The business report is an important form of formal communication. Executives, managers and employees to present their findings to seniors use the business report. The business report is a formal document. Therefore, it is important that it should have to the point information. There are various theories around the structure of business report. Some authors believe that the business report should be structured with bullet points while some authors believe that the business report should be structured in a paragraph format (Collis & Hussey, 2013). A lot of researches are done in this area and the objective of this paper is to discuss and analyze the literature review on the topic of business report structure. The initial research suggests that the business report should have a logical structure where every section follows the previous section and the section set the context for the next section.
Bock & Opsahl (2012) argued that any business report must start with an ‘Executive Summary’. The authors highlighted that executive summary is the most important section of any business report. The executive summary section is important because the senior leaders may not have enough time to report the entire report. Therefore, it is important that the writers should have an effective executive summary at the start of the business report. Svensson (2013) highlighted that the executive summary section should not be more than two pages. The idea of the executive summary is to summarize the report in a crisp manner. The executive summary may not be able to serve its purpose if it is more than two pages. However, in certain reports, there could be an exception. For example, if the length of the business report is more than 100 or 150 pages then the executive summary could be more than two pages as it is practically not possible to summarize 100-150 pages in two pages. However, as a thumb rule, the executive summary should not exceed 10% of the total word limit of report.
Karabag & Berggren (2014) argued that the business report should be divided into number of headings and sub-headings. It is important that the business report should start with an introduction paragraph. The introductory paragraph should set the base of entire business report. The background of the report, the scope of the report and the objective of the report should be clearly highlighted in the introductory paragraph. As a thumb rule, the introduction section should not exceed 10% of the total word limit of report. Authors argued that the business report should have eight to ten sections and it is important that all the section should follow the previous section. It is also important that the section should have sub-sections. The idea of putting sub-sections is to put a new concept in each sub section. It is important that multiple concepts should not be mixed in a simple sub section as it can add to the confusion.
Cardon (2015) argued that any business report must have a table of contents that lists down all the sections and sub sections. If the business report also have various figures and diagrams that the business report should also have a table of figure. The section of table of contents should follow executive summary section. Authors also mentioned that the business report must have a formal font. It is important that the writers should use Times New Roman, Aerial or any other formal font. The new and modern fonts like Helvetica, etc. should not be used. It is important that the report should be written in a font size of 10 to 12. The font of size less than 10 and the font of size more than 12 may looks unprofessional (Feldman & Netzer, 2012). It is also important that the font size of heading should be different than the font size of text. If the font size of body is 12, then the size of headings should be 14 and the font size of sub headings should be 13. The formal structure of business report also suggests that the headings of the report should be center aligned and the sub headings of the report should be left aligned. The best practices of developing business report also suggests that the business report should be written in a black ink only and writers should avoid any other ink. The professionalism of the business report could be maintained with the line spacing also. The best practice suggests that the line spacing should not be more than two (Nathan, 2013). A Conclusion section should follow the body or the content of the business report. It is important that the conclusion should be crisp in nature. The conclusion section should not contain any new information. In the conclusion section, writer should only summarize the report and make the concluding remarks. The conclusion section is generally the last section of any business report and Reference and Appendices follow this section.
The above paper discusses the literature review on the structure of business report. With the above discussion it can be said that the business report should start with an Executive Summary section and should end with a Conclusion section. There are certain small things that add to the professional nature of the business report. For example, the business report should have a clear font, the line spacing should be less than two, the text should be left aligned, and the headings should be center aligned and the sub headings should be left aligned. It is important that the authors should write the business report in a third person. The first person writing can make the report unprofessional. The guidelines suggest that the Executive Summary section should be written at last, after all the sections and sub sections are written.
Bock, A.J., Opsahl, T., George, G. and Gann, D.M., 2012. The effects of culture and structure on strategic flexibility during business model innovation.Journal of Management Studies, 49(2), pp.279-305.
Cardon, P., 2015. Business communication: Developing leaders for a networked world. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Collis, J. and Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave macmillan.
Karabag, S.F. and Berggren, C., 2014. Antecedents of firm performance in emerging economies: Business groups, strategy, industry structure, and state support. Journal of Business Research, 67(10), pp.2212-2223.
Nathan, P., 2013. Academic writing in the business school: The genre of the business case report. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12(1), pp.57-68.
Netzer, O., Feldman, R., Goldenberg, J. and Fresko, M., 2012. Mine your own business: Market-structure surveillance through text mining. Marketing Science, 31(3), pp.521-543.
Svensson, G., 2013. Processes of substantiations and contributions through theory building towards theory in business research. European Business Review, 25(5), pp.466-480.
To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:
My Assignment Help. (2017). Business Report Structure. Retrieved from https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/business-report-structure.
"Business Report Structure." My Assignment Help, 2017, https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/business-report-structure.
My Assignment Help (2017) Business Report Structure [Online]. Available from: https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/business-report-structure
[Accessed 17 May 2022].
My Assignment Help. 'Business Report Structure' (My Assignment Help, 2017) <https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/business-report-structure> accessed 17 May 2022.
My Assignment Help. Business Report Structure [Internet]. My Assignment Help. 2017 [cited 17 May 2022]. Available from: https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/business-report-structure.
MyAssignmenthelp.com is one of the noted service providers that deliver essay help. We provide tailored essay assistance to make sure that student gets online essay help exactly in the way they want it to be written. We at MyAssigemnthelp.com have built teams of consultants, who readily attend every query related to help me writing my essay. We provide essay writing help in forms of tips and steps in order o assist students with tough essay assignments.
MyAssignmentHelp.com is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university
Answers: Introduction The process of developing a successful business entity requires a multidimensional analysis of several factors that relate to the internal and external environment in commerce. The areas covered in this current unit are essential in transforming the business perspective regarding the key commerce factors such as ethics, technology, culture, entrepreneurship, leadership, culture, and globalization (Nzelibe, 1996; Barza, 2...
Read MoreMyAssignmentHelp.com is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university
Answers: Critical reflection on the objective, design, methodology and outcome of the research undertaken Assessment-I Smoking and tobacco addiction is one of the few among the most basic general restorative issues, particularly to developed nations such as the UK. It has been represented that among all risk segments smoking is the fourth driving purpose behind infections and other several ailments like asthma, breathing and problems in the l...
Read MoreMyAssignmentHelp.com is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university
Answer: Task 1 1.0 Data on staff turnover and demographics That includes the staffing information of JKL industries for the fiscal year of 2014-15, it can be said that the company is having problems related to employee turnover. For the role of Senior Manager in Sydney, the organization needs 4 managers; however, one manager is exiting. It will make one empty position which might hurt the decision making process. On the other hand, In Brisba...
Read MoreMyAssignmentHelp.com is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university
Answer: Entrepreneurial ventures Entrepreneurship is the capacity and willingness to develop, manage, and put in order operations of any business venture with an intention to make profits despite the risks that may be involved in such venture. Small and large businesses have a vital role to play in the overall performance of the economy. It is, therefore, necessary to consider the difference between entrepreneurial ventures, individual, and c...
Read MoreMyAssignmentHelp.com is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university
Answer: Introduction An operating system (OS) is defined as a system software that is installed in the systems for the management of the hardware along with the other software resources. Every computer system and mobile device requires an operating system for functioning and execution of operations. There is a great use of mobile devices such as tablets and Smartphones that has increased. One of the widely used and implemented operating syste...
Read MoreGet top notch assistance from our best tutors !
Excel in your academics & career in one easy click!
If you are the original writer of this content and no longer wish to have your work published on Myassignmenthelp.com then please raise the content removal request.