Report Writing: Data Evaluation, Note-Taking & Outline Principles

hello ah welcome to the soft skills lectures and presently we are in the writing section as you remember previous lectures have been on report writing in course of dealing with report writing prior to this lecture we talked about the various strategies that are involved

in the making of a report in the last lecture we talked about the various methods of data collection which actually help in the formulation of your report dear friends as you remember we had discussed while defining report that a report is a formal

writing which is based on data collection analysis of the data leading to conclusion and to recommendation also if required since in the previous talk we have focused on the methods of data collection if you remember and we talked about questionnaire being one

of the best methods of data collection when you have a large crowd when you has a large population now once you sent the questionnaire along with a covering letter of course you might have got a lot of data but then what should

you do with the data because the data that you have gathered is actually huge now in order to straightaway go for the report you will actually be inundated with lots of information so what is needed is a proper evaluation of the data as well as the organization of the

data now how to evaluate the data because whatever data you have collected maybe all of them are not required and even if they are required you have to bring it in a system in a systematic manner so what do we do how to evaluate the data

there are certain ways that you can evaluate your data and the first of this who is is a sampling by sampling because the data for the report has to be representative if you really require your report to help you reach a solution to a problem hence sampling is

the method by which you can categorize your data because you know simply while you collect data its just not essential that the data required by you and the data that you have received have to be given in the same manner as they are

they actually have to be organized and in order to organize them we have to go for some methods by which our data can become representative so sampling is one of the methods and sampling can be of two types ah there are two methods of sampling first is a probability method

and the second is non probability now depending upon the crowd depending upon ah the audience from which you have collected data you actually have to decide your target audience and when we talk about probability ah in terms of sampling your data there are three categories the first

is random sampling the second is systematic sampling and the third is stratified sampling now in all these three you have to take into consideration that even though sampling or random sampling is the purest way but then where you have to see that all the representative

all the group have to be taken into consideration but then it may not appear to be adequate in all the situations because your ah data consists of people who are large in number hence you have to decide ah a way by which you can get the representative data and for

that we go for the systematic planning in systematic planning all you need to do is you need to make a sort of system and out of this system every nineth record will be helpful because you do not want to leave anyone whose data is not representative

but then there is one another way and that is stratified sampling in such a case what we do is actually make certain strata or certain representative groups and we also decide the criteria for example when you have a large number of people from home you have gathered

the data then you can go for sampling stratified sampling where you can divide it ah as men and women than student teacher ah then children and adult there can be several categories and based on that you can sample the data which you have got for the report

but then sampling alone will not do this another ah sampling ah method which is non probability in this you can go by convenience method you can go by judgment method ah you can go by some other method depending upon the person who is analyzing the data but remember while

you go for ah these data what you have to take into consideration is that your data becomes representative because much depends upon the data you have collected and the data you have evaluated since after the evaluation of your data you will have to organize your

report your report if it is a sort of technical report it is not going to be limited only to eight or ten pages maybe it can go to several pages and for that you need to be extra cautious when you are evaluating but then when you

have done that another thing that comes into consideration as well as question is you have to make notes because simply by evaluating you cannot straightaway go for writing the report or formulating the report so what you need to do is you need to make notes

the ah amount of data which you have gathered as i said in the beginning is you know is large in number hence it is better that you start taking notes while you take notes taking note is a very challenging task while you are taking or making notes both the situations

are very challenging so what what you come across is sometimes you come across ah certain ah observations of people sometimes you come across some factual information sometimes you come across certain trends but all of them you cannot categorize into one so there

are certain ways ah say for example you have decided for yourself as to how you will categorize how you will ah make the notes so that it may become helpful in furthering up your report because it is your notes that will finally ah help you to

create a sort of outline which will help again when you start writing the report you see report writing is a very systematic process it is it is not ah just ah a momentary thing whatever report you are going to write it may help the other person to take some decision

or come to a solution hence while you are making notes please see that if you are quoting from somebody ah the words of somebody that actually are to be reproduced but then while you are reproducing you are also to see that they are put under

