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1、Successful Business Report WritingAcknowledgementsDuring the process of writing thisthesis,I was lucky enough toobtain much help and advice from many people. I would like to takethis opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to them.Firstandforemost, I wishto offer my heartfelt thanks to myrespecte
2、dtutor,ProfessorLuoGuoliang,forthewarmthandunderstanding which he gave me, for the energy and time which hedevoted to the improvement and polishing of my drafts, and for hisadviceandencouragement.Withoutallthis,Icouldnothavecompleted this thesis.Next, I would like to thank all the dedicated teachers
3、 of theShanghai Institute of Foreign Trade, who have spared no efforts toenrich my professional or theoretical knowledge in the past two anda half years.My acknowledgement also goes tomy roommates and friends. Theirencouragement, careand help wereabsolutely necessary tomy timelycompletion of the the
4、sis.Finally,I would liketo give my thanks to my beloved familyfortheir tender love, consistent encouragement and selfless supportover the years.AbstractWith the globalization of worldeconomy and China s entry intothe WTO, more and more foreign enterprises have been targeting andinvestigatingChina as
5、 theirmarket. Consequently,the effectivenessof communication cannot be over-emphasized.As a major means of communication,the business reportis playingan increasinglyimportantrolein business organizations.Therefore,thisthesisisaimed ata constructivediscussionofthebasicprinciplesand especiallythe ling
6、uisticrequirementsforsuccessfulbusiness report writing.Consisting of six chapters, this thesis presents a relativelycomplete study of report writing for business purposes.Chapter One introduces the modern theory of communication andits intrinsic link with business report writing.Chapter Two and Chap
7、ter Threeprovidea general introduction ofbusiness reportwriting,with detailsof the classificationsystems,functions,specialrequirements,andmajoringredientsofthebusiness report.ChapterFour,combinedwithChapterFive,dealswiththeprinciples and the process of writing successful business reports.Chapter Six
8、, the heart of this thesis, lays out an elaboratediscussion of the linguistic requirements for successful businessreportwriting,rangingfromwordchoice,throughsentenceconstruction, to paragraph design.ContentsChapter OneCommunication1.1Whatiscommunication?-11.2Communicationprocess-21.3Effectivecommuni
9、cationanditsobstacles-51.3.1Effectivecommunication-51.3.2Obstaclestoeffectivecommunication-61.4Effectivebusinesscommunication-101.4.1Businesscommunication-101.4.2Importanceofeffectivebusinesscommunication-11Chapter TwoAn Introduction of Business Reports2.1Definitionofabusinessreport-142.2Classificat
10、ionsystems forbusinessreports-152.2.1Directionalclassification-162.2.2Contextualclassification-172.2.3Functionalclassification-172.2.4Formatclassification-192.3Functionsofbusinessreports-202.4Specialrequirementsofbusinessreports-212.4.1Purpose-212.4.2Focus-222.4.3Considerationofaudience-222.4.4Self-
11、sufficiency-222.4.5Objectivity-232.4.6Style-23Chapter ThreeIngredients of Business Reports3.1Preliminaryparts-253.2Contentofthereport-273.2.1Introduction-273.2.2Body-293.2.3Finalsection-293.3Appendedparts-30Chapter FourPrinciples of SuccessfulBusiness Report Writing4.1Completeness-314.2Conciseness-3
12、24.3Consideration-344.4Courtesy-354.5Concreteness-364.6Clarity-374.7Correctness-38Chapter FiveProcessof Writing SuccessfulBusinessReports5.1Planning-405.2Collecting-425.3Designing-425.3.1Documenting-425.3.2Sorting-435.3.3Interpreting-435.3.4 Preparing outline-44final5.4Drafting-445.5Editing- 455.6Re
13、vising-46Chapter SixLinguistic Requirements for SuccessfulBusiness Report Writing6.1Wordchoice-476.1.1Usingsimplewords-486.1.2Creatingvividimages-536.1.3Choosingnondiscriminatoryexpressions-586.1.4Selectingwordsforprecisecommunication-596.2Sentenceconstruction-606.2.1Keepingthesentencereasonablyshor
14、t-606.2.2Makingthesentenceeffective-626.3Paragraphdesign-666.3.1Keepingtheparagraphinasuitablelength-666.3.2Maintainingtheparagraphunity-666.3.3Puttingthetopicsentencetogooduse-686.3.4Makingtheparagraphmoveforward-70Conclusion-71Bibliography-72Chapter OneCommunicationCommunication should be the prim
15、ary goal of any business report. 11 Therefore, a preliminary study of business report writing willnaturally start with a probe into the introduction of communication.1.1 What is communication?The term “communication ” and its definitions have been used soofteninrecent yearsthatwe have no difficultyf
