TRAINING NARRATIVE REPORT - wacsi.org REPORT WRITI… · TRAINING NARRATIVE REPORT ... Session 1...

WEST AFRICA CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTE

TRAINING NARRATIVE REPORT

REPORT WRITING TRAINING FOR KAIPTC

PROGRAMMES STAFF

June 18 – 19, 2012,

Venue: Airport View Hotel, Accra-Ghana

Airport View Hotel, Accra-Ghana June 18-19, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1 SUMMARY 2 TRAINING SESSIONS 2 Opening Remarks 2 Session 1 – Introduction to Report Writing 2 Session 2 – Features of an excellent Report 2 Session 3 – Setting and agreeing objectives 3 Session 4 – Types of Reports 3 Session 5 – Planning and Resources for your Report 4 Session 6 – Collecting and Organisation your information 5 Session 7 – Structuring your report 5 Session 8 – Language, style and tone 5 Session 9 – Presentation of the Report 5 Session 10 – Editing, Proofreading and Submission 6 CONCLUSION 7 APPENDICES 8 Appendix 1: Group Exercise 1 8 Appendix 2: Group Exercise 2 8 Appendix 3: Group Exercise 3 10 Appendix 4: Training Agenda 11 Appendix 5: List of Participants 12

Report Writing Training Course for KAIPTC Programmes Staff


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ABOUT IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS

About WACSI

West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) is a spin-off of the Open Society Initiative for West

Africa (OSIWA), a George Soros Foundation. WACSI is a civil society resource centre engaged in

training, research, documentation, and policy dialogue for civil society organisations (CSOs) in

West Africa. The Institute focuses on creating strategic opportunities for dialogue and

strengthening the operational structures of CSOs. These activities provide a forum for

exchanging ideas, sharing experiences and bridging differences between policy makers and

CSOs. The institute has built a reputation for reducing the gap between policy makers and civil

society.

www.wacsi.org

About KAIPTC

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) aims to be an

internationally preferred Centre of Excellence for research into and training for conflict

prevention, management and resolution, research and innovative thinking in integrated Peace

Support Operations and sustainable delivery of enhanced regional capacity building for Peace

Support Operations. Its mission is to develop and deliver internationally recognized and

professional training courses and related programmes to equip personnel with selected skills

and competencies required to meet Africa‟s present and future complex peace and security

challenges. Working with its partners, the KAIPTC undertakes and delivers research and

training programmes that contribute to global peacekeeping operations.

www.kaiptc.org

http://www.wacsi.org/

http://www.kaiptc.org/



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1. INTRODUCTION

The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) was approached by the Kofi Annan

International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) to deliver a training course on Report

Writing for its programmes staff. The training course was targeted at strengthening the

programmatic skills of 33 KAIPTC Staff in planning, writing and presenting reports. The

training was held from June 18-19, 2012 at the Airport View Hotel.

The objectives of the course were to:

Identify the features of an excellent report; Design and map out an outline for different types of reports; Formulate reports according to specific contexts, style and readers‟ interests and genre; Increase their confidence in writing reports that enables the organisation to make a

meaningful decision; and Become a more powerful and persuasive report writer.

2. SUMMARY

The 2-day training course was beneficial and relevant to the needs of KAIPTC programmes staff.

This was acknowledged and articulated during the training sessions and in the post-course

evaluation report. The report writing course was implemented through a participatory and

learner-centred approach. The resource person used group exercises, brainstorming, case

studies, and discussions to galvanise the participation of KAIPTC staff. The training materials

used comprised of presentations, samples reports and templates. At the end of the training,

participants were given supplementary reading materials which had been stored on a compact

disc.

The sessions that were delivered during the training were: (1) Introduction to report writing, (2)

Planning and resources for your report, (3) Organising your report, (4) Presentation of the

report and (5) Proofreading and submission.

At the end of the training, participants developed insights, became familiar with tools and

techniques needed to write a powerful report that will enable them document their work and

keep partners informed and responsive.



