Writing for Business Courses

Formal Reports

Remember to check the business homepage for strategies for successful writing in business classes, curated by business professors. In most reports, you can use our APA template to format, and visit our APA page for more help on formatting.

Research

Before writing a formal report, you will probably need to do research. See the Keifer Library and the Aims OWL pages on research , evaluating sources, and primary vs. secondary sources in order to find and understand
the materials you're looking for. 

Summarizing

When writing about complex legal cases, write in your own words, explaining the case in simple terms. This demonstrates your understanding. To do this, read the case a few times (see our Reading Textbooks page for help on reading complex materials) and note the following:

• What are the facts? 

• What happened? Why are we in court? Who is involved?

• What is the issue to be decided? i.e., What laws are being applied to this case? (e.g., Did Smith violate the Lanham Act by marketing a soda called CocoColo?) 

• What was the decision?  i.e., Yes, the court found that CocoColo was confusingly similar to the brand Coca Cola. 

• What was the reasoning? i.e., Coca Cola proved that thousands of consumers purchased Smith's soda believing that they were purchasing Coca Cola.

Explains, in your own words,  the bullet points above in your summary.

REPORT EXAMPLES