Report writing: a tried, tested and successful approach
By Clare Forrest (April 2004 Issue)
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The courses are over and you’ve waved farewell to the delegates, bathed in a glow of satisfaction. Now it’s time to write that report. Sighing, you reluctantly sit at your PC. Without too much thought you immediately start typing. About ten minutes later you stare hopelessly at the screen, realising that you have completely lost track of what you wanted to say. And is that ‘effect’ or ‘affect’ you should be using? Heck. You’re a trainer, not a writer. A hands-on people person. Why bother with the report anyway? Well, you promised it to your boss. And bosses like this sort of stuff. Grumpily, you carry on …
Is this how you approach report writing? If so, you’re not alone. Even many professional, published writers rarely enjoy writing. Novelist William Saroyan observed that ‘writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators’.1 I certainly dislike it. When I prepare ‘Netcheck’ for Training Journal I’ll happily spend hours surfing the Internet, looking for interesting websites to review. Then I’ll find loads of excuses to do something else – anything else – rather than actually write the column. And that’s true for everything I’ve ever written, which is rather a lot.
So, given that some of us may find it such hard work, why is it we need to write reports at all? It’s usually for one of the following reasons.
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