16、indinga definitionsuitableforour use.Forinstance,“Communication istheprocessofexchanging informationand meaning or expressingthoughts and feelingbetween or amongindividualsthrougha commonsystem of symbols,signs,and behavior. ” 22Itis found, however, that these definitionsare notspecificenough. So we
17、 had bettertrynotto be conventional,thatis,not touse words todefinewords. There are two reasons.Firstly,wordsare only symbols that delegate things and they have no meaning inthemselves.Secondly, definingabstractwords like “communication ”is especiallydifficultbecause such words do not indicateany ma
18、terialobject to which we can handily refer.What iscommunication?Before beginning our analysis,let s clearup a common misunderstanding that communication is a natural humanactivity. This hypothesis is not quite right. Human communication isnot an instinctive activity as are many of our other activiti
19、es. As11 Raymond V. Lesikar, How to Write a Report Your Boss Will Read and Remember, revised edition, Dow Jones-Irwin, 1974 and 1984, p222 Carol M. Lehman, and Debbie D. Dufrene, Business Communication, twelfth edition, South-western college publishing, p4we know, our mouths could take in food and o
20、ur teeth could chew it;similarly, our hands could perform their functions of picking up andhandling things. Whether we grew up with animals or with civilizedpeople, we could instinctivelyperform the above-mentionedfunctions.And most ofourotherorganscouldfunctionnaturallywithoutinstructions from othe
21、r people. However, our vocal apparatus, themajor organs used incommunication, couldmakesounds, but not wordsif nobody tells us how to do it. Neither could our brains know wordsnor our handswrite themwithoutinstruction. Clearly,communicationis a function that we must learn and it must be acquired fro
22、m otherpeople.1.2 Communication processCommunication is a process of transmitting information, such asfacts, ideas, feelings, or courses of action, so that the recipientunderstands it.Itis consideredeffectivewhen itachieves the desiredreaction or response from the recipient. A better way to describe
23、communication is,therefore,a two-way process of exchanging ideas orinformationbetween human beings.Inpractice,thecommunicationprocessisnotsimple,sometimesquitecomplex,involvingfiveelements or factors: Sender/Encoder Message Channel/Medium Receiver/Decoder FeedbackFigure1-1 illustrates partly how the
24、se factors interact in the communication process.Figure 1-1A model of the communication process(Brown. L:1973:4)Sender/EncoderMessageChannel/MediumFeedbackReceiver/DecoderSender/EncoderThe sender/encoder is the one who initiates the communication.Whenthe sender sends a message, he or she maybe a wri
25、teror a speaker,which depends on whether the communication is written or oral. Thesender carefullydesignsa messageby selectingwords thatclearlyandeffectivelyconveythemessage,andbyusingnonverbalsignals(gestures,tone of voice,and so on) thatreinforcetheverbalmessage,so that the receiver understands it
26、 and reacts with the response thesender desires.The message sendingandencodingisaffectedbyexternal and internal stimuli.An external stimulus triggers a need or desire for the sender tosend a message. Perhaps the stimulusisa writtenquestion,a businesstransaction,ameeting,an unexpectedfavor,anintervie
27、w,aninvestigation,etc.As the sender collectsinformationforthemessage,he or she isalsoaffectedby variousexternalconditions physicalsurroundings,discomforts,culturalcustoms,noise,weather,andothers.Internal stimuli influence how the sender translates ideas intoa message. Inthecourse ofencoding,thechoic
28、eof symbols isaffectedby thesender sownworldofexperience,whethermental,psychological, physical, or semantic. Attitudes, opinions, biases,emotions,past experiences,and communication skillsinfluencethe waytocommunicate ideas.Alsoespeciallyimportantisthesender sperception of the receivers viewpoint. In
29、 all, the sender decideswhich symbols bestconvey the message and which sendingmechanisms tochoose among the available written or oral media.MessageThe message is the information being transmitted. It consists ofboth verbal (written or spoken) and nonverbal symbols.When composing a message, we need t
30、o consider what content toinclude and how the receiverwillinterpretit.A messagemay be simpleand easy,like“Nice tomeet you”.In contrast,toinform200 peopleofdifferentitemsofnews willrequiremuch more complicated,carefully planned messages. In all, whether a message is simple orcomplicated depends on th