Business Research

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Business Research CommunicationReports,
Research Communicating

• Created by Tami Moskal

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How We Communicate

• CVs, Resumes
• Email, web site, FAQs
• Letters, Newsletters, Brochures, Articles,
  Catalogs
• Advertisements, Notice Board, Pamphlets, Signs,
  Press Release
• Presentations, multimedia, talks
• Reports, Manuals, Proposals, Books
• Conversation, Meetings, Telephone

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Types of Reports
Sales Reports
Inspection Reports
Annual Reports
Audit Reports
Feasibility Reports
Progress Reports
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Classification of Reports

• Formal Reports and Informal Reports
• Information Reports
• Analytical Reports
• Routine Reports
• Non-routine Reports

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5 Steps to Report Writing1

1. Define the problem
2. Gather the necessary information
3. Analyze the information
4. Organize the information
5. Write the report

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Organizing Reports

• Comparison/contrast
• Problem-solution
• General to particular
• Geographic or spatial
• Functional
• Chronological

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Anatomy of a Report

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Report Body
• References
• Appendices

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Report Body

• Introduction
• Purpose, Scope of Analysis Limitations,
  Delimitations, and Methods
• Background/History of the Problem
• Body
• Presents and interprets data
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• References Appendixes
• Interview transcripts, questionnaires, question
  tallies, printouts, and previous reports

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Words, Words, Words

• Denotation and Connotation
• Let me know when youre free next week for a
  meeting. IMPLIES
• Could you let me know what times you have free?
  IMPLIES
• Tone
• Terry is hung up on trivial details. IMPLIES
• Terry is meticulous and takes care of details
  that others sometimes ignore. IMPLIES

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FAQ and CE

• Questions
• You, We, I personal pronouns are bad
• Standards for reports
• How long?
• Common Errors
• Referring to corporation as they
• Apostrophes
• Commonly confused words
• Neutrality (he/she, John)

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Communicate across Cultures

• Gender
• Race and ethnicity
• Regional and national origin
• Social class
• Religion
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Physical ability

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Bias-free Communication

• Managers and their wives will
• Managers and their spouses will
• Manpower Personnel
• Manhours Hours or working hours
• Manning Staffing
• Workman Worker, employee, writer
• Chairman Chair, chairperson

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Bias-free Communication

• Plural nouns and pronouns
• Supervisors musttheir departments.
• Do not use you
• NOT You must wash your hands.
• YES Employees must their hands.
• Substitute with article or revise sentence
• Supervisor...time sheet for the department.
• The nurse will fill out the accident report.
• Avoid using clichés and colloquialisms
• NOT Get er done.
• YES Complete this assignment.
• NOT ABC, Inc. should not put all its eggs in
  one basket.
• YES ABC, Inc. should consider diversifying its
  product line.

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Netiquette

• Never flame
• Use FULL CAPS only to emphasize a word or two
• Send messages on a need basis
• Recipients work practice (one long or several
  short messages)
• Quote briefly while replying.
• Attachments

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We do it in Style!

• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Elements of Style by Strunk White
• Dictionary
• APA Style Guide
• Diana Hacker

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Document Design

• Use no more than TWO fonts (Arial Times are
  standard)
• Use white paper
• Use white space
• Use parallel structure
• Use 1 margins all around
• Use MS Word styles for formatting
• 10-12 font size for text
• Be consistent

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Writing Style

• Concise writing style
• Omit needless words
• Combine sentences
• Rewrite
• Campus Jewelers main objective is to increase
  sales. Specifically, the objective is to double
  sales in the next five years by becoming a more
  successful business.
• Campus Jewelers objective is to double sales in
  the next five years.
• Writing Business Messages PPT
• Sentence Clarity Combining PPT