Do you have to write reports on technical or business subjects? 
Have you ever had difficulty in organising your thoughts? 
Or in deciding how to put together all the information you have available in writing? 
Worst of all, have you ever found that others – bosses, colleagues, customers – for some reason do not understand the messages you are trying to put across in your report, even though these seem clear to you?

If you have had these kinds of difficulties, this two-day workshop is for you!  Over the two days, the traineer will share with you – and get you to practise – some highly practical tips and techniques that will help you make your reports clearer, simpler and more convincing.    

During the workshop, you will learn and practise:-

• The importance of tailoring a report to your audience (readers)and to your objectives (what you want your readers to know, think, and above all do).
• How to plan and structure a reportto achieve this; and to ensure that your key messages get across.
• How to simplify your writing: to make the complex simple and the complicated clear, even to non-specialists.
• Key English grammar for report writing, including errors commonly made and how to avoid these.
• How to make best use of graphics and other visuals

This course is designed for everyone who is required to write reports or similar documents on complex or technical matters.  Whatever the subject matter (from engineering, to electronics, to IT; from chemical or physical processes, to management, finance, PR and HR processes), the course leader will help you to make the complex simple, and the complicated clear.  Participants need to have a good level of English: at least intermediate to high-intermediate.

• What makes a good report (and a bad one)?
• What difficulties do you have when writing reports?
• Samples of good reports, and why they are good
• Determining the objective of your reports and audience

• Common English writing errors– and how to avoid and correct them
• Effective and clear punctuation for report writers
• Singulars and plurals, and subject-verb agreement
• Tenses: how and when to use them
• Active versus passive verbs: what they are, and which to use when
• Conditionals (‘if…’ sentences)

• Setting clear objectives, tailored to the audience (your readers)
• The structure of a good report:  What sections should you have?  In what order?  And what should each section cover?
• How to write key sections (such as Summary, Introduction, Conclusions and Recommendations), and ensure that your key messages are highlighted

• Apply the ‘KISS’ principle everywhere, to fight wordiness, redundancy (unnecessary words) and complexity
• How to make the ‘technical’ understandable to non-technical readers: avoiding (or if necessary explaining) jargon
• Be active, not passive!
• Paragraphs:  Why they are important.  And how to write good ones
• Linking words and phrases – to make your reports easy to read and follow

• What makes a good visual?
• When and how to use different kinds of graphics (tables, charts, pictures etc)
• When and where to insert visuals for best effect

• How to you conclude your report and how to prepare the Executive Summary that highlight the key points to your intended audience.
• Editing and proof reading your reports before submission

The course is highly interactive, with a wide range of exercises, discussions and other activities.  Participants must therefore come ready to take active part.  Participants will also receive full handouts with key points from the course to take away.  

Dr A. BARRAK
Phd, Author-Trainer-Business & Technical Consultant, Trade Negotiator, Change Agent

Barrak specialises in training leaders world class negotiations around the Globe. He has been actively developing customised trainings and conducted them in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, the UAE, Sudan, Mauritania and Turkmenistan.
Senior Negotiator, Lead trainer, he has a clear and comprehensive understanding of what competencies are to be developed to be a successful negotiation. His abundant knowledge and experience addresses every situation in our fast pace business world and everyone is guaranteed to take home valuable learnings useful for their next deal.

Barrak comes to you with more than 40 years of enriched, result-oriented experience in many positions among SMEs, government agencies, multinational and businesses.
Equipped with solid experience and a wide range of state-of-art resources and latest development, his training programs are geared towards competency development.

With only the minimum amount of necessary theory (he says the participants can read his notes later) his training/ speaking sessions are filled with mindset, behavioural and capability change activities. There is always excitement, A-Hah moments in every session at his programs.

Barrak had worked with the Audio-Visual, Automotive, Printing, Property Development, Construction, Timber and Food industries, in capacities ranging from Group Engineer, Manager, Plant Manager, Senior Negotiator, Project Director and Managing Director.
Being a Management Consultant, Management System Auditor, Trainer and Counselor, he had consulted for an even wider range of industries that includes Medical services, Financial institutions, Petroleum industries, Metal, Plastics, Cellulose and Electronic components manufacturers, and the Civil service around the world.

He graduated in Engineering from the Singapore Polytechnic in 1973 and continued with post graduate and continuing studies in Engineering, Social Science, Rubber and Plastics Technology, Training and Development, Radiation Protection, and Quality Management, with a PhD in Organizational Management from Iowa State (US).

Since 2004, he has since been training and consulting for organizations such as PETRONAS, the National Electricity Board, the National Bank, various government ministries and agencies including Parliament House, and large corporations, further to training in Mauritania, Turkmenistan, Abu Dhabi, Sudan, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia.

Currently, he is a senior resource faculty member for iTrainingExpert.com, continuously design and conduct customised trainings and consultancy for multi-national companies around the world.

Author
As an author, he has recently published his second book via Seaburn Publishing, New York, titled ‘Pre-Emptive Thinking – Managing Problems and Threats,’ that identifies why organizations continue to have problems at their middle management and operational levels in spite of all the systems and what has to be done to resolve this. Being the first book on this thinking, its reviewers expect it to have an international impact similar to creative and critical thinking. He is now writing his third book on Insights of International Strategic Negotiation.

To contact Barrak, please feel free to email us at info@itrainingexpert.com or call +603 8074 9056.

OR

“Good training, interactive course and knowledgable instructor.” CTRM Aero Composite, Noraskihin, Engineeer