Chapter 17. Writing Informational Reports
1. Chapter 17 discusses something known as an informational report. An informational report “informs or instructs and presents details of events, activities, individuals, or conditions without analysis” (“Report,” n.d.) as the University of Minnesota notes in an online module. The common goals of these reports is to explain why or how something in particular happens, as the textbook notes. Taking many forms, informational reports are a large part of technical communication.
2. Informational reports take many forms, but the textbook notes five basic formats they are found in. The first are directives, which explain “a policy or procedure you want your readers to follow.” Secondly are field reports, which “describe inspections, maintenance, and site studies” of things observed in the field. Next are progress reports, which “describe ongoing projects,” and status reports, which describe the entire range of operations of a department, division, etc.” Finally, there are incident reports, which “describe events such as workplace accidents, health or safety emergencies, and/or equipment problems” (Markel, 2012).
3. Directives are documents that instruct others. The primary purpose of these is to explain how one desires something to be done. Chapter 17 notes, “In directives, you explain a policy or procedure you want your readers to follow” (Markel, 2012). These are useful both internally within businesses and externally with consumers. 4. Incident reports are documents that describe something. The primary purpose of these is to describe an event that occurred. Chapter 17 notes, “An incident report describes events such as workplace accidents, health or safety emergencies, and/or equipment problems” (Markel, 2012). These are useful in investigations, product development, etc. 5. Field reports are documents drawn from observations in the field. The primary purpose of these is to describe field conditions and events. Chapter 17 notes, “field reports, explain the problems, methods, results, and conclusions, but deemphasize methods and can also include recommendations” (Markel, 2012), These are useful in scientific research and product testing. 6. Progress reports describe ongoing projects. Status reports describe only a part of something, like a department. Chapter 17 notes these definitions, and it is easy to figure out the difference. The difference is progress reports describe a whole project, while status reports only describe a part of a project, work, etc. 7. Progress reports describe ongoing projects. There are two organizational patterns commonly used in these. One is the “time pattern” which “describes all the work that you have completed in the present reporting period and sketch in the work that remains.” The other is the “task pattern,” which describes “in order, what has been accomplished on each task [and] often …show more content…
Question 12 asks which of the given ways is best for a pharmaceutical company to prepare its progress report of a new drug in. The answer is C, by task, as the University of Toronto’s Engineering Communication program lists on their website, “The original proposal for the project determines the structure [of the report]: make use of original milestones or the timeline” (“Progress/Interim Reports,” 2016), which in this case the logical choice would be task oriented organization. It is not A, as the information given states it is already structured as monthly, and further organization by time is not needed. It is not B either, as this is a progress report not a status report. Finally, it is not D either, as nothing about the budget is mentioned and budget is not usually used to
1. Chapter 17 discusses something known as an informational report. An informational report “informs or instructs and presents details of events, activities, individuals, or conditions without analysis” (“Report,” n.d.) as the University of Minnesota notes in an online module. The common goals of these reports is to explain why or how something in particular happens, as the textbook notes. Taking many forms, informational reports are a large part of technical communication.
2. Informational reports take many forms, but the textbook notes five basic formats they are found in. The first are directives, which explain “a policy or procedure you want your readers to follow.” Secondly are field reports, which “describe inspections, maintenance, and site studies” of things observed in the field. Next are progress reports, which “describe ongoing projects,” and status reports, which describe the entire range of operations of a department, division, etc.” Finally, there are incident reports, which “describe events such as workplace accidents, health or safety emergencies, and/or equipment problems” (Markel, 2012).
3. Directives are documents that instruct others. The primary purpose of these is to explain how one desires something to be done. Chapter 17 notes, “In directives, you explain a policy or procedure you want your readers to follow” (Markel, 2012). These are useful both internally within businesses and externally with consumers. 4. Incident reports are documents that describe something. The primary purpose of these is to describe an event that occurred. Chapter 17 notes, “An incident report describes events such as workplace accidents, health or safety emergencies, and/or equipment problems” (Markel, 2012). These are useful in investigations, product development, etc. 5. Field reports are documents drawn from observations in the field. The primary purpose of these is to describe field conditions and events. Chapter 17 notes, “field reports, explain the problems, methods, results, and conclusions, but deemphasize methods and can also include recommendations” (Markel, 2012), These are useful in scientific research and product testing. 6. Progress reports describe ongoing projects. Status reports describe only a part of something, like a department. Chapter 17 notes these definitions, and it is easy to figure out the difference. The difference is progress reports describe a whole project, while status reports only describe a part of a project, work, etc. 7. Progress reports describe ongoing projects. There are two organizational patterns commonly used in these. One is the “time pattern” which “describes all the work that you have completed in the present reporting period and sketch in the work that remains.” The other is the “task pattern,” which describes “in order, what has been accomplished on each task [and] often …show more content…
Question 12 asks which of the given ways is best for a pharmaceutical company to prepare its progress report of a new drug in. The answer is C, by task, as the University of Toronto’s Engineering Communication program lists on their website, “The original proposal for the project determines the structure [of the report]: make use of original milestones or the timeline” (“Progress/Interim Reports,” 2016), which in this case the logical choice would be task oriented organization. It is not A, as the information given states it is already structured as monthly, and further organization by time is not needed. It is not B either, as this is a progress report not a status report. Finally, it is not D either, as nothing about the budget is mentioned and budget is not usually used to