quotation marks because you cannot reproduce ah the words or the sentences of a person without ah giving them some credit moreover while you are making notes also make a small summary and at times you also have to make use of abbreviations because when you go for

data collections since it is a very ah huge affair ah you you cannot write everything ah just ah on a piece of paper you actually have to segregate them into certain sections and for that you cannot write each and every word each or every sentence

so what you need is you need actually to develop some sort of ah strategy by which ah you also remember and that is why you can make use of certain abbreviations in earlier days ah the people used to make use of ah and all of course they appear to be ah abandoned nowadays

but still you can make use of your own notes and there you should make use of abbreviations ah in in certain cases if you feel because while you are categorizing you know you have got a jungle of information and when when you have the data before you it is all jumbled

up in order to give them a system all you need to do you can also make use of certain note cards on which you can give them ah certain sections sub sections and that will later help you ah in organizing the entire material of the report

so you can also make use of note cards and then while you are making use of note cards please see sometimes it so happens that you are not able to even read your own notes you write them so ah small so a hand ah you make use of that you are not even able to read

your own notes so care has to be taken that you not only make use of abbreviations but whatever you are writing even on the note cards they ought to be very clear very candid so that you can when you are going to utilize them and put them and to place them into certain

sections you are yourself more clear because that will help you next is once you have done all this later comes the task of organizing the data you have the data as i said while you evaluate the data by evaluation what i mean is ah what

the amount of data you have got that actually needs to have a sort of validity so once you have validated it once you have recorded it separated it then comes the task of organizing the data even now when you are ah culling or collecting the data and then you are distributing

again you have created ah a sort of you know information which is very half hazard now you have to give them a shape because the report has to come into a shape and for that what we require is we require a sort of organization and when you organize it is

it is while while organizing you need to remember that you should create a sort of outline now the question is what is outline this outline is actually ah a rough structure a tentative design of the entire report but then just it is in a sum it is it is very short now

when you are making when you are going to make outline you are to see the data that you have you are now going to separate the data because in ah the data in the piece of information you have you will find that there are several sections

a report is not a ah say it is on of course the topic is one but even in that topic there are several parts and to divide those parts and to give them a certain name for that you need the principles of outline the principles of outline is just a sort of distribution

table which actually tells you which information should go to which section moreover now when you do that again you have to take into consideration certain things for example we often say that a report before the report comes into its own being you will find ah that it is just

like a tailor s job what a tailor does is a tailor first cuts the cloth into several pieces and having cut it now he decides which one should be the hand which one should be the body part and all so finally he is going to view finally

he is going to stitch it into one hole and then the real thing that comes to you it appears ah it is as a comprehensive one so now when you have the data before now what you are going to do you are actually going to follow the principles of outline what are these principles

these principles guide you further how to systematize and for that you need to understand indenting numbering coordination subordination parallel grammatical construction and then logical ordering now here you can see how an outline will look

like suppose in an outline you will find there can be a main topic there can be a main word say a main forage ah sometimes it maybe a sentence also depending upon your own privilege and depending upon your own facility so the major topic heading will be the first and

those topic headings will be further divided they will be divided into sub heads even even in those sub heads you will find that sub sub heads will be there because if the sub head is further divided and for that you actually need ah a sort of numbering otherwise ah you

will get lost and the entire data ah will become a confused lot so here you can see how the major topic heading is there and then it is further divided but remember when you are going to divide give them numbers though ah there are several you

know ah ways to number them some people number them as you know in in roman some people number them alphabetically but then it is always better if you prefer to go by decimal numbering that will help ah you better now let us try to see how a sample outline

can be there suppose the topic of your report is ah advertising of course whatever maybe the subtitle but if it is ah advertising now the data that you have got and you are going to segregate that data divide the data so the first topic maybe advertising in india

now in advertising in india again it will be further divided so the first head will be introduction of course ah in every report you will find ah the introduction is a fast thing that we shall discuss when we talk about the structural part ah after after this ah

