Report on the work performed. How to write a weekly report

Have there been cases in your practice when you tirelessly plowed your arms, legs and other parts of your body 24 hours a day. Perfectly prepared object for sale. You have already rocked the market with your commercial offers, outlined a plan for further actions and, in complete harmony with yourself, you are waiting for a natural result in the form of a deal and the subsequent receipt of honestly earned commissions.

But at some point, your client’s number is displayed on the phone screen and you, without suspecting anything, calmly pick up the phone. But instead of gratitude, you hear a lot of complaints, starting with the fact that you do nothing at all and ending with the requirement to terminate the contract and threats. Familiar?

Before you resent, put yourself in his place ...

The person has entered into an exclusive contract with you. He has entrusted you with perhaps the most valuable possession he possesses. He believed you, he decided that you were almost a magician only and capable of helping him. But then, all the time that you work tirelessly, he DOES NOT HEAR AND KNOW nothing about you and your work! Accordingly, the suspicion grows that nothing is happening. Moreover, there will always be “good advisers” from among relatives, friends and acquaintances who will drip him on the brains and intimidate with horror stories about "deceivers", about "black realtors" and about "how expensive it is, but for such a job." Therefore, after 7-10 days, a completely logical and natural explosion occurs.

In fact, there is a very simple way to prevent such a development of events. It is enough to send the client a weekly report on the work done.

Regularly, according to a pre-formed template, draw up a report that will list all the actions and activities performed in the past. And send it to the seller by mail. And the client is satisfied - he understands what is happening, that they have not forgotten about him, they work on his topic, and you will always be protected from unreasonable claims.

Now we will form the requirements for the document "Report on the work done":

What must be in the report

Contract number
Agent contacts
List of actions performed and activities carried out
Report creation date and signature

Transfer Methods

Email
print and hand over

Report transmission time

Friday evening is optimal (when you have the results of the week's work)
Or after the last inspections on the weekend

IMPORTANT!

If your report contains a list of Internet resources on which you placed ads, be sure to indicate links to these ads
If you have published in the media, attach photo or screenshot ads
If you have created a separate presentation don't forget to attach it to the report

By following these simple steps, you will quickly reduce the number of such calls to a minimum. And, by the way, it will become much easier for you to control the situation. Well, in order to simplify this already dustless job of creating reports as much as possible, we suggest you download an example of a ready-made template.

about the author

Tatiana Porubaimikh. Organizer and head of the consulting center Arsenal consult. Concurrently, the ideological inspirer of the project and the generator of ideas. Also a consultant. Main direction: marketing and copywriting. Tatyana is a marketer whose portfolio includes successfully implemented projects in a wide variety of areas.

The progress report will allow the manager to assess the quality and speed of the secretary's work. The article contains samples of reports on the work done. use the step-by-step instructions to correctly write a report.

From the article you will learn:

Why do you need a progress report?

The manager sets the task, the employee fulfills it - this is the essence of the labor process. The fact that the task was completed is recorded in the form of a report on the work done. Each employee periodically draws up such a document. The frequency of reports and their form depend on the internal rules of the company.

Who needs a progress report and why?

He needs a leader. This document allows you to evaluate the quality and speed of the task by an employee. Reporting documents of all employees make it possible to draw up big picture company operations and facilitate tactical and strategic planning.

The employee needs the report. Firstly, a well-written final document helps to present the results of your work to management in a profitable way. Second, the report is a useful self-monitoring tool. At the end of the reporting period, you see your successes and failures. This will show you the directions in which you need to develop.

Financial Cost Statement (detail)

What to write in a progress report

There is no single standard template for a progress report. The document is drawn up in free form. It depends on the nature of the tasks performed.

The downside of freeform is that many workers don't know how to write a progress report. This is not taught in school and rarely taught in high school. An employee will not receive an adequate assessment of his work if he does not have the skills to write a competent report.

You cannot force employees to write truthful reports, but you can teach them to correctly present their successes and achievements. There are no difficulties in compiling the reporting document. You need to avoid the mistakes that many people make.

Consider a sample of an incorrectly written weekly progress report and analyze typical errors.

