How to write readable reports and winning proposals: Part 2: structure your reports to please your reader: a well-structured report presents the information readers want in the order in which they want it.

One of the most daunting tasks of report writing is organization. How can you shape weeks of work into a single document? The key is to aim for ease of reading.

The structure of your report should enable readers to get what they want as quickie and completely as possible. Here are two ways to do that.

"Scientific" Format                     "Management" Format

Summary                                  Summary
Introduction                             Introduction
Approach/Method                          Conclusions
Discussion                               Recommendations
Results                                  Results
Conclusions                              Discussion
Recommendations                          Approach/Method
Acknowledgments                          Acknowledgments
Appendixes                               Appendixes

The Scientific Format is good if you are addressing peers who may want to evaluate the validity of your approach. It follows a logical progression, from an overview (Summary) to the background (Introduction), to your Method, to a Discussion of anything interesting that occurred, and then to your Results. The Conclusions and Recommendations grow directly out of the Results.

The Management Format uses the same categories but rearranges them to allow general management readers to gel the information they want in the beginning, without having to read detailed sections.

You may not always need a section on Method; this will depend on the nature of your work and your readership. You may decide to give a more specific title to the "Discussion" section if it covers only one topic. Otherwise, these sections work fur most technical reports.

The Summary provides the essence of your report, preferably in non technical terms. It should give general answers to all your readers' most urgent questions, but the primary reader here is usually the executive. Think "broad brushstrokes." A good outline for the opening summary is the P-A-W: Purpose, Achievement, What Next. For a discussion of the "PAW," see the first column in this series.

The Introduction explains what led to the work you did. It is an amplification of the "Purpose" stated in the Summary. To keep your Introduction brief and interesting, consider your readers. How much background do they want and need? Tell them only that.

The Approach/Method opens with a summary of the key points of the method-points that could interest both management and technical readers. The rest of the section tells your technical readers how you proceeded.

The Discussion requires informative subheadings. Use a clear subhead for each topic you explore. Open each topic with a summary paragraph that states your main message. Then consider which readers will be most interested in that topic. Note what questions they would have and try to answer them. If you have more to tell, state it after you have answered their questions, or put it in the Appendix.

The Results state simply what you found. It is best to present them as a bulleted list. (This stops you from adding long interpretations, which don't belong here.) For example:

* The five-pound roast was no longer on the counter.

* The dog was under the table, looking unwell.

The Conclusions are your deductions from the Results. They, too, work well as a bulleted list. They should grow clearly out of the Results. For example:

* The dog ate five pounds of raw beef.

The Recommendations state what to do next. They should grow directly out of your Conclusions. For example:

* When preparing roast beef, close the kitchen door, making sure the dog is outside the kitchen.

The Appendixes consist of material that is not critical for understanding your report but might be useful in the future. Make sure that each page has enough information on it to make it self-explanatory.

Finally, here are two points that apply to all sections:

1. In each section and subsection, move from the most to the least important information, unless some other logical scheme (e.g., chronology, left to right, top to bottom, causal sequence) clearly makes the section easier to understand.

2. Once you introduce several items in a certain order, stick to that order in the rest of the report.

Follow these simple rules, and your readers will thank you for making the report easily accessible and readable.

Cheryl and Peter Reimold have been teaching communication skills to engineers, scientists, and businesspeople for 20 years. Their firm, PERC Communications (telephone [phone], e-mail [e-mail]), offers businesses consulting and writing services, as well as customized in-house courses on writing, presentation skills, and on-the-job communication skills. Visit their web site at www.allaboutcommunication.com.