II.

Reader and purpose

Your report should not be a mystery. You must be very

Ask yourself: Why am I
clear on the reason that you are writing the report and the
major points you want to make and you should convey writing this report? What is
these to the reader in your introduction. You can safely the subject of the report?
assume that if you do not state the purpose explicitly, at Who will be reading it?
least some of your readers will not realize [TIP] what it is.
If you have several purposes of equal importance, state them in parallel structures to indicate their
equivalent value.

Sometimes, the reason you are writing the report (its statement of purpose) will be very similar to the
content of the report (its subject), especially when the purpose is merely to inform the reader. Sometimes,
however, the statement of purpose will be quite distinct from the subject. In such cases, your introduction
will benefit from keeping these two aspects separate.

For example, the purpose of the report of the Secretary-General on the financing of the United Nations
Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) [TIP] is to obtain funding for the mission from the General Assembly. The
subject of the report - in other words, itscontent - is an account of UNMIL activities and the estimates of
the money that will be needed to finance them. Your introduction will need to include both these aspects.

Example

The present [TIP] report on the financing of the United Nations Mission in Liberia is submitted to the
General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session for review and appropriation of the financial resources
required for the functioning of the mission for the period July-December 2005. The report outlines the
proposed activities to be carried out by the mission and indicates the estimated financial requirements.

Note that stating the purpose at the beginning is sometimes essential to indicate legislative authority for
the report (General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and so forth) and will be helpful to you as
well as your readers. If your report is in response to a specific resolution, make a copy of the resolution
and highlight thepoints. Keep checking back to make sure you are not deviating from yourpurpose. Now
take a look at an exercise to show how the resolution can help you to keep your report focused on its
subject. You can check your answers using the link at the end of the exercise.

[Click here for exercise 1]

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 1

This exercise is intended to give you some practical experience of following your legislative mandate in
the form of a resolution. It provides links to the report prepared pursuant to Economic and Social Council
resolution 2003/XX and the resolution itself. Glance through the report and then, referring to the
resolution, answer the questions.

In the example of Economic and Social Council resolution 2003/XX, the request is to report on the
implementation of the resolution (paragraph 7). Your report should therefore cover what has been done to
respond to the requests and suggestions the Council has made in the resolution. Remember the advice of
your former teachers and professors: answer the question you have been set, not the one you wish had
been set.

It is always a good idea to keep firmly in mind also the preambular (unnumbered) paragraphs. The
Council is recalling and bearing in mind these previous declarations and reports for a purpose - because
they contain the fundamental background information and principles relating to the subject. Take a look at
the first, second and third preambular paragraphs of resolution 2003/XX [link to resolution].

The introduction to the report (E/CN.7/2004/XX) reads as follows:

The present report has been prepared pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 2003/XX of
22 July 2003, entitled "International assistance to the States affected by the transit of illicit drugs". The
aim of the strategy of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is to assist transit States in the
upgrading of legislation and judicial procedures; the strengthening of the technical skills of law
enforcement agencies; the improving of data collection by national agencies to support informed
responses to combat illicit drug trafficking and the problems associated with it; the provision of
equipment to front-line operations; and the strengthening of cross-border and regional cooperation and
assistance to develop self-sustaining training in the best operating practices for government law
enforcement services.

Question A. The first sentence announces the legislative mandate. Now compare the introduction of the
report and the resolution. Does this introduction indicate that the report will provide all the information
that you might expect based on the resolution?
Answer "yes" or "no".

Question B. Now glance through the report itself [link to report]. Does the report in fact cover this
information, even though it is not mentioned in the introduction? Does the report provide information on
all the issues highlighted in the resolution?

Take a look at the sixth preambular paragraph of the resolution:

"Noting the fact that the transit States continue to face grave and multifaceted challenges, owing to both the
problems related to illicit drug trafficking and supply and the rising levels of drug abuse resulting from
the transiting of illicit drugs through their territories,"

Essentially, does the report focus on the challenges faced by the transit States?

Answer "yes" or "no".

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
Defining your purpose

Defining your purpose at the very beginning keeps you on

Stick a note with a sentence
track and lets the reader see where you are going. You may
also find that the process of drafting a statement (or or two stating the purpose of
sometimes for a long report, a paragraph) about the the report above your
purpose helps you to clarify the purpose in your own computer as a reminder.
mind.