talk so now after introduction again history maybe sometimes ah we are not going to divide introduction and history but then when we come to talk about types in types there maybe different types and even when we have further sub divided

types again there can be some other so like this suppose it is we have started it by saying by picking by giving it ah by giving first ah ah advertising as number one and ah history as number two and then third is types so if it is further divided the division should

only be sub ordinated with the main topic so types and in types we say print and then electronic further if there is further division in electronic ah we can say because electronic is part of the third section and in third section three point two

so since it is a further division of the second item of the third ah topic naturally we will say three point two point one and like that i think you will be able to ah make a sample outline on this basis sometimes there are certain sections where you feel that there

cannot be any ah ah sub divisions and it is only confined to one paragraph where you think the entire paragraph belongs to the same ah main topic or whatsoever you need not but care should be taken that your divisions ah should not go beyond the third level otherwise

it will become again it will become very sketchy for you and you will get lost now when you indent please do remember that the main topic and the sub topic should have some amount of distance for example the sub topics will get shifted to the right hand side and the

main topic will be towards the left hand side as has been shown here you can see advertising types this is actually the main topic and the sub topic is print so naturally it has come to the ah ah right hand side and again further sub division so again we go a bit

ah further ah to the right hand side in order to ensure and and all of them you have to say two point one two point one point one like this then comes numbering as i said earlier when you are going to number it please see that the first topic had ah

whether it has got any division or sub division if it doesnt have any sub division please confine it to only one but if there are sub divisions you have your own choice you can divide it in alphabets and if you feel ah that you do not want to go with alphabets

you simply want to go with roman ha numbers you can go your most welcome but again if you follow alphabets and if the first alphabet is in the capital so further sub division if you want let it be ah the in this small ones so instead of

ah making too much of it is better from my point of view ah that we should follow the decimal numbering because it it helps in avoiding a lot of confusion after numbering what we need to see is that coordination is very important say for example ah the main head is modes

of presentation and we know that ah there are further sub divisions in modes of presentation like reading from the manuscript impromptu memorization meaning thereby reading from the manuscript is actually a sub division of the presentation

and while it is sub division you cannot provide some new knowledge i mean it is going to talk about only the modes of presentation and these three they are actually the divisions they are actually the types of the presentation the modes of the presentation no new knowledge

should creep in here that is what i mean by coordination i mean the main head and the sub head should have a sort of with each other should have a sort of coherence with each other that is how it can move further next to that its subordination

again in subordination you will find there ought to be some amount of difference here you can find the modes of presentation is written is in involved and then ah the sub heads they are written in small letters or in normal ah phones so you you should follow

that you can find that if modes of presentation here you cannot say reading presentation something like that so presentation itself is the head so what are the further servers that should be there the sub topics often gets less importance than the main topic and it it should show

the sort of difference which actually lies ah when we are subordinating next is while you are making an outline also please ensure and not only in outline when when you make table of contents as we will discuss when we talk about structure you will

see that parallel grammatical constructions should be used now what exactly do we mean by parallel grammatical construction suppose the main word or the main topic ah is a fridge suppose if it is a fridge suppose the main word is a noun naturally when you are going

to divide it so all the other words they should have a sort of parallelism here you can see benefits of advertising suppose this is this is actually the ah main topic and now in benefits we we say economic political moral religious cultural

so what you will see is we have followed the adjective pattern even though it is benefits of advertising that is actually ah ah division and in that division the words that follow here we cannot say economize or we cannot say moralize like this

so if you follow ah the noun format you should follow the noun format if you go by verb format please follow the verb format that is what we mean by parallel grammatical construction you know if ah you put something else in place of ah suppose ah in in the in the second sub

heads it is political but you say politics naturally it will be an odd word out so hence care ought to be taken that you follow the parallel grammatical construction when you are making a sort of outline once you have outlined once you have made

an outline now you need to organize your materials and when you organize first is there are certain principles of organization of the entire data principles of organization the logical ordering by logical ordering we mean as a report is a systematic writing we have been saying that