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3. TRAINING SESSIONS

OPENING REMARKS

The Training course commenced with introductory remarks from Charles Vandyck, WACSI‟s

Capacity Building Officer and the facilitator for the training. Charles Vandyck welcomed the

participants. Charles Vandyck expressed WACSI‟s excitement about the opportunity to

contribute to the capacity development of its partners from KAIPTC. Charles Vandyck briefly

provided a profile of his professional background and presented the training objectives, laying

the foundation for the course by sharing the ground rules that will guide the delivery of the

course.

SESSION 1: INTRODUCTION TO REPORT WRITING

The facilitator began the training by explaining the origin of the word “Report”. Report

originates from the word „Port‟ which means to carry and „Re‟ which means again so literally

Carry Again. It was used in a military context. The report was carried from the fighting army

back to the leaders to help them make decisions about the next step.

The modern definition is: “to bring back as an answer, news or account of something; to give an

account of, especially a formal, official or requested account.” According to Chambers

dictionary, “a report is a statement of the results of an investigation or of any matter on which

definite information is required.” In the modern workplace reports have two main purposes: to

share information with other people; to keep a record of events and decisions.

SESSION 2: FEATURES OF AN EXCELLENT REPORT Participants recognized that most often reports/documents contain significant amounts of information. However, it is often difficult to determine whether the information provided is useful and most importantly relevant. To address this challenge, the resource person emphasized that the report should be reader focused.

An excellent report is a concise and accurate record of information that contains only the data relevant to the readership and record keeping process. It should be neatly laid out and easy to read with a simple structure that allows easy access to the information.

A group exercise was organised to identify the features of a report. (See appendix 1) Below are the main features of a report highlighted by the participants:

The resource person advised participants not to use technical jargons in writing reports. However, if a writer had no option but to use a jargon, then it is imperative that the concept should be explained to make them more understandable to the reader.

Concise Accurate record

Relevant data

Reader focused

Record keeping

Clear structure

Easy to read Accessible Information



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SESSION 3: SETTING AND AGREEING OBJECTIVES The resource person explained that objectives must be written down and agreed with whoever has requested the report. He also recommended that a series of questions should be reflected upon to avoid rambling reports and the absence of vital information. Thus, in writing a report it is important to ask certain questions referred to as the 8Ws which can guide in presenting a relevant document. • WHY is this report being written? • WHO is going to read the report? • WHO ELSE will read it? • WHY do they need it? • WHAT do they know already? • WHAT do they need to know about the topic? • WHAT don‟t they need to know? • WHAT are they going to use the information for? Subsequently, the resource person and participants discussed the issue of reporting templates. The resource person reiterated that templates are useful but they should not limit the user from making it flexible and adapting to the specific need. SESSION 4: TYPES OF REPORTS Three main types of reports were discussed. The Information report uses facts to explain something and gives details about a topic. It is a factual text which provides information about an issue. The information report is used as a way to gain better understanding about a subject. The Proposal report on the other hand is a form of academic writing which requires theoretical and critical thinking about a topic. It includes an integration of research findings with the writer‟s own ideas. The Research report is presented with a plan or suggested course of action so that a decision can be made by the reader. An outline of each type was presented and discussed to provide participants with a clear picture

of how a report should look like depending on its type and purpose.

Title Page

Executive Summary

Table of Contents

Table of Figures

Introduction

Categories of Information/Sections

Summary

Appendices

Bibliography

Information Report

Title Page

Abstract/Executive Summary

Table of Content

Table of Figures/Tables

Introduction

Literature Review

Methodology

Results

Discussion and Conclusion

Recommendations

Bibliography

Research Report

Title Page

Executive Summary

Table of Content

Table of Figures

Position

Problem

Possibilities

Plan

Appendices

Bibliography

Proposal Report



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SESSION 5: PLANNING AND RESOURCES FOR YOUR REPORT

Planning Reports

The planning stage is the initial stage of the preparation of the report. It helps the writer assess

the time available to gather a set of information in order to effectively reflect them in the report.

The writer should then provide adequate time to each of the stages prior to submission.

Consequently the writer could break down the task of writing the report into various parts. A key

tool at this stage is the checklist that helps the writer to make sure he adequately covers all the

different parts of the report.

