how to write a research report

writing tips and concepts to employ-ees. From that outline, the context for the research should seem more apparent, he says, and you can better appreciate which aspects of the data matter most. Remem-ber when you’re writing that you’re trying to tell a story with a distinct beginning, middle and end. “You have to go beyond the nuts and bolts if you want to connect with clients,” Maravankin says. “This is where storytelling comes into play.”That doesn’t mean you should save

all the good stuff for the very end of the report “when everyone’s checked out mentally,” John says. One approach is to write your research report like a news-paper story where the headline calls out the “news” behind your research and the opening sentences of each section summa-rize the most important arguments, says Larry Gibson, a Minneapolis-based consultant and senior associate at research consultancy Eric Marder Associates Inc. and presenter of the tutorial Writing Research Reports and Creating Presenta-tion Structures that Work at the AMA’s Applied Research Methods conference

in Philadelphia last month. “The most important place in any given document is where you have the first words in the first paragraph,” he says. “They either grab you or they don’t.”

To keep people engaged throughout, make sure you write in concise, conver-sational language: Use active voice, avoid long sentences and eliminate jargon. “It would probably help if it read more like people talking as opposed to something put together by a bunch of robots,” John says. Since the “what does it mean” aspect is so important, make sure your conclusions are clearly expressed so that a reader casu-ally skimming the report understands what you’re saying, Gibson says. Use the tone of your writing to make the data come alive with an engaging point of view. For help on establishing tone, turn to some of your favorite business columnists, dissect their writing styles and ask why you’re drawn to their words, John says.

After you finish writing, take some time away from the report so you can revise it with fresh eyes. Share your work with a colleague who doesn’t know much about what you’re writing and with someone who knows it well to see if they understand your points and stay interested throughout. Both GfK and Maritz endorse this strategy for their research writers. And if you’re given a lot of notes, don’t be too disheartened. As American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is once believed to have said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.”mCopyright of Marketing News is the property of American Marketing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.