Assignment: Introduction

Short research reports prepare students to address issues/problems faced in the workplace, at school, in their community or in organizations and develop creative solutions while providing information to colleagues and clients.

Short reports are exactly that - short! Often, short reports are usually prepared in the memo format. They are brief and tailored to what the audience really wants to know. Resist the urge to make them too long and too involved. Get to the point and present the information that your audience wants clearly and concisely.

There are many different types of short reports, including:

• Informative reports - summarizes information needed for improvements
• Feasibility reports - evaluates several alternatives and recommends one of them
• Justifications reports - recommends or justifies a purchase, investment, hiring decision, or change in policy

Objectives

After completing the learning activities for this topic, you will be able to:

• Identify and evaluate credible sources
• Use source materials for supporting your information

Short Research Report Notes

Informational, Problem-Solving or Recommendation Reports (Short)

• Define and explain your topic.
• Describe the organizational problem.
• Show why easier or less expensive solutions will not solve the problem.
• Present your solution impersonally.
• Show that the disadvantages of your solution are outweighed by advantages.
• Summarize the action you need.
• Ask for the action you want.

Introduction:

• Use the Direct Pattern
• Tell your audience why you are writing
• Define your subject
• Show the seriousness of the problem/issue
• Give a brief overview of what caused the problem

Problem:

• Give specifics of the problem
• Tell who/what is responsible in an unbiased way
• Tell who/what is negatively impacted by this problem
• Use statistics to show why the problem has worsened
• Use a fairly formal style, without contractions or slang
• Avoid the word you
• Include in the report all the definitions and documents needed to understand the recommendation

Solution:

• Provide solutions: policy changes, education, training, assessment, etc.
• Show how benefits outweigh costs
• Overcome counterarguments, the opposition
• Elimination of alternatives
• How difficult this is depends on how hard it would be to implement the action, how much opposition there will be to the recommendation, and how willing the organization is to accept recommendations from subordinates.
• Use source support (cite sources within text using MLA format)

Conclusion:

• Future looking-does not summarize what has already been said
• Show how the solution after implemented has a positive effect
• May show growth as an organization, team, individual motivation, profits, customer base, etc.