Unsuccessful option

The following has been done:

written letters to the tax and labor inspectorate;

preparations were made for the meeting with representatives of HR-consulting LLC (invitations were sent out, necessary materials prepared a draft agenda for the meeting);

responses to requests from the labor inspectorate and a number of clients;

took part in the conference on the problems of optimizing the use of working time.

Compilation date 04/27/218.
Signature: Petrova A.S.

After getting acquainted with such a document, the manager will get the impression that the secretary is not very busy with work. Also, the text is hard to read.

Report Structure

The main mistake of the reviewed document is the lack of a clear structure. What elements are missing?

The list of tasks that were put to execution.
Specification of completed tasks.
Analysis of the work done.
Plans for the next reporting period.
Offers.

The set of structure elements depends on the length of the reporting period. A daily or weekly progress report does not have to contain analysis and suggestions, but a monthly progress report or an annual reporting document should have these elements.

Suitable option

Consider an example of how it was necessary to draw up a report on the work done.

Weekly progress report sample

To: the head of LLC "Communicative Technologies" Smirnov Yu.P.
From the secretary of Communication Technologies LLC Petrova A.S.
Type of document: report on the work done for the period from 04/23/2018 to 04/27/2018

For the reporting week, I had the following tasks:

prepare letters: tax office on the clarification of the tax payment and to the labor inspectorate on the complaint of Smirnov P.P.;

prepare Information Support meetings with HR-consulting LLC, send out invitations to participants, prepare a draft meeting program;

take part in a conference on the problems of optimizing the use of working time, prepare questions and suggestions.

All tasks were completed, namely:

letters to the tax and labor inspectorate prepared and sent;

information materials for the meeting with HR-consulting LLC have been prepared, invitations have been sent out, a draft program of the meeting has been drawn up.

took part in the conference memo with proposals attached to the report.

In addition, work was carried out with the incoming documentation, namely:

prepared and sent two responses to requests from the labor inspectorate;

responses to written appeals were given. Semenova A.A., Kuznetsova V.N. and Moskalenko R.A.

For the period from 04/30/2018 to 05/05/2018 it is planned to participate in the training for secretaries "Fundamentals of time management and self-organization", dedicated to the basics scheduling in the work of the secretary.

Compilation date 04/27/218.
Signature: Petrova A.S.

Report design

If there are no other requirements, a report on the work done is drawn up in accordance with GOST 7.32-2001. GOST regulates the basic requirements for the design of a reporting document. It contains standards that define the formatting method, font type and size, spacing, margin size, etc. An expert from the Secretary's Handbook will tell how to create a report using the Sway service

What are the requirements for writing?

Since there are no unified requirements for compiling a reporting document, all writing requirements are related to improving the perception of the text and increasing its readability. For this:

use no more than 5 sentences in one paragraph;
alternate long and short sentences;
break the text so that the table or graph does not take up the entire page;
leave space for comments on tables and graphs;
if the report is voluminous, then draw a conclusion at the end.

A report on the work done is sometimes compiled in the form of a table:

Rice. 1. Progress Report Table: Sample

How to write a report: step by step instructions

Make a draft outline of the document. Report for short period should not take more than 1-2 pages. If you report regularly, prepare an electronic document template for each case:

sample daily progress report;

sample weekly progress report;

sample monthly progress report, etc.

You will simply enter the actual data into the template and print it out.

Make a list of assigned tasks. If there are many tasks, group them into semantic blocks.

List the tools and resources that were used during the assignments (additional labor, financial costs, travel, materials, etc.)

Present the results of your work. Describe how they meet the objectives. If the task is not completed, explain the reason. Give your assessment of the situation. Draw your own conclusions.

Formulate goals and objectives for the next reporting period.

Insert tables, graphs and charts into the text. Often the manager skimming through the reporting document. Try to make sure that the table or graph makes it possible to evaluate your work.

Carefully reread the text, follow the literacy and style. Highlight key facts in bold or italics. Prepare an electronic version of the document and a printable version. If you need to report orally or in the form of a presentation, prepare a short version of the text in advance, including the most important points in it.

