Look at your title page. Does it include the name of the report in all caps? Does it include the either the subject/topic or the purpose of the report as a title? Does it include your full name, SMC’s name spelled out, the date of your report
Look at your introduction. Does it give the background information to explain the problem or show the need for the report? Does it discuss the significance of the report? Does it clarify the boundaries and preview the structure of the report? Remember that an introduction should help orient the reader to the report. All that information can be fitted into separate paragraphs as needed; make sure to keep your paragraphs brief, about four to six sentences. Very long paragraphs in business writing defies the purpose of business communication which should be clear and concise (to the point), therefore, brief. While writing the title INTRODUCTION is not required, it is recommended to make things clear.
Look at the body of your report. Make sure this part of the report is NOT called the “body.” Is this section arranged logically with primary and secondary research presented? Did you use the proper APA/MLA in-text citations (see mla.org)? Is it clear where the source information begins and ends? Did you use quotation marks for direct quotes? Did you include topic sentences, transitions, and “roadmaps”? How could you revise headings or rearrange information so it is easy to understand the results of the research?
Use headings, sub headings appropriately to guide the reader to the next topic. Functional headings are one word headings such as Conclusion or Recommendation; Talking headings are a few words describing what is to follow below the heading such as Results of Survey. Headings can be either underlined, or bolded, or both. BUSINESS REPORTS MUST HAVE HEADINGS AND SUBHEADINGS; otherwise, it’s just an article or a long essay.
Visuals: a) Each table or graph/chart should be on a page by itself. b) Explain the visual on the page before, not after. c) Write proper titles, legends, and units of measurements for your visuals. Name X and Y axes properly. d) Write the source of your data at bottom of your visual; example: “Survey Conducted through Survey Monkey on November 20, 2020”.
The word “percentage” should be written out in text, such as “…five percent disliked the movie”, but use the symbol % for calculations or column of numbers.
Use transitional expressions when necessary to have a smooth flow in your writing.
Use informal language for the opening and the closing (pronouns and contractions such a we’ll, etc.), but formal language for the middle part of your report which will be mostly facts.
Look at the Conclusions section. Did you apply the conclusions to the original problem or need? Did you draw conclusions based on the primary and secondary research you presented in the report? Did you tell what the findings mean or did you just make generalizations?
Look at the Recommendations section. Did you offer parallel recommendations that are specifically applicable to the organization and the problem or need? Did you begin each recommendation with an action word?
Look at your WORK CITED or the REFERENCES page. Was the proper APA/MLA documentation style used? Is the list arranged in alphabetical order? Are the book and journal titles underlined or put in italics? Were initials and last names used? Was a period used after every entry? Review the source below for proper formatting.
MLA Format for Work Cited Page
Part I
Think of the company you are currently working for, or did work for recently (before the pandemic), or want to work for in the future. Think about an issue (a problem) that has occurred repeatedly in this company. Typical company issues have been the following:
Illegal or unethical behavior in the workplace such as stealing (white collar crime: from embezzling to cheating on time cards, ripping off company items, etc.). Others include deceptive sales practices; mishandling confidential information; abuse such as sexual harassment, discrimination, racist comments and innuendos, etc., many times rising out of fears such as homophobia (fear of gay people), xenophobia (fear of foreigners), gynophobia (fear of women), etc.
How to protect the Earth by staying green: how companies are polluting our planet, not contributing to the Earth’s welfare, destroying nature, polluting and destroying the ecosystem; not recycling, using dangerous chemicals in foods (GMOs/Monsanto Corporation), various pesticides and genetically modified seeds destroying the soil which will soon turn soil into deserts–(research who and what entity owns the largest acreage of farmland in the U.S. and in the world and at what cost to our planet), polluting the air with factory-smoke, polluting the oceans with sewage and oil spills (British Petroleum and the Gulf area), etc.
The best means of hiring and testing new employees: Not hiring the right people for the job; no proper screening done such as proper background checks, drug testing, psychological testing, etc.
Importance of personalized customer service to increase business (good for retail businesses); how to provide better service to retain existing customers, attract new ones and build goodwill (favorable reputation).
Violence in the workplace: random acts of violence with the downturn of the U.S. and world economies. These violent acts range from assault and battery of individuals to sudden mass slaughter of groups of workers by a deranged and disgruntled former employee. As perhaps the Director of the Human Resources Department in your company, suggest through a clearly written analytical business report how your company could prepare and forecast such events if they ever occur. What precautionary measures need to be taken? What signals should alert management about such possibility?
In each of the cases, you, as a top level manager or as an outside consultant, have been asked to analyze the issue/problem and make recommendations on how things can be improved. In short, the company has a major problem, find the solution.
SELECT ONE OF THE TOPICS FROM THE LIST ABOVE
Part II
Plan your work with the who, what, why, how, where, of business writing which is similar to writing in journalism.
TITLE PAGE Begin with a proper Title page. Do Not number this page as it’s just a cover for the report. Write your full name, a title for your report, date written with the proper format such as April 10, 2022, DO NOT NUMBER THE TITLE PAGE.
OPENING PARAGRAPH, very briefly (in three short sentences), introduce your report by clearly stating the purpose of your report.
Good opening:
Our company has been facing ….. (you complete the thought with the appropriate issue that you’re covering in this report).
This report covers a full analysis of the issues …., etc.
In the next one or two paragraphs talk about the following:
How did you put together this report?
What sources did you use to gather information for secondary and primary research?
Report should begin with secondary research (work done by others, recorded information, what’s already there, etc.) Make sure to paraphrase (put in your own words) and not just copy and paste as that would be plagiarism, and TurnItIn would report the similarity.