However, bear in mind that there might be some types of writing, usually shorter and more direct internal
communications, that do not require an explicit statement of purpose.

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
Purposes of United Nations reports

Some of the purposes of United Nations reports are the following:

(a) To recommend or call for action;

(b) To educate or inform readers about the situation in a region or for a particular group
of people;
(c) To persuade through logical argument;
(d) To present a theory and back it up with evidence;
(e) To describe a procedure;
(f) To show what progress has been made (over time or geographically) in a programme
since the last report;
(g) To provide an account of a situation or incident for the official record.

Use the examples in subparagraphs (a) - (g) to decide what the purposes of the reports in exercise 2 might
be.

[Click here for exercise 2]

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 2

What are the purposes of the reports below likely to be? Choose a purpose for each from the list on the
previous page. Indicate whether or not each report would need a statement of purpose. Then write a
statement of purpose for each report that needs one.

1. A report to your supervisor about the benefits of flexitime

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

2. A report on a survey mission in preparation for a two-year mission in Liberia

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

3. A report on the human rights situation in Myanmar

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

4. A report on a working group meeting on staff development

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

5. A report on progress made in the implementation of a UNICEF project to make primary

level education available to all children in Kenya

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

6. The minutes of a meeting

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
7. A report on strategies to protect United Nations staff serving in Pakistan and the
implications for UNODC in that country

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

8. A report on a conference that the writer attended

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

9. A report on data indicating that synthetic drugs manufactured in Europe have become
more potent over recent years and presenting a possible reason why this might have
occurred

Purpose: ___________________________________________________

Statement of purpose needed? Yes/no

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Types of United Nations reports

The various types of United Nations reports, [TIP] often

What kind of reports do you
have similar purposes. Some examples are given below.
write? Take a moment to
think about why you write
1. Substantive research reports of the them and who reads them.
Secretary-General

Audience: Member States that will be voting on resolutions or deciding on policies, taking the findings of
the report into consideration. Reports of the Secretary-General will be submitted to a specific legislative
body, such as the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the
Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Purpose:

(a) To provide information on activities of the United Nations, Member States and other
players in the international community, or to update readers on the latest situation or
findings if the report is part of a series;
(b) To formulate conclusions and make recommendations;
(c) To argue in favour of a course of action.

2. Internal department reports

Audience:

(a) Chief of the department;

(b) Managers or other staff of the department;
(c) Colleagues throughout the United Nations system working on similar issues.

Purpose:

(a) To explain a procedure;

(b) To report on the findings of a study of interest to the department;
(c) To describe a staff member's work on a project, a conference or some other outside
assignment.

3. Mission reports

Audience:

(a) The department that sent the staff member on mission;

(b) Policymaking [TIP] units of the United Nations;
(c) Other departments whose work is related to the mission.

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
Purpose:

(a) For non-specialist readers, to lay out the situation or problem, summarize the findings of
a study and present conclusions and usually recommendations;
(b) For specialist readers, the above purposes and also to present the details of the study.

4. Other types of United Nations reports

(a) Public information reports;

(b) Technical reports;
(c) Reports on conferences and expert group and working group meetings;
(d) Inter-agency reports;
(e) Project proposals;
(f) Incident reports;
(g) Analytical reports on application of rules and policies.

Staff members are also often required to write notes for the file, summaries of longer documents or articles,
summary records of meetings, analytical reports and memorandums and other correspondence. How to
write summaries will be covered later in this course.

[Click here for exercises 3 and 4]

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 3

Read the following introduction to a report submitted to the Commission on Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice and underline sentences or phrases that indicate the purpose of the report. At what point
of the text is the purpose of the report stated?

Assistance to least developed countries to ensure their participation in the sessions of the Commission
on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the sessions of conferences of States parties (E/
CN.15/2005/XX)

I. Introduction

1. In its resolution 59/XX of 20 December 2004, entitled "Assistance to least developed countries to ensure
their participation in the sessions of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the
sessions of conferences of States parties", the General Assembly called on Member States, international
organizations and funding institutions to redouble their efforts to increase their voluntary contributions to
assist the Secretary-General in covering the cost of travel and daily subsistence allowance for the
participation of representatives of least developed countries in the sessions of the Conference of the Parties
to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Conference of the States
Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, and requested the Executive Director of the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to intensify efforts to ensure the increased
participation of representatives of least developed countries in those meetings.

