Post on 25-Dec-2015
Reports
Need to develop a final report for your client (supplements your presentation and identifies key findings and presents persuasive reasons for adopting them)– Dec 4 (M)
Reports Vary by Formality
• Most Formal• Letter of Transmittal• Cover• Title Page• List of Illustrations• Abstract/ Executive Summary• Body• Notes/ References• Appendices (surveys, interviews, raw data)
Report Formality, cont.
• Medium Formality• Letter of Transmittal• Title Page• Table of Contents (optional depending on length
and number of sections)• Abstract/ Executive Summary• Body
Introduction Development Conclusions Recommendations
Report Formality, cont.
• Least Formal (just the body)• Introduction• Development• Conclusions• Recommendations
Letter of TransmittalAnother opportunity for personal contact
with the client:
• Establish a rhetoric frame for the readers’ interpretation of the report
• Remind readers of the highlights
• Thank people who helped
• Identify actions you want to result
• Make offer of continued contact and collaboration
Report = logic; L of T = ethos and pathos
Abstract/ Executive Summary
• Critical to busy decision-makers• Excellent way to frame arguments and
jog memories for the rest of us• Focus on trends and inferences• Keep it to one page
Report StructureOrganization of your report must support
persuasion
Readers want to quickly:• Locate information• Understand its relevance• Begin to use results to influence future
Writers help readers anticipate the argument by structuring information and maintaining parallelism– Important to support memory– Reduce cognitive load
Patterns of Organization
Seven basic patterns of organization:
• Comparison/ Contrast
• Problem > Solution
• Elimination of Alternatives
• General > Particular | Particular > General
• Geographical or Spatial
• Functional
• Chronological
Comparison / Contrast
Organization based on juxtaposition• Divided/ alternating• Pro/ con• Hierarchical arrangement of parts• Points of likeness, then points of difference
Often the comparison is by way of analogy
Divided vs. Alternating Pattern
In general, whatever information comes second carries more psychological weight
Use the divided pattern (AAA, BBB) when:• one alternative is clearly superior• criteria are hard to separate• reader will intuitively grasp the alternative as a
whole rather than the sum of its parts
Divided vs. Alternating Pattern, cont.
Use the alternating pattern (AB, AB, AB) when:• the superiority of one alternative rests on the
relative weight of the different criteria (arrange criteria in order of importance)
• criteria are easy to separate and contrast• you want the reader to compare and contrast the
options separate from the recommendation
Problem > Solution
Organization based on solving a conflict:• identify the problem• discuss criteria important for a decision• analyze advantages/ disadvantages of each
solution• conclude with a recommendation (occasionally
start with it)
Linkage between points is critical
Pattern can be used to describe or persuade
Elimination of Alternatives
Organization based on narrowing • discuss worst solutions first• conclude with the most favored solution
Very persuasive if you can raise all the negatives in connection with the “other” proposals
General > Particular and Particular > General
Organization based on deductive logic:• start with general fact• break it down into specific parts relevant to the
immediate situation
Opposite organization = inductive logic:• collect facts• identify trends
Each pattern ~ strong cultural preference– West = deductive; Asia = more inductive
Geographic or Spatial
Organization arranged to distribution• maps or schematics• focus on the physical arrangement
Can nest contrast or process descriptions within a spatial organizational scheme
Functional
Organization based on partition and how something works• decompose the whole• classify its parts
Group the topics according to some principle or visible characteristic • formal classification• very effective used with an illustration
Chronological
Organization related to passage of time• history - what was done in the past• process - action in the present• cause and effect - why something
happened
May be descriptive or persuasive
Conclusion and Recommendations
• Make sure your report resolves any issues identified in the introduction
• Conclusion, like the Executive Summary, should be short and to the point
• Recommendations should be clearly listed identify an action plan for the future
Rhetorical goal is to provide overwhelming evidence to support implementation
Final Project: What Do You Need to Include?
• Presentation focused on the highlights– Problems– Possible solutions
• Revised prototype will let you illustrate ways you solved some of these problems
• Report should include:– Highlights of your analysis (with more detail
than the presentation)– Illustration of your prototype– Goal = support client action
• Structure the report to help us navigate– Advance organizer– Logical structure– Headings – Tables (e.g. Problem | Effect or Problem |
Solution)
• Put less important information in appendices
If someone put the report away for 6 months, could they find enough info to act?
Illustrations
• Consider including prototype; show changes you’ve made
• Use call-outs to label your design choices
• In the text, explain how these design choices solve problems you found in your analysis
Citations• Very, very important to include sources
you consulted
• Handout on citation styles need to know 6 styles for final exam:
• Book• Chapter in book• Website• Online news source• Print journal article• Online journal article
Citations
Like resumes, important to be totally accurate:
• Order
• Capitalization
• Punctuation
• Spelling
Reference ListOnly list the sources that you quote | paraphrase
– Alphabetical by author– Chronological within author – oldest first– If there are two entries with the same date, use
alphabetical order of title– If there is no author, use the title– If there is a corporate author, use the name of the
organization– If there are multiple authors, use the order given in
the document (do not change author order) put works with multiple authors after all works by a single author
Quotes vs. Paraphrases
Quotes = exact words– Short quotes go within a sentence with
quotation marks– Long quotes generally indented | centered on
a page; may be in italics– Need to give in-text citation
Paraphrases = summary of content– Much shorter– In your own words– Only the highlights | critical points– Still need to give in-text citation
For More Information
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/apa/index.html
• http://library.acadiau.ca/guides/citations.html (includes link to APA Electronic References page)