Assembling the persuasive elements of a strong report: 5 types of content and 5 mindsets

Strong, persuasive reports are built from five key elements, using five key mindsets. We'll create better reports when we understand what each of these does for our audiences. By David Walker.

Reports are peculiar and distinctive documents. On the one hand, they often seek to explore complex, technical and difficult issues in real detail. On the other hand, they often seek to connect with a broad audience – not just government ministers, decision-makers and community leaders, but members of the media and increasingly ordinary members of the public.

You need material for five basic types of content. Just as important, you need to adopt five separate approaches to this content.

Before you start

The five mindsets

1. Design with your audiences in mind

In creating your report, be sure you know what each of your different audiences is looking for. Remember that "audiences" is not necessarily the right term. In many cases, your "audiences" are actually partners in a process.

2. Write in plain English

The public are a far bigger audience than ever before simply because they now have so much access to reports. So rather than using the usual language of the expert and technician, reports must speak in plain English.

3. Make key messages evident everywhere

Key messages are the core of your report – the points on which you need to really engage people. Either these elements of your report will reach a large proportion of the report's audience, or nothing will. They are the content that will be recounted, debated, and if you get everything right, eventually acted upon.

Key messages should not just show up in the report's summary. They should find their way into every level of the report itself, from the executive summary to sub-sub-headings. They will also form the foundations for a huge range of other communications.

Report authors should:

Identify key messages early.
Build messages into stories.
Build out key messages as the report develops.
Keep testing message-building.
Downplay or remove messages not supported by strong content.

If your team is doing it right, you will spend most of your editing time and a great deal of your writing time thinking about your key messages. These messages should be reworked constantly until every line sings.

Read our detailed guide to developing key messages

4. Make it easy to navigate

For the same reason that most bodies now try to write their reports in plain English, they should also make it easy for even slightly disoriented readers to move around the document.

This sounds easy, but in practice people are always screwing it up. In researching this document, I came across a US government resource on making official documents easier to understand, The Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective, which ironically shows how badly this can be done. Its website listed the 11 sections in order - with none of them clickable. Then it went on:

"Toolkit Parts 1-3 and 7-11 each consists of a single document. Toolkit Parts 4-6 each consists of several documents denoting chapters. These documents are offered here as downloads. To view a more detailed outline of the topics that are covered in each part or chapter of the Toolkit, click the Toolkit Table of Contents in the navigation bar on the left side of this Overview page."

5. Keep it lively

In your job, you probably see a lot of very matter-of-fact reports and documents. This style can be acceptable for certain types of reports, such as technical reports. But most reports need to connect with their audiences. The authors of that Toolkit above, for instance, were trying to cover all their bases and cause no offence. But in the process, they created a document no-one would want to read.

And the truth today is that few people must read your report from cover to cover, paying full attention. You need to lure them into reading it and paying attention – and that means making your document interesting.

The five report elements

A. Preliminaries

About the author/authoring organisation

This first page sets out who wrote and published the report. It usually describes the publishing organisation with a link to the organisation's website, and often includes their main phone number and/or physical address. It sometimes also sets out details of individual authors/contributors, particularly when they add to the report's authority. It may also conclude details such as the report's designers.

This is also often the page which sets out copyright and Creative Commons licence details. Finally, it may spell out how the report should be cited.

Acknowledgement of Country

Some Australian reports include a section acknowledging that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of Australia. The decision to include or exclude this is often a sensitive one, so check your organisation's policies and principles carefully.

Foreword

Many reports have a foreword or its equivalent – a message, hopefully fitting on one page, from the organisation's chairman, minister, departmental secretary or some other noted figure. The ideal foreword comes from a figure with credibility in its subject area or with its target audience. The foreword might then use a very simple story to show how just it is relevant to its audience. Finally, it will briefly supports the report's approach and commends its authors and their findings.

Some of these official foreword authors may want to be involved in the writing of the foreword themselves. Occasionally you will find such an official author brings a unique and useful perspective to the foreword, and it is often worth talking to the person (or having your chief executive do so) to find out. But most organisations choose to have the first draft written by a specialist who has helped create the report, and then signed off – or sometimes tweaked or rewritten – by the official author.

In almost all cases, the foreword should be short. It can be a little longer if the writer has a compelling story relevant to the report's conclusions. But in general, 200 to 400 words can be enough. Shorter is generally better.

The table of contents lists the report's main sections and typically also its subsections, with the page on which each begins. Table of contents entries should have hypertext links to the pages they reference.

