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Report Writing – general notes
The information below has been generated to assist students in writing business reports in an academic environment. Good businesses writing is succinct, evidenced based, underpinned by critical thinking, clear reasoning and sound logic. Academic writing is based on the same principles and in addition requires the evidence to be demonstrated through referencing which is generally not the case in business writing.
In both business and academic writing the imperative is to develop a conclusion or contention.
You need to demonstrate how you arrived that this contention and provide evidence based justification for this. The body of the report expands on what is stated in the beginning and provides detailed explanation.
In business writing this is must be stated from the beginning in the executive summary. Enough detail is provided to allow the business reader to make a business decision based on the executive summary alone. The reason for this is that business people generally do not have time to read the entire report and will engage in detailed questioning of you on the elements they are unclear on.
In academic writing, the abstract at the beginning of the paper will provide some indication as the conclusion and the logic used, but only to the level that will entice someone to read the whole paper. In business writing, the focus is on:
writing style; needs to be very succinct and concise
format; at the beginning of the document the writer details their conclusion/insight/recommendation/contention and logic that brought to this.
Overview
Business people today operate in an environment that has:
•
•
•
•
•
Decreasing amounts of time due to an increasing number of activities
Increasing amounts of information – much of it conflicting
Constant interruptions
The need to make decisions – often quickly.
The need to seek support from key personnel for proposed strategies and execution
The media abounds
The information below has been generated to assist students in writing business reports in an academic environment. Good businesses writing is succinct, evidenced based, underpinned by critical thinking, clear reasoning and sound logic. Academic writing is based on the same principles and in addition requires the evidence to be demonstrated through referencing which is generally not the case in business writing.
In both business and academic writing the imperative is to develop a conclusion or contention.
You need to demonstrate how you arrived that this contention and provide evidence based justification for this. The body of the report expands on what is stated in the beginning and provides detailed explanation.
In business writing this is must be stated from the beginning in the executive summary. Enough detail is provided to allow the business reader to make a business decision based on the executive summary alone. The reason for this is that business people generally do not have time to read the entire report and will engage in detailed questioning of you on the elements they are unclear on.
In academic writing, the abstract at the beginning of the paper will provide some indication as the conclusion and the logic used, but only to the level that will entice someone to read the whole paper. In business writing, the focus is on:
writing style; needs to be very succinct and concise
format; at the beginning of the document the writer details their conclusion/insight/recommendation/contention and logic that brought to this.
Overview
Business people today operate in an environment that has:
•
•
•
•
•
Decreasing amounts of time due to an increasing number of activities
Increasing amounts of information – much of it conflicting
Constant interruptions
The need to make decisions – often quickly.
The need to seek support from key personnel for proposed strategies and execution
The media abounds
References: Seno and Lukas (2007) contend that credibility has a positive effect on brand equity, in which brand image is positively related to brand equity are the principle ingredients of celebrity credibility. Schiffman et al. (2008) state a third factor of credibility, which is likeability Candour, humour and naturalness are the likeable qualities of a celebrity in which attractiveness of the celebrity can enhance the likeability of the brand (Schiffman et al., 2008).