Business report writing

Turn your expert analysis into exceptional reports [webinar recording]

2 minute read + 30 minute watch

If you have research or recommendations to present in a report, this webinar is for you. But it’s also a must-watch for anyone with a report to write.

It’s a densely packed 30 minutes with one of our expert trainers, Gary Woodward – be ready to take notes!

 

Here's what to expect

During the webinar, Gary focuses on three areas:

  • engaging your readers and encouraging them to act
  • presenting your information with maximum visual impact
  • writing efficiently with effective editing.

 

Engaging readers

Gary kicks off by talking us through some proven techniques for engaging your readers.

Key to this is asking yourself reader-centred questions before you even start writing. What information is your reader looking for?

Another crucial part of your report’s success is its summary. It needs to be concise and set out the content of your report in a way that’s relevant to the interests of your reader (or readers). By the end of the summary, your reader(s) need to know why they should be reading the document, what they need to know and what is expected of them.

 

Presenting information

Through your research, hard work and technical knowledge, you can produce excellent stats and insightful data. However, if you don’t present all this well, you risk confusing your reader and wasting your hard work.

Gary shows us some editing techniques for presenting information in a clear, easy-to-scan way. In particular, he talks about one of his favourite techniques, Words in Tables (WiT). (For more information on WiT beyond what we cover in the webinar, visit www.jmoon.co.uk.)

 

Effective editing

Writing well is not about getting every word and sentence right first time. Editing is a vital part of the process to make sure you’re as clear and concise as possible. But it’s a part many of us skip.

Gary outlines three top tips for making writing concise, clear and easy to read:

  • Put the ‘what’ before the ‘why’, so that your main messages come first.
  • Keep verbs as verbs, rather than changing them into nouns.
  • Favour the active voice over the passive.

And remember, no reader has ever complained that a document was too easy to read.

 

Watch the webinar now

 
Video still from report-writing webinar
 
You can access a recording of the webinar (and the full slide deck) here.

 

Interested in more free learning?

And for more advice on improving your business writing, grab your own copy of our free guide The Write Stuff.

 


 
Run your own bespoke webinars for your team or organisation:
If you’d like a bespoke report-writing webinar for your team – or if you’re looking to tackle any other business-writing challenges across your organisation – we can design and run sessions tailored to your needs. Find out more about our bespoke webinars or get in touch to chat with the team.

 

Image credit: fizkes / Shutterstock

Topics

Business report writing

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A relentless chaser of evidence and a confirmed sceptic, Jacob is a digital marketer who puts good data at the centre of all his work.

He's also a certified word nerd, driven to understand how language works and how to use it to get real results.

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