Report Writing for Municipalities
Good reports to council succeed by enabling councilors to make the best decisions. While the writers have deep technical knowledge they are often unable to communicate key issues and recommendations clearly and simply to a busy, non-technical reader. Too often councilors must read stacks of reports that are rambling and unclear.
This course provides strategies and techniques to ensure your policy reports and recommendations are clear, concise, and persuasive.
Who Should Attend
Anyone who writes any kind of report, including policy reports and recommendations.
What You Will Learn
Participants learn how to
- Use the different parts of your report template
- Get to your point quickly
- Use talking headers and lists to increase clarity and scannability
- Present facts, figures and technical information in a meaningful way
- Write your analysis clearly and logically
- Draft in a concise, positive style
Our Approach
This course is interactive and practical. Participants have many opportunities to work alone and in small groups. There is plenty of small and large-group discussion, and very little lecturing.
We recognize that participants learn by doing, and they do a lot in this course. Participants will have opportunities to review reports we provide and draft reports from realistic case studies.
Course Length and Size
This is a one-and-a-half-day course. We recommend approximately 24 participants for Day 1, and smaller groups of about 12 for each half-day of Day 2. We will run 2 half-days on Day 2, one group in the morning, and another in the afternoon. We recommend holding Day 2 in a computer lab, where participants draft a report from a case study. This encourages healthy group interaction and allows for individual coaching when necessary.