Lecture Business and administrative communication: Chapter 15 - Kitty O. Locker, Donna S. Kienzler

Chapter 15 - Researching proposals and reports. After studying this chapter, you will know: Recognize varieties of reports, define report problems, employ various research strategies, use and document sources.

Chapter 15

Researching Proposals

and Reports

5 Write the report

 Title page

 Transmittal

 Table of contents

 List of illustrations

e-mail, sales figures, etc

 Information reports collect data for reader

 Sales reports

 Quarterly reports

 Analytical reports interpret data but do not recommend

action

 Annual reports

 Audit reports

 Make-good or pay-back reports

 Recommendation reports recommend action or a solution

 Feasibility reports

 Justification reports

 Problem-solving reports

analytical, and recommendation types

 Accident reports

 Credit reports

 Progress reports

 Trip reports

 Closure reports

 Important enough to be worth solving

 Narrow but challenging

 Able to do recommended actions

 Convey severity of problem

 Prove that recommendation will solve

problem

 Available to writer

 Comprehensible to writer

 Organizational problem or conflict

 Specific technical questions that must be

answered to solve problem

 Rhetorical purpose the report is designed to

achieve

 Explain - Recommend – Request - Propose

 Surveys

 Interviews

 Observations

that someone else gathered

 Library research

Sources

 What person or organization sponsors site?

 What credentials does author have?

 Objectivity

 Does site give evidence to support claims?

 Does it give both sides of issues?

 Is the tone professional?

continued…

 How complete is information?

 What is it based on?

 How current is the information?

 Who is the intended audience?

Interviews

 Survey—questions large groups of

people, called respondents or subjects

 Questionnaire—written list of questions

that people fill out

 Interview—a structured conversation

with someone who will be able to give

useful information

Surveys

how were they chosen?

Questions

influence answers

respondent

 Closed questions—limited

number of possible responses

 Open questions—unlimited

responses possible

 Branching questions—direct

subjects to different parts of

questionnaire based on

 Multiple choice—make the answer

categories mutually exclusive and

exhaustive

 Probes—follow up original question to

get at specifics of a topic

 Mirror questions—paraphrase content

of last answer

 Convenience sample—set of subjects

who are easy to get

 Judgment sample—group of people

whose views seem useful

 Random sample—each person in group

has equal chance of being chosen

Using Technology in Research

 Citation—attributing an idea or

fact to its source in report body

 Documentation—listing

bibliographic information

readers would need to locate

original sources