CHAPTER 1

Planning a Reader-Friendly Report

RIGHT AND WRONG, BOSS AND BOOK

For some reason, questions of writing style and correctness bring out people'smost mule-headed private opinions. A boss who doesn't know anything aboutcalculus or linear programming would never think of overruling a subordinate onone of those subjects. But just let that same subordinate do something contraryto what the boss's ignorant sixth-grade teacher said—some asinine ruleabout not ending a sentence with a preposition or not starting one withand or because—and the boss will pounce with fangs bared.

Such a situation is much more political than it is intellectual, and the moralto be drawn from it is that if somebody is paying your salary, you should writethe way that person wants. Writing is far less often "right" or "wrong" than itis "appropriate" or "inappropriate." Obviously, if you write in a way thatirritates your boss, you're writing inappropriately.

This manual sets forth some reasonable suggestions about decent businesswriting—suggestions you might want to follow if you haven't been given anyspecific rules to govern the particular task you're doing. Everything that issaid here, however, should be considered subject to being overruled by anyspecial requirements you have been given for a particular assignment.

Just to make sure it's clear, let's say it one more time, a different way: Forthe love of mud, whatever you do, don't go wave this book in your boss's faceand shout, "See? You're wrong!" When your boss tells you one thing and the booktells you something different, do what your boss says.

WHAT BUSINESS WRITING ISN'T AND IS

Business writing isn't a different language with a separate set of words andphrases. In receipt of, as per your request, beg to acknowledge, andplease be advised are relics of the past. They aren't used anymore, orshouldn't be anyway.

Business writing also isn't dull and stereotyped. Bad writing is dull; goodwriting is interesting. These statements are true for all writing, business orany other kind. If you are interested in a subject but find the report dull,something's wrong with the way the report is written.

Business writing is just like any other writing except more efficient. Whereassome kinds of writing aim at being dreamy, witty, entertaining, spooky,outrageous, shocking, or sexy, when you're doing the kind of writing beingdescribed here you have only one aim: to persuade your reader, as efficiently aspossible, of the validity of your thesis.

Think for a minute about who your audience is, and you'll understand the reasonfor insisting on efficiency. Businesspeople are intelligent, suspicious, andbusy. So when you write for them you have to be factual, persuasive, andefficient: factual because they are too intelligent to be fooled by vaguenessand bluffing; persuasive because you have to overcome the suspicion that alwaysaccompanies money matters; and efficient because you'll lose your reader if youwaste time.

A few pages from now (page 9, to be exact) you will encounter adescription of the thesis-and-subheaded-structured-segments organization, thestandard pattern for organizing business reports. Even before you get there,however, you might do well to think for a moment about the whole reason fororganizing a business report differently from the way you organize a magazinearticle, a novel, or an advertisement. Try this explanation:

The people who assigned you the report did so because they didn't have time todo the work themselves. They asked you the questions, and now they want theanswers. The answers are, therefore, the most important things in your report,and you must organize your whole report around those answers and wave them inyour readers' faces. State the answers at the beginning; elaborate on them oneby one in the rest of the report; include only things that pertain to theseanswers; and be sure that the pertinence is always clear. Reread this paragraph.

Or, to be still more specific, don't say anything that isn't part of the answerto the question you were asked. Don't restate the problem, or announce that youhave finished researching it, or summarize the background, or spend timedefining terms, or tell about how you made your calculations or classified yourevidence. Just answer the bleeding question, starting at the very verybeginning. You may reread this paragraph too.

To put it still another way, don't say something unless you're making some pointby saying it. If, for instance, there's nothing in the company's history thathas any relevance to the problem, then in the name of good sense don't go intothe company's history. On the other hand, if the company's problems are partlytraceable to the fact that it has always been family owned, then by all means dotell the history—making sure, every moment, that the point of your tellingit is clear.

Help your reader every way you can. Be certain that the point of each paragraphis clear. After you've finished writing, go back and check each one of them tosee if you can state its point in a quick phrase and to see if each of thesephrases fits in with the thesis. Even if the report is short, use subheadingsnot merely (1) to demarcate the segments but more importantly (2) to let thereaders know what they're getting ready to read. And remember to include in yourreport only what your first paragraph promised. Never, for even a moment, letout of your sight the purpose of a business report: to convince your reader, asefficiently as possible, of the validity of your thesis. (More, as noted before,starting on page 9.)

UNDERSTANDING THE ASSIGNMENT

Before starting to answer the question, you've got to know what the question is.A sizable portion of business writing troubles can be traced to a failure toidentify the assignment correctly. For example, although asked what to do abouta problem, an incompetent report writer might waste the entire report tellinginstead how the problem occurred, which isn't the same thing at all. As aresult, the reader has to suffer through the whole tedious report without everfinding out the answer to the question. Likewise if the boss asks a supervisorto recommend for or against promotion of an employee, but the supervisor insteadspends the whole report recounting the employee's work history and never getsaround to the yes-or-no recommendation, the boss will be furious—andshould be, too, because it's a bad report.

