Erich Fromm
1 Corinthians - 14:9
One of the most important skills you need to develop in order to become a well rounded professional is that of communication.
You can communicate in different ways but the two most important means are written and verbal. This week we will discuss written comunication and in the tutorial we will practise verbal communication.
This is the most important step in the process of transferring information and influencing the actions of other. It does not matter how good your research was or how wonderful your findings if you can not express them clearly to others.
The craft of written communication demands that you develop two major abilities
Organise your Information
It also helps if you are a writer of genius but as these are rare creatures amongst the ranks of report writing engineering students you will be well advised to follow the above criteria to maximise the impact of your writing.
The most basic type of report is the memorandum. It is the least formal of all reports and is usually written by one associate to another. For example you may have attended an interesting lecture on Intellectual Property which you want to inform a colleague about.
To: Joe Bloggs
From: Fred Undercliff
Date: 23/1/97
Subject: Talk on Intellectual Property.
Hi Joe,
I was over at Bradford the other week and a heard a fascinating talk about the ins and outs of Patents and other means of protecting ideas. I picked up a set of notes if you're interested I can send you a photocopy of them.
This is an extremely basic report which is no more than the brief reporting for Joe's benefit of a possibly useful piece of information that Fred has picked up. At the other extreme the report into the circumstances of Piper Alpha Oil Rig Fire ran to many thousands of pages containing vast amounts of complex information.
Each type of report poses its own challenge but all good reports recognise the needs of the reader to obtain information and that the information presented must be logically and clearly organised.
There are very few report readers but very many report users.
A report reader starts at the beginning and reads through to the end of the report and then magically changes into a report user.
Report users look at the beginning of the report and after reading a few pages turns to the end of the report and read the conclusions. He may then go to the contents page and select any bits which he is interested in to read in more detail.
Remember every report User starts out as a report Reader.
The report may not be read completely and the sections chosen will not necessarily be read in the sequence they were presented.
A report user will decide what to read on the basis of what is needed most urgently and what is useful. It is the job of the report writer to ensure that the user's attention is drawn to the most important information such as the conclusions and recommendations. The different sections of the report must be clearly identified and logically placed so that the overall pattern of the report is clear.
It is vital that you identify your readership before you start to write your report. Sometimes it is obvious i.e. A particular senior colleague within your organisation (in this case the reader may well be personally known to the writer), at other times it may be a member of a client organisation (here the reader is identifiable but not personally known) or the most daunting of all is when the readership consists of a range of people of differing interests and levels of expertise.
Not all the readers will have to take decisions on the basis of the information contained in the report so it is important to be clear about what the reader wants to know and what they will do with the information. This will be helpful in getting the Tone of the report right.
The Tone of the report consists of getting it right for the target reader. This means understanding the reader's point of view, organising the material in a logical manner, using clear and accurate writing style with helpful well drawn diagrams and tables of contents. It may also involve choosing a suitable method of binding and an easy to read type face.
Good Tone will make a reader want to read the report because it looks attractive and not be put off because the physical process of reading looks as if it will be difficult.
As a reader you are sharply aware of the daily waste of words that results from poor writing. Readers as a group suffer much. Heads buzz and eyes burn trying to read material which has not been written clearly.
You must have had the experience of falling asleep over news or journal articles you really wanted to read. Their complexity drugs your attention. And if you are a poor mind reader you have made mistakes because of unclear writing in others.
As a reader you are opposed to:
Words that don't say what they mean.
Words that don't say anything.
Words that are merely used for display.
But do you ever look at your own writing from the point of view of the reader? Do you know how many different words and what sort your readers are likely to understand? Do you know what sort of words work best in transferring facts and ideas from reader to writer? Do you know what mixture of hard words readers will tolerate?
What patterns and lengths of sentences will readers tolerate without tiring? What sort of writing is most likely to make your reader take action? How do you hold your reader's interest? And is there a means of measuring your own writing against that which has proved successful?
If you can answer that great long tirade of questions correctly and you use this knowledge in your writing then you are a rare and valuable human being. Most people don't even consider the questions let alone the answers. There is a Golden Rule you need to remember.
