before you start a report you should plan the following :

purpose of the report

who is your intended audience
determain what data is needed to solve a problem oe decsiion
factoring your problem means break it down to determain what data to collect.
Sample Situational Report are reports that the writer writes from scratch they c
ontain the following:
clear subject line , briefing paragraph , critiria , table of comparison , stati
ng recommandation

the criteria for a business report is : organised, well supported, usefull

organised : means the data are logically organised and ease of acces
well supported: people can trust sources
usefull: reports that help in making descisions
their are two types of data, secondary data and primary data
secondary data are data collected by others
primary data are data collected by researchers to solve a specisfic problem
the three main ways of collecting data are : survey , observation , experminatat
ion
its always good to have data from e-library better than googling , because data
are evaluated in e-library
evaluating web resources :
----------------------------authority : is the resource well known as high authority
purpose : is the web source commercial,education,organization
currency : when was the site last updated or revised
reliability: does the page use good citation
cuverage : is the page completed or still under construction
evlauating reasrch study :
-----------------------------what is the purpose of the study?
how was the data analyzed ?
is the data consistent to other studies?
how old is the data ?
was the data obtained in a correct manner ?
collecting data through questionnaire :
a survet is a data collection method using questionnare , email inquiries , tele
phone msgs.
a questionnaire is a written instruments with questions to obtain information fr
om reciepients.

when to use a questionnaire ?

- when the information can be provided are easy and short
- when time is available
- when audience is homogeneous
how to construct a questionnaire :
content:
use a unbiased questions( neurtral)
use questions that doesnot yield to the correct answer
ask questions that cant be accessed else where
use coherent words and be clear and simple
establish a goal or purpose in every question , because you have to solve a case
dont overlap ideas,or ask a question in different categories
pilot-test your questionnaire before survying your audience
be carfull for asking sensitive quesstions like salary
organization :
provide directior for reciepient , they should not get lost
if the question is long devide it into sections
use alphabetical or numerics
format:
questionnaire should look simple and attractive in a professinoal manner , to be
appropriate for reciepient's collaboration
use tabulation , mcq and easy possible answers .
writing a cover letter :
address and identify the audience
start with attention getter
relate to the audience to show the importance of participating
emphasize that the time is short for answering
aprreciate participation: put a link for redirection to the survey
put your researchers' name without signature.

Displaying quantitative information

the next step is to change your secondary or primary data from raw materials ( n
ews, jornal , articles ) into information ( meaningful
facts statistics , conclusion , recomandation ) you can meanwhile prepare visual
aids like graphs, charts , tables .

constructing a table :
a table is an ordered distribution of values and numbers within rows and coloumn
s, in this way the reader can easily interpret
than clear text.
cross -tabulation is a proces of which two or more data are analyzed

use simple charts:

determain the purpose u wish to convey, in persuasive reports, use audience anal
ysis to organize the importance
chartjunk is visual elements that call attention to themselves instead of inform
ation on chart
A pie chart is a circle graph divided into component wedges
exploding pie , one wedge is zoomed in for emphasis.

INTERPRETING DATA
isolation , context , synthesis.