I still remember feeling devastated back in university when my lecturer returned my first Writing 101 assignment with the comment ‘Not bad for a first draft’. My masterpiece that I’d slaved over during the past week lay bleeding in my hands, riddled with red.
Often the most challenging part of a report to write, the executive summary is possibly the most important. The executive summary provides a quick overview or synopsis of your report and may be the only part of your report that gets read. So it’s important to get it right.
Learning to write well is like preparing for a marathon. A few hours of training will provide a good foundation, but to complete or win the race will take sustained effort. Many team members will make significant improvements after an initial writing skills training or coaching session. Following training there is much managers and supervisors can do to help team members continue to develop their writing skills.
Deadlines can be a blessing or a curse. An achievable deadline can be our ally. It focuses us. A realistic deadline that allows us to write a well-planned and executed professional report will have positive and far-reaching outcomes.
So how can you make your report more interesting to read while at the same time meeting your legal requirements?
With word processing programs in workplaces often remaining in the default setting of US spelling, many people are increasingly unaware of the differences between Australian and American spelling. Australian spelling closely follows British spelling, yet many common words are spelt differently in American English even though they mean the same thing. In an interconnected world with English an international language, do these differences matter?
Read More