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Next steps — costs, timing, issues to be resolved

There is no need to parade all your information unless the reader needs every detail to understand your report. Put into the body of your report only those facts that are essential to your point. Relegate charts and supporting data to an appendix.

3. State the facts fully and accurately

Newspaper reporters are trained to do this with the famous five Ws — who, what, when, where, why (or how). Not a bad discipline for a writer of reports (who is, literally, a reporter).

The major findings are that Homebrand sales for the year to date are off 28 percent, distribution is down 20 percent, and Alien’s crunchy new product is being purchased by half of all heavy users.

An effective report states all the facts, unpleasant as well as pleasant. It never inflates their validity. If you only visited ten stores in two cities, don’t refer to an “extensive store survey.”

Firsthand observations lead to better reports. Get out of the office and see for yourself what’s going on. A field trip often gives you more realistic answers than any amount of statistics. Or it can lead you to the right questions to ask. Generals go to the front to get a firsthand sense of the action, because seeing things gives them a feeling for what’s going on, against which to judge the thousands of faceless facts that pour in to their headquarters behind the lines. Field trips are also a source of ideas. Just as important, they supply the details that add the breath of life to your reports.

Never trust your memory when collecting material for a report. Write down everything you want to remember.

“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, “I shall never, never forget!”

“You will, though,” the Queen said, “if you don’t make a memorandum of it.”

—ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

4. Separate opinion from fact

Both are important; just make clear to your reader which is which. Like the little boy in a newspaper cartoon who says to his father, “I asked you for the facts of life, but what you’re giving me is opinions.”

Facts are facts, regardless of who is reporting them: “It’s twenty-four degrees and the wind is from the northwest at fifteen miles an hour.” opinions vary depending on the observer: “It’s a pleasant winter day — brisk and bracing.”

You should never leave your reader in doubt as to what is opinion and what is fact.

Opinion stated as fact Opinion stated as opinion

The information would be useful, but costs too much to obtain. We’d all like to lay our hands on that information, but none of us thinks it’s worth what it would cost.

We can’t get started by May 1. To get started by May 1, I suspect we’ll have to go heavily into overtime.

The way you deploy your facts can give weight to your opinion. Include the principal facts necessary to support your views. Face up to those that weigh against you. But don’t throw in unnecessary or irrelevant details just to show you’ve done your homework.

Facts are facts. conclusions and recommendations are always opinion.

How you choose facts, and how you marshal them, may well reflect the point of view that you’re advocating. You can, and should, interpret the facts. But your report will stand up better, especially should it come under fire, if you make a conscious effort not to lump your facts and your opinions into a single undifferentiated pile.

Readable Annual Reports

Public companies of all sizes are required to publish their annual financial results and comment upon them to their owners, the shareholders. Likewise, schools and hospitals and other nonprofit institutions, which once a year make their case to their communities and supporters. While some use this opportunity well, a large number fail to think clearly about either the audience or the message and publish a report that is more design than substance. Many of them model their style on the worst habits of bad business writing.

Full advice on annual reports is beyond our scope here, but we would like to show how they can be down-to-earth — and