Many of us find the prospect of writing a report in English quite daunting. However, many CEOs can point to a well-written report at some stage in their career that got them noticed by their company, and enabled them to gain rapid promotion.
However, many reports that are written today are overlong, poorly structured and contain complex words and phrases that are overformal and difficult to understand. Even those individuals who possess a wide vocabulary and are able to contribute effectively in meetings and give presentations find it difficult to organise their thoughts in writing.
One of the key aspects of report writing or indeed any piece of writing is to write as you speak. Report writing should not be formal, but instead should be direct and neutral. The Plain English Campaign pressure group was set up in 1979 and its website http://www.plainenglish.co.uk is full of good and bad examples of English. Here is one such example drawn from a report about education:-
“High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.”
What they should have written was:-
“Children need good schools if they are to learn properly.”
The campaign is tireless in its search for examples of “gobbledygook”. It has persuaded several governments including the UK and USA to create legislation to ensure “plain English” is used in legal documents.
In writing your own reports, the fog factor can be used to measure the clarity of your report. This rough guide designed in the 1940s by Robert Gunning is a mathematical tool. You should count the number of sentences (x) and then count the number of words with more than two syllables ignoring proper nouns(y). Divide x by y and if you answer is between 3 and 5, your report is clear. Over 5 means you need to reduce the number of long words or length of your sentences (15-20 words is enough).
Verbosity is the art of using a long word, when a short word will do. It is often used by writers to show off their learning. It is no longer appropriate in modern business reports. Here are some examples of verbosity:-
a) It was decided to discontinue the practice of cleaning the slide assembly with methanol.
b) This represents a breakthrough in IC technology.
c) The device is capable of detecting very low voltage.
In the above stop, is and can are much better than the words in italics.
Reports used to be full of passives such as it has been decided that or it was found that. The idea was to depersonalise the report, but usually the identity of the writer(s) is obvious. So where possible use the active and write we decided or we found. Passive tenses are appropriate when you really don’t know who acted such as 5,000 jobs will be lost over the next ten years or if you don’t want to assign blame as in a mistake was made.
Although, you should write as you speak there is some informal language that should be avoided. Contractions such as it’s and we’ll and phrases used in informal speech such as fantastic and nice are not appropriate. However, in general if you can speak clearly, there is no reason at all why you can’t write a winning business report.
Guy Perring is Director, Professional Development Unit (PDU), at the British Council Malaysia. The PDU offers a wide range of learning opportunities from management and communication skills training to developing English skills. Contact the British Council in Kuala Lumpur at T: 03 - 2723 7900 or Penang at T: 04 - 263 0330 or visit www.britishcouncil.org.my
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