Below is a sample checklist for planning purposes that was discussed during the training:

ACTIVITY YOUR NOTES

Report is requested

Go through the 8 questions

Set and agree objectives

Check the objective

Design the cover sheet

Brain storm the content

Identify the resources you require

Locate the resources

Read the resources

Decide what type of report it is

Choose your section headings

Organize the order of your sections

Decide on your formatting styles for your headings, captions and main text

Write each section

Edit the text, make it as concise as possible and making sure that it matches your objective

Write and edit the executive summary

Add in the contents, any lists of figures or tables and the appendices

Final Review (Check entire report, text and layout)

Submit and Celebrate!



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SESSION 6: COLLECTING AND ORGANISING INFORMATION Collecting information This session helped participants think through the kind of information needed and where it can be collected from. It also highlighted on the order of arrangement and the ways to collect the required data. The methods of data collection encompass background information from research studies or literature surveys from online sources or libraries amongst others. Organising information

The organisation of the information is useful to keep the writer focused and sort out what information is actually relevant for the specific task. Often there is lack of focus because writers in general are unable to decide what content is relevant and what is unnecessary. Overcoming this requires critical thinking skills to address this effectively; using the PPQ tool, i.e. Problem, Purpose, and Question. Throughout the process of organising information it is crucial that the writer thought processes move from general to specific, from useful to relevant. A group exercise was organised to identify the elements of a research report (see appendix 2) SESSION 7: STRUCTURING YOUR REPORT The structure of the report hinges on elements common to different types of reports. However one should keep in mind the type of report requested. A key feature of reports is that they are formally structured in sections. There is the need to understand the function of each section of your report so that you can structure your information appropriately. SESSION 8: LANGUAGE, STYLE AND TONE The usage of the active voice is recommended over passive voice. The active is more reader friendly, objective and helps you get to the point whilst the passive appears more descriptive and formal. It is important that the writer avoids mixing both. The resource person reiterated that subjective or personal language has no place in the objective field of report writing. The writer should ensure that sentences are short and understandable to the reader and grammatically correct. SESSION 9: PRESENTATION OF THE REPORT The principle for a good report layout is that the text should be concise, clear and coherent. It is important to pay attention to details that can affect comprehension or good presentation. The layout encompasses the headings, numbering, alignment, footnotes, diagrams and appendices. During this session the resource person presented and discussed reporting templates from WACSI. Discussions between the resource person and participants were focused on the following Reporting Templates:

Report of the Preparatory Meeting for an Africa Security CSOs Capacity Building Network; Meeting Report on the outcomes of the Dagbon Crisis Research; Monitoring and Evaluation Training Report 2011 in Liberia; ECOWAS Grant Management Training; Sample Post-Evaluation Report;



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Annual Report; After Activity Review Report; and WACSI Trainer Debriefing Guide.

Following the presentation and discussions of each of the reports, participants provided their insights on the need to be consistent in the use of subjects in a paragraph and throughout the report. The participants also discussed issues pertaining to identifying and formulating recommendations for a report. The importance of an executive summary was also discussed and this generated the sharing experiences from the participants. SESSION 10: EDITING, PROOFREADING AND SUBMISSION A key component of report writing is the editing phase. Even the most wonderful piece of writing loses value if it contains errors, the resource person stressed. The resource person also explained that editing is different from proofreading.

Participants also commented on this issue and realised that there is a difference between the two activites. While editing can imply change of content and presentation – keeping the logic behind the document, proofreading helps the writer get a „second check of his paper with likely suggestion of changes. To avoid the editor changing the meaning of the text, it will be necessary to let the person know the context. You might then need to sit with the person; or solicit someone who is conversant with what you are doing. The editing process can be done by the writer himself but preferrably another person. There are some general rules to ease the process of editing. Those consist in keeping your writing simple, avoiding jargons, explaining difficult concepts, not mixing tenses in a sentence, using positive sentences amongst others. The use of active voice is also emphasized. The resource person also cautioned participants about editing from a computer screen. The resource person explained that it is preferable to print out the document for a more effective check and input. A group exercise was organised on editing dubbed “editor in-chief”. An un-edited document was provided to the groups for them to edit (see appendix 3) After the editing and proofreading process, the report can now be submitted to the requestor and relevant recipients. The resource person advised that the writer keep a copy of his report for his own continuing professional development portfolio.



