Weekly reports are common in many corporate and commercial environments, but also for research projects and internships. Writing a well-done weekly report will give your superiors a clear idea of your progress in the job.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Organizing the Information
Step 1. Identify the purpose of your report
While you may be required to fill out a weekly report as part of your job, keeping your job is not in itself the goal of the report. Determining why your employer requires it will help you decide exactly what kind of information it should contain and what the most important elements are.
- Usually, a report is intended to update your superiors on the progress of your projects or to guide them in making decisions.
- For example, if you are the manager of a business you may be required to submit a summary of the week's sales. Your employer will use it to evaluate performance, sales prices and merchandise orders for your business.
- If, on the other hand, you have to submit a weekly report for an internship or research project, the purpose will be to show the employer or supervisor how much progress you have made and keep them informed of any significant changes or changes.
Step 2. Determine who will read your report
Identifying the recipients is crucial to organizing the report. If you don't know who will read the document (and why), you have no way of knowing what the most important information is.
- Knowing who the report is for will also help you understand how to write it and what kind of language to use. For example, if you were addressing a group of children you would write in a totally different way than you would for the executives of a large company.
- You will also have a clearer idea of what the reader already knows and what you need to deepen or support with additional sources. For example, if you write a weekly report on a legal matter that will be read by lawyers, you will not need to provide a detailed summary of the law as well. However, such an in-depth study could be useful if you were writing for executives or administrators who do not have legal training instead.
- If your report is required as part of an internship, research project, or other educational activity, keep in mind that the readers will not be your professor or supervisor, even if it is to them that you may hand it over. In this case, you can use the type of project and the discipline in general to identify the recipients.
Step 3. Establish the main elements of the report
Even if you want to keep the document as concise as possible, it is still likely that the recipient will not read it in its entirety. Given this, you will need to put the most important information or the final balance at the beginning of the text.
- For example, if the purpose of the report is to compare three suppliers and recommend which one you consider best for the company, this conclusion should go to the top of the text. Then you will continue arguing your choice.
- In general, the first page of the text should consist of a summary of findings, recommendations or conclusions. In the rest of the document, you can go into detail, so that the reader will move on if they feel the need to further evaluate your conclusions.
Step 4. Find out the destination of your report
In most cases, weekly reports are required for documentation purposes and will be cataloged accordingly. It is usually rare for them to be read from start to finish, and yours will probably not be read in full either.
- However, this is no excuse for reporting wrong information or submitting low-quality work. The report should reflect you and your work ethic. A sloppy document will be noticed and the fact that reports are not normally read in full does not justify a rough product.
- While the report should be of good quality and well written in its entirety, focus on the parts most likely to be read, namely the general summary and conclusions or recommendations. These sections must be flawless.
- Keep in mind that the reason your employer won't read the report isn't because they don't care or because it doesn't matter. Senior officials or executives are busy, so they have the ability to quickly extract the information needed to make effective decisions. They will not read the report in its entirety - unless it is necessary - but will keep it in case they want to consult it later.
Part 2 of 3: Formatting the Report
Step 1. Request a template to follow
Many companies have a standard template for weekly reports and managers or executives may be used to receiving information in this format. Using a different one could create frustration and confusion.
- This is especially true for sales reports. Managers are used to taking a quick look at the document, knowing where to find a specific figure or piece of information. If you use a different format they will actually have to read it entirely to find what they are looking for, so the report would be of little use.
- Ask the administrative assistants if there is a template to follow for formatting, so you don't have to create it from scratch on your writing software. Many companies have a document format with predefined settings, including margins, tables, paragraph style and font.
Step 2. Please note the delivery method
If you print a document on paper or send it digitally, you will format it differently than you would if you inserted it in the text of an email.
- For example, if you are sending a report as an attachment to an email you should include the executive summary in the text of the email. This way the reader won't have to open the attachment to grasp the gist of the document.
- If you submit a paper report it is advisable to include a cover letter or title page so that the document can be identified and cataloged properly.
