Importance of "great" report writing

Experienced private investigators realize the importance of professional investigative reports. Reports you provide your client 'live' a long time and are read by several people weeks, months or years after you completed the investigation. Professional private investigators view the finished report as product that advertises their firm. People that are impressed with your work may contract with you in the future. 

First step in creating professional reports is to avoid common mistakes that create a bad impression of your work: 

• Waiting to the last minute - waiting until the night before it is due might have worked with your high school term paper but it is not a professional business practice. Start early, give yourself time to proofread, proofread, fact check, proofread. 
• Spelling - with spell check software, spelling errors are no longer acceptable.
• "The...." - years ago, when police reports were hand-written, I had a police sergeant use a red pen to strike-out the word "The" when I used it to begin a sentence. Aggravated me because I had to re-write the entire report. He was right a majority of the time. "The repeated use of the word "The" at the beginning of a sentence and the use of "The" throughout a sentence is the problem with a lot of the reports I have read:-)" Being funny?

• Too wordy! - reports reflect the relevant facts about the case. Often investigators include too much information that is not relevant to the case. This Extra information in a report frustrates the reader of the report. 
• "What I did!" - read reports carefully to remove information about your prowess as an investigator. Statements such as; "Investigator realized there was an opportunity to collect additional  evidence." Is this important information for your report to contain? 

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To improve your finished report product, take time, a lot of time, in completing the final report. Use the following steps every time you write a report. Your finished reports will improve immediately!!!

Outline/Method

1. Mentally regurgitate on paper! - Write the report without worrying about spelling, grammar, all the mistakes mentioned previously. Get all the information on paper or in your word processing software. 
   
2. First proofread - strike any sentences/facts not relevant to the case. Example: a workers compensation case where you observed the principal playing tennis. Is it critical for your client to know the turn-by-turn route they drove to the tennis court? 
3. Second proofread - remove un-needed descriptors, extra words that don't help the reader understand the facts. For example: "The investigator made an appointment to meet with John Adams early in the morning at his office to conduct a verbal interview." Consider this sentence instead. "Investigator interviewed John Adams in his office at 7:00 am"  
4. Third proofread - check grammar, spelling and word use. Pay attention to homonyms like "Their" and "There" as spell check will not catch them. 
5. Fourth proofread - get another professional to proofread your work. If you are a one-person firm, this would be a great time to network with another professional and offer to do the same for them.
6. Marinate your report - Let your report sit for 24 hours then proofread again checking for all errors above. Waiting 24 hours gives you a fresh perspective when your read your report as well as giving you the opportunity to remember important details you may have omitted. 

This is time consuming but it is your "finished product". Your completed report will create an impression with many individuals for weeks to come. Invest the time to get it right.