Course Guidelines for Professional Reports and

Presentations

Guideline for Reports:

A report for business needs to follow the format of 1:”Tell them what you will tell them”, 2:”Tell
them the information”, 3:”Tell them what you told them”.

A professional report needs to have the following:

1) Cover page: Include the information needed to identify the report. What are you going to
be talking about?
2) Executive Summary: You need to summarize what is contained in the report (findings,
conclusions, etc). The reader should know what you are going to say and prove in your
report.
3) Body of the Report: Present and explain your data. How did you get the data, what is the
data, what does the data say? Use headings to separate the sections within your report,
but make sure the headings define what you are going to say in that section. "This
section should be an explanation of the data and analyses. If extensive data and
analyses are required include them in an appendix.
4) Conclusion: Much like the executive summary the conclusion summarizes what the
report is about and what you have concluded from the data presented.
5) References: In a report you need to reference any outside sources you have used. This
is important for both the references you have quoted directly within your report and the
references you have only used as information while creating your report. Use the format
as follows:
• Author last name, first name year. “Title of publication.” Publication source.
• Author last name, first name year. “Title of publication.” Retrieved from
http://www.WebsiteTitle.com/whole link/
6) Appendices: If the report requires extensive data or analyses, such as Minitab session
windows, then include these in an Appendix and reference them within the body of the
report. Do not include extremely long analyses in the report body

Guideline for Presentations:

Like a report, a presentation for business needs to follow the format of 1:”Tell them what you will
tell them”, 2:”Tell them the information”, 3:”Tell them what you told them”.

A professional presentation needs to have the following:

1) Cover slide: Include the information needed to identify the presentation. What are you
going to be talking about?
2) Executive Summary: You need to summarize what is contained in the presentation
(findings, conclusions, etc). The reader should know what you are going to say and
prove in your report.
3) Body of the Presentation: Present and explain your data. Use slide headings that define
what the slide is about and make the slide content easy to read (not many points on one
slide). Don’t write everything you are going to say in your presentation, just the main
details, data or chart; then talk about the additional information for the slide.
4) Conclusion: Much like the executive summary the conclusion summarizes what the
presentation is about and what you have concluded from the data and presented.