The importance of this point can't be overstated: if you don't get theassignment right, if you don't answer the right question, then no amount of"good writing" or "extensive research" or "penetrating analysis" can salvageyour report. You're fired.

Try writing out the specific question that you think your report is supposed toanswer. That way, if you don't have a clear enough picture of the assignment,you'll quickly sense there's a problem. Be especially wary when yourinstructions contain words like "look into" or "analyze" or "see what you canfind out about," because you need to know something more specific than just thatto do a good job.

ASSESSING THE AUDIENCE

Likewise, before you start writing your report, be sure you know who you'rewriting to. Writing is, as page 3 said, less often "right" or "wrong"than it is "appropriate" or "inappropriate," and what's appropriate for onereader can be wildly off-center for another. For instance, what's exactly suitedfor a general audience of outsiders is unsuited (and boring) for insiders whoknow the technical language. Likewise, somebody who has asked you a questionwill simply be irritated if you spend half your report repeating the question;but on the other hand somebody who doesn't even know what the question was willbe lost if you don't repeat it.

In assessing your audience you should determine the answers to two questions:(1) How much can you omit because the reader already knows it? and (2) How muchtechnical knowledge does the reader have? Once you have the answers, followthese two rules: omit as much as possible, and be as technical as possible. Anyother way of writing is inefficient and runs the risk of boring—andinsulting—your readers.

Of course you need to think of more than just those two things. You have tofigure out what your readers are looking for—that is, what they are goingto be expecting when they pick up your report. If you try to be funny when theyare being serious, or if you try to be leisurely when they're in a hurry, youwill have magisterially screwed up. Think very carefully about the wholequestion. Put yourself in the position of the person your message is intendedfor, and try to imagine how you would react if you received a report like theone you have just written. Don't underestimate the importance of this part ofthe job.

DETERMINING THE CONTROLLING PURPOSE

The single most important element in achieving understandability, efficiency,clarity, and persuasiveness is control. Every sentence, every paragraph,and especially the report as a whole must be firmly controlled by a governingpurpose.

From the very first, the reader must be able to see what the purpose of thereport is. Then, in each paragraph, it must be absolutely clear to the readerwhat point is being made there. Even each individual sentence must relate insome clearly perceptible way to the ones preceding it. In this way the readerwill never have to wonder, "Why am I being told all this? When will it get tothe point?"

It should come as no shock, therefore, that formulating the purpose is the mostimportant chore facing the writer. Most business writing problems—around95 percent probably—can be traced to writers' lack of clarity about whatthey want to say. Bad writers always complain, "I know what I want to say, butwhen I sit down to write I can't say it." Baaaaaaloney. The truth is that theyjust think they know what they want to say: it's only when they start towrite that they find they haven't really got it figured out at all. If theyreally knew what they wanted to say, right down to the little details, thensaying it would be a snap.

Thus writing serves an additional purpose: besides communicating ideas toothers, it is a way for writers to make sure their ideas are clear tothemselves.

Corny Analogy. In an ordinary metal bar, the disarranged atoms pointrandomly in every direction. But when a strong magnetic field is brought to acton the bar, the atoms come into alignment so that they all point to the sameend. As a result, the bar then picks up a magnetic force of its own.

A report in which the parts are disarranged and not clearly pointing in the samedirection is lifeless and ineffectual. But when a strong controlling purposealigns the parts of the report so that they all point to the same end, the wholereport acquires a persuasive force of its own.

ORGANIZING A REPORT

Set forth in the next dozen pages of this manual is the thesis-and-subheaded-structured-segmentsorganization pattern, the standard and mostunmisunderstandable organization for use in business reports. What it does is tohave you set out the parts of your argument in a systematic way and to let yourreader know how you've done it so it will be easy to follow.

In three sentences, the "thesis-and-subheaded-structured-segments" pattern lookslike this:

* The first paragraph states the thesis in such a way that the reader can tell(1) what the rest of the report will say and (2) in what orderthe material will be presented.

* Then the rest of the report goes on to follow exactly the order set up in thefirst paragraph, with segments clearly and visibly demarcated with thesis-likesubheadings, so that the reader can tell where one part stops and the next partstarts and can tell in advance what point each upcoming section is going tomake.

* And the segments themselves are also carefully structured, so that they statethe point, explain how it is to be presented, give the supporting details, andthen summarize it.

This organizational pattern is the most basic characteristic of business reportwriting. You must use it. It not only helps the reader but clarifies andsimplifies things for the writer too. Yet some people—all the way upthrough the almostboardroom in business and the almost-Ph.D. inschool—never do learn how, and they remain "almosts" all their lives as aresult.

