Department of Business

Administration

BUSINESS REPORT WRITING

Course Code: ENG 322
Program: BBA
Credit Hours: 03
 Class Objectives
a. To provide a short description of the course along with its objectives
and outcomes;
b. To enable the students to understand how a report is different from
simple writing;
c. To make them understand the difference between simple writing
and effective writing; and
d. To enable them to understand the conceptual aspects of business
report writing.

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Course Description(What this
course is all about?)
Keeping in mind the importance of report writing this course has been
designed to teach the students the basic and vital components of
professional and academic life as a major part of their academic life will
be consumed by writing reports. This course has been designed to
strengthen the potentials of the students in generating good reports.
Though this is a passive activity, it loudly speaks for it creator. In this
sense, it reflects the level, understanding, comprehension, and
communication skills of the writer. A sound technical report helps to
persuade and convince its reader and the writer comes out successful in
achieving the desired objective.

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 Course Objectives(What
is the purpose of teaching this
subject?)
a. To make them understand the concept and importance of report
writing;
b. To enable them to grasp the technical aspects and their relative
importance in report writing;
c. To equip them with the basic knowledge regarding different types
of technical reports;
d. To develop their potentials of evaluating technical reports; and
e. To make them aware of the different tools and techniques essential
for writing effective reports.

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Learning Outcomes
On the completion of this course, the student will be able:
[Link] have understood the importance of report writing;
[Link] have understood and recognized the importance of technicalities in
report writing;
[Link] have gained the basic knowledge of differentiating one type of
report from another;
[Link] have developed potentials of assessing the quality of reports; and
[Link] employ different critical tools and techniques for effective report
writing.

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Recommended Books
Text Book
Robert Hays (1965). Principles of Technical Report Writing. Addison-
Wesley Pub Co.

Reference Books
Daniel G. Riordan (2013). Technical Report Writing Today (10th Ed.).
Cengage Learning.
Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, & Walter E. Oliu (2009). Handbook
of Technical Writing (9th Ed.). Library of Congress.

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Weekly Teaching Plan
Assignments/
Week Topic
Quizzes
1 Report writing—conceptual and technical aspects
2 Effective writing: know your fact, know your reader;
organize material
3 The importance of using simple and correct grammar;
review; edit; and rewrite
4 Procedure of writing reports: Preliminary study, careful Assignment
planning
5 Different types of reports; rapid composition; criticism; and
revision
6
Principles of effective report writing

7 Technical report: A research paper

8 Bibliography; references; need of references; and types of Quiz
references
9 Mid-Term Examination

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Weekly Teaching Plan
Week Assignments/
Topic
No Quizzes
10
Qualitative difference between a bad and good report

11 Presentation & use of audio-visual aids

12 Assignment
Report designing and format

13 Minutes and minutes writing with practical examples

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Tools and techniques of effective report writing

15 Technical report writing practice I Quiz

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Technical report writing practice II

17 Revision
18 Final Examination

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Report Writing—
Conceptual and Technical
Aspects

WEEK 1 (LECTURE 1)
Business Report
Writing
•A report is a piece of writing that tells you about some experience,
event, or situation.
•This could include just doing research on some topic, a practical
experiment, some issue that has arisen in a company/organization, or a
system, or even a piece of equipment may be.
•Reports are often problem-based, but not always. It describes what you
have found out, and it goes deeper – it explains and analyses what you
have found out.
•Reports are very structured(organized or planned) and there is an
expected format. They always have sections and headings.

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Report Parts
Introduction
•Broad context(the bigger idea or overarching understanding that you have
used within your planning of this lesson) purpose, what is going to be
covered
•Does not give the overview like the executive summary
Findings
•Describe and analyze findings
•Report discoveries during research, experimentation, or observation
you have made

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 Cont..
Discussion
•Investigate deeper
•Analyze and make sense of findings; don’t just state them
Conclusion
•Summaries your findings
•Use findings to form new understanding/outcome
In Business you might be asked to give solutions or recommendations to
overcome a problem that you have noticed.
•

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Formal business report
example
Report on Staff Turnover in GHS Corporation
Submitted April. 8, 2022
Introduction
The human resources manager requested this report to
examine the high turnover rate of employees at GHS
Corporation. The information in this report was gathered by
members of the human resources department over three
months. The five-member team analyzed administration
records and working conditions, as well as interviewed staff. In
this report, recommendations are made to minimize the high
turnover rate among the staff working at GHS Corporation.

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Cont..
Background
GHS Corporation has been operating for 10 years. It employs 200
people, with most of the employees tasked with processing fees
for insurance clients. Despite operating in a region with
substantial unemployment, the annual turnover has been
between 60 to 65% every year.
Findings
The most significant issue found by the HR team when
interviewing staff was the lack of support to new mothers who
require child care services to be able to come to work. Employees
mentioned their frustration at not having an in-house child care
system that could help them continue working.

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Cont..
Another issue mentioned by the staff was the lack of
communication between employees and upper management.
They expressed their concerns about receiving inconsistent and
late instructions. They shared how they didn't know the main
business objectives which led them to lose interest in the
company and their jobs.
Conclusions
The main issues that we found were as follows:
1. Lack of support to new mothers in regards to childcare
2. Lack of communication between the staff and upper
management

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Cont..
Recommendations
To address these two main issues, we recommend the
following steps be taken:
1. An in-house childcare center can be established at minimal
cost to GHS, encouraging mothers to return to work.
2. Each department should choose an employee ambassador
to represent the interests of staff in management meetings.
This ambassador can express concerns and relay outcomes to
their teams to increase engagement.

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 Five Keys to Effective
Writing
a. Put the reader first;
b. Use simple words and short sentences;
c. Use jargon only when necessary;
d. Write with verbs and nouns; and
e. Format to improve readability.

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Expected Outcomes
After having this class, the students are expected to:
[Link] come to know about the importance of the course along with its
objectives and outcomes;
[Link] students have somehow understood the difference between
report and simple writing;
[Link] have understood the difference between simple writing and
effective writing; and
[Link] are now in the position to educate others what business report
writing is.

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