Part 4: Reports and Other Longer Documents

J.C. Mathes and Dwight W. Stevenson
Audience Analysis: The Problem and a Solution

1) It is false to assume that the person addressed is the audience.
2) It is false to assume that the audience is a group of specialists in the field.
3) It is false to assume that the report has a finite period of use.
4) It is false to assume that the author and the audience always will be available for reference.
5) It is false to assume that the audience is familiar with the assignment.
6) It is false to assume that the audience has been involved in daily discussions of the material.
7) It is false to assume that the audience awaits the report.
8) It is false to assume that the audience has time to read the report.

Classifying Audiences
horizontal- audiences exist on each level
vertical-audiences exist between levels
external- audiences exist when any unit interacts with a separate organization

A More Effective Procedure
1) Prepare an egocentric organization chart to identify the individual report readers
-identifies specific individuals rather than complex organizational units
-categorizes people in terms of their proximity to the report writer
2) characterize these readers
-operational- identify specific differences between his or her role and yours
-objective- specific, relevant background date about the person
-personal- issues that could influence his or hers response to your report, age, name, etc
3) classify the readers to establish priorities
-trace communication routes throughout the chart, see how these effect response

primary- those who make decisions or act on the basis of information a report contains
secondary- those who are affected be the decisions and actions
immediate- those who route the report or transmit the information it contains

Richard W. Dodge: "What to Report"
Engineering reports- define all the problems, set forth the objectives, give the reasons for doing the work, then follow with conclusions and end with the recommendations

*The writer of a report for management should write at a technical level suitable for a reader whose educational and experience background is in a field different from his own

Management Responsibilities
1) Define the project and required reports
2) Provide proper perspective for the project and the required reporting
3) See that effective reports are submitted on time
4) See that the reports are properly distributed
*4 step conference method: beginning, completion of investigation, after report is outlined and after the report is written

Christian K. Arnold: The Writing of Abstracts
*most important part of the paper
-provides the specialist in the field with enough info about the report to permit him to decide whether he could read it with profit and it provides the administrator or executive with enough knowledge about what has been done in the study or project and what results to satisfy most of his administrative needs
1) your abstract much include enough specific information about the project or study to satisfy most of the administrative needs of a busy executive
2) must be a self-contained unit, a complete report-in-miniature
3) must be short
4) must be written in fluent, easy-to-read prose
5) must be consistent in tone and emphases with the report paper, but it does not need to follow the arrangement, wording, or proportion of the original
6) should make the widest possible use of abbreviations and numerals, but it must not conain any tables or illustrations

Vincent Vinci- The Report Writing Pitfalls: How to Avoid Them
1) ignoring your audience
2) writing to impress
3) having more than one aim
4) being inconsistent
5) overqualifying
6) not defining
7) misintroducing
8) dazzling with data
9) not highlighting
10) not rewriting

Talking Points
1) How many times have you written an email and just assumed it was going to the person you addressed but later find out that it has reached "outsiders." College is some way sets us up for this. We are taught to write to one professor when we are writing a paper or mid term. Then when we go to write an email we assume the same audience, the one whom you are sending the email too. This also causes a problem in the business world when you mean to write only to your supervisor but your manager and the President of the company see your work. The problem arises here that not only did the wrong people see your work but you only put as much information is your writing as your supervisor needs who is very familiar with your work. Your manager and President may think you are slacking because you are being so short and to the point. (171-72)
2) I think that the term "immediate audience" is all most null and void in today's era. I think that there is rarely a middle mad to transmit information. Most documents are sent vial email directly to the source. There is no real need to go through a supervisor or secretary when you can just go through the internet. (184)
3) I too believe that the abstract is the most important part of the paper. I think that it is often what catches your eye and entices you to read the rest of the report. I have myself been guilty of reading and abstract and skipping the rest of the paper because it did not catch my eye. I think that it is also true that abstracts are often looked over because they are usually the final thing that most writers get too in the writing process. At that time they are tired of writing and just want to be done so they put anything down on paper to fill space when in reality they are shooting themselves in the foot. (195-96)