Employee Report vs. Employee Evaluation:
Be sure to distinguish carefully between a true "report" on an employee and an
"evaluation" of an employee. For the former--a report--you simply prepare
it as you would any report: you base it on pure fact, pure action and
event--with no judgment or evaluation. In short, a true report on an
employee is simply a detailing of his or her actions.
However, if what you really want is some kind of evaluation, judgment, or
assessment of the employee's work, relationships with other employees, and/or
potential for other jobs, then you are seeking to develop an entirely different
type of paper. For an evaluation of an employee, please go to the
"Evaluation"
chapter, use it to develop a set of
criteria
by which you judge every employee equally, fairly, and fully, and then apply
these criteria to the employee, supporting what you say with details.
CLASSIFICATION, COMPARISON-CONTRAST, and ARGUMENT:
If you are working with the rhetorical modes, a professional report uses some
of these modes. It is useful especially for writing in the mode of
classification. It also is useful for writing in the modes of cause-effect and
of argument. Here's what you need to know to use these modes when writing
a professional report.
"Classification" means simply that a subject--a person, place, event, or
object--is broken into parts and sub-parts. For example, a student chosen at
random might be classified and sub classified by LOOKS (Height, Weight, Hair,
and Build), by LEISURE PURSUITS (Hobbies, Friends, Dating, and Music), and by
PERSONALITY (Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, and Physical). A simple
classification paper creates these parts and sub-parts and then describes them
in detail.
A professional report requires good use of classification: most reports on
business or technical activities require that the activities be grouped or
divided according to some system, whether that system is by time, by place, by
relative success or failure, or by any of a number of other methods. A good report
often has its information divided and subdivided so efficiently,
consistently, and logically that it can be organized or summarized by an
outline.
"Comparison/contrast" means to show how subjects are alike and/or
different. A simple comparison/contrast paper often has two subjects and
describes how they are alike, then how they differ. For example, a
comparison/contrast paper on two forms of weekend entertainment, camping and
dancing, might first give details on how both can involve physical skills,
friends, and enjoying sounds and sights; then the paper might next give details
on how camping and dancing differ in that one is in nature and the other is not,
one is slow and quiet and the other fast and loud, and one is peaceful while the
other is rousing.
Good professional reports require a working knowledge of comparison/contrast.
The two subjects to be compared and contrasted are the present report and the
previous report or proposal. The reason for this is that every report or
proposal sets up expectations: the people reading the report or proposal expect
certain events to happen in a certain order, at a certain time, for a certain
cost. What each new report does is to tell people how their expectations are
being met, and how they are not. Therefore, a good professional report often
will compare and contrast the present status of the activity in question with
the status as of the previous report or proposal.
An "argument" is, simply, an educated guess or opinion that is not
totally factual. "Men have walked on the moon" is a fact. But
"People will walk on Venus in the next ten years" is an opinion.
Anything that reasonably can be debated is an argument. A simple argument paper
usually presents a debatable opinion and then offers supports in favor of it, or
sometimes an argument paper will discuss both sides of an issue and then give
good reasons for choosing one side over the other.
Argument sometimes is necessary in a professional report, even if often
simple and brief. The readers of the report often like to have some kind of
comment--often in or near the end--that tells how the report's project is coming
along. The readers want to be reassured that the project is coming along well,
can be fixed if in trouble, or should be scrapped. Usually report writers at
this point in their reports try to give the readers what they want to hear--but
still be honest and fair about it--so that readers are left feeling as good as
possible but do not have unreasonable expectations.
