Ron Hein & Associates, Inc.

Report Writing and Editing

Writing clear, concise reports often requires more time and expertise than you have available. This is a function of several factors. First, often people who write reports spend too much time collecting and organizing the wrong material. Second, they spend too much time editing and re-editing and re-editing material. Because of these two problems, they fail to meet their own goals or the needs of the people using their reports.

We have developed a systematic writing-and-editing process that enables us to create, or help you or your team create, reports that will meet your objectives and the requirements of those using your reports.

We have also identified a general structure that can improve the usefulness of your reports and reduce the time and effort needed to create them.

Report structures that match goals and needs. When we create reports, we design documents that meet your goals, match your company's style, and meet your reader's needs.

1. We incorporate the following concepts:
• Executive summary. We create an executive summary that is a stand-alone document that helps your readers understand your information and make decisions.
• Introduction. We produce a brief introduction that highlights what is coming, where, and why it is important.
• Recommendations. Our goal is to create a recommendation that is clear and concise. We suggest putting your recommendation up front, so that your readers know where your report is going and so that they can evaluate your key ideas as they read.
• Main body with clear supporting information. We strongly recommend keeping your report as short as practical. You save time and money on preparation, and you save your readers time and effort, too. We accomplish this by making certain that we understand what your readers need. This allows us to do a better job of eliminating information they don't want or need.

  Our processes also help us create reports and other materials that

  • Are coherently organized. We develop useful organizational patterns (such as problem/solution, fiscal periods, time sequences, etc.) that reinforce your objectives and meet your readers' needs.
  • Contain appropriate supporting data. We help you place necessary supporting data so that it is in the right place in the body of your report or appropriately referenced and appended.
  • Use figures, tables, and graphics. We use figures, tables, graphs and other tools to create visual representations that advance your ideas and make your key points easy to see and understand. We use meaningful labels and other visual cues to make points clear at a glance.
  • Contain documented sources. We develop a consistent, organized, citation style that helps your readers judge and validate information. There is nothing worse than a phone call from senior management asking, "Where did you get that information?" and not knowing.

• Summary/conclusion. We work with you or your content experts to create one or two paragraphs that close your report and reinforce your main ideas, conclusions, and/or recommendations.
• Collected references/footnotes. We organize your sources so that your readers can locate key sources of information.
• Appendices. In business, people want to have critical information in the body of your report. We help make certain it is there, and that your secondary information is readily available in stand-alone, well-introduced appendices or sections.
2. We help you create reports that are easy to use.

Our reports enable your readers to quickly see your objectives, conclusions, results, and recommendations, as well as the structure and organization of your materials. We keep the body of your report as short as is practical, and we make your supporting data and information easily accessible.

3. We help you create reports with useful visual cues.

We create visual cues that highlight and reinforce the logic and structure of your reports. We design formats that make your logic/structure "visually" clear at a glance. To help guide your reader and allow the reader to skim the report quickly, we use

• Consistent fonts.
• Concise, meaningful heads and subheads.
• Page headers or footers (author, title, date, page numbers, and computer file name).
4. We help you create reports that are well written and edited.

If your readers can't easily understand what you have written, your recommendations will have low credibility. We edit for logic/organization, then for layout, and last for grammar. This eliminates redundant, wasted effort by you and your readers.

5. We help you create short, effective reports.

We create reports that save time for you, your staff, and your readers.

Our work process. We work with you to determine the specific products you need and your time lines. Our process steps are as follows:

We work with you (phone, FAX, e-mail, in-person) to determine the products you need and if we can create them.

We provide you with a cost estimate and explain the factors that can save you money or raise your potential costs.

We develop a preliminary version of your materials and work with you to validate the content and design.

We then edit those preliminary materials to improve their organization, logic, layout, grammar, and overall consistency and appeal.

You validate the edited materials.

We create and deliver your final materials and send a bill for your remaining balance.

For more information or a quote: For more specific information on our services, or to request a quote on a specific project, please contact us:

E-mail:    ron@ronhein.com

Phone:    (585) 671-6170

FAX:       (585) 255-4008

Mail:       Ron Hein & Associates, Inc.

                 P.O. Box 314

                 Webster, NY  14580-0314

Payment:

We use a very straightforward payment process.

1)      For complex jobs, we request partial payment when you authorize us to proceed.

2)      We ask that payment for your work be made when we complete your project.

3)      We request that payments be made by credit card, check, or money order payable in US dollars and sent to :

Ron Hein & Associates, Inc.
P.O. Box 314
Webster, New York USA 14580-0314

           

Our hours:

We are available days, evenings and weekends, and our telephone calls forwarded to cell telephones, so that we can give you a prompt response. We are always reachable by FAX (585) 255-4008 or e-mail (ron@ronhein.com).

 

Thank you for considering Ron Hein & Associates, Inc., as your service provider.