Writing a business report on two different things could be comparing two different approaches to change within the company or dealing with a problem two different ways. You could be comparing two different products to see which one is the best one to mass produce next. Whatever the different things are, you need to write clearly and concisely in a formal style to convey the comparison and any results or recommendations.

Write the introduction or executive summary to state the background, the purpose of the report and the people/departments involved in compiling it. This can be brief, possibly just one paragraph. Add in any references or research details as appendices at the back of the report detailing them in the contents pages that will appear after the front cover of the report.

Describe in detail item one all advantages and disadvantages and any results found from research done. Do the same for item two. If any tables or statistics are being used, keep them in the same format for the sake of an unbiased viewpoint. If the items are very different, you may not be able to compare in a like-for-like way, but do your best to list the details in as similar format as possible.

Compare the two now using the main information from the previous two sections. List the advantages and disadvantages side by side to clearly show the comparison, keeping the format as similar as possible depending on the structure of the items and how they were measured. The recipient of the report needs to clearly see the differences and how they compare.

State your recommendations as to the best of the two or, if this is not possible--as they are equally as good in their different ways--then you will have to remain impartial and leave it to the recipient of the report to make the decision. You have done your work in collating and compiling all the information to the best of your ability and put it to her so that she has the full facts in front of her to make a considered decision.

Put the report together with all appendices and research and proofread it carefully, checking for grammatical and any other errors.

Warning

Check all research is accurate and up-to-date.