Writing a Report? Be Sure to Order Your Content for Maximum Engagement
- Mar 2
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 6
Here's a list of complaints I've received from frustrated managers, team leaders and CEOs over the years:
My team's reports are too long and waffly.
Their focus is on procedures, not outcomes.
Their advice is buried in the detail.
There's too much detail.
There's no purpose to their writing.
While these complaints are valid, they're not the cause of the complaint. The cause lies in the way the report writer has ordered their content.
Writing is an iterative process - we write to work out what we're thinking.
This ordering problem occurs because writing is iterative. When we write, we name, quantify, and organise. That's why journaling is so good for you. Writing about your uncomfortable feelings gives you a way to process them. Using words to name your feelings and quantify their strength helps you to organise and corral your thinking. The result? A greater understanding of your predicament. Unfortunately, in the workplace, readers are not the least bit interested in all your thought wanderings. They want the answer, and they want it now!
It makes sense to start in the messy, shifting details. Doesn't it?
And it's here where your fabulous report begins to unravel. You know your readers don't have your specialist knowledge to understand the topic to your level. You also know how crucial it is for your manager, client, or CEO to understand your topic deeply to make sound decisions. So you feel compelled to provide data, supply examples, and give a detailed background on why the thing failed, needs a significant upgrade, or needs to be implemented yesterday. That's the only way these people will ever understand you. Right?
To understand, humans need context and connection.
Actually, the opposite is true. We understand best when we're given the big picture first and then led logically, in small steps, down to the micro - the weedy, messy details. Which means, dear workplace writer, if you want your readers to understand you, you simply cannot start with the detail. From the get-go, readers are desperate to know what your thing is and what they have to do about it. Why? Because they're searching for a cognitive jumping-off point and they need a simple topic, point, or summary to make a cognitive connection.
Give readers your main point first, and their amazing brains will get to work connecting.
Your readers are not stupid. They just know different stuff from you. To help your readers make sense of your work, you must give them a simple, generalised topic - immediately! They'll connect your topic to their lived experience and hook into prior knowledge they forgot they knew. In doing so, they'll start to make meaning of your content, and from here it's a short step to understanding.
Embrace your weedy, messy first draft - then organise it.
But I'm a report writer, you say - I have to start with the details! Agreed. As a writer, you need to go through your iterative process - you need to start in the weeds (back to journaling again), but then you must work your way out to your main point, or your most important thing. Once you've arrived at your main point, or solution, or request (clue: it'll be near the bottom of your page or paragraph), you can then get to work re-ordering your content to meet the needs of your readers.
Lift your main point/solution/request to the top of your paragraph. Be bold!
It'll feel a little strange at first, but trust me - say your thing straightaway. Once you have your topic sitting nicely at the top of your paragraph or page, you'll find that providing your details and reasoning becomes a much simpler process. Logic and flow will become easier to create and maintain. Why? because you're also benefiting from your own cognitive roadmap!
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