Report writing training course from Tony Atherton Training - courses in Business Writing, Report Writing, Technical Report Writing, Taking Minutes, Negotiation Skills and Time Management

Report Writing Training Course - 1-day in company

Atherton Training Consultants Ltd

REPORT WRITING COURSE

Courses for up to 12 people at your premises. Companies and organisations only. No public courses.

Email direct to Tony Atherton or phone 07976-390960

 

'An excellent course - very involving and up to date.' There are many report writing courses, so what makes this one different? It is in its 11th year and is presented by an experienced trainer who is also a published writer. We run it for up to 12 people at your premises.
Click here for Technical Report Writing courses.
  Call 07976-390960
E-mail Tony Atherton Trainer and writer

COURSE AIM - Business Report Writing Training Course, 1 day

To help delegates to write reports that are clear, concise and easy to read and understand. It covers the principles and practice of preparing, writing and editing business reports.

Report writing is difficult but it can be made easier. This one-day course is normally run at your premises for up to 12 delegates. It will also help delegates when writing other types of document.

IS THERE A TRACK RECORD?

There is. Tony presented his first course in Report Writing to a group of ten delegates at Barclaycard on 16 April 1998. That was on behalf of the Manchester-based training company, Fielden House (now Fielden-Cegos).

On 21 September 2000, he ran the course for the first time for the London-based training company, Reed Training. Although he now only presents it on his own behalf, he went on to run the course regularly for Reed Training in London and Birmingham, presenting it 108 times under their logo. In total he has trained around 1300 delegates in report writing (excluding Technical Report Writing).

The course has often been adapted to meet the specific needs of various clients. For example, a version of the course was designed for Ofsted and presented to nearly 350 delegates.


COURSE CONTENT - Report Writing Training Course, 1 day

  • How to write a business report
  • What makes a business report good?
  • A process for report writing: planning reports, writing reports, editing reports
  • Planning
  • Defining the purpose, agreeing the terms of reference
  • Knowing your reader and writing for the reader
  • Formatting and structuring business reports and their content
  • Writing, using plain English in report writing
  • Editing reports: editing for accuracy, brevity and clarity
  • Active or passive voice; preferring verbs to nouns
  • Writers' tips and some common myths
  • Punctuation problems
  • Using MS Word's readability statistics
  • I was very impressed and found my facilitator to be very approachable. A job well done!
  • Excellent course. I think I will definitely put into practice immediately.
  • Great trainer. Kept my attention all day.

COURSE DESCRIPTION - Business Report Writing Course

REPORT WRITING: INTRODUCTION

  • What types of report do you write?
  • What do you like or dislike about report writing?
  • What makes the difference between a good and a bad report?
  • Some samples.
  • How to write a report - the three stages of report writing: Preparing, Writing and Editing.

REPORT WRITING: PLANNING YOUR REPORT

  • Defining the purpose or objective of your report.
  • Who has requested the report? Terms of reference.
  • It's the readers that matter. Putting readers first.
  • Who are your readers? What do you know about them and their needs?
  • How much detail will be needed to achieve the objective?
  • What do you want your readers to know and do, how do you want them to feel about your report?
  • Planning your report.
  • Achieving a logical flow and structure.
  • Sections and sub-sections. Summary, Introduction, Main Body, etc. Who reads what?
  • The purpose of each section of a normal business report.
  • Writing the Executive Summary.
  • Structuring complex information when report writing.
  • Structuring your argument or process. Generic frameworks.
  • Writing a beginning, a middle and an end for your report.
  • Structuring the text down to paragraph level.
  • Do you need illustrations? Planning illustrations.
  • Your Plan.

REPORT WRITING: WRITING YOUR REPORT

  • Going from plan to draft.
  • General tips.
  • The order in which to write your report's sections.
  • Determining style.
  • Titles, headings and sub-headings.
  • Numbering systems.
  • Using short paragraphs and sentences.
  • Using appropriate words and jargon; plain English.
  • Using pronouns or not, bullet points and references.
  • Using appendices.

REPORT WRITING: EDITING YOUR REPORT

  • Going from the draft to the finished report.
  • Editing for accuracy, brevity and clarity.
  • Eliminating waffle, superfluous words, and wordy phrases.
  • Improving the grammar.
  • Differences between passive and active verbs.
  • Avoiding 'smothered' or 'hidden' verbs.
  • Superfluous adjectives and adverbs.
  • Conventions for writing numbers.
  • Some troublesome points of English grammar.
  • Avoiding sexism in writing.
  • Using Microsoft's grammar checker and readability statistics.
  • Punctuation, reference list.

TRAINING STYLE

The training style uses a mixture of talks, discussions, group work and individual work in a mix that is as appropriate as possible to the delegates. The actual course may differ slightly from the fine details above as the training is adjusted to match as accurately as possible the needs of the delegates. Delegates are asked to help one another to achieve their action plans. Full course notes are provided which also serve as reference books for later. The normal maximum number of delegates is 12.

THE TRAINER

Tony Atherton ran his first Report Writing course in 1998. Since then he has presented well over 150 such courses, some with various modifications, for delegates from a variety of industries.

As a training consultant and published writer, Tony draws on a career in both the public and private sectors including employment in the Royal Navy, GEC-Marconi, the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the University of Hong Kong. For five years he was the Training Manager at NTL and since 1997 he has been an independent trainer and writer. As a published writer he has four books and around 90 articles to his name.

He has trained thousands of delegates from blue-chip organisations - both independently and on behalf of large training companies including Reed Training, Fielden-Cegos, the Institute of Management and Right-Coutts.

He has also inspected government-funded training on behalf of the Training Standards Council and the Adult Learning Inspectorate.

Some comments from clients:

  • Excellent delivery of course and an obvious expertise in Report Writing.
  • Excellent training, got the message across in an entertaining and productive manner.
  • I really enjoyed today and Tony made everything very easy to understand.
  • The course was beneficial and has given me confidence to write reports.
  • Felt Tony made the course very enjoyable, determined from the outset what was relevant.
  • Very good course - struck perfect balance - just what I needed and no more. Thank you Tony.
  • Please pass on my thanks to Tony for the delivery of the training on Report Writing yesterday. The group had an excellent day. The feedback is very encouraging and I would like to arrange another session with Tony later this year for our senior accountants.
  • Thank you for arranging yesterday (Report Writing) and I will be in contact shortly to arrange a further date.
  • Overall, very impressed with the day's training.
  • Excellent course. I think I will definitely put into practice immediately.
  • An excellent course - very involving and up to date. Enthusiastic trainer.
  • Tony was entertaining and made a traditionally boring subject fun. Very enthusiastic.
  • Very good trainer, kept it light and fun.
  • Perfect
  • Very practical and to the point. Adapts well to varied delegates experiences and needs.
  • Clear presenting, easy to understand, made the content interesting and enjoyable. Nothing like the horror of school days.
  • Good structure - made it interactive.
  • I thoroughly enjoyed the course and was glad I attended. The instructor was pleasant and clear in his approach.
  • I was very impressed and found my facilitator to be very approachable. A job well done!
  • Found the course interesting and learned a great deal from it.

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'The feedback [Report Writing course] is very encouraging and I would like to arrange another session with Tony later.'

Clients

Client organisations for all subjects over the years include:

Clients on behalf of the Institute of Management, Reed Training, Right-Coutts and Fielden-Cegos include:

CONTACT US:

E-mail direct to Tony Atherton

Phone 07976-390960

Covers: United Kingdom
 

Report Writing Training Course: Last updated 21 January 2009