Choosing a style and design

Reports are typically written in a formal or high style — free of contentious language that might make them sound like arguments. (define your style) To separate fact from opinion, scientific and professional reports usually avoid personal reflections as well as devices such as contractions and dialogue. Reports in newspapers, magazines, and even encyclopedias may be less formal: You might detect a person behind the prose. But the style will still strive for impartiality, signaling that the writer’s opinions are (or, at least, should be) less important than the facts reported.

Why tone down the emotional, personal, or argumentative temper of the language in reports? It’s a matter of audience. The moment readers suspect that you are twisting language to advocate an agenda or moving away from a sober presentation of facts, they will question the accuracy of your report. So review your drafts to see if a word or phrase might be sending the wrong signals to readers. Give your language the appearance of neutrality, balance, and thoughtfulness.

Present the facts cleanly. Get right to the point and answer key questions directly: Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? Organize paragraphs around topic sentences so readers know what will follow. Don’t go off on tangents. Keep the exposition controlled and focus on data. When you do, the prose will seem coolly efficient and trustworthy.

Keep out of it. Write from a neutral, third-person perspective, avoiding the pronouns I and you. When perusing a report, readers usually don’t care about the writer’s personal opinion unless that writer’s individual experiences are part of the story. But like all guidelines, this one has exceptions, and it certainly doesn’t apply across the board to other genres of writing. Increasingly, even scientific and scholarly reports in some fields allow researchers to explain themselves directly to readers — as you’ll see in a model report on page 59.

Avoid connotative language. Maintaining objectivity is not easy because language is rife with connotations — the powerful cultural associations that may surround words, enlarging their meanings and sometimes imposing value judgments. Connotations make shadowy and gloomy differ from dark; porcine and tubby, from overweight. What’s more, the connotations of individual words are not the same for every reader. One person may have no problem with a term like slums, but another person living in low-income housing may beg to differ.

Given the hotbed of protest that writing can be, don’t use loaded words when more neutral terms are available and just as accurate. Choose confident, not overweening or pompous; try corporate official rather than robber baron —unless, of course, the more colorful term fits the context. (improve your sentences)

Pay attention to elements of design. Clear and effective design is particularly important in reports. (think visually) If your paper runs more than a few pages and can be divided into coherent parts, consider inserting headings to help readers appreciate its structure or locate information they need. Documents such as term papers and lab reports may even follow patterns and templates you need to use.

Many types of factual information are best presented graphically. This is especially the case with numbers and statistics. So don’t hesitate to use charts, graphs, photos, illustrations, and also captions in your work. Software such as Microsoft Word allows you to create modest tables and simple graphics; you can generate more complex tables and graphs with software such as Excel, OmniGraffle or VectorDesigner. And remember that any visual items should be purposeful, not ornamental.

Many reports these days are, in fact, oral presentations that rely on presentation software such as PowerPoint, Keynote, or Prezi. You’ll want to learn how to use these tools effectively.