Formal report assignment About cultureal negotiation

Unit 10

Writing Proposals and Reports

Objectives: Through this Unit’s discussion and readings, you should be familiar with the following topics:

• General rhetorical considerations for writing formal reports • The difference between causation and correlation • Patterns of organization common in formal reports • Stylistic expectations in formal reports • The individual components of a formal report

Read: Locker/Findlay, Chapters 10 and 11; Assignment Case: “Cross-

Cultural Negotiation: Americans Negotiating a Contract in China” Overview of Unit 10 Assignment #3, for which you will compose and submit a ‘formal report’, is intended to summarize all of your work in this course. Accordingly, the purpose of this unit is to set out and alert you to some of the basic principles and considerations discussed in more detail in Locker/Findlay, Chapters 10 and 11. As our text points out, there are various ways of defining different kinds of reports, ranging from proposals, to progress or ‘interim’ reports, to long, complex ‘formal reports’. Reports can also be set- up informally (that is, in the form of a letter, a memorandum, even an email) or formally. In the exercise that constitutes Assignment #3, you will practice writing a formal report.

Another way of looking at reports is to consider what they do. Some reports propose a course of action to be undertaken in response to a problem; some report on the progress of a project, and so forth. Yet another way of categorizing reports is to look at the levels of analysis within them. Some reports are purely informative; some convey not only information but also the writer’s analysis of that information; and some present the results of information, research, analysis, and present recommendations based on that discussion. The latter (Locker/Findlay’s ‘third level’ report, “information plus analysis plus recommendations”) is the level at which you will be writing Assignment #4.

Consequently, in these notes we’ll first look at some general rhetorical considerations, and then proceed to look at each of the components required for your ‘formal report’ exercise in a little more detail. Reports: General Rhetorical Considerations In one sense, we’ve covered this ground throughout the course! The principles of ‘good writing’ in general apply to reports as to any other document. Nevertheless, we can say by way of emphasis that when drafting, revising, and putting this document into final form, you need to pay particular attention to both coherence and logic and to ‘style’.

‘Logic’ is particularly relevant here (as in our ‘Rocky Mountain Fitness’ example) because you are making recommendations based on ‘research’. In doing so, you need to be careful to ensure that your conclusions and recommendations follow logically from the data you draw from your case and through your external research. In particular, be sure to keep clear the distinction between causation (suggesting that ‘x’ has produced/caused ‘y’) and correlation (two things happen at the same time, with no necessary causal relationship), and also be sure that your thesis, and the reasons with which you argue for that thesis, are adequately supported by evidence. Logic is, of course, part of ‘coherence’ – a quality you always want to have in your writing, and especially in this assignment. Here, we are thinking mainly of the ‘body’ of the report. You will want to find one or more organizational patterns which you can clearly impose on your material, in order to most effectively lead your reader to agree with your thesis and conclusions, and therefore accept your recommendations. There are, of course, many such patterns. Thinking back to our first few Units, you will notice that the following ‘patterns’ have a very long history! They are, in fact, simply modern iterations of the ‘topics’ of classical rhetorical theory: ways of describing how, as senders and receivers of messages, we habitually tend to organize our material. Here are a few commonly used in formal reports (see Locker/Findlay, pages 249 – 251); notice that these are not mutually exclusive:

§ Comparison/Contrast: a general pattern which can be adapted to almost anything; especially useful when reviewing alternative approaches, or criteria. For example, you can use a ‘pro and con’ (for and against) pattern to divide up alternative solutions to a problem and analyze the arguments for/against each alternative.

§ Problem/Solution: probably the most common pattern. Identify and define (another pattern: ‘Definition’) the problem; explain its causes; analyze the advantages/disadvantages of possible solutions.

§ Elimination of Alternatives: identify the problem, explain its causes,

and discuss solutions beginning with the one you least favour, and ending with the one you would recommend.

§ General-to-Particular: begin by defining the problem generally and as it

has so far had an affect on your organization, then shift to a discussion which extrapolates to future implications.

In addition, Locker/Findlay also mention three more ‘topics’ – organizational

patterns which you can impose on your material in order more effectively to convey information and your argument to your reader:

§ Geographical/Spatial Patterns: discuss problems/solutions in units defined by spatial distribution

§ Functional: discuss problems/solutions in units defined by function

§ Chronological: discuss events (including problems/solutions) in the chronological order in which they have and/or will happen.

