1. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. Chapter 20 Informal Reports

2. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. Informal Reports ‣ Are fairly routine documents inside all workplaces ‣ Cover many different subjects and can be composed in many different forms ‣ Are important in many different workplace and rhetorical situations ‣ Are typically progress or status reports, lab reports, directives, and incident reports

3. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. Progress Reports ‣ Update audiences on the status of an ongoing project ‣ Detail where a project is in relation to its overall goals and objectives ‣ Allow writers to communicate with supervisors or managers ‣ Must usually be written during various stages of a project

4. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. ‣ Provide their audiences with projections about future activities and expected dates of completion ‣ Can be written in memo or letter form ‣ Describe the details of a project over time ‣ Provide readers with an honest assessment of the project’s status Progress Reports

5. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. Lab Reports ‣ Document the procedures, methods, and results of a lab experiment and explain their significance ‣ Demonstrate the writer’s understanding and comprehension of the data, the underlying concepts behind it, and the principles and reasons behind the experiment itself ‣ Usually cover a great deal of information for their readers, explaining their purposes, results, problems, and recommendations

6. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. ‣ Contain a title page ‣ Contain an abstract ‣ Contain an introduction that states objectives ‣ Contain procedures followed during the experiment ‣ Contain results ‣ Contain conclusions ‣ Contain a list of references, if any ‣ Contain appendices that provide raw data Lab Reports

7. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. ‣ Apprise audiences of policies or procedures that they should know and follow ‣ Are often in email, memo, or letter format ‣ Should discuss the unfamiliar policies in-depth ‣ Often include categories for grouping information under separate headings ‣ Are forms of instruction and awareness to help employees do their jobs according to proper protocols Directives

8. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. Incident Reports ‣ Document events in the workplace such as accidents, emergencies, and problems ‣ Explain to readers what caused the incident and how the incident is being handled ‣ May also serve as a kind of warning ‣ Can be written as memos, letters, or emails, but can also be pre-written forms

9. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. Informal Reports ‣ Are written to help solve problems ‣ Are often written as memos, letters, or emails, or given as oral presentations ‣ Share similar structures, including an introduction, a body, and a conclusion ‣ Must consider the rhetorical situation and audience

10. Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved. Ethical Issues ‣ Do not differ all that much from the ethical issues that arise when composing other kinds of workplace documents ‣ Are concerned with disclosure, or telling audiences everything they need to know about a project, experiment, situation, or problem ‣ Are concerned with accuracy