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CONCLUSION Participants found the report writing training a useful and relevant exercise. The course provided participants core report writing principles and tools thus enriching their knowledge and skills through experience sharing and practical examples. The course sought to strengthen the capacity of KAIPTC staff on how to plan, write and present a report. It included a range of activities and information sharing sessions that cemented the participants‟ knowledge and skills on report writing. The resource person encouraged participants to make beneficial use of the knowledge acquired in their daily work. Charles Vandyck insisted that report writing is skill that is developed through consistent practice and exposure to challenging tasks.

APPENDICES Appendix 1

GROUP EXERCISE 1: Features of a report Imagine you have been asked to write a report about this particular training on report writing. It is a request from your immediate supervisor. What would it include if you wrote separate reports for each of the following different readers? Your colleagues A colleague from a different unit within your organisation Your immediate supervisor The general public How would it change the length and structure of the report? What if you went back to your boss for clarification of the readership and the reply was, “All of them, of course.”?

Appendix 2

IDENTIFYING THE ELEMENTS OF A RESEARCH REPORT- WHICH SECTION OF THE REPORT IS THIS FROM?

Section Introduction of Literature Review

Results Conclusion Discussion Abstract Methodology

“There were several barriers identified by the pharmacists to Informed Shared Decision-Making (ISDM). One major barrier was perceived lack of collaboration between pharmacists and physicians. Some of the pharmacists said that they were often reluctant to intervene because physicians were not receptive to their interventions. The current literature agrees with this point of view, suggesting that most pharmacist-physician relationships in the community setting are not at a stage to allow seamless interdisciplinary collaboration. However, it was surprising to find such a large number of pharmacists from the hospital category also express lack of teamwork as a barrier”.

“In the fatal accident case outlined, health and safety legislation had been at best misunderstood and at worse ignored. Consideration of fundamental aspects of health and safety planning under the Construction Design and Management Regulations (1994) was clearly lacking, with deficiencies apparent at both pre-contract and site work stages. Moreover, there was disregard to fundamental health, welfare and safety provision under current legislation”.

“During the first 33 weeks, the mean weight decreased among those who completed the course by 5.0kg (6.5%) and 11.1kg (8.25%) in men. The initial weight loss was maintained during the first year, but during the second year some of the body weight was regained (1.2kg among women and 6.5kg among men). However, at 2 years the mean weight was still significantly decreased by almost 4% in both sexes”.

“Tourism-led development is clearly an emerging theme in South African local Economic Development (LED) (Rogerson, 1997, 2001), with tourism promotion geared towards community development being perceived as a viable growth option (Goudie et al., 1999; Kirsten and Rogerson, 2002; Mahoney and van Zyl, 2002). However despite the prominence accorded to tourism in South Africa‟s broad development vision and in many local level strategies, as Rogerson notes, in studies of LED‟…tourism-led LED is markedly under-represented and little discussed‟ (Rogerson, 2002:1)”.

“Taking a memory test not only assesses what one knows, but also enhances later retention, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. We studied this effect with emotionally relevant materials and investigated whether testing facilitates learning only because tests offer an opportunity to restudy material. In two experiments, students studied prose passages and took one to three immediate free-recall tests, without feedback, or restudied the material the same number of times as the students who received tests. Students then took a final retention test 5 min, 2 days, or 1 week later. When the final test was given after 5 min, repeated studying improved recall relative to repeated testing. However, on the delayed tests, prior testing produced substantially greater retention that studying, even though repeated studying increased students‟ confidence in their ability to remember the material. Testing is a powerful means of improving learning, not just assessing it”.

“Sixteen crabs fasted for 24 hours and then tested. In control tests, seawater was used on both sides of the Y-maze. Each crab was allowed to acclimate in the maze for 8-12 hours and then tested with the effluent and seawater control. This was then repeated for the other muscle species about 10 hours later. Initial response tests were completed within 24 days”.

