|
|
|
10 Tips for Effective Email Sales Letters
1. Write Your Objective - Before you write your sales letter, write down your marketing objective. Is it to generate inquiries about your products? Is it attract subscribers to your ezine? Is it to find a joint venture partner? Having an...
Diversity in the Workplace
As you look around your office, is everyone just like you? Probably not. The demographics of the American workforce have changed dramatically over the last 50 years. In the 1950s, more than 60% of the American workforce consisted of white males....
Learn To Manage People
Learn to Manage People By Arthur Cooper (c) Copyright 2004 If you are a manager you are by definition dealing with people. You are managing them. As such, to be successful you must be able to build up a rapport with those you are managing. If...
PR That Entrepreneurs Often Overlook
If that sounds like you, here’s what you may be missing once the new enterprise is launched Public relations that really does something about the behaviors of those key outside audiences that most affect your new enterprise. PR that uses a...
Translation Services: Use a translator, a Translation Agency or Do it In-house?
Translation Services: Use a translator, a Translation Agency or Do it In-house? A challenge almost any company entering an international market will be faced with is translating its marketing materials, product and service documentation, and other...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
How to write more powerful reports
There is one key difference between reports and most other forms of business writing, and we get a hint of that in the word, “report.” Whereas with many other forms of written comms you can be a little creative and put your own slant on your words, in a report you must not. Not in theory, anyway.
In a report, you’re supposed to report – not embellish, embroider, influence, etc. Just the facts and nothing but the facts.
This does not, however, mean that reports need to be dull and boring. It does, however, mean that you can’t make the content more interesting than it really is. Impossible? No, it just takes some good organization and clear writing.
Before we go any further, there are numerous books and training courses on the market that teach you the formalities and practicalities of report writing. Some are more long-winded than others. Most of them are good.
Here in this article I can’t do what other writers do in a book, so if you need to write reports a lot, I recommend that you buy one or two of the most popular books and study them. What I’m doing here then, is to highlight the points I think are most important to help you make your reports more readable, and the information in them come across more vividly.
If you work in a larger organization, there will probably be set formats for reports, at least for the internal variety. Whether you like them or not you’re normally obliged to stick to them. However the way you roll out and write your content is still up to you.
So what are the key points to focus on?
1. Write for your reader
Don’t allow yourself to fall into “businessese” jargon and phrasing no matter how much you or other people may feel it’s more appropriate. It isn’t. Use language and tone of voice that your key readers will feel comfortable with.
If you don’t know what they feel comfortable with, find out. It’s well worth taking the trouble, because it will make the report much more enjoyable for them to read – a good reflection on you.
If your report is to be read by a wide variety of different audiences, focus your language on the most important groups. Ensure that less topic-literate readers are catered for by using discreet explanations of technical terms or perhaps a short glossary of terms as an appendix within the report.
2. Organize your information sensibly
Start by writing yourself out a list of headings which start at the beginning and finish with the conclusions of your information.
If you must include a lot of background information before you get into the “meat” of the information, section it off clearly with headings that say that it’s background (“Research Project Objectives,” “Research Methods Used To Collate Information,” “Personnel Involved In Questionnaire,” etc.) so those who know it all already can skip straight to the important stuff.
Make sure your headings “tell the story” so someone glancing through those alone will get the basic messages. (You’ll find that busy executives will thank you for doing this, especially when they have 16 other, similar reports to read in a crowded commuter train on the way into a meeting to discuss all of them.) Then fill in the details under each heading as concisely as you can.
3. Use an “executive summary” to tell it in a nutshell
Depending on the nature of your report you may be expected to include an executive summary, or at least an introduction that captures the key points of your information. The objective of this is to give the reader the key issues as quickly as possible. Write this after you’ve done the body of the report, not before. Use your list of headings as a guide.
Keep strictly to the facts – this is still part of the report, not your interpretation of it. Strip each sentence down to bare bones with minimal adjectives and adverbs. Use short words and sentences. Don’t just get to the point – start with it and stick to it.
4. If your interpretation is called for, keep it separate
If part of your remit is to comment on the report and/or its conclusions, keep this separate from the main body of information. (Blocked off in a box or under a clearly separated heading will do.)
Naturally as you’re professional you will be as objective as possible. But if you do feel strongly one way or another, ensure
that your argument is put as reasonably as possible without going on for pages and pages.
Remember, brief is beautiful, although it’s harder to write briefly (and include all the important points) than it is to produce words in abundance.
5. Don’t get carried away with illustrations
Graphs and charts are great to illustrate important issues and like the man said, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” However ensure that those you use are of a level of complexity that will be understood by the least topic-literate of your readers. There’s nothing more irritating than a graph that takes you 20 minutes to decipher.
It’s not so much a case that readers are too stupid to understand a complex graph, as it is that they don’t want to spend too much time working it out. The easier/quicker you make it for readers to understand and assimilate your information, the more successful your report.
Try, also, to keep graphs and charts physically adjacent to the text that talks about the same thing. There’s nothing more irritating for the reader if they have to keep flipping from front to back of a document. (When in doubt, think of someone reading your report on that crowded commuter train.)
6. Cut the clutter
Still on that topic, try to avoid including too many diverse elements in your report, no matter how long and involved it is.
If you do need to include appendices and various bits of background material, research statistics, etc., make sure they’re neatly labeled and contained at the back of your document.