- Regardless of how you deliver the report, make sure your name appears on every page and that the pages are numbered in "x of tot" format. Thus, even if the pages were separated, it would be easy to understand at a glance whether the report is complete and by whom it was written.
- You can easily enter the necessary information as the header of each page. For example, the header might be "John Smith's Sales Summary, Week 32, Page 3 of 7".
Step 3. Include an executive summary
This is a short summary of the entire report (usually just a paragraph or two), with a couple of sentences for each section of the document. The basic idea is that an executive director can read the summary and - if this confirms his expectations on the subject matter - can act accordingly without having to read further.
- For the executive summary it is especially important to use clear and concise language that is easy to read. Avoid jargons or technicalities that require explanations, even if you know the reader is familiar with these terms.
- Write the executive summary last, after you have written the entire document. After all, you can't summarize something you haven't written yet. Even if you have a detailed lineup on which you will base your report, some elements may change as you write it.
Step 4. Organize the text into paragraphs and sections
Once you have established the format in which to submit the report, prepare a draft of the various sections that is consistent with the purpose of the document.
- Review the draft to make sure it follows a logical thread from section to section and make sure it is designed for the specific recipients you have identified.
- The report will typically include an executive summary, introduction, conclusions and recommendations, commented findings, and a list of sources. You can include appendices with relevant data and, for larger reports, even an index (but this is not the case with weekly reports).
- Each section of the report should only deal with one topic; within the section, each paragraph analyzes a single concept. For example, if a section of a weekly sales summary is titled "Childhood Best Brands," you could break each individual brand into separate paragraphs. If you separate men's clothing from women's clothing, you can create sub-paragraphs (with related subtitles) for each brand, then a paragraph dealing with clothing for boys and another for girls.
Step 5. Add a cover page or cover letter if needed
Short reports do not need a separate title page, but longer ones should have a single page that identifies you as the author of the document and briefly describes its goals.
- The title page differs from the executive summary and includes information necessary for administrative purposes so that the report is cataloged correctly.
- Your employer will likely have a specific cover for weekly reports; if so make sure you use exactly that model.
- The title page should include at least the title or description of the report (such as "Weekly Sales Summary"), your name and that of other authors, the name of the company, and the date the report was written or delivered.
Part 3 of 3: Use Effective Language
Step 1. Create effective titles and subtitles
These allow readers to quickly identify specific sections of the report that are relevant to them or that serve to better contextualise your conclusions or recommendations.
- Make titles and subtitles describe the content of the section or subsection directly and accurately.
- For example, if you are producing a weekly sales summary you might include sections such as "Trends in Women's Clothing", "Trends in Men's Fashion" and "Childhood Hottest Brands". Within these sections, you can add subtitles to highlight particular trends or successful brands.
- Use the same grammar structure for all titles so that the report is logical and coherent. For example, if the first title is "Setting a Milestone in Men's Fashion", the next one should be "Achieving Leadership in Women's Clothing" and not "Sales Data in Women's Sector".
Step 2. Write with clear and simple sentences
Punctual writing with structured sentences in the standard "subject-verb-object" order shows clarity of thought and confidence in your recommendations or conclusions.
- After writing the report, read it again and prune it of all superfluous words. Find the actions in each sentence and move the subject of the action next to the verb. Think of phrases in terms of "who does what".
- Eliminate redundancy and filler phrases like "use of", "for the purpose of", "in order to".
- This type of writing might seem flat to you, but the goal of a weekly report is not to entertain. This style is the one that goes straight to the point and conveys the information to the reader.
Step 3. Keep the content objective and impartial
Even if you make recommendations, they should be based on facts, not opinions or feelings. Convince the reader with hard facts and a clear style.
- Avoid adjectives and other words or phrases that have a positive or negative connotation. Instead, stick to factual reasons.
- For example, if in a sales report you are recommending promoting a colleague, support this recommendation with facts that demonstrate the employee's worth rather than subjective or emotional details. "Sally systematically achieves the highest number of sales while only working 15 hours a week" is better than "Sally is the friendliest person on the staff and does the most, even though she has had to reduce her working hours to take care of the sick mother ".
