ClearTips: Riveting reports
What's your purpose in writing?
Some reports have a clear purpose: interpreting the results
of a study, introducing a new policy. Others may have lost their purpose,
such as annual reports that are done the same way every year. Still others,
such as fund-raising requests, mask their purpose intentionally.
For that Census Bureau policy brief I mentioned earlier,
the first statement of purpose was:
To inform the public about U.S. census projections
After considerable pushing, we narrowed it:
To persuade state and local governments that the population
projections provide a sound basis for planning
It's easy to inform. It's not easy to persuade. And almost
all reports are meant to persuade someone of something.
For a policy report by the Benton Foundation and Libraries
for the Future, the first attempt at the purpose was:
To show the importance of libraries in the digital age
That was quickly refined to this:
To persuade librarians, policymakers, foundations, and
corporations of the importance of libraries as resource centers for
the new communications and information tools in this digital age
Compare the timid show the importance of with the
stronger persuade, surrounded by concrete detail.
So, to say that you are writing to inform your audience
about your topic is not enough: there is almost always another purpose.
The following verbs all avoid the specific:
communicate
emphasize
describe
explore
tell
consider
suggest
while these verbs can push you toward greater detail
and clarity:
create
persuade
promote
take
convince
force
motivate
quell
change
push
If you're having trouble identifying your purpose,
ask yourself: What do you want your audience to do after reading your
report? Adopt your recommendations? Formulate a new set of policies? Change
their behavior? Sometimes your purpose may have a hidden agenda—to
get a promotion or change the way your department is organized.
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