it is a systematic writing so you have to follow that systematic form and that can only be followed when you follow a logical ordering by logical ordering we mean ah what should come first what should come second in shorter reports you will find ah they start

with ah the beginning and and in other reports also but it is for the report writer to have a liberty whether he starts from recommendation or he starts from the introduction but remember whatever you are following you should stick to that its not that you will follow recommendation

and then you start discussion and then conclusion will be after the second one no this should not be done all is that you should follow the logical ordering so it should be logically arranged then it should be coordinating subordinating and then

numbering we have talked about how you will go with the decimal numbering and then phrasing this is also very important you cannot when you are making an outline and when you are organizing your data you cannot write the complete sentence otherwise what is the use

of making notes you will either follow a format where you will ah use a phrase for example ah benefits of advertising like that we will say side effects of pollution ah like that ill effects of smoking fine like this so these are all phrasings and when you have

done that phrasing and the words that follow it should either if it is a phrase it should also be a phrase now if it is a noun it should again be a noun in the further sub divisions and then dividing now when you are going to make an outline you should follow as i said

a possible organizational pattern so whether you will begin with the recommendation or you will be sorry you will begin with the last or you will begin with the first but most of us we actually want ah that things should begin with a first meaning thereby

from introduction after introduction ah then we will go for the historical background go for the discussion than conclusion than recommendation than biblio like that so it will become more clear when we talk about a structure and then you have to while you are making notes please

be careful ah that you are going to jot down both the topics and the sub topics and all these topics and the sub topics will be later divided into main topics and sub topics and then further by giving numbering and while you will arrange them you will yourself because

you know as an intelligent guy you will yourself know how you can bring a sort of logical ordering ah maybe at times the outline which you are going to prepare will be attentive one ah when when because that is actually a guide that helps you that reminds you when you are

putting the entire material you have the material with you when you are putting the entire material it is once again the outline that will help you it will remind you whether you have left something or whether you feel ah that some piece of information which was to be in one

part has by mistake gone to the other part so it serves as a guide and then you can of course you can examine you are the soul authority ah of writing the report so you can make certain changes if any and once you have done that even when you have

you know it is said that if you have been able to prepare the right outline you are able to write the right report rather because outline is a sort of structure which it has provided you structure in terms of information structure note in terms of the real structure

but structure in terms of the information or the data which you have and once you have that once the outline is ready half your job is done next comes the phrasing as i said ah ah we have already discussed that parallel grammatical

constructions will be used for example here you can see advantages of nationalization now here you will see this is actually a phrase and all the other parts which are there we say advantages of nationalization this nationalization and the advantages both are nouns so here

when they are going to sub divide it what they have done is mobilization of national resources again you find mobilization is a noun in the second one they say promotion of agricultural production fine they do not say to promote you know what sometimes happen

is some people because they are not used to they are not acquainted with what they do is they actually write in the first one they will write mobilization in the second they will write to promote the third they will write encouragement and the fourth they will

write to channelize you see when we are talking of a report we should see that report follows a system and and this system right from the beginning has to be kept into consideration when you are going to write the report friends ah you see

if you follow the principles of outline and of organizing the data i think you are very near because now you have the data and you have also segregated the data now you have to understand how you are going to it how you are going to view it and for that you

actually require to understand what are the structures and we are going to talk about the structures in the next lecture where you will feel by providing a neat structure how you can let the mansion of report grow and how you can feel that once you have got the

information which is spread out and now you are going to even from the even on the basis of the outline you are going to put them into their real positions so that when the final thing appears so that when the out when when when it is ah in its outcome you will find

a report has finally evolved a report i will ah repeat once again is the tangible product of a professional and every professional needs to know how to write a report we have talked about these strategies we have talked about the evaluation of data

we have also talked about ah the organization of ah the data and the creation of the outline now we are ready to know what can be the structural parts of the report because the building cannot come all of a sudden the building actually requires foundation

so in the next lecture that follows we will talk about the foundation or the structure or the anatomy of the report thank you very much