The progress report helps the manager evaluate the quality and speed of the employee's tasks, and the employee himself - to see his successes and failures. The document is drawn up in free form, however, there is a basic structure of the report, which we recommend that you follow: a list of tasks, results of work, analysis, suggestions and conclusion.

The labor process consists of setting tasks by the manager and their implementation by the employee of the company. From time to time, each employee makes a report on the work done. The frequency depends on the internal rules of the enterprise, as well as the form. The importance of this document to management should not be underestimated.

In this article, we will look at how to properly format a report on the work done, a sample of filling out a document, and some tips for compiling it.

Why you need to be able to properly report on work

The workflow can be represented as a complex mechanism in which each employee of the company is a gear. In this example, the head of the organization acts as an engineer who is obliged to ensure that all mechanisms work smoothly and as quickly as possible.

AT real life it is quite difficult for bosses to assess how well employees are doing their job if they do not see the results of their work. Therefore, in almost all enterprises, management obliges each employee to regularly draw up a report on the work done. Often this document is created with a frequency of 1 week. Thus, the authorities can see what the employees were doing, as well as how useful they were to the enterprise.

Wrong example

The document is in free form. Perhaps that is why there are a large number of reports that do not say anything to the management or make them think that the worker is not coping with the functions assigned to him. At the same time, a particular employee can be a real hard worker and overfulfill his plan. The reason for this is an incorrectly drawn up report on the work done. Below is an example of such a document.

Type of document: report on the work done for the period from February 15, 2016 to February 19, 2016.

The following has been done:

timing of the working time of the production shop was carried out;
included in work program timing results;
new norms of time are calculated;
responses to requests from labor inspectorates, as well as several clients;
took part in a conference on improving the efficiency of labor at the enterprise.

Compilation date: 02/19/16

Signature: Yu. R. Petrov.”

If an employee writes a report on the work done in this way, then the management will consider that he is underloaded.

What are the mistakes?

The above example clearly shows the standard errors in the preparation of such documents.

The main ones are:

The above requirements should be used both when compiling weekly forms, and when a report is generated on the work done for the year.

Suitable option

It is likely that the first time to make a quality report will not work. To make it easier for you to do this, here is an example of how it was necessary to write a report to the manager on the work done, indicated in the first example:

“To whom: the head of the planning department Ivanov P.M.

From whom: 1st category economist of the planning department Petrov Yu.R.

Report on the results of labor for (15.02.16-19.02.16)

For the reporting week, the following tasks were set for me:

All tasks were completed, namely:

5 timings were carried out and the same number of new norms for the work of the production workshop was drawn up;
participated in the conference, a memo with proposals is attached.

Work was also carried out with the incoming documentation, namely:

Compiled 2 responses to IOT requests.
Responses to letters from Mr. Yurieva A. A., Zhakova S. I., Mileeva K. B.

A business trip is planned for the period from February 22, 2016 to February 26, 2016 in order to check the work of the structural subdivision of the Pechersk branch.

Compilation date: 02/19/16

Signature: Petrov Yu.R.”

Agree that this version of the report reads better, and the management can see how well one of the employees works.

How to write reports for longer periods?

Of course, a period of one week is not difficult to beautifully paint on paper. It is more difficult to make a report on the work done for half a year or even a year. However, this is easier to do than it might seem at first glance. For example, if you have weekly reports for the required period, then you can safely use them.

Maximum volume - 1 A4 sheet

At the same time, it is worth trying to enlarge the information somewhat so that the result fits on 1-2 pages. In the event that weekly results are not held in the organization, but you are obliged to generate a report on the work done for the year, you should not panic and fight in hysterics.

All the information is around you: look at the history of messages in the document logs or in e-mail, open the folder with your reports, study travel sheets. All this will help to remember the feats that you accomplished during the working year.

Summing up

Above we have given some examples of how to write a progress report. The main thing is to state the operations performed, indicating quantitative characteristics (so many times or such and such a number of pieces, etc.). Thus, you will inform the management about how much work you managed to accomplish.

We must not forget to indicate at the beginning of the report a list of specific tasks that you were brought to complete. An important part is the completion of the report. Be sure to write what you want to implement at work in the near future. By this you will show that you look wider than just the area of your immediate duties and functions that must be performed according to the job description.

