Understanding the Process of Writing Informational Reports
Printed Page 446-447
Understanding the Process of Writing Informational Reports
Writing informational reports involves the same writing process used in most other kinds of technical communication. The Focus on Process box below outlines this process.
For more about analyzing an audience from another culture, see Ch. 5.
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. If your readers expect a formal style, you will want to select a formal application (such as a report) rather than a memo. And consider adjusting your writing style, perhaps by adding parenthetical definitions and graphics or by using shorter sentences or more headings, to help readers whose first language is not English.
FOCUS ON PROCESS
In writing informational reports, pay special attention to these steps in the writing process.
| PLANNING | In some cases, determining your audience and to whom to address the report is difficult. Choosing the appropriate format for your report can also be difficult. Consider whether your organization has a preferred format for reports and whether your report will be read by readers from other cultures who might expect a formal style and application. See Chapter 5 for more about analyzing your audience. | |
| DRAFTING | Some informational reports are drafted on site. For instance, an engineer might use a tablet computer to “draft” a report as she walks around a site. For routine reports, you can sometimes use sections of previous reports or boilerplate. In a status report, for instance, you can copy the description of your current project from the previous report and then update it as necessary. See Chapter 2, for more about boilerplate. | |
| REVISING |  |
Informal does not mean careless. Revise, edit, and proofread. Even informal reports should be free of errors. |
| EDITING | ||
| PROOFREADING |