Business Communication 1

Dr. Emilie W. Gould

November 23, 2006

REPORTS

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)

Exercises