(Michael Miller, CEO of a five-star hotel, Galaxy Arizona, is worried these days because of

a sharp decline in the occupancy rate. He decides to ask Mark and Joana, two new staff,

from the marketing department to conduct a market survey and write a report to him.)

(In Michael’s office)

场景：酒店CEO    人物：Michael、 Joana、 Mark

Michael: Mark and Joana, good morning. I have just gone over these financial statements from last quarter and I’m a bit worried. The occupancy rate seems to be going down. So I’d like you guys to find out what the causes are and provides some recommendations based on your survey.

Joana: So you want us to write a report to you?

Michael: Exactly. Maybe you can have a report to me within a week?

Mark: No problem. And we will send you an e-mail.

Michael: OK. Thank you.

Mark and Joana: OK.

(Mark and Joana are talking in the Marketing Department about how to write this report.)

Mark: Joana, it is not such an easy thing to do.

Joana: Not easy, Mark. Writing such a report should usually follow four steps: 1) Assembling the material; 2) Planning the report; 3) Drafting the report; and 4) Editing the report.

Mark: Oh, yeah. Before writing the report, we need to collect information by making a market survey, sort out all relevant materials and find out the real causes for the decline. Shall we look for a specialist market survey agent to do these?

Joana: I am afraid it will take longer time and cost much if we do so. I think we can do it ourselves. We can email questionnaires to our regular hotel guests and promise to give them a discount if they offer helpful feedback. On the other hand, we can encourage our employees to make suggestions on improvement. This way our staff will feel valued and they will be more motivated to participate in hotel management.

Mark: Yeah, your idea is rather reasonable. With feedback from our customers, suggestions from our staff and also, all related information, we can plan our report.

Joana: Hmm, we should consider the purpose of the report, arrange the points of information in a logical sequence and in the order of importance, etc.

Mark: You’re right. The purpose of this report is clear—finding the causes for the decline of the occupancy rate.

Joana: Yeah. Then, we can draft the report. At first a report should have the elements, you know, like: To, From, Date, and Subject in the beginning.

Mark: They are the basic items that can’t be ignored.

Joana: Yes, a report normally has introduction, body, conclusion and recommendations if necessary.

Mark: What do you mean by “recommendations if necessary”?

Joana: Well, we write it ONLY when we’re asked to. And now Michael just said that he wanted to have our recommendations, so we must write it. However, the focus should be on “facts and findings”. So, we need to pay attention to the other three parts.

Mark: Three parts. Oh, I see. In the introduction, we can indicate the background and the purpose of writing this report – Michael’s instruction, and the present situation of our businesses.

Joana: The body part is to introduce briefly the market survey we are going to conduct – you know, our questionnaires, collection of our staff’s opinion as well as our investigation of our competitors in this area.

Mark: Exactly. Then, we need to present Facts and Findings by using subheadings.

Joana: Right! Right! We can list the raw data we have collected in the investigation and, you know, present them by using tables, graphs and charts. In writing this chart, I mean, in writing this part, we have to make sure that those tables and charts are related to the text properly.

Mark: Right. Then in the last part – Conclusion and Recommendations, we will draw a conclusion based on our findings and then write a separate paragraph to put forward our recommendations to solve the problems.

Joana: Yes, that’s the content of a report. A most striking feature of a report is its objectivity. A report can’t be full of subjective ideas.

Mark: En, that’s a very important point. Then what do you think we should do to make our report “objective”?

Joana: Umm, I would say, objective writing presents facts and figures only, and does not include the writer’s feelings or beliefs. So in terms of language skills, we can use passive voice, and, you know, present both sides of an issue to ensure that our writing is objective.

Mark: Alright. Yes, we have to pay attention to all these when we deal with this issue. After writing the report, we have to improve it and make sure it is accurate, and brief, clear, correct and decisive.

Joana: Great! Now we are both very clear about how to write this report. Why not just start right away?