2. The list of least developed countries is provided in the annex to the present report, with an indication of
membership in the Commission and ratification of the United Nations crime conventions.

3. The present report is submitted to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its
fourteenth session in order to keep it apprised of progress in the implementation of resolution 59/XX.

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 4

Note how the statement of purpose is divided in the following introduction. What is the purpose of this
report?

I. Introduction

1. The International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), in its eleventh annual report, informed the General
Assembly of the United Nations that the margin between the net remuneration of the United Nations staff
in the Professional and higher categories in New York and that of the United States federal civil service in
Washington was estimated at 117.6 for the period from 1 January to 31 December 1992.

2. Following consideration of the Commission’s eighteenth annual report, the General Assembly, by its
resolution 47/XX of 23 December 1992, took note of the Commission’s study of the methodology for
determining the cost-of-living differential between New York and Washington and requested the
Commission to take into account the views expressed by the Member States on the completion of the
above study.

3. The purpose of the present document is:

(a) To inform the Commission of the developments affecting the margin within the two services
since the Commission last considered the margin issue at its thirty-sixth session (July 1992);
(b) To provide a forecast of the margin between the net remuneration for the two services for the
period from 1 January to 31 December 1993.

4. With regard to the forecast of the margin provided in paragraph 11 below, it may be noted that a
document on the procedure for the determination of the cost-of-living differential between New York and
Washington (ICSC/37/R.4 and Add.1) is before the Commission.

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Purpose indicated by title

The title of your report should immediately alert your reader to the subject of the report and why you are
writing it. If you include only a general topic statement, the reader is forced to search further for the
purpose or even to guess what it might be.

An example of a good title would be document A/60/XX, "Measures to strengthen accountability at the
United Nations". It tells us: (a) what the report will be about (measures to strengthen accountability); and
(b) in what context (at the United Nations).

The title of document A/60/XX, however, is not so clear. Its [TIP] title is "Human resources development".
We know that the report deals with human resources development, but in what context? The United
Nations? We could assume so, especially since the General Assembly indeed considers many issues of
human resources development in the Secretariat. But in fact the summary of the report says that it
"provides an overview of the need for promoting comprehensive and cross-sectoral approaches to human
resources development" and that it "emphasizes the mutually reinforcing relationship between human
resources development and the realization of the internationally agreed development goals". The agenda
item is entitled "Eradication of poverty and other development issues: human resources development".
This title could therefore usefully be expanded to read "Contribution of human resources development to
the eradication of poverty". If in doubt about how to develop a title, however, the simplest solution is often
to follow the wording of the agenda item. For example, the title of the report could read "Eradication of
poverty: human resources development".

For internal documents, using words such as "recommendation", "request", "proposal" and "authorization"
often helps to indicate the purpose.

For example:
● Request for temporary staff assistance
● Project proposal: cultivation of roses instead of coca bush in Colombia
● Recommendations for staff training in 2007

[Click here for exercises 5 and 6]

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 5

The examples below give a title of a United Nations report and the statement of purpose of the report as
contained in the introduction. Do you think that the title gives you a clear idea of what the report will
cover?

Suggest a more descriptive title that would give the reader a better idea of what the report is all about.

Actual title: Globalization and interdependence (A/59/XX)

Statement of purpose: Ways to forge greater coherence in order to advance internationally agreed
development goals, addressing the specific question of how to promote the institutional and policy
coherence required to achieve the broad array of development goals in a globalizing world economy.

Actual title: Status of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery (A/59/
XX)
Statement of purpose: Update on the financial status and activities of the United Nations Voluntary Trust
Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and recommendations adopted by the Board of Trustees of the
Fund.

Actual title: United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala

Statement of purpose: Report of the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala on the
implementation of the 1996 peace agreements, prior to the closure of the Mission in December 2004.