Step 4. Use high impact verbs
When you write in active form, there is a word that communicates the action in progress to the reader: the verb. Use short, punchy verbs that clearly describe what is taking place.
- Opt for simple verbs. For example "use" is better than "use".
- Verbs that describe thought processes (think, know, understand, believe) are sometimes necessary, but usually less impactful than those that describe actions. You can dissolve sentences to transpose them into action form. For example, if you write "I believe sales will increase in the coming months", rephrase the sentence and state why you have this belief. Then rewrite the sentence in terms of action, like, "Sales usually increase around the holidays. I expect sales to increase in November and December."
- To keep your writing action-oriented, scroll through the document trying to eliminate prepositions and replace words ending in –ione with stronger verbs. For example, "consensus of opinion" may simply become "consent" or, if someone "provides protection", it is more effective to say that "protects".
Step 5. Avoid the passive form
When you write passively, you subtract importance from the subject of the action and emphasize the subject instead. In some cases it is necessary to do this for political or diplomatic reasons, but it usually creates a not very clear and confusing writing.
- The active voice gives credit to who has performed an action and indicates to the reader who is responsible for it. To understand the importance of this factor, imagine reading an article about a terrible fire which says that "luckily all the children have been rescued". Identifying who saved the children is important. If the phrase were instead "local pastor John Goodlace has returned to the orphanage numerous times to save all the children", you will know who is credited with behaving heroically in that circumstance.
- The active voice is also important to indicate the perpetrator of actions that can have negative consequences. If you write that "mistakes were made" in the report, your employer will want to know who made those mistakes in order to take disciplinary action. If you made the mistakes, it will be much more appreciated if you admit it and take your responsibility.
- To find and eliminate passive entries, look for expressions with being / coming + past participle. When you find them, identify the action in the sentence and its agent and set them in the subject-verb order.
Step 6. Use visual elements to convey information
Diagrams and graphs are easier to read and follow than a paragraph containing the same information - particularly if it consists mostly of numbers.
- Choose the visual element that is suitable for conveying information in a way that is easy to read and reflects the purpose of the report.
- For example, you can choose a line graph to show positive trends in wool coats sales. This view mode shows growth more effectively than a table with monthly sales figures, because the table implies that the figures are read, compared, and ultimately identified as growth. All of this can be done with a quick glance at a line chart.
- Keep in mind that the eye is drawn to the visual elements. Make sure they are crisp, clear and well formatted on the page. Include them only if they are indispensable to your recommendations or conclusions.
Step 7. Eliminate slang terms
Every industrial sector or academic discipline inevitably includes technical terms or words that become fashionable in the wake of successful books or articles. While these terms may sometimes be useful, they usually don't add value to the content and don't convey information effectively.
- It can be helpful to write down a list of terms that are in vogue in the industry, so you don't overuse them in your report. When you have finished writing, you can search the document to find these types of words and replace them appropriately.
- Remember that excessive use of trendy terms will not give the impression that you are an expert in the field, quite the opposite. Executives and managers are usually older and have seen hundreds of words become fashionable and then decay. If you use these expressions often they may think that you are lazy, that you don't know the subject well or that you are just trying to impress them.
- Try to avoid overly complicated terms as well. For example, even if you write a report that summarizes a legal issue, you don't have to stuff it with an excess of legal terms.
Step 8. Perform a careful review
If the report is full of typos and grammatical errors, it will distract the reader and put you in a bad light. Write the report well in advance of the deadline so that you have ample time to do a thorough review.
- Run a grammar and spelling check on your writing software, but don't rely on it too much. These programs do not recognize various types of errors, especially those created by homophonic words with different meanings (for example "year" for "have").
- Revising back in the text is a good way to make sure you haven't missed any mistakes. In particular, if you are familiar with the subject matter, you will miss errors such as missing words because your brain will mechanically correct the gaps in the reading. This won't happen if you do a review from end to start instead.
- Reading aloud is another way to spot mistakes and improve style. If you find yourself stumbling across a sentence or sentence, that section is likely to be difficult to read and the reader will also mentally stumble. Rework problem areas so they are smoother.