1. Keep sentences short.
2. Prefer the Simple to the Complex.
3. Prefer the Familiar Word.
4. Avoid Unnecessary Words.
5. Put Action in Your Verbs.
6. Write Like You Talk.
7. Use Terms the Reader Can Picture.
8. Tie In with Your Reader's Experience.
9. Make Full Use of Variety.
10. Write to Express Not Impress.
If you want to know about readers study their habits. It is not enough to ask, "What can people read?" If a person's motive is strong enough they will plough though any complexity of words, signs or hieroglyphs. I've seen my own twelve year old son struggle through highly technical computer manuals which are atrociously written because he wants to know something.
No it's not enough to ask, "What can people read?" They can read the most complex material if they are forced to do so. But the material they prefer to read is written simply. Magazines, Comics, Newspapers rely on their readers coming back for more. Make the reading hard and the readers don't come back. So, what do people read? Readability tests of best-selling books and popular magazines show that readers resist prose which requires more than fifth form ( YR 11) reading skills.
(This can be tested by running the standard readability statistics which can be found in the grammar checker of any good word processor. The most useful are the Gunning's Fog index and Flesch Reading Grade Index. Both these measure give the readability it terms of the reading age skills needed. This translates roughly into the school year. So an index of 11 is the reading skill of a typical Year 11 student.)
This is not a condemnation of readers but any material can be treated within this easy-reading range. Nearly every successful professional writer of this century used a literary style with an average complexity within the range of 6 to 12.
On the other hand, much written material issued by business, industry and professional journals continues to be above the danger line of reading difficulty. There is no good reason for this. If you follow the ten commandments of readability you can avoid unnecessary complexity in your writing and allow avoid the waste that complexity causes.
Often more senior staff may take control of reports you have written and change the emphasis. Different senior staff will want reports for different purposes and these may really need to be different documents, even through they may share information.
Lack of clear terms of reference for the contents and use of the report can result in attempting to meet different and even conflicting requirements and result in tremendous confusion. You need to check out how much time you have to produce your draft and then your final report. It is extremely frustrating to rush a report into draft and then find it sits on a senior manager's desk for two weeks because they are not yet ready to check and approve it.
When you come to write a reports for your employer make sure you understand about company guidelines or house rules on layout of reports, know your terms of reference and any timescales involved.
The report's structure, style and presentation must be clear and helpful for your reader.
Write unto others as you would be written to.
Know your terms of reference, the time scale you must work within, the length of report required and any company guidelines which must be met.
Find out the reader's needs and terms of reference
Why should a busy reader bother to read your report and what do you expect him/her to take away from the report?
What does the reader know about this subject?
What does the reader want to know about this subject?
What action does the reader expect to take after reading your report?
What action do you want the reader to take after reading your report?
Why are you writing this particular report for this particular reader?
Within the time limits set down in your terms of reference collect as many relevant facts as you can.
You will probably end up with a pile of material of differing degrees of usefulness. Sort it into
1. Useful Mainstream Material
2. Material which is vaguely useful for backing up statements but not essential
3. Interesting but irrelevant material.
Write the beginning last when you know what you really need to say.
Make sure you end with your conclusions and recommendations.
Give the facts objectively, draw your conclusions and make recommendations.
Design and plan the report before you start to write.
Making Assumptions is dangerous. Check where you should begin and where you should end.
Always base this decision on the extent of your reader's knowledge.
Write a memo of not more than 300 words, (Memos in excess of 300 words will receive no marks at all) to the Managing Director of your company. (You can choose the type of company)
He is concerned that the company is failing to develop new products and has asked you, as chief engineer to write to him recommending what action you think the company should take to improve the position.
300 words is about one side of A4 typed.
Submissions after that date will not be accepted
The memo should be word processed, spell checked and neatly laid out.
You now have your terms of reference and your deadline.
Get Writing !!
Further Reading
J Van Emden & J Easteal: Report Writing, Second Edition. Published by Stanley Thomas. ISBN 0-7487-1894-X
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