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 6

You have been asked to write a report on the use of space technology to promote health and education.
Bearing in mind the goal of the United Nations in this field (the peaceful uses of outer space for the benefit
of all countries of the world), let’s assume that the purpose of the report might be to persuade countries
with programmes in space technology to share their knowledge and facilities in order to improve the
access of people in developing countries to health and education.

Suggest two titles for the report, one giving the basic subject matter and the other giving the subject
and an idea of the purpose of the report.

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Questions your reader might ask

In A Guide to Writing for the United Nations, [TIP] W.H. Hindle writes (p. 6):

"Accuracy, clarity, conciseness, consistency are fine words, finer and rarer things. How are they to be
achieved in United Nations documents?"

"The first step to this end consists in giving thought, before writing, to why we are going to write, what
we are going to write, and how and for whom."

If you keep your reader in mind as you draft your report, just as you do when you write a personal letter,
you will find it easier to make decisions about what to include (and what to omit), how to organize the
material and what tone to adopt.

Ask yourself the following questions before you begin to write:

(a) Who requested the report?

(b) What information was requested?
(c) Is this a new report on the subject or part of a series?
(d) How much background information will the reader need?

[Click here for exercises 7 and 8]

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 7

Read through the text below. Does it tell the reader the main things he or she needs to know about the
report, such as:

(a) Who requested the report?

(b) What information was requested?
(c) Is this a new report on the subject or part of a series?
(d) Does the report provide all the necessary background to the subject, or will the reader have
to look at previous reports?

Sixth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Côte
d’Ivoire

I. Introduction

1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution XX (2005) of 3 June 2005, by
which the Council requested to be regularly informed of the development of the situation in Côte d’Ivoire
and the implementation of the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and of
the Linas-Marcoussis and Pretoria Agreements. The report covers major developments in the peace
process since my report to the Security Council of 17 June 2005 (S/2005/XX). During that period, the
Council received the fortnightly reports prepared by the Monitoring Group established under the Accra III
Agreement comprising the representatives in Côte d’Ivoire of the United Nations, the African Union and
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Prepared by the Editorial Control Unit, United Nations Office at Vienna, 2008
 Exercise 8

Imagine that you have been asked to write an analytical paper for the Executive Director of UNODC on
the increase in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

Below is a list of questions that might be covered in the report. How would you group some of those
questions together when planning the report? Are there any other questions you think should be covered?
Look through the list and choose the questions that you consider vital, bearing in mind the subject you
have been asked to analyse and who will be reading the report. Cross out those questions which should
not be covered in the report. Then group the remaining questions into sections, giving each section a
separate title and number (I, II, III etc.). At the end of each question that should be covered in the report,
indicate in which section of the report (sect. I, sect. II etc.) the question should be covered.

1. What is the geography of the region?

2. What are the social and economic conditions?
3. What is the status of the local government?
4. By how much has the production increased?
5. Has there been any effect on the price paid to farmers or the price paid by drug users?
6. Has there been an increase in heroin abuse in Afghanistan or elsewhere?
7. Is there any conflict in the poppy growing area?
8. Are there any foreign troops in the area?
9. If there is conflict, is it localized? Is it tribal?
10. Has there been any involvement of local militias in the drug trade?
11. Are any of the neighbouring countries involved?
12. What is the history of conflict in Afghanistan?
13. Are there any elections coming up?
14. Is there any industrial development in Afghanistan?
15. What is the country's culture like?
16. Have there been any changes in the situation recently?
17. What is the meaning of these changes?
18. What are the population statistics of the area?
19. Who grows the opium poppy?
20. Who buys the raw opium?
21. Who processes the opium? Where?
22. How are the illicit drugs smuggled out?
23. Where do they end up? How do they get there?
24. What airlines fly to Kabul?
25. What is the Government doing to control the cultivation?
26. What has the Commission on Narcotic Drugs said about drug crop cultivation in Afghanistan?
27. Has the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice considered the matter?
28. Have there been any UNODC missions to the area?
29. Who controls the illicit drug trade?
30. What is the complete history of this region?
31. What options are available for the Organization?
32. Which options are the most feasible?
33. Are there any drawbacks to the options?
34. How would we consider the arguments against the options?
35. Are there any recommendations to be made?
36. Any other questions:

You have now completed chapter II of the course. Click here for chapter III , where we will look at how to
plan a report.

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