Staff Report to a Board (Tyler)

Reports are the most common types of documents that we are required to create, writing about what we do at work most of the time. There are many different kinds of reports; each report has a different structure, depending on its purpose, audience and discipline. For example, in economics and business, you may have to write a financial report on a given financial situation. In chemical engineering, you may be required to write a technical report. But whatever the topic, the purpose is to provide factual information: telling someone the facts about something.

For many of us in public human services, writing a board report is often the hardest of all types of writing, because in these reports we are not allowed or required to be persuasive, critical and analytical or to effect change. Most of us were trained to write with such aims; when suddenly we are asked to write plainly in a reporting style--merely to inform, we often lose our way.

To make matters worse, board reports are expected to be crisp, fast reading, devoid of all the usual details, adornments and secondary- and third-tier information that we are used to adding whenever we write. This straight-laced, crisp style makes it even harder for us.

The challenge in writing a report is in the way in which we analyze the information and then organize it in a logical way to present to our reader. Often amateur writing is killed by a gaggle of secondary detail, an emphasis on how something is announced rather than what is said, and an entanglement in the chronology of an event. Imagine wading through seaweed. If you follow the tips below, you may be able to craft a crisp, fast-reading, informative report that pleases your boss and the board of directors.

Things to remember:

1. Simplicity, clarity and conciseness

2. There are three types of language: pompous, pedantic and plain. Stick with plain

3. Good grammar (e.g., "between you and me," not "between you and I")

4. Good spelling (e.g., misspelling, not mispelling)

5. Economy of words. If you can reduce a sentence to a clause without losing the context, do it. If you can reduce a clause to a phrase, do it. If you can reduce a phrase into one word, do it

6. Steer clear of fad words, cliches and overused words that have been drained of all blood (delete "strategic," "strategically" whenever you see it.)

7. Trim little qualifiers

8. Show, don't tell. And don't overstate; it comes across like advertising copy

9. Use active verbs. Avoid adjectives and adverbs

10. Eliminate archaic phrases

11. Avoid exclamation marks, dashes, quote marks, italics, boldface types, underlines and anything that you think would draw the reader's attention. They are amateurish, and serve as a distraction

The following might help us craft a clear report structure:

1. Start with a short, one-paragraph summary

2. Group similar activities under headings

3. Differentiate between categories (major meetings, preview)

4. Whenever possible, use bullet points rather than huge paragraphs

5. Try to limit to three to four sentences per item

6. If different staffers write your items, edit, shorten and standardize their versions before you submit

The following might help you garner an appreciative note from the board:

1. Focus on accomplishments, not activities. What was achieved, not how it was done

2. Say who resigned, who got hired, how long the person has been there. Leave everything else at the office

3. Keep your report short

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/169679298.html