preview

Analytical Report

Decent Essays

Eng 209/WI

Writing Informational and Analytical Reports

1.0 Applying the Writing Process to Prepare Business Reports
Reports play a significant role in the careers of all business professionals. Reports fall into three basic categories: Informational reports offer data, facts, feedback, and other types of information, without analysis or recommendations. Analytical reports offer both information and analysis, and they can also include recommendations. Proposals (in our next module) offer structured persuasion for internal or external audiences. The nature of these reports varies widely, from one-page trip reports that follow a standard format to detailed business plans and proposals that can run hundreds of pages. No matter what the …show more content…

Consider several points for reports and proposals. First, for many reports and proposals, audiences have specific media requirements, and you might not have a choice. For instance, executives in many corporations now expect to review reports via their in-house intranets, sometimes in conjunction with an executive dashboard, a customized online presentation of key operating variables such as revenue, profits, quality, customer satisfaction, and project progress. Second, consider how your audience wants to provide feedback on your report or proposal. Do they prefer to write comments on a printed document or to use the commenting and markup features in a word processor? Third, will people need to search through your document frequently or update it in the future? Delivering a report as a word processor file makes both tasks far easier. Fourth, bear in mind that your choice of media also sends a message. For instance, a routine sales report dressed up in expensive multimedia will look like a waste of valuable company resources.

1.4 Organizing Your Information
The direct approach is by far the most popular and convenient for business reports; it saves time, makes the rest of the report easier to follow, and produces a more forceful report. When you

Get Access