Page 19 - Mini-Module 11

4. Short Reports
Newspapers also keep the length of articles relatively short. They have
to allocate advertising space, otherwise they may reduce income! You
do not have to worry about that in your reports, but you are well
advised to keep your reports as short as possible. One of my former
bosses, of whom their have been many, used to say to me regularly:
'Write me a report on your recommendations! On one side of A4
please.' What she was saying was that she did not want to read
anything longer. Can you understand that sentiment? There are some
who go so far as to say that if you cannot summarise your ideas in one
page, you have not clarified your thinking sufficiently. They may have a
point.
Most of the important reports you write will exceed one page. This is
inevitable in view of the information you have to provide. Bear in mind
however that quantity is not the same as quality. Some people seem to
have worked to link the two. The thicker it is, the more work has been
put in! That is what they would like you to believe. We would also add
that there is more work for the reader! Wherever possible, keep your
reports short and sweet, by pruning them and leaving only the essential
information concisely written. If you do this with your next few reports,
you will find that it becomes increasingly easier to write succinct
reports first time round. You will always need to have a final read
through of course, but you will not need to do quite so much remedial
work.

5. Lists and Subheadings
You will notice in this booklet that we have frequently used
subheadings and lists to separate ideas to make the key points easier to
identify. It is possible to keep lists of items in traditional paragraphs but
that does not give the same visual appearance and it generally makes
the passage more difficult to read. Arranging vertical lists actually does
the work for the reader, because that is what he is trying to do
mentally when a number of points are made in a paragraph. Look at
the following and decide which is the clearer, the first version or the
second:

VERSION 1 VERSION 2
The vice‐principal has reviewed the In his review of the middle school,
work of the middle school and the vice‐principal has identified the
concluded that there are following benefits from splitting up
advantages in splitting up some of some of the functions:
the functions currently done only by
the Head of MS. These advantages ● Increased subject autonomy.
are increased autonomy to the ● Reduced duplication of work.
subject departments, a reduction in
duplication of work, more ● More innovative responses to
innovative responses to student student needs.
needs and a reduction in the Less time spent on
amount of time spent by teachers ●
on administration. administration.

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