Bài giảng Business Communication - Chapter 11: Preparing Informative and Influential Business Reports

Chapter 11:Preparing Informative and Influential Business Reports© 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part. Write clear problem and purpose statements.List the factors involved in the problem.Explain the common errors in interpreting data.Organize information in outline form.Turn an outline into a table of contents.Write reports that are focused, objective, and interesting.Prepare reports collaboratively.11-*Chapter OverviewAn orderly and objective communication of factual information that serves a business purpose.11-*Definition of ReportConduct a preliminary investigation.Gather facts to better understand the problem.Study the company’s files and consult experts.Create a clear problem and purpose statement.The problem is a clear description of the situation.The purpose statement may ask why the problem is happening.11-*Determine the Report PurposeDeclarative statement (problem):“Sales are decreasing at Company X.”Infinitive phrase (purpose):“To determine the causes of decreasing sales at Company X” Question statement (purpose):“What are the causes of decreasing sales at Company X?”11-*State the Problem & PurposeSubtopics in informational and some analytical reportsHypotheses for problems requiring solutionsBases of comparison in evaluation studies11-*Determine the Factors & PurposePurpose statement: To review operations of Company X from January 1 through March 31. Subtopics: ProductionSales and promotionFinancial statusComputer systemsProduct developmentHuman resources 11-*Sample Purpose & SubtopicsPurpose statement: To find out why sales at the Springfield store have declined.Hypotheses: Activities of the competition have caused the decline. Changes in the economy of the area have caused the decline. Merchandising deficiencies have caused the decline. Changes in the environment (population shifts, political actions, etc.) have caused the decline. 11-*Sample Problem & HypothesesPurpose statement: To determine whether Y Company’s new location should be built in City A, City B, or City C.Comparison bases: Availability of skilled workers Tax structureCommunity attitudeTransportation facilitiesNearness to markets11-*Sample Problem & Comparison BasesPrimaryObservationExperimentsSurveysTelephoneMail/EmailWeb surveysInterviews (personal, expert)Company records (raw data)SecondaryLibraryOnlineCompany records (interpreted data)11-*Gather the Information Needed© 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part. Report the facts as they are.Do not think that conclusions are always necessary.Do not interpret lack of evidence as proof to the contrary.Do not compare noncomparable data.Do not draw illogical cause-effect conclusions.Beware of unreliable and unrepresentative data.Do not oversimplify.Tailor your claims to your data.11-*Advice for Avoiding Human ErrorMaintain a judicial attitude.Consult with others.Test the interpretations.Test of Experience“Is this conclusion logical in light of all I know?”Negative Test Build a case for the opposite interpretation and see if it’s stronger.11-*Appropriate Attitudes & PracticesStatistical tools enable writers to simplify data.Most readers can understand descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency, dispersion, ratios, and probability. Inferential statistics enable you to generalize about a population based on the study of a sample. 11-*Statistical Tools for Data AnalysisQ. A study produced data that showed United States college students to be far behind their comparable groups in European countries. The conclusion was made that the educational systems in these European countries are superior to that in the United States.A. The education systems are not comparable. The United States is committed to a system of educating the masses. Many of the other countries maintain a system of highly selective education.11-*A Logical ConclusionThe nature and benefits of outliningshows what things go together (grouping)what order they should be in (ordering)and how the ideas relate in terms of generality (hierarchy).11-*Why Outline?