First, you need to be sure you recognize the difference between a thesis and atopic; then you need to know how to state the thesis in the first paragraph;next you need to know what the subheadings look like; and finally you need tounderstand how to structure a paragraph.

Here goes.

Recognizing the Difference between a Topic and a Thesis

The topic is what you're writing about; the thesis is what you say about yourtopic. The topic is the question you've been asked to find an answer to; thethesis is the answer you find. The topic is generally assigned to you by yourboss; the thesis is what you conclude after you've done all the research.

"The advisability of trying to acquire full or part ownership of the SchlergCompany" is a topic. "The Schlerg Company is not a suitable target foracquisition" is a thesis. See the difference?

Notice how much time and work elapsed between those two sentences. The topic isthe question, and the thesis is its answer. Between the question and the answerlie all the hours (or weeks, or months) of research and study.

Thus another word for thesis is answer. Another is point. Another is conclusion.Another is findings. Another is object. Another is purpose.

Now try your hand at recognizing a topic and a thesis.

Stating the Thesis in the First Paragraph

Get straight to the point. In the first few lines, you must tell bothwhat you have found out in your research and in what order youare going to present the explanation of your findings. "I recommend that we donot consider Mr. Nerf for the controller's position, because of hisundistinguished past performance, his questionable integrity, and his abrasivepersonality"—that's a good thesis sentence. The first part tellswhat (I don't recommend him), and the second part tells whatorder (my three reasons).

Writers often—very often—screw up right at this point. It istherefore most important that you learn now exactly what is and what isn'tacceptable as a thesis statement and how to go about formulating a good one.

Suppose, for example, you have been asked to look into the Schlerg Company as apossible acquisition by your company. After long hours of research, you havecome up with the following 11 pieces of information:

Schlerg's sales have declined during all but one of the past eight years.

The company's debt/equity ratio is 8:1.

Five strikes have occurred in the last six years.

Company officers have denied persistent rumors that a pension fund scandalexists.

The government has awarded back pay to three of seven women who claimeddiscrimination.

Schlerg's stock is mentioned in Forbes as overpriced.

Environmental organizations have reportedly singled out Schlerg for boycottbecause of water pollution.

The Secretary of Labor alluded sarcastically to Schlerg during a recent addressto the AFL-CIO.

The owners have charged workers with deliberately sabotaging machinery.

The state health department will investigate charges of excess radiation at twoof Schlerg's plants.

Several minority-rights groups include Schlerg on their recommended boycottlist.

Clearly the evidence shows that the company is bad news; you already know whatyour recommendation will be. The only decision you face is how to present theevidence so persuasively that your reader will agree with your point.

One possible way—the wrongest one—is simply to give the evidence asit happened to turn up in this list. Thus your report would blurt out that"Schlergis-an-undesirable-acquisition-because-of-declining-sales-poor-debt-equity-ratio-strikes-scandal-rumors-sex-discrimination-overpriced-stock-reported-environmentalists-boycott-Labor-Secretary-slur-alleged-sabotage-alleged-health-hazard-and-possible-minority-boycott." Of course that approach isthe worst you could use, because it has little persuasive force and nomemorability at all; in fact nobody (including you, right?) can remember halfthe points it made, and nobody can even come close to remembering the orderthey're in.

So instead, try grouping the points by subject. You will quickly see that a fewmajor categories stand out:

Declining sales Financial
High debt-equity ratio Financial
Strikes Labor relations
Scandal rumors Public relations
Sex discrimination cases Labor relations
Overpicked stock Financial
Environmentalist boycott Public relations
Labor Secretary slur Public relations
Sabotage charge Labor relations
Health hazard charge Public relations
Minority boycott Public relations

Now you can tell your reader that Schlerg has three undesirablequalities—poor finances, poor labor relations, and poor publicrelations—and any reader (including you, right?) can easily remember allthree points.

All that's left to do now is to put it all together in a thesis paragraph. Lookhow easy it is:

The Schlerg Company is not a desirable acquisition for us because of problems ithas been experiencing in finances, labor relations, and public relations.

Anybody reading this one opening sentence knows immediately not just what thepoint is but in what order the reasons will be presented. And it's all easy toremember, too.

Now, just to clean the air, take a look at three good ones:

The Schlerg Company is not a desirable acquisition for us because of problems ithas been experiencing in finances, labor relations, and public relations.

Or slightly expanded:

The Schlerg Company is not a desirable acquisition because of problems it hasbeen experiencing in finances, labor relations, and public relations. ThereforeI strongly urge that we forget all about any connection with Schlerg and insteadturn our attention elsewhere.

(Continues...)