Kinds and Objectives of Report writing

Kinds of Report writing

Long Report and Short Reports:

These kinds of reports are quite clear, as the name suggests. A two-page report or sometimes referred to as a memorandum is short, and a thirty-page report is absolutely long. But what makes a clear division of short reports or long reports? Well, usually, notice that longer reports are generally written in a formal manner.

Internal and External Reports:

As the name suggests, an internal report stays within a certain organization or group of people. In the case of office settings, internal reports are for within the organization.

We prepare external reports, such as a news report in the newspaper about an incident or the annual reports of companies for distribution outside the organization. We call these as public reports.

Vertical and Lateral Reports:

This is about the hierarchy of the reports’ ultimate target. If the report is for your management or for your mentees, it’s a vertical report. Wherever a direction of upwards or downwards comes into motion, we call it a vertical report.

Lateral reports, on the other hand, assist in coordination in the organization.  A report traveling between units of the same organization level (for example, a report among the administration and finance departments) is lateral.

Periodic Reports:

Periodic reports are sent out on regularly pre-scheduled dates. In most cases, their direction is upward and serves as management control. Some, like annual reports, is not vertical but is a Government mandate to be periodic in nature.

That is why we have annual or quarterly or half-yearly reports. If they are this frequent, it only makes sense to pre-set the structure of these reports and just fill in the data every period. That’s exactly what happens in most cases too.

Formal and Informal Reports:

Formal reports are meticulously structured. They focus on objectivity and organization, contain deeper detail, and the writer must write them in a style that eliminates factors like personal pronouns.

Informal reports are usually short messages with free-flowing, casual use of language. We generally describe the internal report/memorandum as an informal report. For example, a report among your peers, or a report for your small group or team, etc.

Informational and Analytical Reports:

Informational reports (attendance reports, annual budget reports, monthly financial reports, and such) carry objective information from one area of an organization to maybe a larger system.

Analytical reports (scientific research, feasibility reports, and employee appraisals) show attempts to solve actual problems. These analytical reports usually require suggestions at the end.

Proposal Reports:

These kinds of reports are like an extension to the analytical/problem-solving reports. A proposal is a document one prepares to describe how one organization can provide a solution to a problem they are facing.

There’s usually always a need to prepare a report in a business set-up. The end goal is usually very solution-oriented. We call such kinds of reports as proposal reports.

Functional Reports:

These kinds of reports include marketing reports, financial reports, accounting reports, and a spectrum of other reports that provide a function specifically. By and large, we can include almost all reports in most of these categories. Furthermore, we can include a single report in several kinds of reports.

Objectives of Report writing

1. Decision Making Tool: Today’s complex business organizations require thousands of information. A  Reports provide the required information a large number of important decisions in business or any other area are taken on the basis of information presented in the reports. This is one of the great importance of report.
2. Investigation: Whenever there is any problem, a committee or commission or study group investigates the problem to find out the reason behind the problem and present the findings with or without the recommendation in the form of a report. It is another importance of report.
3. Evaluation: Large scale organizations are engaged in multidimensional activities. It is not possible for a single top executive to keep personal watch on what others are doing. So, the executive depends on reports to evaluate the performance of various departments or units.
4. Quick Location: There is no denying the fact that business executives need information for quick decision-making. As top executives are found to be busy for various purposes), they need vital sources of information. Such sources can be business reports.
5. Development of skill: Report writing skill develops the power of designing, organization coordination, judgment and communication.
6. Neutral presentation of facts: Facts are required to be presented in a neutral way; such presentation is ensured through a report as it investigates, explains and evaluates any fact independently.
7. Professional Advancement: Report also plays a major role in professional achievement. For promotion to the rank and file position, satisfactory job performance is enough to help a person. But for promotion to high level position, intellectual ability is highly required. Such ability can be expressed through the report submitted to higher authority.
8. Proper Control: Whether activities are happening according to plan or not is expressed through a report. So, controlling activities are implemented based on the information of a report.
9. A managerial Tool: Various reports make activities easy for the managers. For planning, organizing, coordinating, motivating and controlling, manager needs help from a report which acts as a source of information.
10. Encountering Advance and Complex Situation: In a large business organization, there is always some sort of labor problems which may bring complex situations. To tackle that situation, managers take the help of a report.