SouthEast Asia Regional Training Course on TB Control NTI, Bangalore, India, 1627 August 2004

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South-East Asia Regional Training Course on TB
ControlNTI, Bangalore, India, 16-27 August 2004

• Report Writing
• Dr Erwin Cooreman
• MO-TB, WHO/SEARO

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Verbal communication is temporal and easily
forgotten, but written reports exist for long
periods and yield long-term benefits for the
author and others
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First ask yourself ...

• Reason for writing
• to provide information requested/needed
• persuade someone
• request action or a decision
• Audience
• background information required
• language (technical, level of English)
• time to spend reading
• Analyse your target readers and their needs

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To do before starting writing

• Obtain reporting format
• Prewriting
• generating material or ideas or both. Whether
  gathering information you have inside your head
  or researching outside sources, you have to start
  somewhere. Many of us, confronted with a daunting
  writing task, will suffer from what is known as
  writer's block.

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Brainstorming

• getting down on paper all the ideas you have
  about your writing task.
• get down every idea you have without attempting
  to evaluate the worth of the idea as you go.
• While brainstorming
• do not cross out or delete any ideas or words at
  this stage
• do not worry about spelling or finding the
  correct words
• do not allow anything to interrupt your flow of
  thought
• do not evaluate or criticize any aspect of your
  writing

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Brainstorming (cont.)

• Write headings or use mind-map
• Order your ideas in logical groups or sub-groups
• MS Word Outline facility allows to
• build your plan
• reorder information
• change headings
• add to or delete from the plan at any stage

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Language

• Easily understood language, simple English
• Your reader may have a different mothertongue
• Simple, familiar words, no jargon
• try and not endeavour
• Accurate words
• approximately and not maybe
• Check the spelling
• Abbreviations write in full first time
• (first time) the workshop is hosted by the
  National Tuberculosis Institute (NTI) in
  Bangalore
• (subsequently) NTI is conducting operational
  research

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Language (2)

• Short sentences
• One idea per paragraph
• Logical order time sequence
• Use active not passive tenses
• the team visited the health post and not the
  health post was visited
• Avoid discriminatory language (race, gender, age,
  disability)

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Length of report

• Keep short
• More likely to be read than long report
• Stick to point
• Dont go beyond what is needed for the purpose of
  the report
• Check TOR

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Present attractively

• Headings and subheadings
• Numbering
• Bullet points, boxes
• Photos, inset text, tables, graphs
• Font, bold, italics, colour
• Be consequent throughout

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Writing a Report

• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Main Report
• Introduction
• Activities and Findings
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Acknowledgements
• Annexes

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Writing a Report

• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Main Report
• Introduction
• Activities and Findings
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Acknowledgements
• Annexes

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Executive summary

• Should highlight the most important items only
• Purpose of writing
• Main activities and findings
• Main conclusions and recommendations
• This might be the only thing that will be read by
  decision makers
• Is usually written after the full report is
  completed

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Table of Contents

• Gives a good overview
• Helps in structuring report
• Will be finalized after completing the report

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Writing a Report

• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Main Report
• Introduction
• Activities and Findings
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Acknowledgements
• Annexes

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Introduction

• Background refers to context in which the report
  should be situated
• General country data, reference to previous
  reports, etc.
• Purpose or Terms of Reference highlights the
  purpose why an assignment is undertaken that
  leads to the production of the report

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Writing a Report

• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Main Report
• Introduction
• Activities and Findings
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Acknowledgements
• Annexes

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Activities undertaken and findings

• Briefly describe major activities undertaken that
  led to findings or recommendations
• Be accurate
• Example SEA Regional Training Course on TB
  Control and not WHO Bangalore Training
• All activities should relate to TOR
• Findings state objectively facts that you have
  observed.
• If this is a follow up on another report, comment
  on the extent to which previous recommendations
  were implemented

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Conclusions and Recommendations

• Conclusions
• should not be mere repetition of findings
• Should be the result of an analysis of your
  finding
• They should represent your impression about the
  findings
• Recommendations
• State for whom the recommendation is intended.
• Use the word should
• Recommendations should relate to problems
  identified, on areas of improvement
• Do not impose your will

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Writing a Report

• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Main Report
• Introduction
• Activities and Findings
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Acknowledgements
• Annexes

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Acknowledgements

• Due credit should be given to people who have
  been of substantial help to complete your
  assignment
• Include people/institutions that have been very
  helpful in accomplishing your assignment
• Usually do not include your own team-members
• Keep list limited

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Annexes

• Should contain material that is supplementary to
  the text
• When removed, the body of the report should still
  be understandable and the main argument should
  not be affected
• Refer to all annexes in the body of the report,
  in same order
• Include them in table of contents
• Examples
• list of people met
• agenda of workshop

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To do after drafting a report

• Editing and proof-reading
• Macro-editing
• Micro-editing

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Macro-editing

• looking at the big issues, such as the following
  
• how well the document is likely to achieve your
  purpose
• how appropriate it is for readers and how
  effectively it has met their needs
• Try to identify anything that will be
  counter-productive to achieving your purpose for
  example, you might
• Add any information your readers might need to
  understand your document
• Omit information your readers do not need
• Add examples to help readers understand your
  message
• Reorganize your information or your arguments
• Strengthen the transitions between sections and
  between paragraphs
• write stronger introductions and conclusion
• Make sure any recommendations flow from the body
  of your document
• the overall shape, look and design of the document

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Micro-editing

• making sure all the mechanical elements are
  correct
• Sentence and paragraph structure
• Grammar
• Punctuation
• Spelling
• Word usage
• Needs careful reading

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Review success

• Learn from the experience
• Did it persuade anyone?
• Any feedback from anyone?
• Do you yourself get bored looking at it?
• Is it factual?
• How to improve for next time?