You can also look at the example above.

In order to make it easier to compile such reports, you can write down the work done daily in a notebook or electronic document. You will spend only 3-5 minutes a day on this trifle. It's not that much. However, due to such records, you can easily create a report on your work for any period in the future without any problems.

The activity of any organization or company always involves reporting. Even if the company is completely independent, and it does not have a higher management, a report on the activities of such a company is necessary for the management of the company itself to assess the effectiveness of work over a certain period, to build a further prospect for the development of the campaign.

Compiling a report, like writing a business letter, would seem a simple question ... but what difficulties can arise?

Usually, those who do it for the first time have difficulties in how to compile a report on the work done. Having compiled such a report once or twice, correcting it according to the comments received, the specialist compiling it no longer experiences any particular difficulties in compiling the next one.
Writing a progress report for the first time, and doing it right, is not as easy a task as it seems at first glance.

A little about accounting

The simplest, in terms of execution, is an accounting report. It can be lengthy and time-consuming to compile, requires precision and accuracy in its preparation, and yet is somewhat easier to compile than a text report on the work done. When preparing an accounting report, there is usually a strict certain form reporting, expressed in various tables.

You need to fill in these tables with digital indicators of the organization's activities, and that's it. Of course, all indicators must be reliable and be combined with each other, but it is still easier to calculate and insert numbers into the appropriate columns than to make a text report on the work done, when you need to describe all aspects of the organization's activities in words.

Sometimes, when compiling an accounting report, an explanatory note is required for it. It is usually not large in volume and some figures are explained in it. For example, why did some indicators decline, what caused the growth of other indicators, what is the general trend towards growth and development, according to the figures of the report.

Classification of progress reports

Reports are classified according to two criteria

By time of the reporting period: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual.
In terms of composition and volume: a report on the work done by one division of the organization and a report on the work of the entire organization.

Compiling a daily or weekly progress report is rarely difficult. Usually, they consist of several numerical indicators that reflect the main activities of the organization. The volume of monthly reports on the work done is larger, but also mainly expressed in numbers. And quarterly, semi-annual and annual, most often, involve text versions of reports on the work done.

Text report on the work done - creative process

Compiling a report in numbers is a responsible task, but easier than compiling a competent, qualified text report on the work done. Compiling a report in a text version is a kind of creativity.

It should reflect the activities of a department or the entire organization as a whole, it should be written in the language of the document, but it should be easy to read, it should not contain excessive “water”, the text should be confirmed by numbers, it should reflect a comparison with the indicators of the previous reporting period or indicators of the same period last year, and it should end with some conclusions.

Drawing up a report on the activities of the entire organization as a whole, the work of all its departments and divisions is usually assigned to the head of the organization. General practice Submission of reports implies that the higher body sends to the organization that must provide a report on the work done, the structure of the upcoming report, which indicates what exactly needs to be covered in the report on the work done, which numbers, indicators and areas of activity should be reflected in the upcoming report.

The head of the organization introduces the departments to the structure of the report of each department, and each department draws up its own report on the work done. The manager checks all reports, if necessary, corrects them, and forms a general report on the organization's activities.

Basic requirements for compiling a report on the work done

And although compiling a report on the work done is a creative process, and it must reflect all aspects of the organization's activities, it is still a document, and not an essay on a specific topic, it must meet all the requirements of a business document. Therefore, the progress report should not contain any sentences with personal pronouns, for example, "I said, they did, we achieved" and the like. Here is a small example of what vocabulary should exist in the text of the report:

“The number of sales in the department of technology for the 2nd quarter of 2014 is 205,000, which amounted to 27% of total sales. This is 10% more than the number of sales for the corresponding period last year. The 2nd quarter sales level for the engineering department was up 7% compared to the 1st quarter. Such an increase in the level of sales was due to the expansion of the sales market (the creation of new points of sale, the activation of agents).”

