No proposal can be made, project planned or accident had without a report and writing them is an increasing part of the workload for staff at all levels. This practical, hands-on, self-help guide will guide you through the stages of preparation and planning with guidance on how to write persuasively, use plain English and avoid the common punctuation pitfalls.

The book combines clear guidance with two practical examples that run through it to illustrate each point: one for a report which informs, one for a report which persuades. At each stage there is space for you to work on your own report in parallel.

Preparation – definiting what the report is meant to achieve, the needs and interests of the readers and what they are required to do or know as a result of reading it.

Planning – how to identify the information which is relevant and interesting, organise it into an order which will guide the reader through the issue, use charts and graphs where appropriate and use the sections of the report correctly.

Presentation – guidance on visual presentation, plain English and correct use of the tricky punctuation marks.

Writing a summary – the essential skill of distilling the content of the report into a clear, stand-alone summary.

We can run a course at your workplace