Can You Satisfy Many Audiences With One Report

You have decided to really up your game when it comes to report writing and you’re learning at a rapid rate! You now know that business report writing is a logical process which you have to prepare for. You know six methods for collecting data and you know how to subject that data to a mental process which transforms it into great, useful information. You know how to profile your user/reader and to write a report that closely matches their needs.
“But wait…Do I have to write many reports on the same topic or can I satisfy several audiences with one report?” you suddenly ask yourself. That’s a great question to ask yourself and of course I will answer it for you! The answer comes in two easy steps.
Step One – classify your users/readers
Different audiences will have different reasons for reading your report and your role as the report writer is to clearly understand and address your audiences’ purposes. For example, if we look at the business environment, your users can be classified into five broad types.
1. Consumer audiences (Anyone outside their given area of knowledge)
2. Executive/managers (Opinion makers; they make choices the company follows)
3. Professionals/specialists (An expert or specialist in any particular field, profession, speciality, body of information)
4. Technicians/support staff (They build equipment, maintain it, redesign it, or work in support of the above)
5. Operators/workers (They perform or fulfil instructions from others)
Even within the same organisation or department, each user or group of users may have various reasons for reading your report. For example:
· Technical Specialist Alicia wants to read a comprehensive introduction to the topic before she decides if and how to use the information further.
· Super Salesman Barry expects to be able o use your information to persuade a client or superior to a certain course of action.
· Critical Thinker Cecile may want to use your information to evaluate an idea of her own.
· Critical Thinker Derek may want to use your information to evaluate an idea from someone else.
· Elite Expert Elayne may be a fellow expert who wants to review other opinions on the topic; i.e. yours.
· Frivolous Fred may want a brief and straightforward overview so that he knows just enough not to be embarrassed when the subject is discussed.
Once you have classified your users/readers you’re ready for step two.
Step two – Write your report in sections and address each section to a different audience
Oh yes! It’s that easy. For example you report can contain the following sections:
· Executive Summary-for executives and managers. This will contain enough information for the decision-makers to get an understanding of the problem and to make an “in principle” decision, while awaiting more details from the specialists.
· Technical Information-for technicians and specialists. Here is where you will put the stats, the charts, the details, etc, that will excite the engineers or the accountants and make the rest of us think that watching paint dry is more exciting.
· Support Overview-for support staff and workers. This section will outline the role of the support staff and operators, etc in working with the specialist and technician to achieve the desired objectives.
The advantage of this approach is that each group gets the information in its own special format and can read the other sections for more detail if they want it.
While you may be hard-pressed to meet the requirements of too many users with one report, understanding the above will certainly assist you to improve the number that you do meet. So to succinctly answer your question: Do I have to write many reports on the same topic or can I satisfy several audiences with one report?
The answer is…No… and…Yes.