Factors to be Considered in Drafting a Good Report
A report must satisfy certain pre-requisites or principles. Such pre-requisites, qualities, or principles of a good report are as follows:
Objectivity: The first quality of a good report is its objectivity. Objectivity implies that the report is free from personal biasness or subjective information. If there is subjective information or personal biasness, report will fail to attain its objective.
Accuracy of facts: A good report transmits accurate facts and figures. If the facts and figures contained in the report are inaccurate, the decision made on the basis of such facts will be incorrect and misleading.
Orderly arrangement: Contents of a report should be arranged logically and orderly. Orderly presentation helps the leaders to find their desired information from a long report.
Specific structure: Report should be written following a specific structure. An unstructured report fails to draw the attention of the readers. Structure of a report varies depending on its type and purpose.
Relevance: Another quality of a good report is that it transmits not only accurate but also relevant information. Irrelevant facts and information should always be avoided because such facts create confusion and misunderstanding.
Correctness: Another basic pre-requisite of a good report is that it should he grammatically correct and free form errors.
Reader orientation: Reader orientation is another important quality of a good report. Every report is prepared targeting a specific reader or group of readers. Therefore, it should be written considering the reader’s education, knowledge, experience and familiarity with the report problem.
Impersonal approach: Writing in impersonal approach is another important principle of a good report. Impersonal approach means writing report in third person language. A good report prefers the third person instead of the first and second persons. However, it does not mean that first and second persons should always be avoided.
Recommendations: Providing recommendations is another essential quality of a report. Along with the presentation and analysis of facts, a good report recommends some lines of actions to solve the problem aid to prevent its recurrence
