Technical Writing

for Success

Summaries and Abstracts

Mechanism Descriptions

8 Periodic Reports
Progress Reports
News Releases
© 2010
South-Western
Cengage Learning
 Chapter 8 Informative Reports

Write two types of summaries

and an abstract.

Create a mechanism description

Go al s with a visual.

Write a periodic report, a

progress report, and a news
release.

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 Chapter 8
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Summaries and Abstracts
Informative Reports

A summary is a condensed version of a

document.
Abstracts are more condensed, often reducing
documents to a brief thesis.
Some summaries and abstracts stand alone;
others are placed at the beginning of a document.
Summaries and abstracts save time by
condensing the highlights before the audience
reads the details.
Readers who need the big picture may read only
the summary or abstract.

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 Chapter 8
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How Much Detail?
Informative Reports

Decide whether your audience needs a few

details or only main ideas.
For long summaries, include only details that
are especially important.
For short summaries, leave out details.
For abstracts, include only the most important
general ideas.
Be concise. Reduce the original document to
the main idea in a few sentences.

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 Chapter 8
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Mechanism Descriptions
Informative Reports

A mechanism description describes the main

parts of a device or machine.
It tells the purpose of the mechanism, the overall
design, what the parts are, what they look like,
and what their function is.
Mechanism descriptions are used in catalogs,
instruction manuals, and employee training.

Examples of mechanism descriptions include:

 Car parts  Engines
 Furniture  LED light bulbs
 Kitchen tools  Blu-ray players

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 Chapter 8
16 Periodic Reports
Informative Reports

A periodic report reviews what an entire

organization or work group has done in a
specified time period.

Organizations use periodic reports to tell clients,

shareholders, vendors, donors, and employees
about accomplishments and challenges.

The President’s State of the Union address is a

periodic report.

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 Chapter 8
16 Writing a Periodic Report
Informative Reports

The introduction is a brief overview of the

report’s highlights. Mention each major idea and
state the time period of the report.
The body has headings for each activity category
or type of work.
• Describe accomplishments from most to least
important.
• Use numbered lists or columns.

Highlight the key ideas in the conclusion.

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 Chapter 8
16 Progress Reports
Informative Reports

A progress report describes what has been

done during a specified time on one
particular project, such as work on the
construction of a building.

A progress report covers achievements in the

current reporting period and plans for the
upcoming reporting period.

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 Chapter 8
16 Writing a Progress Report
Informative Reports

The outline below is a typical plan used for

progress reports:
• Introduction—report topic, purpose, and
reporting period
• Work Completed—what has been done
• Work Scheduled—what needs to be done
• Problems/Projections—what has gone
wrong and when the work will be finished

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 Chapter 8
16 News Releases
Informative Reports

News releases, also called press releases,

are reports of events or facts prepared for the
media.

The goal of a news release is to inform the

public.

One type of press release is called a public

service announcement, or PSA.

PSAs present beneficial facts to the public.

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 Chapter 8
16 News Releases
Informative Reports

Public relations is the communication

between a company and the outside world.

In large organizations, public relations

departments write news releases to help the
company maintain a positive image.

In smaller organizations without public

relations departments, anyone may be
assigned to write a news release.

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 Chapter 8
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Writing a News Release
Informative Reports

When composing news releases, you

should:
• Analyze your audience.
• Answer the classic five reporter’s
questions: Who? What? When?
Where? Why?
• Plan for accuracy: facts, numbers and
statistics, names, locations, quotations.
• Be complete: tell the “whole truth.”
• Be credible. Do not exaggerate or use
information that cannot be verified.
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 Chapter 8
16
Writing a News Release
Informative Reports

When composing news releases, you

should:
• Take a news writer’s approach to the
story.
• Catch readers’ attention with an
interesting headline that uses an active
verb.
• Open with a catchy word or idea that
hooks the reader’s attention.
• Order ideas from most to least important.

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 Chapter 8
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Formatting a News Release
Informative Reports

Format the news release so that:

• Information the reader needs stands out.
• Editors can write and make changes easily.
• Typesetters and news anchors can easily
follow the document.

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 Chapter 8
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Formatting a News Release
Informative Reports

News releases have three units:

• Top of the page (introductory information
such as the date it can be released and a
suggested headline).
• The body or story. Start with a dateline to
identify the location of the story, such as
LOUISVILLE, KY.
• Pagination cues, such as -more- centered
at the bottom of a page that is not the last
page and -30- or #### centered after the
last line.

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Informative Reports
8
16
FYI

No one knows for certain why journalists use

-30- to end news releases and articles.

One theory is that XXX was used in the Civil

War to mark the end of a telegraphed
transmission.
• XXX is the Roman numeral for 30.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-30-

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