You can not insert into the report on the work done, when talking about improving some indicators, such proposals as "thanks to the hard work of the leader, thanks to the improvement of the work of the team." Firstly, this is an incorrect style of drawing up a business document, and secondly, such proposals do not reflect true reason raising the level of indicators. What, before the leader worked not hard, but somehow? The team worked poorly before this reporting period, and then for some reason began to work well?

When compiling a report on the work done, in the relevant sections of the report, you can insert a description of some specific events, actions, presentations that contributed to the improvement of work, increase indicators.

Progress report sections

So, what sections should a text report on the work done contain if a specific report structure is not attached to its compilation.

An introductory part that gives a brief description of the organization, its position among similar organizations in the city, region, or some other information about the organization or region where its activities are carried out
Followed by reports on the work done by each unit (department). If the organization is small and does not have departments, then the main part of the report on the work done is compiled by the head of the organization based on the data provided by each specialist of the organization.
The final part, which summarizes the results of the organization's work for the reporting period, draws conclusions about successes and miscalculations, and provides forecasts for future activities.

Progress reporting options

The structure of the report on the work done may have some other options related to the specifics of the activities of this organization, but it must contain the following data:

A complete and objective report on all areas of the organization's activities, with numerical indicators, possibly diagrams
Conclusions on the work of the organization for the reporting period
Ways and prospects for the development of the organization for the upcoming reporting period.

