Report Writing

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If you feel strongly about a particular issue or you know quite a lot about it, you should write up a short report so that your fellow members can make themselves familiar with the issue before or after a meeting.

Some people find the thought of writing a report quite frightening. In actual fact, writing a report is very simple if you approach it in the right way. The stages of report writing are set out below.

Stage 1 - Planning the Report

The first thing to do is to write down on a piece of paper why you are writing the report. Try to be clear about what you want to achieve. Are you informing your fellow members about something or are you trying to influence them to take a particular decision? Once you are clear about what you want to achieve it's easier to decide how to set about the task. Remember, very few people want to read reports just for the sake of it!

The next thing to do is to decide what information you need to include in order to achieve your objective. The golden rule here is to make sure that you include no more information than is absolutely necessary. You can always supply additional information if anyone asks for it.

Stage 2 - Preparing the Report

Once you decide what you want to include you then have to gather the information. This might involve taking statements from people or doing some research of records. The important thing is to try and make sure that your information is accurate and balanced. People are seldom fooled by a one-sided report. And remember the following points:

• don't put in too many statistics as people generally find statistics hard to swallow
• keep your sentences short
• avoid using long words and formal language that you wouldn't normally use
• start with an introduction that explains in a nutshell what the report is about
• develop your ideas in the main body of the report
• add a short summary of your case
• finish with a conclusion that sets out clearly what it is that you are recommending