(Issue 18: May, 2009) by
Mary Cullen I met last week with a technology company group having problems with business reports. The company vice president complained business reports were often "confusing and choppy." When he showed me some typical status reports, I instantly recognized one common problem.
Reports required input from several employees, often in different business units and work teams. Each employee wrote the section of the business report requiring his or her expertise. No one edited the business report for consistency in style and voice, or verified audience targeting and complete content.
This resulted in a Frankenstein-like report composed of strong and clear individual components, which when meshed together, created a disjointed whole. It was an information dump.
HOW TO PREVENT INFORMATION DUMP IN BUSINESS REPORTS
It is most productive for the person who is most knowledgeable about a project component to write that report segment, or else provide the data and content to the report writer. Most important: each person who contributes to this business report needs to understand who will be reading the report, and shape the content for those readers.
Once the report is fully compiled, one person needs to edit it in its entirety. When you choose the report writing editor from your project team, consider these qualifications:
- In most organizations, information flows downward fairly well. It's upward information that needs nudging. So, choose as your report writing editor the person on your project team who is a strong writer and who best understands executive needs, particularly since business reports typically move laterally and upward.
Your chosen editor should:
- Define the audience clearly. Make sure the business report is shaped for this reader, or multiple readers.
- Verify the content in the business report matches your clearly envisioned readers' needs. Verify that the all content is included. Content inclusion should be based on what your reader needs to know, not what the project team did or knows.
- Edit next for organization and sequence. Make certain information is grouped by concepts, and that information is well organized.
- Last, check for style and format.
- In one Frankenstein-like status report we examined last week, the executive summary was written in narrative form in Microsoft Word, grafted on top of the body of the report shaped in PowerPoint. Scary! The full report needs to follow the same format.
- Correct all syntax and grammar errors and eliminate wordiness and jargon.
- Format the business report so it is most easily absorbed by your reader, tiering the information from most to least importance for your reader.
Ensuring a unified voice, style and organization will prevent information dumpting and Frankenstein business reports, and ensure they correctly and clearly communicate business-critical projects and opportunities to executives.
Business Writing Grammar Error: Hunt and Correct
This paragraph contains and error. Find and correct it:
David Ambers, Technology Director, is upset reports are not communicating value to executives. Error free writing is critical, if we want executives to understand the value of our initiatives. Additionally, business reports need to be jargon-free.
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