Part 1

Rules for submitting information

Determine the purpose of the report. Weekly reports may be part of job responsibilities, but the desire to keep a job should not be the ultimate goal of a report. Determine the functions that the weekly report is intended to perform in order to reflect meaningful information in it and use the most effective structure.
Define the target audience. It is impossible to make a competent report if you do not know to whom it will be intended and for what purpose. This is the only way to understand what information is of the greatest value.
- The idea of the audience allows you to correctly organize the structure of the report and use the most the right words. For example, a report for students elementary school will be completely different from the text intended for the leaders of a large corporation.
- It is also important to understand what points are already known to the potential reader, and what issues need to be clarified or additional sources provided. For example, when creating a legal report that is intended for the bar, you do not need to provide a detailed explanation at all. existing laws. On the other hand, such explanations are necessary if the report is intended for managers without a law degree.
- If the report is being written in connection with an internship, research, or other aspect of education, it is important to understand that your audience is not a professor or supervisor, even if they collect papers at the end. Focus on the essence of the project and specific area of expertise to understand your reader.
Arrange information in order of importance. Despite the concise nature of the reports, your document may not be read in its entirety. For this reason, you should place the most important data with results and conclusions at the beginning of the text.
- For example, if you need to compare and contrast three different brands of equipment and recommend the best option, start with the bottom line and then explain your choice.
- Typically, the first page of a report is short review results, conclusions and recommendations. Detailed explanations should be included in the main text of the document so that, if necessary, readers can understand the reasons for such conclusions.
Understand the typical "fate" of the report. In most cases, weekly reports are necessary for accounting and office work, so they are simply filed and archived. It is better to realize right away that reports are extremely rarely read from beginning to end.
- This fact is not a reason to be lazy or to hand over work of inadequate quality. Your reports become a reflection of your work ethic and personality. A weak report is likely to get noticed, so "I knew you wouldn't read it" won't be a good excuse.
- The entire report should be of high quality and competent, but special attention should be paid to those elements of the text that are read most often. These usually include a summary and conclusions or recommendations. Give them special attention.
- It is important to understand that the employer may not read the report at all because he has nothing to do or the report is not needed. High-level executives are always extremely busy, so they are able to highlight significant information that allows them to make effective decisions. Such persons will not read the entire report if it is not necessary, but they can always return to it later.
Part 2
Report Structure
1. Ask for a sample. Many companies have adopted a standard weekly report format, and managers and management get used to receiving information in a certain way. A different report format can cause confusion.
  - Be especially careful with sales reports. Managers get used to the structure of reports and can find necessary information one glance per page. If you deviate from the accepted format, then the report will become almost useless, because the manager will have to re-read the entire text to find the necessary information.
  - Contact the secretary and ask for a sample so as not to reinvent the wheel. Typically, a company uses a document template with all the options, including margins, fonts, table and paragraph styles.
2. Consider the reporting method. A printed document or an electronic attachment is designed in a completely different way than a report that is submitted in the body of an e-mail.
  - For example, if the report is submitted as an attachment to an email, then the summary should be included in the body of the email. Then the reader doesn't have to open the attachment to understand the main idea.
  - For a printed report, it is usually necessary to prepare transmittal letter or a title page so that the report can be correctly identified and filed.
  - Regardless of how you submit your report, it is important to include your last name on each page and number them in an "X out of Y" format. Pages can easily split, so it's important to know how many pages the report is on and who the author of the document is.
  - All the necessary information can be specified in the header. For example, type in it: "Peter Ivanov's sales report, week 32, page 3 of 7."
3. Attach a summary. The summary of the report usually fits in a couple of paragraphs, and each section is transmitted in one or two sentences. The bottom line is that often it is enough for a manager to read only a summary in order to make the necessary decision if your conclusions coincide with his assumptions on this issue.
  - It is important that the summary be written in clear, accessible and concise language. Do not use jargon and technical terms that require explanation, even if the reader is well versed in industry terminology.
  - The summary is compiled after the completion of the remaining elements of the report. It is not possible to briefly summarize paragraphs that have not yet been written, even if detailed plan. A lot can change during a job.
4. Consider the structure of paragraphs and sections. Decide on the format and leave a report section plan that will meet the objectives.
  - The plan should be logical and coherent, and take into account the potential readers of the report.
  - Typically, the report consists of summary, introduction, conclusions and recommendations, data and explanations, as well as a list of sources. Extended reports can be supplemented with attachments with important data and a table of contents, but the weekly reports are quite short.
  - Each section should address one issue. Each paragraph within a section describes one idea. For example, if the section of the weekly sales report is titled "Popular Children's Clothing Brands," then one paragraph should be given to each model. If you want to list boys' and girls' clothing separately, use subheadings (with appropriate subheadings) for each brand, within which you'll have one paragraph for boys' clothing and one paragraph for girls' clothing.
5. Create a cover page or cover letter. A cover page is not required for summary reports, but a detailed report should be provided with a separate sheet indicating the author of the report and brief description tasks.
  - The title page differs from the summary, because it actually contains only the information that is needed for the correct registration and filing of the report.
  - Your organization may have a standard cover page template for weekly reports. In this case, follow the established rules.
  - On the title page include the title or description of the report (for example, "Weekly Sales Report"), the name of the author and all contributors, the name of the company, and the date the report was compiled or submitted.
  Part 3
  Persuasive words and phrases
