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Informative Articles

10 Essential Criteria For Choosing Your Target Market
(c) Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation Pty Ltd. 2005 A specific group of people you will focus on selling your selling services to is your target market. This is not to be confused with the problem you will be solving for this group. Why...
FAQs about buying Property In Spain
Welcome to the frequently asked questions about legal matters when buying property in Spain We have listed below the questions most frequently asked about legal matters by our clients. If you have any questions not listed below, please feel free to...
How To Get An Extension To File Your Business Tax Returns
Yes, the tax season is upon with the first filing date for some businesses being March 15, 2005. If you can’t imagine getting your tax returns together by that date, you need not worry. The IRS automatically gives you an extension if your file...
Secrets of Donald Trump Revealed!
If you're like most of the television-watching public, you're hooked on Season #2 of "The Apprentice" and the flamboyant entrepreneur in the "starring role." Love him or hate him, you can't deny that Donald Trump is one of the world's most...
Which Niche To Conquer?
I'm sure that you've heard about how many start up companies fail when they first begin, and the reason that most (if not all) of their failures is because they don't create a good fountain to build on. If we start right, it is easy to go right...
 
Keep Business Reports Brief

Keep Business Reports Brief
By Arthur Cooper
(c) Copyright 2004

The point of a business report is to communicate information, or an opinion, and sometimes to persuade or convince. To do this effectively the two keywords are brevity and clarity.

When you read some reports you wonder what they are trying to achieve. They are too long, too verbose, and too vague. When you get to the end you wonder what was the point of it.

Don’t say in a hundred words what you can say in ten. It does not impress in a business environment. You are not trying to win literary prizes. You are trying to transfer information from one person to another. Don’t use flowery phrases when you can spell it out with short and simple words.

Don’t use jargon when it is not universally understood. Don’t use acronyms without an explanation. Explain all specialist terms and abbreviations. Use footnotes or an appendix if this helps to prevent breaking up the flow.

Don’t assume pre-existing knowledge in the reader unless you are certain of it. Don’t assume that he hold the same initial opinions as


you if your report builds upon them. If everything you say flows logically from an initial assumption, you need to establish the truth of that first.

Split up your document into easily read paragraphs. Get to the point early. Then back up what you have said with details if required – not the other way round. Some people will read the first paragraph (or the ‘executive summary’) and go no further, unless you have captured their interest immediately.

So remember these simple rules:

Make sure you are clear about your report’s purpose
Keep it brief
Keep it simple
Keep it clear
Don’t assume

And remember these obstacles to clarity:

Long winded, flowery, language
Obscure vocabulary
Unexplained acronyms and abbreviations
Unexplained specialist terms
Densely packed text
Unsupported assumptions

About the Author

Arthur Cooper is a business consultant, writer and publisher.
For more of his original articles go to:
http://www.arthurcooper.com/
For business articles ebooks and courses, go to:
http://www.barrel-publishing.com/

 

Language Tools
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Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL ...
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iLoveLanguages - Your Guide to Languages on the Web
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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.
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The Klingon Language Institute
Nonprofit organization offers language tutorials, related merchandise, mailing list and membership information.
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MARC Code List for Languages
MARC Code List for Languages prepared by the Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office.
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Python Programming Language -- Official Website
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English language courses online: e-learning, learn English online, ... English language learning events,news, conferences, workshops and seminars ...
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Parlo - Welcome to Parlo - learn to speak a new language.
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PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
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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
 
 

 
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