
• Structuring tools
• Arranging different sections of a report
• Writing captivating introductions
• Conducting research and analysis
• Delivering evidence-backed findings
• Deriving unbiased conclusions
• Tools and methodologies for deriving recommendations
• Bringing it all together: a cohesive and coherent report
• Story telling elements
Report types and templates
• Recognizing different reporting structures
• Matching reports to situations
• 6 reporting types
• Investigative reports
• Progress and status reports
• Periodic reports
• Instructional reports
• Proposals
• Financial reports
• Reporting templates
The power of visual aids
• Using visual aids
• Principles for designing visual aids
• Recognizing different visual aids
• The role of visual aids
• Applying principles of design
• Using images, diagrams, graphs, charts and tables for impact
• Integrating visual aids into a report
• Essential visual aid checklist
Reports that win
• Elements of winning reports
• Using writing tone effectively
• Applying scientific tools and methodologies
• Mastering the ‘so what?’
• Building rapport
• Mastering editing techniques