Tugas Akhir Bahasa Inggris

BUSINESS REPORT

Business report is organisations need accurate, timely, objective and concise information to make effective decisions. One way they can obtain such information is from a business report. This document can be defined as “an organised presentation of information to a specific audience for the purpose of helping an organisation achieve an objective” (Bowman & Branchaw, 1988, p. 12). While business reports share similar characteristics, they also need to be customised for their particular purpose.  An informal report may be a brief summary while longer reports follow a more complex and formal structure. 

Informal reports may feature:

•         letter or memo format

•         minimal use of headings and visual aids

•         personal pronouns and contractions

•         a length from a few paragraphs up to five pages

•         content primarily for internal audiences

More formal reports however tend to have:

•         a more standard format organised into separate sections

•         front and back matter (sections) along with the body of the report

•         a greater number of headings (including subheadings) and visual aids

•         third person pronouns and no contractions or slang

•         a length from five pages to several hundred

•         content designed for internal and/or external audiences

There are several major steps typically involved in writing a business report. 
These include: 

1)           planning (including determining the scope and target audience )

2)           researching, organising, evaluating and analysing your information sources

3)           drafting the body section

4)           devising conclusions and recommendations based on the findings

5)           further drafting and editing/proofreading

You need first to consider exactly what you have been asked to do - that is - 
the overall purpose of your report. Carefully considering the assessment task 
and related criteria should help you clarify:

•         your objective and readership

•         what information you need

•         the format and level of detail required  

From this, prepare an outline (including a working title and the overall structure of the report, including the major and supporting ideas).  Start on your draft early so you can develop your ideas (editing can come later).

As you begin taking notes it is useful to arrange an outline of your report – especially its particular sections – so you can ‘fill in’ these as you go along (leave the introduction, conclusion and recommendations for later).  Focus here on your ideas, evidence and logical flow.  Dividing your report into sections also ensures the information in your report is easy to find and follow.  Sections need to be clearly labelled with headings and sub-headings outlining the logical development of your paper.  Always check to find out what is required including the format and length of your sections.

The flow of information in your report can be organised in two basic ways – indirectly or directly. The indirect approach (normally required at university) means you need to persuade your readers to accept the findings of a report.  This basic structure is 1) background, 2) findings, 3) discussion, 4) conclusions and 5) recommendations.   A direct style however presents the conclusions and recommendations first followed by an introduction and the findings (it is often favoured in the business world for ‘time poor’ audiences).

Whether you have an indirect or direct structure, headings help organise your report.  If one particular section has a number of components to it, consider sub-headings under your main heading if necessary.   Make sure however, this is done logically so the connections are clear and the use of font size and style, along with underlining and capitalisation is consistent (headings normally only have the first letter of the first word capitalised unless proper nouns are also used).  

You can use either functional headings or more descriptive ones that incorporate content.  The former ‘generic’ type focus on what each section does (as in ‘Introduction’, ‘Findings’, ‘Summary’) whereas descriptive headings reflect content more explicitly.  Some reports may combine both, generally starting with the former category as in ‘Findings: what our survey tell us about our customers. 

Try and keep headings short, relevant and consistent.  Your headings could use stand-alone verbs or nouns, adjectives and nouns together, or even more complex constructions like clauses – including statements and questions. 

In terms of the elements of a formal report (that uses an indirect approach) there are three basic parts:

1) Front Matter

*         Cover

*         Title Page

*         Executive Summary

*         Table of Contents

*         List of Figures

2) Body of the Report

*         Introduction

*         Findings and Discussion

*         Conclusions

*         Recommendations

3) Back Matter

*         Appendices

*         References

*         Glossary (if required)

1.    Front Matter

The front matter includes the cover, a title page, an executive summary (abstract), a table of contents, and a list of figures (if you have more than five).  A letter of transmittal - a kind of official ‘cover letter’ - is sometimes required in the business world (not normally a university requirement).  Note that all pages in the front matter are numbered using small Roman numerals.

*        Title Page

When considering the actual title of your report ensure that it is somewhat neutral and thus does not imply any particular pre-determined outcome.  Your title page should comprise:

Ø  the full title (centred, in bold or upper case)

Ø  the person/organisation it was prepared for (optional)

Ø  the person or people who prepared it (and student numbers where required)

Ø  the due date

Ø  the lecturer/tutor’s name

Ø  the name of the subject (and its code)

Ø  no page number (but is counted as a page)

*        Executive Summary

An executive summary or ‘abstract’ is very important as some readers may only read this part.  Write it last, being sure to include a summary of all parts of the report (omitting examples unless essential) including the:

Ø  ‘why’ (purpose)

Ø  ‘what’ (scope or breadth of the investigation)

Ø  ‘how’ (methodology)

Ø  ‘what you found out’ (major findings with key statistics)

Ø  ‘so what’ (analysis, conclusions and recommendations)

It should be a half to one page (around 5% - no more than 10%) of the overall length and on a separate page.

*        Table of contents

If your report is over several pages, a table of contents helps readers to locate information quickly by giving them an overview.   All section headings and subheadings should be included, worded and numbered exactly as they appear in the text.  You might include a list of illustrations on a separate page (if you have more than 5 graphic aids).  A list of appendices needs the appendix letter (each separate appendix labelled as Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.), its title and page number.  A glossary may also be required if you have a large amount of unfamiliar vocabulary, symbols, abbreviations and/or acronyms.  

