INFORMATIONAL

REPORTS
TIPS FOR WRITING INFORMATIONAL
REPORTS
If your informational report will be addressed to
people from other cultures, think about how your
readers will react to your choice of application and
your writing style (we will look at how to
communicate across cultures at the end of this
PowerPoint)

STEP 1: ANALYZE YOUR AUDIENCE
Consider to whom you should address the report?
Once you have identified your audience, analyze
their knowledge of the subject, their attitudes
toward it, and how they will use the info.
TIPS FOR ANALYZING YOUR AUDIENCE
Use an audience profile sheet
Determine important characteristics of your
audience. Consider these six factors:
1. The readers education (when they earned it,
formal training, which degree)
2. The readers professional experience
3. The readers job responsibility
4. The readers personal characteristics
5. The readers personal preferences
6. The readers cultural characteristics

TIPS (CONTINUED)
Why is your audience reading your document?
Primary Audience: People close to the writer who
use the document in carrying out their jobs.
Secondary Audience: People of more distance
from the writer who need to stay aware of
developments in the organization but who will not
directly act on or respond to the document.
Tertiary Audience: People even farther removed
from the writer who might take an interest in the
subject of the report.
TIPS (CONTINUED)
What are your readers attitudes and expectations?
1. Your readers attitude toward you
2. Your readers attitude toward subject
3. Your readers expectations about the document (in
terms of scope, organizational pattern, detail, etc.)
IF TRY THIS
Your reader is
neutral or positively
inclined toward
your subject
Write the document
so that it responds
to the readers
needs; make sure
that vocabulary,
level of detail,
organization, and
style are
appropriate
IF TRY THIS
Your reader is hostile to the
subject or to your approach
to it
Find out what the objections
are, and then answer them
directly. Explain why the
objections are not valid or
are less important than the
benefits
Organize the document so
that your recommendation
follows your explanation of
benefits.
Avoid describing the subject
as a dispute. Seek areas of
agreement and concede
points. Avoid trying to
persuade readers overtly.
IF TRY THIS
Your reader was
instrumental in creating
the policy or procedure
that you are arguing is
ineffective
Be especially careful if
you risk offending one
of your readers. Do not
write, The present
systemis completely
ineffective instead,
write While the present
system has worked well
for many years, new
developments in
electronic
processingmight
enable us to
improve
HOW WILL YOUR READER USE YOUR
DOCUMENT?
Consider the three factors:
1. The way your reader will read your document (will
s/he file it, skim it, read only a portion, etc.)
2. Your readers reading skill (should you be writing at
all, or would an oral presentation be better? Will
your reader understand one better?)
3. The physical environment in which your reader will
read your document
TECHNIQUES TO LEARN ABOUT YOUR
AUDIENCE
Determine what you already know about your
audience
Interview people
Read about your audience online (Check the
About Us sections of websites)
Search social media (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin,
etc.) for documents your audience has written
STEP 2: ANALYZE YOUR PURPOSE
What is your purpose? To describe what
happened? To recommend some course of
action?
Analyze your purpose just like you would any other
document.
STEP 3: RESEARCH THE SUBJECT AND
COMPILE YOUR INFO
Use both primary and secondary research
Understand the difference between academic and
workplace research. In academic research, the
goal is to find information that will help answer a
scholarly question and often involves a lot of
secondary sources (scholarly articles, books, etc.)
rather than primary research (experiments, etc.)
In the workplace, your goal is to find information to
help you answer a practical question, usually one
that involves the organization for which you work.

RESEARCH (CONT.)
What does the research process involve?
1. Analyze your audience
2. Analyze your purpose
3. Analyze your subject
4. Visualize the deliverable
5. Work out a schedule and a budget for the project
6. Determine what information will need to be part of that
deliverable
7. Determine what info you still need to acquire
8. Create questions you need to answer in your deliverable
9. Conduct secondary research
10. Conduct primary research
11. Evaluate your info
12. Do more research

RESEARCH (CONT.)
Primary Research includes:
Observations and demonstrations
Inspections
Experiments
Field Research
Interviews
Inquiries
Questionnaires/Surveys
STEP 4: CHOOSE AN APPROPRIATE
FORMAT
The most common formats are e-mails and memos
Some technical documents will require covers, title
pages, and other elements usually associated with
more-formal reports
This particular report will be an IMRAD format.
STEP 5: DRAFT THE REPORT
For routine reports, you can sometimes use sections
of previous reports.
Some are drafted on-site
STEP 6: REVISE, EDIT, AND PROOFREAD
THE REPORT
Check your grammar, spelling, design, and
mechanics
COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES
Seven Major Categories of Cultural Variables (on the surface):
1. Political-trade and legal issues (imports, laws, etc.)
2. Economic- Understanding what people can afford
3. Social-Including gender, business customs, etc.)
4. Religious-Can affect diet, attitudes toward colors, styles of
dress, holidays, and hours of business.
5. Educational-Literacy rate, learning styles, etc.
6. Technological-If selling high-tech products, must know if
readers have hardware, software, and technological
infrastructure
7. Linguistic- Language and even orientation of text (left-right
vs. right-left)
8. Understand other basic differences-US only major country
that has not adopted the metric system, Americans use
periods to separate whole numbers from decimals, and
commas to separate thousands from hundreds, etc.

COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES
(CONT.)
Six cultural variables (beneath the surface):
1. Focus on individuals vs. groups-Some value individuals more than
groups (employee identity is or is not with the company)
2. Distance between business life and private life (individualistic societies
will use more technical details, while more group oriented societies will
include personal info like the readers family and health)
3. Distance between ranks (individualistic societies tend to have smaller
distance between ranks-usually less formal communication. In cultures
with great distance between ranks, communication is formal)
4. Nature of truth-Universal vs. Relative truth (universal means right or
wrong, no exceptions-documents are comprehensive and detailed.
Relative means documents are more vague and open to
interpretation)
5. Need to spell out details-Low vs. high context cultures (Low=document
must contain all info reader will need-tend to be individualistic
societies. High=omits obvious info to not insult the reader)
6. Attitudes toward uncertainty-Some cultures are more comfortable with
less detailed written communication. Oral culture and personal
relationships are valued in these cultures.
COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES
(CONT.)
As you consider these variables, keep four points in
mind:
1. Each variable represents a spectrum of attitudes
(most cultures occupy a middle ground)
2. The six variables do not line up in a clear pattern
3. Different organizations within the same culture
can vary greatly
4. An organizations cultural attitudes are fluid, not
static
IMRAD FORMAT
Stands for Introduction, Methods, Research, And
Discussion
Used predominantly in the hard sciences, but also
used in the social and behavioral sciences.
Is also APA (American Psychological Association)
Examples of IMRAD Format:
http://www.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/RESEARCH/imrad.html


Audience Profile Sheet
Readers Name:
Readers Job Title:
Kind of Reader: Primary Secondary
Education:
Professional Experience:
Job Responsibilities:
Personal Characteristics:
Personal Preferences:
Cultural Characteristics:
Attitude Toward the Writer:
Attitude Toward the Subject:
Expectations about the Subject:
Expectations about the Document:
Reasons for Reading the Document:
Way of Reading the Document:
Skim it Study it Read a portion of it Which portion?
Modify it and submit it to another reader
Attempt to implement recommendations
Use it to perform a task or carry out a procedure
Use it to create another document
Other Explain.
Reading Skill:
Readers Physical Environment: