Informal Report Writing

An informal report can be used within or outside organization to communicate a message. Depending on nature of message to be conveyed, there are different types of information reports. It is important to know what kind of report is required to send a particular message. Here are names of common types of informal reports:

• Information report
• Meeting minutes
• Justification report
• Summary
• Recommendation report
• Progress report
• To-file report
• Report Writing

Every kind of informal report has some definite features, structure and basic aspects to follow. Here are some general ideas about informal report writing:

The first and very important thing that should be kept in mind while writing an informal report is to define project or purpose of report. You should make a statement which would clearly show your purpose. Keep your audience in mind while writing any report. Your audience will read your report with different levels of perception so you have to keep your content simple, meaningful and easily understandable.

Next step after making purpose statement is to collect information to be included in your report. Make sure to give information that is useful to rely on.

Another very important issue of informal report writing is either to use inductive or deductive strategies for structuring your report. When you use inductive strategy for informal report writing, you should present problem statement at the top of report and give recommendations and conclusions at the end of quarterly report. Deductive report writing style presupposes an alternate format of report writing by giving recommendations at first and facts at last.

Don’t use fancy fonts while writing any business document. Times New Romans at 12-point with 1 inch margin is considered as more professional. Use bullets to give facts or you can use heading styles. Informal reports consist of short paragraphs. Give your detailed contact information after conclusions and recommendations.