FUNDAMENTALS OF

REPORT WRITING
Preparing Informative & Influential Business Report
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DEFINING REPORTS
A business report is an orderly and objective communication of factual information
that serves a business purpose.

- Prepared carefully
- Unbiased approach
- Transmitting information combination of speaking, writing & visuals.
- Event, statistics & other data

To be a classified business report, a report must help business to solve its problems
or meet its goals.
DETERMINE REPORT PROBLEM & PURPOSE
Report logically begins with need which is referred as PROBLEM.
- Requirement of information
- Information or analysis
- Findings and recommendations
By addressing the problem and fulfilling the needs the Report Purpose or Statement of
Purpose is fixed.
The Preliminary Investigation
Gather additional information beyond what you’ve given for finding out the problem.
 Study company files & database
 Talk over the problems with experts
 External sources
 Discuss with authorized person
The Need for Clear Problem And Purpose Statements
Problem statement provides a clear description of the situation that created the need
for your report.
Ex- Decreasing sales from last quarter.
Purpose statement will be derived from problem an organization going to address by
its considering requirements or need.
Ex- To determine the cause of decreasing sales of X company.

- Continually track the project

- Review, approve & evaluate by resource persons
- Think repeatedly
DETERMINING THE FACTORS
Once you have defined the problem and identified your purpose, you determine what factors you
need to investigate.
i. Use of subtopics in information reports
ii. Hypothesis for problems requiring solution
iii. Bases of comparison in evaluation slides
i. Use of Subtopics in Information Reports
If the problem concerns of need information, then figure out from where or what areas will help
to get this kind of information. The main effort in this case is to determine which subdivisions of
the overall topic should be covered.
To review
- Production the
- Sales & promotion operations
of company
- Financial status
Z
- Human resource
- Product development
ii. Hypothesis for Problems Requiring Solution
Hypothesis is a proposed explanation of the phenomenon. The proposed explanation
has to be proven after collecting and analyzing information. And ascertain whether the
proposed cause is responsible or not by accepting or rejecting the hypothesis.

Purpose statement: To know the level of customer satisfaction of company X

H1 : The customer service of front desk influence customer satisfaction

H2 : The quality new product line fulfilled customer requirements
H3 : Customer avail service by maintaining long queue
H4: The online service care is active and spontaneous
iii. Bases of Comparison in Evaluation Slides
When the problem concerns evaluating something, either singularly or in comparison
with other things, you should look for the bases of evaluation.

Purpose Statement: To determine where company Z will expand its area

Comparisons bases:
- Availability of skill workers
- Availability of utility
- Transportation facilities
- Near to the market
- Facility of training and development
- Availability of raw materials
GATHERING THE INFORMATION NEEDED

■ Conduct investigation by OWN

■ Formal Type research (experimental, survey) required assistance
- gather more information than you will use.
- Be resourceful
- keep accurate note
INTERPRETING THE FINDINGS
Advice for Avoiding Human Error
1. Report the facts as they are
2. Do not think that conclusions are always necessary
3. Do not interpret a lack of evidence as proof to the contrary
4. Do not compare non-comparable data
5. Do not draw illogical cause-effect conclusion
6. Be aware of unreliable and unrepresentative data
7. Do not oversimplify
8. Tailor your claims to your data
Appropriate Attitude and Practice
9. Maintain a judicial attitude
10. Consult with others
11. Test your interpretations
Statistical Tools for Data Analysis

You can’t manage when you can’t measure

Descriptive statistics (central tendency, dispersion, ratio, probability)

- Central tendency (Mean, medium, mode)
- Dispersion (ranges, variances, standard deviation)

Inferential Statistics
ORGANIZING THE REPORT INFORMATION
The nature and benefits of outline
- outline
- grouping
- order
- hierarchy
i. Conventional system
ii. Decimal system
Organization by division
iii. Division by conventional relationships
- Time division
- Place division
- Quantity division
- Division by factors

ii. From outline to table of contents

iii. Combination of multi divisional factors
WRITING THE REPORT