Secondary sources are Internet sites, articles, blogs, YouTube videos, TedTalk lectures, any work done by others. This is where you should begin your research, then do your own research which is called primary research. When writing your report, after the introduction, begin with your secondary research results to provide a background to the issue being discussed. This is work done by other people, historical data, etc.
Primary sources involve your direct participation in getting the information such as through either interviews, surveys, observations, or experiments. Primary research involves you collecting your own data/facts to substantiate your conclusions and recommendations. This is done mainly through either surveys or interviews.
For your primary research you can use Survey Monkey or interview your manager/HR person at work, or a company through Zoom/Skype/Phone, etc.–but not any family member or friends. You need to get actual facts on your own for this part; it should not come from the Internet or any other secondary source.
NOTE: YOUR REPORT MUST CONTAIN PRIMARY RESEARCH INFORMATION (work that you conducted and collected data by yourself), AS IT’S THE BASIS OF AN ANALYTICAL REPORT. If no primary research is done, your work for this major assignment will be considered an essay, an article, or a high school term paper–not fulfilling the requirements of this college course; thus the grade will be greatly affected.
Use a HEADING as appropriate to talk about what you found from your research. Reports must have headings to group similar things together, for easy reading and comprehension, and clarity. All headings must have double spaces above and below them just as in between paragraphs.
A typical functional heading is a one-word heading, for a secondary research data could be simply: FINDINGS
A talking heading explains things using three or more words such as: Results of the Secondary Research; or of primary research as: Results of Surveys Conducted at Santa Monica College, etc.
Each paragraph should be about four to six sentences only.
Insert at least one visual either taken from a secondary source such as the Internet, or from one that you created after doing your own research/primary research. Not including at least one visual (graph/chart/table, etc.) in the report will greatly affect the grade.
A visual in business reports is essential as it gives credibility to the report, is easier to understand, and acts as a point of reference to the report. The different ways to show a visual in business reports are the following:
Pie chart which measures a proportion to the whole (think of a pizza pie) where each of the wedges of the pie chart represents a portion of that chart. Rules to follow when doing pie charts are the following:
Start each wedge from the 12 o’clock position and go clockwise.
Begin with largest wedge first and the smallest wedge last.
Either insert the actual percentage inside the wedge or write outside the wedge and write this in numbers, such as 20%.
Bar chart is also called a Comparison chart. Use bars to represent different results. The X axis (the horizontal line) is shown with names of the bars (A/B/C, etc.) while the Y axis (the vertical line) is shown in numbers ($, units, etc.).
Line chart also called a Progression chart tells you what has been happening to something (profit, demand, productivity, etc.) over time. The typical line chart is the Supply and Demand chart used in Economics 101.
Table is used when specific numbers need to be shown using rows and columns. This is typically used in sales meetings to show how a sales person is doing selling different types of products like cars, perhaps.
Students typically use the bar chart for their surveys in these reports.
Rules on how to show the Visual:
One visual/chart per page, full length covering the whole page.
DO NOT INCLUDE ANY WRITING ON THE VISUAL PAGE except information about the visual as shown below.
Proper title above the visual.
If a bar or a line chart is used then the X and Y axes must be properly labeled.
If a table is used, each row and column must be properly labeled.
A source information must be given below the chart. If it’s one you created then write the place and the date you gathered the information as in a survey, an observation, or an experiment. If it’s a visual copied from the Internet or any other external sources, write the site or source information using MLA.org format. Don’t put the copy link which is several lines long, use only the url.
Example of listing a source below the chart:
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT?p=MSFT&.tsrc=fin-srch (Links to an external site.)
OR if you know how to use hyperlink, please do that for your urls.
Describe your visual on the page that is before the chart so that it makes sense.
After you have talked about and shown your findings from your research, write your conclusions.
Rules on how to write the Conclusion(s):
Use nouns such as investigation, consideration, observation, calculation, etc. These nouns are taken from verbs.
Try to limit your list of conclusion to five or six maximum, and write just one or two brief sentences—not whole paragraphs. This is the real challenge of business writing, being able to say what you mean in clear and concise way using as few words as possible.
Next, write your Recommendations, the most important part of an analytical business report.
Rules on how to write the Recommendation(s):
Begin with verbs as in giving commands such as: “Hire more people ….”, or, “Hold weekly meetings…”, etc. Each of your listed item should begin with a verb, a commanding word as you’re making your recommendation to the company.
Write brief sentences per item; try not to make your sentence so long that it wraps around to the next line.
Limit your recommendations to five or six items. If you have more things to recommend, try to combine a few of them together and write two brief sentences if necessary.
Make sure your recommendations are feasible (possible).
Depending on the length of your Conclusions and Recommendations, you can either combine them on one page or write them on separate pages for a greater impact. DO NOT HAVE ANY OTHER WRITING ON THE CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION PAGES.
The last thing on the report itself should be your final statement on the project and a forward-looking sentence. Make sure to mention that you are available to answer any questions, etc., and write this in a very positive and polite way.
Complete the report with a new page entitled Work Cited. List all your secondary research sources here following the proper MLA.org format. This is critical as not giving proper information here could cost the writer and the company a lawsuit sometimes. Information that you give here must be verifiable if needed. This section protects the writer from liability.
Appendices If you want to add images, maps, a list of interview or survey questions that you asked during your primary research, etc., then they will go here—after the report–after the Work Cited page. These pages are called Appendices and are titled as Appendix I, Appendix II, etc., and are page numbered separately from the report, typically as -i-, -ii-, etc. If you put any extra things such as mentioned above in this paragraph within your report, and not follow the guidelines as given here, your grade will be lowered considerably.
Use MLA Formatting (Links to an external site.) for proper page numbering format.
Use the important link below as reference to all your business writing, especially your business report.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_engineering/handbook_on_report_formats/reports_and_memos.html
