Reader-Friendly Reports: A No-nonsense Guide to Effective Writing for MBAs, Consultants, and Other Professionals

DETERMINING THE CONTROLLING PURPOSE

The single most important element in achieving understandability, efficiency, clarity, and persuasiveness is control. Every sentence, every paragraph, and especially the report as a whole must be firmly controlled by a governing purpose.

From the very first, the reader must be able to see what the purpose of the report is. Then, in each paragraph, it must be absolutely clear to the reader what point is being made there. Even each individual sentence must relate in some clearly perceptible way to the ones preceding it. In this way the reader will never have to wonder, “Why am I being told all this? When will it get to the point?”

It should come as no shock, therefore, that formulating the purpose is the most ...