'An excellent course - very involving and up to
date.' Report
writing courses - there are many of them, but not many are presented by an
experienced trainer who is also a published writer. This one is!
COURSE AIM - Business Report Writing
Training Course, 1 day To help delegates to write reports that are clear, concise and
easy for readers to understand. It covers the principles and practice of
preparing, writing and editing business reports. Organisational benefits
include having business reports that are easier and quicker to read and
understand, leading to faster decisions and therefore financial
savings.
Report writing is difficult
but it can be made easier. This one-day course is normally run at your premises
for between 3 and 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.
Click here
for:
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Call 07976-390960 E-mail
Tony
Atherton Trainer and
writer
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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:
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