How to Write a Business Report Conclusion

After you have explained a particular problem or goal in your business to your colleagues in a report, you must offer some conclusions. A report conclusion should summarize what the problem or goal is and offer new insights into the situation. You will link your report's contents to the conclusion in an understandable, insightful way. The conclusion will interpret and draw attention to the main points in the body of the report.

Summarize your findings from the body of your report. Follow the logic of the report, and concisely state the themes you developed in the body. For example, if you are writing a report on developing a new market for your company's product, and your report's body discusses different, possible localities for a new market, highlight the main areas that seem the most promising in your conclusion.

Make sure not to include new information that is not in the body of the report. This will make your conclusion appear disjointed from the rest of the report.

Develop some recommendations or course of actions related to your report's findings. Keep them general, however. Your conclusion is not the place to detail any solution to a problem or recommendation. You could begin your recommendations with phrases such as, "Based on the report's findings, it is recommended that," or "To accomplish the objectives, the following action should be taken." Your recommendations should be specific, and bullet-pointing your recommendations will make them easier to identify in the document and read.

Offer some new insights into the topic of your report. Extend and analyze your findings concisely and pointedly. Make your audience understand and appreciate why this report matters to it on a personal level. Your readers should come away from your report not only with the findings of the report in their minds, but thinking about the topic of the report in a broader and more in-depth way as a result of how you bridged your findings to their lives.

For example, you can draw connections between the problem focused on in the report and your audience's daily lives. If you are reporting on a traffic problem that consistently causes backup on the highway, explicitly state that your recommendations could alleviate a common problem everyone experiences at one time or another when they drive to work.

You could also extend the conclusions you draw in your report in this example to state that the traffic problem contributes to the city's air pollution, as cars are on the road for longer periods of time than if the traffic flowed freely.

Things You Will Need

• Pen

• Paper

Tip

Don't add graphs or charts to the conclusion. Keep your writing tone simple and to-the-point.