Report Writing
Length
25 hours; ten 2½-hour meetings, five 5-hour meetings, or three all-day meetings.
Description
As a special course in the English language, Report Writing has three objectives:
- To increase the writer's skills in constructing clear and concise sentences.
- To show how a writer, through a knowledge of developmental patterns and devices of continuity, can assemble such sentences into unified and coherent paragraphs.
- To suggest methods through which these paragraphs can be systematically organized into a successful, finished report.
The lessons apply not only to engineering and scientific reports, but to all other types of technical and non-technical compositions as well, from memorandums, letters, and proposals to judicial opinions and environmental impact statements. They apply not just to the employee who originates a paper, but to the supervisor who reviews and the publications editor who may be asked to put on the final stamp.
But beyond language, there are other considerations which go into the production of an accurate, unbiased report: the ability on the part of the writer to distinguish between fact and opinion, the marshalling of facts into logical arrangements, and the proper application of evidence in reaching a valid conclusion. These elements, as necessary skills to be polished or acquired, are also part of the Report Writing course.
Method
The governing principle in the Report Writing course is the principle of immediate application. Discussions in technique are followed immediately by sessions in which class members participate, and during which they apply the lessons of the day to practice exercises and problems based on actual samples taken from memorandums, letters, and reports. Homework is assigned on a regular basis.
Materials
The Communications Skills Company will provide each student with a 460-page text entitled Reference Materials for Effective Writing. In addition, we will provide students with roughly 100 pages of exercises based on actual letters, memorandums, and reports produced in government, business, and industry.
Class size
No more than 25 students a class.
Price
Call 256-883-6310 for pricing information.