WRITING WORKSHOP 1

152707 Leading and Organizing Change

These slides can be viewed at: tinyurl.com/152707WW1

You will learn how to:

• Structure a business report

• Structure a story about a personal experience of leadership

Learning outcomes

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION 1

FOUR DAYS FROM NOW!

Use our assignment planning calculator at owll.massey.ac.nz

SEE tinyurl.com/masseyreportvideo

BETWEEN 15 AND 20 PARAGRAPHS

OF 4 – 6 SENTENCES EACH

3 main parts

Include a formal

letter

TASK 1

You will read a cover letter for a business report.

There are 8 mistakes of grammar or style.

You have five minutes to find them all.

Dear Dr Mary,

Please find attached the report titled ‘Adding Value via Change’, which I

commissioned from Strategic SolutioNZ last month.

As detailed in the project brief, the report analysed the problem of staffs

retention at Pak ‘n’ Save, Albany and proposes an appropriate organizational

change. Suggestions are included regarding to implementation, milestones and

resource requirements, but it is understood that these may need to be refined

followed consideration by the board.

Do not hesitate to contact me would you have any comments or queries

regarding the report,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Hand (Senior Consultant, Strategic SolutioNZ)

Dear Dr Mary,

Please find attached the report titled ‘Adding Value via Change’ which I

commissioned from Strategic SolutioNZ last month.

As detailed in the project brief, the report analysed the problem of staffs

retention at Pak ‘n’ Save, Albany and proposes an appropriate organizational

change. Suggestions are included regarding to implementation, milestones and

resource requirements, but it is understood that these may need to be refined

followed consideration by the board.

Do not hesitate to contact me would you have any comments or queries

regarding the report,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Hand (Senior Consultant, Strategic SolutioNZ)

DO NOT PLAGIARISE THIS LETTER IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT.

USE IT AS AN EXAMPLE OF APPROPRIATE STYLE AND

STRUCTURE.

THE ONLY WORDS THAT MAY BE THE SAME IN YOUR

ASSIGNMENT ARE STANDARD EXPRESSIONS WHICH ARE

TYPICALLY FOUND IN BUSINESS LETTERS.

REPORT STRUCTURE

TITLE PAGE

TITLE OF

REPORT

(10.08.11)

To: Dr. Brown

AUTHOR’S

NAME

PAPER NUMBER

TO WHOM REPORT

IS ADDRESSED

Paper:

219.100

To: Dr. Brown

By: J P Brooks

Conflict between senior

management and

supervising staff:

Southland Branch

CommunicateDATE OF

SUBMISSION

TASK 2

At which stage in your report writing do you write the executive summary?

Which of these tenses is NOT found in an executive summary: past / present / future?

How many paragraphs would you normally include in an executive summary for a 1500 word business report?

Executive Summary

This report analyses management

conflict at the Southland branch of

Communicate. Specific objectives were

to identify key problems and offer

recommendations to Regional

Management. Problems were located in

the organisation’s structure,

management style and lack of

communication channels, especially

between the branch manager and the

supervisors. The report recommends a

major restructuring of the branch,

training for key personnel and

clarification of job descriptions.

Aims

Objectives

Main Findings

Key

Recommendations

EXAMPLE EXECUTIVE

SUMMARY

TASK 3

In the table of contents, which parts of a report are normally given Roman numerals (for example, i, iv)?

What proportion of a business report does the Discussion section normally comprise: less than 20% / 30% - 40% / over 50%?

Which part of a report summarises actions which the company should take in future?

LAYOUT OF TABLE OF

CONTENTS Table of Contents

Executive Summary i

Table of Contents iv

1. Introduction 1

3. Conclusions 17

4. Recommendations 18

2. Discussion 1

2.1 Organisational Structure 9

2.2 Management Styles 11

2.3 Lack of Communication 13

2.3.1. Training 15

2.3.2. Identification of Responsibilities 16

5. References 19

SEE THE REPORT WRITING VIDEO FOR MORE SUGGESTIONS ABOUT

BUSINESS REPORT WRITING.

YOU WILL NEED TO DECIDE HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR

DISCUSSION.

ONE POSSIBILITY IS TO HAVE 3 MAIN SUBSECTIONS, BASED ON THE

THREE MAIN PARTS OF THE QUESTION.

YOU WILL ALSO NEED TO DECIDE WHERE TO INCLUDE THE

ACADEMIC RATIONALE.

ONE POSSIBILITY IS TO INCLUDE TWO OR THREE PARAGRAPHS OF

‘PRACTICAL’ ANALYSIS OR PLANNING AND TWO OR THREE

PARAGRAPHS OF ACADEMIC RATIONALE IN EACH SUBSECTION.

TASK 4

Assignment 3 is a reflective journal.

It is based on 3 personal experiences of leadership.

You should start thinking about which experiences you’re going to choose.

Listen to the example of an experience: How many parts is the story made up of?

Components of a story

Context

Issue / Challenge / Problem

Response

Outcome

Evaluation

OTHER WORKSHOPS

Academic writing workshop in this room tomorrow (and on next two Thursdays) at 4 pm.

Online Study Up workshop about APA Referencing at 7.30 am / 12 pm / 7.30 pm tomorrow (Thursday August 10).

Online postgraduate workshop on literature review writing

next Thursday (August 17th) at 7 pm. Go to

https://connect.massey.ac.nz/studyuppostgraduate

Next writing workshop for 152.707 here at the same time next Thursday.

© 2017

This PowerPoint Presentation and the accompanying handouts are copyrighted by Centre for Teaching and Learning, Massey

University and may not be used, except for personal study, without written permission from the copyright owner. Please

note that examples are provided for illustration of writing principles only and no reliance should be placed on any of the

ideas referred to in the texts.

Martin McMorrow, Centre for Teaching and Learning

09 212 7117 ctlalb@massey.ac.nz

These slides can be viewed at: tinyurl.com/152707WW1