An effective analytical report allows you to make an informed decisionHow I wish I'd carried out an effective, analytical report so I could make an informed decision. Does this sound familiar? It sure is to me. When I look back at decisions I’ve made, how useful it would have been if I’d just spent a little time developing an effective analytical report. It would have saved me a lot of grief. It needn’t have been something big. Just a brief investigation, a one page summary of what I found and I would have had something on which to make an informed decision. Here’s an example. I would never have agreed to write an audiovisual presentation for a well-known non-profit agency had I briefly researched beforehand all the ground they expected me to cover at less than minimum wage. On the other hand I was involved with a major corporate reorganization where a report we developed on senior management opinions and attitudes was absolutely critical in determining the best decisions for the organization to move forward. Types of reportIn our book How to Write Proposals, Sales Letters & Reports we go into detail about types of reports. To give you the briefest of summaries:Progress/Interim ReportsThese tend to provide results – how is a particular project or process proceeding? Is it on the right track? Are there issues involved? Is it worth proceeding?Information ReportsThese are rather like snapshots in time. They include sales reports, annual reports, inventory levels. The results may simply be the results. On the other hand they may lead to decisions.Analytical ReportsAlso known as interpretive reports, these tend to require the most work. They ask the questions such as “What is going on here?” “What if we did this?” “What is the cause of that?”
Because it’s probably where you need the help, we’re going to focus on developing and writing an effective analytical report. To begin, we’re going to jump into analytical report format, and then work backwards.
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