Abstract: This monograph is a guide to effective presentation of report data and information from institutional research. The work focuses on several types of presentation: the written report (alternative ways for presenting information, appearance, and the audience); graphic displays or charts (to present words or data in an organized or symbolic fashion; use text or symbols to depict an object, concept, or process; present numerical, verbal, or symbolic information in a table); and some key principles of oral presentation. The eight chapters cover: (1) the reporting process; (2) the client and audience; (3) types of reports, purposes of reports, and report components; (4) communication and meaning and design principles; (5) elements of visual presentations--graphic, fonts, white space, color, pattern; (6) tables and charts; (7) visual presentation modes--transparencies, slides, computer screens, and the Web; and (8) oral reports. Appended are a glossary and four examples of the same data in: a standard narrative in memo form; a table with explanatory information in footnotes; a vertical bar chart; and a three-dimensional vertical bar chart. This monograph also includes an electronic appendix at http://airweb.org/publications/EffectiveReporting.html which reproduces the graphics in color. (Contains 40 references.) (SM)

Title: Effective Reporting. Resources in Institutional Research, Number 12.
Author: Bers, Trudy H.
ISBN: ISBN-1882393-08-2
Note: Produced with Jeffrey A. Seybert. RIR Editor is Richard D. Howard.
Page Length: 111
Publication Year: 1999
Target Audience: Researchers
ERIC Identifier: ED443315
Clearinghouse Identifier: HE033070
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Descriptors: * Charts; Computer Graphics; Design Requirements; Educational Research; Graphic Arts; * Graphs; Higher Education; * Institutional Research; * Research Reports; Slides; * Tables [Data]; Technical Writing; Transparencies; * Visual Aids; World Wide Web

Identifiers: Oral Presentations; *Research Results; Visual Displays