Have you been assigned the job of creating a report for your organization? Does that task seem completely daunting? It doesn’t have to be. First of all, you or various people or departments within your organization have all the information you need to include. Second, you have plenty of examples and formatting help available to help you produce the report.

There are many types and lengths of reports. Some might be one-page summaries, and others could be hundreds of pages long. The most common report you are likely to need to produce is a project report, where you summarize what the project was intended to accomplish and how well it met its goals. But there are also meeting reports, status reports, monthly and quarterly reports, all kinds of studies and research reports, and annual reports.

It’s important to consider the audience for each type of report. Who will your readers be? Are they your colleagues who already know all about your organization and your field, or do the readers include people like shareholders and interested members of the general public for whom you will need to include background information and more in-depth explanations?

Also consider the goals of the report itself. Are they to analyze and compare results in a scientific fashion, or does the report have a marketing element, too? For example, annual reports summarize an organization’s activities and financial status, but annual reports also generally include sections that list the organization’s products or services and emphasize their successes, because annual reports are used by shareholders and potential partners and investors to determine whether investing in the organization is worthwhile.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8209619