R e a d e r F r i e n d l y R e p o r t s A Manual Prepared for Students at the Rutgers Faculty of Management by Carter A. Daniel 9th edition 2000 2 IF WE HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN CANDIDATES WHO CAN WRITE WELL AND CANDIDATES WHO KNOW ACCOUNTING, WE CHOOSE THE ONES WHO CAN WRITE. WE CAN TEACH ACCOUNTING IN A FEW WEEKS, BUT BAD WRITING CREATES SUCH A DRAG ON PERFORMANCE WE PREFER NOT TO GET INVOLVED. -the Senior Vice-President of a major bank in New York NEVER, FOR EVEN A MOMENT, LET OUT OF YOUR SIGHT THE SINGLE PURPOSE OF BUSINESS WRITING: TO PERSUADE YOUR READER, AS EFFICIENTLY AS POSSIBLE, OF THE VALIDITY OF YOUR THESIS. ONLY TWO THINGS IN THIS BOOK ARE IMPORTANT: (1) ORGANIZE AROUND CONCLUSIONS AND (2) TELL PEOPLE WHAT YOURE GOING TO SAY BEFORE YOU SAY IT. Earlier editions copyright 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1992, 1994, 1996. Copyright 2000 by Carter A. Daniel. Produced at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. 3 CHAPTER ONE: PLANNING A READER-FRIENDLY REPORT 1. Right and Wrong, Boss and Book 4 2. What Business Writing Isnt and Is 5 3. Understanding the Assignment 7 4. Assessing the Audience 9 5. Determining the Controlling Purpose 11 6. Organizing a Report 13 -topic and thesis 14 -thesis paragraph 17 -subheaded segments 22 7. Afterword 24 4 1. RIGHT AND WRONG, BOSS AND BOOK For some reason, questions of writing style and correctness bring out peoples most mule-headed private opinions. A boss who doesnt know anything about calculus or linear programming would never think of overruling a subordinate on one of those subjects. But just let that same subordinate do something contrary to what the bosss ignorant sixth-grade teacher said-some asinine rule about ending a sentence with a preposition or starting one with “because“-and the boss will pounce with fangs bared. The moral is that if somebody is paying your salary, you should write the way that person wants. Writing is far less often “right“ or “wrong“ than it is “appropriate“ or “inappropriate.“ Obviously, if you write in a way that irritates your boss, you are writing inappropriately. This manual sets forth some reasonable suggestions about decent business writing-suggestions you might want to follow if you havent been given any specific rules to govern the particular task youre doing. Everything that is said here, however, should be considered subject to being overruled by any special requirements you have been given for a particular assignment. Just to make sure its clear, lets say it one more time, a different way: For the love of mud, whatever you do, dont go wave this book in your bosss face and shout, “See? Youre wrong!“ When your boss tells you one thing and the book tells you something different, do what your boss says. 5 6 2. WHAT BUSINESS WRITING ISNT AND IS Business writing isnt a different language with a separate set of words and phrases. “In receipt of,“ “as per your request,“ “beg to acknowledge,“ and “please be advised“ are relics of the past. They arent used anymore, or shouldnt be anyway. Business writing also isnt dull and stereotyped. Bad writing is dull; good writing is interesting. These statements are true for all writing, business or any other kind. If you are interested in a subject but find the report dull, somethings wrong with the way the report is written. Business writing is just like any other writing except more efficient. Whereas some kinds of writing aim at being dreamy, witty, entertaining, spooky, outrageous, shocking, or sexy, when youre doing the kind of writing being described here you have only one aim: to persuade your reader, as efficiently as possible, of the validity of your thesis. Think for a minute about who your audience is, and youll understand the reason for insisting on efficiency. Business people are intelligent, suspicious, and busy. So when you write for them you have to be factual, persuasive, and efficient: factual because they are too intelligent to be fooled by vagueness and bluffing; persuasive because you have to overcome the suspicion that always accompanies money matters; and efficient because youll lose your reader if you waste time. 7 A few pages from now (page 12, to be exact) you will encounter a description of “thesis-and-subheaded-structured-segments“ organization, the standard pattern for organizing business reports. Even before you get there, however, you might do well to think for a moment about the whole reason for organizing a business report differently from the way you organize a magazine article or a novel or an advertisement. Try this explanation: The people who assigned you the report did so because they didnt have time to do the work themselves. They asked you the questions, and now they want the answers. The answers are, therefore, the most important things in your report, and you must organize your whole report around them and wave them in your readers face. State them at the beginning; elaborate on them one