A data report, here, is a report containing lots of data in the form of tables, charts, and graphs. The technical writer:
- starts with source that contains mostly tables.
- creates charts and graphs that more vividly depict the data in those tables.
- adds explanatory cross-references to state key trends and conclusions in the tabular data.
The results of the technical writer's work would be a data report that is much much easier to skim and pick up the key points.
Data reports are used in every industry and branch of government:
- Police departments give reports on crime statistics.
- Public corporations of every kind put out quarterly financial reports.
- Non-profit watchdog groups provide data reports on government spending.
- Environmental consultants report on pollution levels and fish populations.
Be sure to check out the examples.
Anatomy of a Data Report
Like humans, data reports come in all shapes and sizes. Presented here is one framework that you can use as-is or modify.
If you are creating a data report, see Create Data Report
- Notice the basic contents of the body sections of the example data reports, not necessarily in this order or all included:
heading
table
chart
explanatory cross-reference
source indicator - Notice in this example the structure of an individual section in a data report: table (omitted), graph, explanatory cross-reference:
- Be sure to include these parts of the data report:
As can be seen in Figure 4, generated paper materials have outdistanced recycled paper materials 6730 million tons 4760 million tons over the the 1960 to 2015 period.
Here's another example of an explanatory cross-reference:
Figure 6. MSW Pounds per Person per Day
As you can see in the figure above, progress in recovery of municipal solid waste (MSW) was increasing until year 2000 but has stalled since then.
AI Prompts for Data Reports
Checklists, which typically go unread, can be used as source for AI prompts with some modification. Copy the following, paste it into an AI system such as Google's Gemini, and see what you may have missed.
Note: All references to the content, format, style of techdocs or its components can be found in the online techncial-writing textbook.
coming soon!
I would appreciate your thoughts, reactions, criticism regarding this chapter: your response—David McMurrey.
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