Turning now to stylistic considerations, we can say that in general formal reports

follow the same stylistic principles as do other documents; there are, however, three ‘conventions’ which should be observed throughout your report:

§ in reports the style is more uniformly ‘formal’; contracted forms, or slang expressions, for example, are most definitely out of place

§ reports, and especially formal reports, avoid direct address (that is, addressing the reader as ‘you’)

§ reports should be ‘self-explanatory’. In other words, you must include all definitions, documents, etc. needed by the reader to understand why a recommendation is made and the recommendation itself.

§ if, as you probably will, you use headings (and possibly sub-headings)

remember that they should perform a function (i.e. to indicate the topic of discussion in the relevant section) and should be in parallel grammatical form. More specifically, all headings should have the same form, and all sub- headings under each heading should also have the same grammatical form.

The Components of a Formal Report In this section, we’ll look more closely at the structure of each component part of your formal report. One thing you will notice here is that there appears to be a great deal of redundancy built-in to these conventions. You might wonder why the Transmittal appears to be very similar in content to the Executive Summary, and so forth. That is deliberate! This feature of formal reports derives in part from audience analysis. Typically it is the case that even complex formal reports will not be read in their entirety. This flows simply from the rhetorical context in which they are produced and ‘consumed.’ Take Assignment 3 as an example: Pyle might not read the body of your report – he might not have time! What he will do is read the Executive Summary, and perhaps glance at your Conclusions, Recommendations, and Transmittal. He would almost certainly make his decisions based on those bits of what you’ve produced. However, the ‘body’ of the report is still crucial because of course it demonstrates how and why those conclusions and recommendations were arrived at, and provides the support for them. Also, there is the question of secondary and other audiences for your report. It could be read years later, for example, by a corporate historian, or by a lawyer involved in litigation in issues which directly or indirectly involve the subject-matter of your report. Or, it might be read immediately by one or more other people within the organization.

The following notes are keyed to Locker/Findlay, pages 278 – 290, including Figure 11.8. TITLE Leaving aside the cover, the first item to appear will be the Title Page. This should have:

§ Title. The title you write should contain your main recommendation(s) unless a) you believe your reader may resist the recommendation, b) putting in the main recommendations would make the title too long, or c) you don’t offer a recommendation. If your title does not contain a recommendation, use it to indicate the problem the report analyzes/tries to solve.

§ name of the person for whom the report was prepared § name of the person who prepared it (your name) § ‘release date’ (e.g. date of submission)

MEMORANDUM (OR LETTER) OF TRANSMITTAL Your transmittal will be in memorandum form, since either assignment option requires an ‘internal’ transmittal. The transmittal is just what the name suggests – a memo or letter which ‘covers’ the report being released. Your transmittal should do the following:

§ Release the report by telling when and by whom it was authorized and its purpose

§ Summarize your conclusions and recommendations. If the recommendations will be accepted and/or meet little resistance, state them early; if they may be resisted, summarize your findings and conclusions first then state your recommendation

§ Mention/highlight any points of special interest (to the reader) in your report; mention any minor problems and how you overcame them; thank anyone who helped you. This section is optional, but has obvious benefits re. your credibility and re. your ‘goodwill’ within your organization

§ Point out any further research which might be necessary; you might, for example, make your recommendations contingent upon looking further into an area outside your immediate scope (frame of reference)

§ Thank the reader for the opportunity to do the work, and offer to answer questions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Your Table of Contents, given the length of this assignment (i.e. it is less than 25 pages long) should index all of your main headings. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (if applicable)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (see Locker/Findlay pages 283 -- 285) (NOTE: YOU WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY WANT TO DRAFT THE ‘EXECUTIVE SUMMARY’ AND ‘TRANSMITTAL’ LAST, THAT IS AFTER YOU ARE SATISFIED THAT THE BODY OF YOUR REPORT, INCLUDING ITS CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS, IS IN MORE OR LESS ITS FINAL FORM.) You will be writing this as a ‘summary or informative abstract’. Above all, an abstract of any kind must be accurate, easy to read, concise, and clear. We can briefly distinguish the three main kinds.

