This is a transcript of one of the videos in the plain language training course Writing well at work. There are references to slides and visual material that are only available by viewing the video.
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Report – an answer to a question
When you’re writing a report, I think it’s really useful to think about a report as being an answer to a question. So think about a report that way. Yes, it makes a whole lot of sense, but it does mean if somebody has asked you to write a report, you do need to be clear about what the question is before you start that task.
It’s pretty useless to ask me to write a report about Koalas. Now give me a question about Koalas to address. Then I can write a report on it.
The traditional report structure is weak
Well, the traditional report structure looks something like this. Starts with the title, page, executive summary and so on. When was the first time that you saw that report structure? I’m guessing it was in a junior high school science class and it probably hasn’t changed too much since then.
There’s a couple of weaknesses with this traditional report structure. I think the first one is that it delays the reader in getting to the answer. And you look at the way people read reports like that. They’ll pick it up and look at it and say, yeah, that looks as though it’s got some really good information in it. OK, where is the answer. That’s all the way to the back – what they want to find is the results and the conclusions.
The second weakness is that it allows you, as the writer, to wander around all over the place and write stuff just because it happened, rather than because it was relevant.
A layered structure for reports
Here’s an alternative report structure using the layered approach that I’ve spoken about.
Layer one talks about the question that you are answering. The reader needs to know that and needs to perhaps be reminded of that. But then it gives the answer or the recommendations, because that’s what the reader is interested in. That’s what they need. Along with layer one, there might be some commentary about why that question was so important, and there may be some other relevant information that you found, but that’s what most readers are interested in. What’s the answer to the question?
In layer two, we answer the question, well, how do you know that that is true? And that’s where you talk about your method and results. It’s a really important section to have there because we do need to have confidence that the answer is true. But it’s of lesser interest to most readers
And the third layer might be just your raw data or something like that.
No need for an executive summary
If we write a report using this type of structure, we get to the answer very quickly and I suspect we no longer need an executive summary. I think we created this idea of an executive summary because we know that the traditional report structure doesn’t work so well.
FAQs – craft real questions
Some people like to structure documents using question and answer – the old frequently asked questions type structure.
I’d have to say I’m not a fan of that. And the reason I’m not a fan is because in those structures we so often manufacture questions. We say, gosh, if my reader asked me this question, I’ve got such a fantastic answer for them.
I’m not saying never use FAQs, but please, if you do use that type of structure, make sure that you are writing real questions that are in the user’s mind, not manufactured ones.
Also make sure that you answer the question immediately. Sometimes I see documents that are structured this way: I’ve got the question posed here and then all this stuff underneath it that the writer wanted to say, perhaps about the organisation and how well they’re doing or something like that. The answer doesn’t come till all the way down the bottom. That seems to me to be a bit deceitful. So answer the question right away.
Templates must be well designed to be useful
Ah, but you’re saying you don’t need to worry about any of this structure stuff because you’ve got a template. Well, let me say a couple of words about templates.
A good template is fantastic. A good template tells you the writer exactly where to put the information. A good template tells the reader exactly where to find the information. There is nothing wrong with templates if they are well designed.
However, sometimes we have a problem where we’ve got one template in the organisation and all types of information have to come through this one template, and sometimes there’s a mismatch between the information and the template. If you find yourself in that situation, push back, see if you can redesign that template so that it is more suitable for the information that you need to present now.
Not all of us sit in a place in the organisation where you can do that, I know. But don’t be too worried about it, because even in a template that’s not quite ideal, you can still use these ideas around structuring information. You can still organise for your reader, you can chunk information, you can layer it, and you can write point first at each part of the template. So don’t be too worried about that.
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