The Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing

Truth 29. Good reports generate action

Do you sometimes feel buried by requests for reports? You’re not alone. With fewer and fewer face-to-face meetings taking place, and so many collaborations to manage, report writing has become a big staple of office life. It’s a basic way to keep everyone updated, and therefore needs to be treated as a major business skill. Most organizations require a constant flow of reports: progress and project reports, survey reports, budget reports, committee reports, technical reports, and more.

In general, reports follow some pretty standard patterns: They introduce the subject and explain the reason for writing them; provide “the meat” (what happened, what was learned); in some cases, explain how results were obtained; ...