It may at first seem somewhat surprising that acid-charcoal treatment has so little effect on the structure of serum albumin, since this protein undergoes a molecular unfolding at acid pH which exposes hydrophobic residues to the solvent, and charcoal has a tremendous affinity for such hydrophobic surfaces. A possible explanation may be that at acid pH charcoal particles do in fact become tightly “coated” with albumin which is not substantially released. Lau et al. (37) have shown that albumin treated Norit has different absorptive properties than does untreated charcoal.”

Appendix 3

Committee Sutures Committees are the back bone of any large organization. They provide structure for many of our civilities in practice many a long hour is used at you‟re usual committee meeting debating this way and that. However its was my privilege to attend a meeting with a difference. I went along as a replacement for a colleague to a teaching and learning committee meeting Never before have I been surprised by the structure of a committee meeting. There all the same you have an agenda you work though it there are the odd interludes of excited exchange‟s if you‟re lucky but never does anyone question the fact that you all sit around one long table. This particular meeting a very senior member of the university was chairing it. Mostly it was as every other committee meeting... However half way through the chair gave each group a different section of the „fascinating new teaching and and learning strategy He then asking us to split into groups of three and use a flip chart to list any relevant points on implications of the strategy to the university. I was enthralled – here in a top level committee meeting someone had dared to practice what they preached and use well accepted teaching methods to help structure the meeting. Wow it might seem like a small change but It changed the nature if the interactions around the table instead of the same 4 or five people talking and making althea decisions we were all given c a chance to look in depth and make positive contributions to a real document that was going to effect the future of the university I really enjoyed the meeting and got to no a couple of the committee really well whereas usually unless you have other meetings outside the committee you get to know peoples names and jobs but not much else So my advice to you is to think of other ways of structuring the communication in a committee – you‟ve got a real chance to make help people contribute in different ways and as you can see they might even remember what happened to. It‟s not everyday that you feel your voice has really been herd at such a high level within a huge organization.

Appendix 4: Training Agenda June 18– 19, 2012,

TIME

Day 1 Day 2

8:30-9:00 Arrival & Introduction of Resource

Person and Participants Structuring your report

9:00-9:30

Introduction to report writing Language, style and tone

9:30-10:15 Features of an excellent report

10:15-10:30 TEA BREAK

10:30-11:00 Practical Exercise Layout and presentation

11:00-12:30 Setting and agreeing objectives

12:30-1:30

LUNCH BREAK

1:30-2:00 Practical Exercise Practical Exercise

2:00-2:45 Type of Reports Editing

2:45-3:45 Planning reports

3:45-4:00 TEA BREAK

4:00-4:30 Collecting and organising information Proofreading, submission and

celebration

END OF SESSION

Appendix 5: List of participants

Name Department/Position

1. Afua Lamptey Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs 2. Aissatou Fall Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

3. Christiana Pambo Office of the Commandant

4. Christof P. Gertsch Training Department

5. Daniel Siaw. Kwarko Administration 6. DSP Fanny Aboagye Training Department 7. Dr. Nicholas. Okai Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

8. Ebenezer Anum-Tetteh Office of the Commandant

9. Ernest Ansah Lartey Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs 10. John Pokoo Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

11. Ernest Kissi Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

12. Laila-Ayesha Lipede Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

13. Ferdinand Kweku Danso Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

14. Frank Okyere Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

15. Horname Noagbesenu Office of the Commandant

16. Jerome AM Jackson Office of the Commandant /Training Department

17. Joana Osei-Tutu Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

18. Lucy-Ann Dordunoo Office of the Commandant

19. Lydia Hagan Training Department

20. Margaret Alexander Rehoboth

Training Department

21. Mr Eric Akyeampong Administration

22. Mr Francis Sarkodie Administration

23. Mr Kodjo Menka Administration

24. Mr Lawrence Bediako Administration

25. Theodora Obobi-Botchway Office of the Commandant

26. Louisa Duncan-Williams Administration

27. Mustapha Abdallah Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

28. Naila Salihu Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

29. Nancy Annan Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

30. Rahima Moomin Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

31. Sarah Okaebea Danso Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

32. Susan Nelson Faculty of Research and Academic Affairs

33. WO Richard Anafo Administration

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