Abstract :
Roy Poe redefines the “business report” not only to focus on those research reports of traditional business-report writing texts but also to concentrate on “shorter, day-to-day communications.” As Poe explains, most business writers misunderstand their own writing. “Just about every written communication is a report. It might be as simple as a while-you-were-out telephone message or as complex as a 200-page analysis of marketing strategy,” he begins. As he continues to investigate the problems business writers face, he dismisses the discrete categories so popular with most texts: progress reports, information reports, analytical reports, investigative reports, research reports. These, he claims, may all be parts of the same report. As Poe summarizes, “Any time you transmit facts, opinions, proposals, or recommendations, you are reporting.” Beginning with this concept of all written work as “reporting,” Poe tackles the questions any writer must answer before writing successfully.
