Report writing RB, pp 17-26

What is a report? A written statement prepared for... the benefit of others describing... what has happened or a state of affairs, normally based on... investigation / research or experience. Briefly: factual, formal, not a letter → RB, p 17

Formal considerations LANGUAGE (register & style) LAYOUT - STRUCTURE USEFUL PHRASES

THE LAYOUT Start with a TITLE Use CLEAR HEADINGS (5) Each SECTION its own PARAGRAPH. Use NUMBERS (1) or BULLETS () Companies often have their own format of standard reports and do not completely follow the structure presented below.Companies often have their own format of standard reports and do not completely follow the structure presented below. → RB, pp – STRUCTURE → Task I → Task II

THE REGISTER – level of formality Depends on the target reader Almost always FORMAL No colloquial phrases! No contractions (don't, haven't, 'cos..)! Avoid phrasal verbs (pick up, set up, etc.) THE STYLE ACCURATE - true facts, precise, refer to sources CLEAR AND CONCISE – avoid repetition, long sentences, unnecessary detail OBJECTIVE NO: bias, emotional words, I,I,I USE: passive, reporting structures & narrative tenses (Past Simple, Past Perfect, Past Continuous)  p 18

OBJECTIVITY The passive form (a brief revision) I enclose the invoice for our services. The invoice for our services is enclosed. I enclosed the invoice for our services. The invoice for our services was enclosed. I will enclose the invoice for our services. The invoice for our services will be enclosed. III SV- Present Simple O V- to be Present Simple S Past participle  Active voice

Practice - rewrite these sentences in the passive form: 1. The supervisor will review the report before he sends it to the manager. 2. We found errors in the self-audit, but we have corrected them. 3. If you have questions, call me at I have attached the current status report, and I highlighted the important figures. 5. We must collect and tabulate the survey responses before we can know our employees' opinions. 6. If most of the survey respondents express negative opinions, we may need more research before we proceed with the project. 7. You should follow the recommended guidelines for replacing equipment. 8. According to the customer service representative, the company will consider reshipping these items based on the customer's needs. 9. Joyce Carmen welcomed the participants and introduced the keynote speaker. 10. We discovered and corrected two serious omissions of income before the auditor reviewed the accounting records.

Practise register & style RB, p 21, task IV To take a look at the problem of declining number of visitors to Hong Kong, we decided to do a really big survey. Informal? Personal? Unprofessional?

Practise register & objectivity RB, p 21, task IV To take a look at the problem of declining number of visitors to Hong Kong, we decided to do a really big survey. Informal? Personal? Unprofessional? investigate conduct large-scale

Practise register & objectivity RB, p 21, task IV We made a questionnaire and handed it out to 2,000 people. design distribute

Practise register & objectivity We did this because right now we don’t have any hard data on why tourist numbers are declining. currentlyreliable We did this because currently we have no reliable data on why tourist numbers are declining. Pls, go on editing the text.

Better? To INVESTIGATE the problem of declining numbers of visitors to Hong Kong, we decided to CONDUCT a LARGE-SCALE survey. We DESIGNED a questionnaire and DISTRIBUTED it to 2,000 people. We did this because CURRENTLY we have NO RELIABLE data on why tourist numbers are declining. There is LITTLE information available either on what might bring them back to Hong Kong. The return rate for the questionnaire was VERY DISAPPOINTING at only 13% but this figure should provide a firm enough basis for DISCUSSING why tourist numbers are DECLINING.

HW: Edit the following text The formal words you can use are provided for each sentence. You might need to change the tenses, parts of speech or turn an active stentence into passive. To figure out how many of our customers were into online shopping, we rounded up a group and had them answer some questions. conductpracticedetermineform interview Only a couple of guys showed up for the chat with our staff, but left as soon as they realized they were not being paid for this. male lose interest attendincentive The women, though, were helpful and gave us some cool comments and clever ideas. provideinsightfulfemale  next slide

The info we got was a great. If we are to understand our customers better, I guess we should do it again. Maybe we could give out some gifts or coupons. obtain information usefulrecommend should offer

USEFUL PHRASES RB, p 22, Task I Copy the following functions above the corresponding phrases in the table Tasks II and III

Report writing task 1, RB p 25 Read the following text and use it to write a report. Do not forget about giving it a title. Use the usual headings and typical phrases. HW: (1) Objectivity task above (slide 12) (2) RB, p 24: Task IV Consider how the text Storm Clouds over the Mall and the report on p 24 differ in terms of: –layout / structure (organization of data) –style (objectivity, accuracy) –language / phrases –Content