The WRITTEN REPORT presents the complete effort of the Field Study team and shows the client what the team has been doing over a two or three month period to address issues articulated in the confirmation letter.  In essence, the written report preserves for all to see the quality of the product, the thinking and the effort that the Field Study team has put forth to help the client.

The written report can largely be written during the ANALYSIS phase of the project.  When the team develops FINDINGS, they carefully construct sentences that display those findings clearly; similarly, when CONCLUSIONS are drawn and RECOMMENDATIONS developed, these are clearly written in complete sentences supplemented by dot points.

A Field Study REPORT should be organized in the following manner:

• Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Findings
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Appendices

In the Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations chapters, there should be only ONE finding, conclusion, and recommendation on a single page supported by dot points.  This enables the reader to focus clearly on what has been written and to see immediately the supporting evidence for what is written.

At the end of each chapter, the team should write a one-page summary of the Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations, as appropriate.  The summary is generally a modified rewrite of the sentences that represent those findings, conclusions and/or recommendations.

An important point to keep in mind is this:  When you present your report orally, you will READ the sentences that represent the Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations EXACTLY as written – no “ad libs” and no “winging it.”  

The reason for this is simple:  You will have spent considerable time in writing those sentences exactly the way you want to communicate your point – so do NOT take the chance of just throwing in an ‘ad lib’ when you present the report orally.  FIRM RULE!!