Part 1 of this series introduces three types of reports: descriptive reports, which provide facts only; analytical reports, which provide facts along with their interpretation; and persuasive reports, which expand the facts and their interpretation to their justification or to requested actions or investments from people who have the option to decline the request. Convincing someone to put their money on the table and their reputation on the line requires some serious persuasion, hence the name of this third report category.
This post begins a five-part series on persuasive reports. Internal proposals, our starting point, can be solicited or unsolicited by management. Each type requires different levels of content.
A solicited proposal may need less backstory because those who requested it are already aware of the business issue, so they may want just an action and rationale for addressing it. Such a situation may not always be the case, as the requesting parties may know about the issue but are unaware of its underlying causes. Then the internal proposal writer will need to analyze causes before suggesting optional corrective actions or investments before proceeding to the preferred option.
Unsolicited proposals, on the other hand, by definition may be catching readers by surprise. Not only has management not asked for the proposal, they may not even know the business issue exists. If so, the writer needs to present a well-researched review of the problem, its history, and causes, at the least. Other talking points include preventive actions taken to deal with the situation, reasons those actions were inadequate, options for resolving or mitigating the issue with advantages and disadvantages for management's consideration, consequences of doing nothing, and strategy for addressing the issue once management approves the recommendations.
Other reports in this series:
- Meeting Reports
- Incident Reports
- Investigation Reports
- Inspection Reports
- Procedural Reports
- Scopes of Work
- Test Reports
- Course Reviews
- Conference Reviews
- Contractor Appraisals
- Staff Appraisals
- Self-Appraisals
- Audit Reports
- Root-Cause Reports
- Business Forecasts
- Project Plans
- Project Status Reports
- Project Completion Reports
