ProfessionalSkills

Reports that Work!

Do you need to present a credible image through informative reports? Do you need to influence others to
accept your conclusions and act on your recommendations? This course develops the fundamental skills
of report writing. You will develop skills for planning, structuring and writing common types of work
reports.

Your trainer will guide you through a series of interactive activities, including case studies, discussions
and learning games. Throughout the course you will work on your own case study, putting the skills you
pick up into practice immediately and completing a report that works!

Who should attend?

Anyone with at least upper intermediate level English who would like to improve their everyday report-
writing skills

Objectives
After this course, you should be better able to:

• plan, structure and write common types of reports that flow logically and are easy to understand
• build relationships and engage the reader in your reports from the start
• write persuasive conclusions and recommendations that result in action

Benefits
After this course:

• participants will complete reports more confidently and quickly, avoiding miscommunication
• management will be better able to make strategic and tactical decisions based on data, analysis and
recommendations
• the organisation will be able to respond more quickly and effectively to findings and
recommendations proposed

www.britishcouncil.org
Course Outline

Report writing fundamentals

• The features of effective reports
• Analysing different types of reports
• Selecting the report type to match your purpose and audience

Writing the background and introduction to a report

• Addressing reader expectations
• Setting the context
• Mapping tenses to events

Writing credible report findings

• Aligning content to your purpose and audience
• Using the language of evidence
• Minimising ambiguity

Using visuals to make reports more appealing

• Analysing and selecting different types of visuals
• Principles for designing visuals
• Writing descriptions of visuals

Writing effective report conclusions

• Guidelines for conclusions
• Drafting unbiased conclusions
• The language of conclusions

Writing persuasive report recommendations

• Structuring your recommendations
• Writing suggestions, recommendations and instructions
• Ending the report with impact

Writing executive summaries

• Selecting key points for executive summaries
• Structuring your summary
• Using hooks

Reports that Work mini-clinic

• Editing and reviewing your reports
• Evaluating your performance
• Setting report-writing goals
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