Module 23

Module 23
This module focusses on the different kinds of reports and different patterns of organization that there are. Informative and closure reports both summarize completed work or research and doesn’t result in a action of recommendation. Feasibility reports explore alternative results and in the end recommends one. Justification reports recommend or justify a purchase, investment, hiring, or change in policy. The book also gave a great example of a justification report. There are seven basic patterns for organizing information. First compare/contrast, problem-solution, elimination of alternatives, general to particular or particular to general, geographic or spatial, functional, and chronological. These patterns can be used for the whole report or only certain parts, it doesn’t matter. What I found very interesting and informative in this module was the answer to the question of whether or not you should use the same style as other business documents. The answer to this question is, yes. However you should use a fairly formal style without slang, avoid the word you, and include all documents or definitions needed to understand the report. Also, something I found interesting was it’s very important to say what you mean in the report. The book gave some great examples of how to make your sentences more clear to the reader. Also, remember to tighten your writing and eliminate unnecessary words that are taking up extra space. It’s important that the reader doesn’t lose interest in your report, and having a bunch of unnecessary words could do that. Blueprints are overviews or forecasts that tell the reader what you will be discussing in your report, and these are very important as well. Making sure the blueprint is easy to read will help keep the readers attention as well. The book also gave many great examples of good and bad blueprints which I found very helpful.