As I suggested earlier, don’t ask readers to skip back and forth, directing them with asterisks and other reference directing symbols.
If you’re writing a medical report or paper then you’re obliged to include these when quoting references from other papers, but please keep even these to a minimum. They’re very distracting and can break your reader’s concentration.
7. Take some trouble to make it look nice
I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but people do. Like it or not. According to UK Image consultant Tessa S, when you walk into a meeting, 55% of your first impression of someone is reflected exclusively in the way you’re dressed. Documents fall into the same hole.
So how your document looks goes a long way to creating the right impression of your work, and of you.
Obviously if a report is due to go outside your organization and particularly to clients or customers, you will be careful to ensure it’s polished and clearly branded with your corporate identity and all that.
However, how an internal report looks is important, too, although your Head of Finance might have apoplexy if you bind it in expensive glossy card. Be sensible with the internal variety – neat, understated, groomed looks don’t have to cost much but they “say” a lot about the value of your report (and you.)
8. A minute on minutes
I think minute-taking is a horrible job, having done so for 6 years while on a charity fundraising committee. And being useless at handwriting (thanks to decades of computers and typewriters) never mind shorthand (was thrown out of secretarial school after 3 weeks) I struggled for months to scribble everything down to précis later, until I realized that my brain was a far more efficient filter of information.
At the end of each agenda item, I asked myself the classic reporter questions of “who, what, where, when, why, how and how much.” All I had to do was jot down a few words and when I got home to my trusty PC, I could expand those into realistic summaries of what went on. As much of the dialogue in meetings is either unnecessary, repetitive, or both, simply use your brain as a filter. That’s what it’s trained to do for you in your day-to-day life, so it works for meetings too.
One word of warning though; don’t wait too long before your work up your minutes. Another trick the brain does is to forget after a few hours or a day or so at most...
About the Author
Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. Read more - and check out her free biweekly business writing tips eZine, Tipz from Suze, - at her website, SuzanStMaur.com
© Suzan St Maur 2003-2005
|
|
|
|
|
| Language Tools |
| Translation of text and web pages between English and several European languages. |
| www.google.com |
|
| Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Gestures are a part of human language too. Some invented human languages have ... In human languages, the symbols are sometimes known as lexemes and the ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| English language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Estimates about second language speakers of English vary greatly between 150 million ... Distribution of first-language native English speakers by country ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL ... |
| SDL International is the world's number 1 provider of free and professional language translation services for websites and documents. |
| www.freetranslation.com |
|
| AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation |
| Select from and to languages, Chinese-simp to English, Chinese-trad to English, English to Chinese-simp, English to Chinese-trad, English to Dutch ... |
| babelfish.altavista.com |
|
| yourDictionary.com • Comprehensive and Authoritative Language Portal |
| Comprehensive index of on-line dictionaries in more than 200 different languages. Includes an index of on-line grammars, word of the day by email, ... |
| www.yourdictionary.com |
|
| iLoveLanguages - Your Guide to Languages on the Web |
| The Human-Languages Page is a comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources. The over 1900 links in the HLP database have been hand-reviewed ... |
| www.ilovelanguages.com |
|
| AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation |
| AltaVista Babel Fish provides the online text and web page language translation! ... Select from and to languages, Chinese-simp to English, Chinese-trad to ... |
| world.altavista.com |
|
| BBC - Languages - Homepage |
| Learn French, Spanish, German, Italian and other languages with the BBC. Start up with our courses or brush up with our audio magazines. |
| www.bbc.co.uk |
|
| Online Dictionaries and Translators |
| online dictionaries that assist in the conversion from one language to ... If the dictionary only translates from one language to another you will see this ... |
| www.word2word.com |
|
| The Klingon Language Institute |
| Nonprofit organization offers language tutorials, related merchandise, mailing list and membership information. |
| www.kli.org |
|
| MARC Code List for Languages |
| MARC Code List for Languages prepared by the Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office. |
| www.loc.gov |
|
| Python Programming Language -- Official Website |
| Home page for Python, an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, extensible programming language. It provides an extraordinary combination of clarity and ... |
| www.python.org |
|
| SYSTRAN Language Translation Technology |
| Machine translation products. Free online translation available (the engine used by Altavista's Web translator) - English to French, German, Italian, ... |
| www.systransoft.com |
|
| Project MUSE - Language |
| Language, the official journal for the Linguistic Society of America, ... Edited by Brian Joseph , Language serves a readership of over 7000 and has been ... |
| muse.jhu.edu |
|
| Learn a Language :: English, Spanish, German, Italian, French ... |
| English language courses online: e-learning, learn English online, ... English language learning events,news, conferences, workshops and seminars ... |
| www.edufind.com |
|
| Parlo - Welcome to Parlo - learn to speak a new language. |
| Parlo helps you learn English, French, Spanish and other languages with free online courses, music, a magazine, flash cards, chat rooms, message boards and ... |
| www.parlo.com |
|
| PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor |
| PHP is a server-side HTML embedded scripting language. It provides web developers with a full suite of tools for building dynamic websites: native APIs to ... |
| www.php.net |
|
| Ethnologue, Languages of the World |
| Home page of ethnologue.com, a searchable database of language resources. |
| www.ethnologue.com |
|
| Language Log |
| Weblog run by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman, with multiple guest linguists. |
| itre.cis.upenn.edu |
|
|