How to Write an Effective Report

Report Writing

Report writing is probably the last stage in market or business research projects. Writing a report comes after data preparation and analysis phase, to present the results to those whom these results matter. After the final report has been prepared, it is submitted to senior officials who then might consider the suggestions given in the report or not. The report writing is as important for the company as other components of the market research that includes statement of problem, solution development, research design, data collection and data preparation and interpretation.

Report can be written in different styles for the same research. That will depend on the researcher. His personality, skills, education and client for whom the research was conducted will affect the character of the report. For example, production manager needs a detailed report on the production activities in the factory so writer of the report has to use pre specified formats and provide the detailed description of the findings and suggestions.

Since there could be variations in different reports written by different researchers so the following format of the report try to broadly covers all the elements of the formal report.

Report Format:

[pic 1][pic 2]

• Title Page
• Letter of Transmittal
• Letter of Authorization
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables[pic 3]
• List of Graphs
• List of Appendices
• List of Exhibits
• Executive Summary

• Major Findings
• Conclusion
• Recommendations[pic 4]

• Problem Definition[pic 5][pic 6]

• Background
• Statement of Problem

• Approach To The Problem
• Research Design

• Type of Research Design
• Information Needs
• Data Collection from Secondary Sources[pic 7]
• Data Collection from Primary Sources
• Scaling Techniques
• Questionnaire Development and Pretesting
• Sampling Techniques
• Fieldwork

• Data Analysis

• Methodology
• Data  Analysis Plan

• Results
• Limitations
• Conclusion and Recommendations

[pic 8]

• Exhibits[pic 9][pic 10]

• Questionnaire and Forms[pic 11]
• Statistical Output
• Lists

[pic 12]

Above format try to cover all possible elements that can be included in the report. But there may be cases when some of the parts are not present in the report because those elements may not be required in the report. For example, if a researcher is using a standardised scale then there will be no questionnaire development and pretesting section in the report.

Now from next page the descriptions of the various elements of the format are given.

Elements of Report Format

Title Page:  The title page is the foremost page in the report and must contain the title of the report, details of the researcher and client who has asked the researcher to conduct the research. It should also contain the date of release and publishing institution. The information about the researcher should contain name, contact details, address, designation in the organisation and email.

Letter of Transmittal:  It is the letter that tells that researcher is delivering or submitting the report to the company or client for whom the research has been conducted. It generally contains the summary of the key points that researcher has found in the research. The researcher can also recommend steps to be taken by the company or client, or he/she can suggest the further research.

Letter of Authorization:  The client gives this letter of authorization to the researcher that authorizes him/her to conduct a research on the behalf of client. It officially gives the researcher a permission to go ahead with the research project and write down the terms and conditions in the contract.

Table of Contents:  The listing of topics that have been covered is done in Table of Contents. It generally have headings and sub-headings along with the page numbers.

Executive Summary:  This part comes in one of the prefatory pages but it is written after the entire report is completed. It contains the brief introduction to the problem, solution and the research design that has been used. Executives preferably read the executive summary first in the report.

Problem definition:  It is important for both researcher as well as client to agree on what is the problem for which the solution has to be found. The statement of problem shows the background to the problem and its importance to the company.

Approach to the Problem: It is basically devoted to the research design to be adopted in the research project. This section contains different theoretical foundations which guided the research. The literature review is done to find out the previous studies being done for the problem identified in the previous step. The conceptual model, research questions and hypothesis are identified that are influencing the research design. Hence it represents the solution to the problem.