§ Summary or Informative Abstracts (“informative executive summary”) present to the reader the logical ‘core’ of the report, i.e. its thesis/recommendation and the proof for that thesis/recommendation

§ Descriptive Abstracts indicate what topics the report covers and how deeply it goes into each topic; they do not summarize what the report says about each topic

§ Mixed Abstracts, as the name suggests, have some characteristics of each of the other two main forms; they may both list the topics of discussion and summarize some of the main points about some of the topics

BODY OF THE REPORT This is conventionally divided into sections, roughly as follows. INTRODUCTION The introduction to the report itself must contain a Purpose and Scope section, and may include other sections, as follows.

§ Purpose: the purpose statement identifies the problem the report addresses, the research/technical inquiries it makes, and the report’s rhetorical purpose (to explain, to recommend a solution, etc.)

§ Scope: the statement of scope identifies how broad an area the report surveys (e.g. it might be obvious that there are at least five problem areas your assignment could and should deal with, but you’ve time/length for only three; ‘limit’ the scope of your report)

§ Limitations: you might be aware that there are problems, variables, factors which might ‘limit’ the validity of your conclusions and/or recommendations. If so, articulate those limitations. Important: keep the concepts of ‘scope’ and ‘limitations’ clearly distinct.

§ Assumptions: if your proof of your final point(s) depends on any statements the truth of which you assume, instead of demonstrating through evidence, point those assumptions out

§ Methods: explanation (if needed) as to how you obtained data § Criteria: factors or standards and their relative weight in your decision § Definitions: of terms your reader(s) may not know or be expected to know

BACKGROUND (OR HISTORY) SECTION Formal reports usually contain a section that discusses the background of the relevant situation, or even a history of the specific problem(s) the report addresses. There are two main reasons for doing this: first, present readers (both primary and secondary) may need this context to fully understand your discussion, and second, formal reports are often ‘filed’ and become part of an organization’s history. They may be consulted later by other readers looking for information on either the specific issues or on the organization’s history, and those readers may not have the necessary background knowledge. This, in turn, follows the general principle that a report should be self- explanatory and able to ‘stand on its own’. MAIN DISCUSSION The main ‘body’ of your discussion attempts to do the following things:

§ present and interpret data in words and (if applicable and helpful) visuals § analyze the ‘causes’ of the problem being addressed, and evaluate potential

solutions § use ‘informative/descriptive’ headings for emphasis, to help the reader focus

on what is important Your purpose, of course, is to present information that will support, ultimately, your recommendations. Note again that in actual organizational contexts, many readers skip the body of the discussion entirely, and go straight to the conclusions/recommendations. However, this does not obviate the necessity for setting out the support and evidence for those recommendations. Again, note also that this ‘reader habit’ is one of the main reasons for what may seem to you a kind of redundancy built into these report ‘conventions’ – that is, the apparent repetition in the transmittal, executive summary or abstract, and in the report itself. That repetition is predicated simply on this ‘reader response’ fact. The organization of your report and amount of detail included in your discussion are determined largely by the conclusions/recommendations considered in relation to the reader’s likely response. For example, if you anticipate that your reader will have little knowledge of the area(s) covered by the report, you may have to include more background/definitional material; the same is true if you anticipate a reader who will be difficult to convince that your conclusions/recommendations are correct. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

As with statements of ‘scope’ and ‘limitations’ (above), it is important to keep ‘conclusions’ and ‘recommendations’ clearly distinguished. ‘Conclusions’ summarize, and extrapolate from, the main points you have made and demonstrated in your discussion.

‘Recommendations’ are, if you like, ‘action items’ – proposals for specific courses of action which would solve, or ameliorate (reduce the severity of) the problem(s) addressed in your report. You can see this distinction quite clearly, for example, in your text in Figure 11.8 on page 289. Note that there, as is quite common where both of these final sections will be relatively short, they are combined into one section (with one heading); nevertheless, the distinction is clearly maintained. Drafting conclusions and recommendations can be done fairly early on in a preliminary way; once you’ve completed your research and created a complete preliminary draft of your report. However, do not neglect to check and re-check these sections as you continue to work on revision of your report. In particular, check for two things: first, does the evidence and your argument actually support the conclusions/recommendations? and second, has the phrasing in the body of the report changed during revision in such a way as to require changes to the wording in the conclusions/recommendations? REFERENCES This discussion, together with your reading of the relevant chapters in Locker/Findlay and of the cases themselves, should be more than enough to get you started. Direct any questions that arise during your work on this assignment to the relevant Discussion thread under the category ‘Assignments’. In Unit 12’s notes, we’ll take a closer look at the business of writing an Executive Summary.