Tables, boxes, charts and tables may receive their own listings after the contents.

Glossary

Here we provide any definitions needed of terms or concepts, and spell out abbreviations.

Recommendations

Recommendations are what separates a report from other types of writing. In most cases, we recommend listing them all at the front.

Yes, you can highlight each one at a relevant point in the body of the report. But a report is more like a news article than a motion picture. Readers want to find out how you plan to solve problems. Give than that information within a few sentences. They should not wait two hours to find out how the report turns out. They can read the elaborations afterwards.

We suggest numbering your recommendations for ease of reference.

B. Executive summary

Few want to admit it, but more than half of your readers will likely read no further than the executive summary. One reason to spend long hours on your key messages is because that work will pay off in the executive summary. Make sure it's a concise, easily-absorbed and memorable summary of the report’s most important takeaways.

Read our detailed guide to developing executive summaries

C. The introductory section

The introduction is mostly there to explain why the report matters. If you don't want to explain why the report matters, for whatever reason, ditch the intro. Otherwise, answer your audiences' hurdle questions:

"Why should I read this?"
"Where does this fit in to the bigger picture?"
"Why should I think this report is authoritative?"

The best introductions make the reader want to read the rest, because suddenly the report's subject seems relevant and important. They draw readers in to the report's ideas. They make readers excited about the prospect of spending more time reading the report.

That sounds hard to most people — partly because so many introductions today are too long. Sometimes just a page is all you need. Six pages are almost certainly too much.

But mostly it sounds hard because not enough introductions get people excited about their subject. Good introductions are the place where the authors can get stirred up and explain why it's worth getting stirred up, the place where they can let loose about why they did all this tiring work. Readers want to see enthusiasm for the story they're being told; the introduction should supply that. (And if you can't find a reason for anyone to get excited, you may want to make sure your report is ... very short.)

This is old-style story-telling, modern sales technique, and plain common sense. Your reader has other things to do if you don't show them why they should get excited. Reports are long and often have complicated ideas. Some have maths; that's even harder for most people to absorb. You have to show the reader in every paragraph that further investment of their time will pay off.

Beyond stirring up the reader, follow this recipe:

Include important background such as
- why the report has been written (even if that's just "because it is required by law")
- the sources or origins of the issue
- the history of the law or policy in the area
- factors which have influenced government, community or industry responses
- previous work on the topic.
Mention briefly:
- who prepared the report
- who is the intended audience.
Avoid putting conclusions here; the summary goes elsewhere. You can season the introduction with a flavour of what the solutions will be.
Keep the introduction short; it's an appetiser, not the meal.

If the background material is important and complex, give it its own body section. Background material is often overlooked. But it is vital for anyone – including politicians and journalists – who is seeking to figure out how this report fits in with everything else they have been told. Because of this, it is also your chance to win the high ground and position your organisation as a source of reliable truth on this issue.

Some experts recommend explaining issues of methodology in the introduction. Methodological issues are often highly technical, though. So you may want to just touch briefly on them, while leaving the detail to an appendix or accompanying technical paper. If they are central to your conclusions, you may choose to give them their own section, normally after the introduction.

By the end of the introduction, the right readers should simply be motivated to read more.

D. The core sections

The core sections or chapters of the report are the place to explore the issues in detail, grouped under chapter headings. Keep them tied as much as possible to points in the key messages.

Each section or chapter will contain many or most of the following elements:

Introductions. Yes, more introductions. It's best to assume that different audiences may read particular sections, but even if they don't, each section needs context - an explanation of why it exists, what it does, and how it goes about it. That's your section introductions.
Extent and impact: the scale of issues and who/what is affected
Findings from previous studies
Scientific evidence, data and/or modelling
Stakeholders or interest groups
Case studies
Trends and implications
Options for the future. These could be evaluated, for example by considering benefits, risks, costs, and likelihood of success.
Action items, including recommendations for action.

E. After the body text

Appendices

Appendices are where you put the detail that would distract the reader from your core message. Often this will be technical material that would deter some of your intended audiences from reading the main documents. The information in them may include survey questions, methodologies, complex calculations and detailed data. Appendices should be numbered and linked from the body of the report where appropriate.

References and bibliography

Provide references for all sources used, including figures and maps as well as data. Referencing should use a common academic referencing scheme unless you are advised otherwise.

The bibliography should list all the sources on which the report draws.

Endnotes

This final page is often the back cover of a printed report. It can restate the organisation's contact details.