Table of Contents	Page
1.      Introduction	1
2.      An overview of the product	1
2.1 Main features	1
3.      Product benefits	2
3.1  Reducing heating costs	2
3.1.1 Heating cost reductions by season	2
3.1.2 Further savings through thermostat use	3
3.1.3 Other associated savings	4
3.2 Improving house resale value	4
3.3 Reducing household bacteria        4.      Advertising strategies	5
4.1 Traditional media	5
4.2 Web 2.0	6
5.      Conclusions	6
6.      Recommendations	6
Bibliography                                                            Appendices	7
A. Product development specifications	9
B. Advertising budget	10

2.    Body

*        Introduction

Your introduction is really the ‘start’ of the report so describe here why your report is being written answering such questions as ‘what is this about?’ and ‘how is it useful?’ This is also where your page numbering starts. Specifically you need to:

Ø  give some brief background information

Ø  define the problem/topic, its relevance, scope and any key terms

Ø  state the overall purpose (are you explaining, analysing, recommending or a combination?) and key objectives

Ø  give an overview of the report’s structure including the sections and their relationship to the issues

Ø  detail assumptions, theoretical foundation, scope, methodology and any limitations or constraints 

*        Findings and discussion

In your findings and discussion sections, present a factual outline followed by an interpretation of what you found.  Note that a frequent complaint from lecturers is that there is too much description and not enough analysis regarding what findings actually mean. This section is usually the longest part of a report and forms the basis of your conclusions and recommendations. As a result, record all significant information (both positive and negative) and ensure you have a logical internal structure – this could be based on such organisation as chronology, order of importance, general to specific, regions or topics. 

Findings can be presented in text and/or graphically.  If using graphs or figures, see the relevant section in this helpsheet for more detail on how to do this.  This section should reflect the structure outlined in the introduction. It may try and answer questions like:

Ø  What were the most significant findings or factors involved in the topic/ problem?

Ø  Did the findings support the theory?

Ø  Did you uncover any unexpected or new issues that need to be considered?

To discuss such questions you may include:

Ø  support that the results provide for the hypotheses

Ø  a comparison of results with other relevant theory and/or investigations

Ø  factors which may have influenced your results, e.g. design problems

Ø  implications of the results

Ensure that you do more than just describe – instead make it clear the significance of what you are talking about and how it might relate to the conclusions and recommendations.  Phrases such as ‘therefore it is clear that X is important in Y’ or ‘With this result in mind, it follows that X is…’.

*        Conclusion

Your conclusion summarises your study - its purpose, process and findings.  You need to include your main ‘opinion’ here, answering the questions raised by your original purpose so there is a thematic unity to your report and the recommendations follow logically.  You may also need to consider the limitations and advantages of findings and any unresolved questions or issues.  Avoid including any new information.

 Adjectives are useful in a conclusion as a way of condensing your main points: ‘This report therefore clearly highlights that the advertising campaign was very successful, due to its inclusive and far-reaching impact with key target audiences such as X and Y’.

*        Recommendations

Recommendations are the suggested actions based on the report findings.  They must be both relevant and feasible covering:

Ø  What needs to be done

Ø  Who needs to do it

Ø  How, when (in what order if appropriate) and where it needs to be done

Recommendations could be for change, improvement or new ideas to improve such areas as service, productivity or performance.  They can be listed one at a time (often numbered).  Be sure you use a consistent sentence structure for all recommendations (some examples are below).   Think carefully also about the order they are in and whether or not it would be useful to group them into appropriate content areas.

These include:

Ø  verb (directive)

Hire more technical staff to deal with the ongoing quality control issue

Ø  passive with ‘it’ as the ‘dummy’ subject

It is highly recommended that more technical staff be hired to deal with the ongoing quality control issue  

Ø  specific subject in passive voice

Technical staff should be hired to deal with the ongoing quality control issue

Ø  specific subject in active voice

Management consider alternative funding arrangements for the new venture

3.    Back Matter

*        Appendices

Your appendices (if required) contain optional material at the end of your report, containing specialised (sometimes technical) information that may have been too detailed or lengthy to include in the body.  Appendices can be in any format, however, each appendix must be separate from the others, covering only one kind of content and format on separate pages.  They are generally distinguished by letters of the alphabet – e.g. Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, and can be referred to in the text of the report (i.e. “for the full list of suppliers refer to Appendix B”).

 

*        References

It is essential to include an accurate reference list of the material you used in your report.  You will need references when you have included any material (including statistics, facts and opinions) which is not yours.  As there are several referencing systems, check with your lecturer, tutor or department for guidelines on how to reference and do this accurately and consistently as lecturers will notice mistakes in the reference list.

 

Example:

Jakarta, April 20, 2016

Ms. Prisia Tanuwardana

Chief Executive Officer

Wardana Financial Firm

Kelapa Jaya Street number 12

 

Dear, Mr. Kaynan Jejaka

 

I am writing this letter to invite you in a business meeting, regarding to our cooperation. The topic that will be brought is about my intention and plan to do research and audit. I am as the leader of a financial firm expects the cleanness of my institution and keeping trust of my clients to invest their fund in my company. This meeting is confidential because I need to analyse the report of the audit by myself. I have arranged the schedule of the meeting.

 

Date : Friday, April 22, 2016

Time : 09.00 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Place : Prista Coffee Shop

 

Thank you very much for your attention. I hope that we could have great work together. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Sincerely yours,

Ms. Prisia Tanuwardana

Chief Executive Officer

Wardana Financial Firm

Reference:

Bowman, J.P. and Branchaw, B.P. (1988). Business Report Writing, 2nd ed Chicago: The Dryden Press

Canberra University (n.d.) Academic Skills Centre: Report Writing. Retrieved January 4, 2011 from http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/writing/reports

Charles Sturt University and New South Wales Department of Education and Training. (n.d.)  Writing a Business Report.  Retrieved November 19, 2010 from http://www.hsc. csu.edu.au/business_studies/intro/writing/writing.html