  1. Think of good headings and subheadings. Such report elements allow the reader to quickly find relevant sections and additional information to help understand the findings and recommendations.
    - Section headings and subheadings should accurately and clearly describe the content.
    - For example, in a weekly sales report, you might use the "Overall trends in women's clothing"," Trends in men's clothing "and" Popular brands of children's clothing ". Then, within each section, subsections can be distinguished, the names of which will reflect clear trends or names of popular brands.
    - Use uniform grammatical constructions for all headings so that the report looks logical and consistent. For example, if the first heading is worded as " Best Items from the men's collection", then the next heading should be "Leading positions in women's clothing", not "Women's sales figures".
  2. Use simple and clear sentences. Your report should consist of sentences with the standard Subject, Verb structure to express your thoughts clearly and demonstrate confidence in the conclusions and recommendations made.
    - Reread the draft and cross out any unnecessary words. In each sentence, find the performer of the action and place it before the verb. Schematically, sentences should look like "Who does what".
    - Get rid of redundant words and phrases like "for today", "for the purpose of" or "for availability".
    - This style may seem boring, but your goal is not to entertain the reader. It is much more important for a report to communicate key aspects and conclusions effectively.
  3. The conclusions must be objective and unbiased. The report often needs to provide recommendations, but they should be based on facts, not personal opinion and feelings. It is important to convince the reader with irrefutable evidence and clarity of thought.
    - Do not use adjectives, as well as other words and phrases with a pronounced positive or negative emotional connotation. Focus on facts and common sense.
    - For example, in a report, you recommend a promotion for one of your sales managers. Back up your recommendation with facts that demonstrate that the person really deserves a promotion, but don't give subjective opinions or appeal to emotions. "Alina regularly performs better even though she only works 15 hours a week" is more convincing than "Alina is very friendly and always tries hard, but she has to work part-time as she looks after her elderly parents."
  4. Use persuasive verbs. If the text is written in the active voice, then the action in the sentence is expressed in one word - the verb. Use concise and persuasive verbs that clearly describe the action.
    - Preference should be given to simple verbs. For example, "selling" is always better than "realizing".
    - Sometimes verbs are needed that express thought processes - think, know, understand, believe, but in general they are inferior to action verbs. Try to expand your statement and turn it into action. For example, you wrote the sentence "I believe sales will increase in the coming months." Expand the statement and outline the reasons for this assumption. Reword the sentence: "In practice, sales increase during the holiday season. I predict that sales will increase in November and December."
    - The text should be action oriented. Reread the report, try to get rid of unnecessary prepositions and replace redundant words with persuasive verbs. For example, "help" can be replaced with "help", and instead of "provide protection" say "protect".
  5. Don't use the passive voice. passive form strikes out the subject of the action from the sentence, and the object comes to the fore. In some situations, the passive voice is necessary for political or diplomatic reasons, but most often it makes the text confusing and vague.
    - The active voice allows you to emphasize the performers of the action and shows the reader responsible persons. To appreciate the importance of this aspect, imagine that in a newspaper article about a fire you came across the following sentence: "Fortunately, all the children were saved." It is necessary to understand who saved these children. If the sentence looked like "Local teacher Ivan Petrov returned several times to the burning building of the boarding school and saved all the children," then the real hero comes to the fore.
    - Also, a valid pledge allows you to find the person responsible for negative consequences. The phrase "Some mistakes were made" will make the employer wonder who made the mistakes and who should be punished. If you are the one who made mistakes, then accept responsibility and accept the consequences.
    - Pay attention to the verb "to be" to find sentences with passive voice. If you managed to find them, then determine the action performed and the person who performs it, and then change the word order.
  6. Use visual ways to express data. Schemes and graphs are perceived much easier and are located immediately after the paragraph with such information (especially if such data contains a large number of numbers).
    - Choose appropriate visual aids that make things easier for the reader and serve the purpose of the report.
    - For example, use a line chart to show the growth in wool coat sales. This presentation of the data is much more effective than a table with the number of units sold each month, since the table forces the reader to keep all the numbers in mind and compare them with each other to detect trends. One glance at the graph will be enough to understand the essence.
    - First of all, a person always pays attention to visual elements. All graphs and diagrams must be clear and accurate, correctly positioned on the page. Use only those elements that really support your conclusions and recommendations.
  7. Don't use jargon. Each branch of knowledge or activity has its inevitable terminology, as well as buzzwords that are often used in books and articles. Sometimes they are useful, but in most cases, jargon only gets in the way of clearly and competently expressing the main idea.
    - Try to make a list of professional jargon so you don't overuse such words in your report. Finish the text and search for keywords to replace unwanted lexical items.
    - It should be understood that a large number of buzzwords will not show the reader that you are "in the know", but will have the opposite effect. The director and managers are often older than ordinary employees and have seen many such words in their lifetime. If you abuse jargon, they will think that you are too lazy, poorly versed in the topic, or just want to impress.
    - It is also best not to use overly complicated terms. For example, a report on a legal dispute should not contain an excessive amount of legal gibberish.
  8. Correct all errors. A large number of typos and grammatical errors only distract the reader and create a negative image of the author. Write a draft report in advance so that you have time to work on the bugs.
    - Check spelling and grammar in a word processing program on your computer, but don't rely solely on automatic corrections. Such programs can miss a lot of errors, especially in similar words("signets" instead of "gloves").
    - Read the report backwards to find any errors. If the topic of the report is close to you, then it is very easy not to notice the mistake, because the brain can automatically “think out” the missing words or letters in the text. Read backwards to understand individual words.
    - Read the report aloud to notice errors and stylistic flaws. If you can't read a sentence or paragraph without a hitch, then it's likely that your text is overloaded and the reader will also get confused. Rewrite bad sentences.