如何撰写数据分析报告03篇——明确方法

How to write data analysis reports. Lesson 3—know your route.

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从高中起你就被告知行文开始前要拟一个大纲，写分析报告也是这样。然而有许多可能的提纲你可以根据您的受众特点和期望来选择。你首先要决定的是报告最终的建议是什么。

You’ve been taught since high school to start with an outline. Nothing has changed with that. However, there are many possible outlines you can follow depending on your audience and what they expect. The first thing you have to decide is what the packaged report will look like.

您的报告是像ZF部门的行政简报（不要混淆法律简报），信函报告，总结报告，综合报告，互联网文章或博客，专业期刊文章或白皮书等等。每一种报告都有自己的受众类型，内容和风格。以下是他们的差异的总结。

Will your report be an executive brief (not to be confused with a legal brief), a letter report, a summary report, a comprehensive report, an Internet article or blog, a professional journal article, or a white paper to name a few. Each has its own types of audience, content, and whiting style. Here’s a summary of the differences.

写报告就像是去旅行。信息就是你想要传递给最终目的地——观众的资产。报告的建议是持有信息的车辆。现在，您需要一张地图来了解如何到达目的地——那就是提供。

Writing a report is like taking a trip. The message is the asset you want to deliver to the ultimate destination, the audience. The package is the vehicle that holds the message. Now you need a map for how to reach your destination. That’s the outline.

就像地图上有不只一条可能的路线，这里也有几种可能的大纲策略可以用来编写报告。以下提供六个。

Just as there are several possible routes you could take with a map, there are several possible outline strategies you could use to write your report. Here are six.

“不置可否”的方法。这是没有经验的报告作者在没有指导时所做的。他们像大学里可能做过的那样，或者在他们走的时候把事情做好。这可能会工作得很好，或者像父亲节的“毛利秀”一样令人困惑。考虑到这个报告涉及统计数据，你可以猜出它是哪一种类型。

The Whatever-Feels-Right Approach. This is what inexperienced report writers do when they have no guidelines. They do what they might have done in college or just make it up as they go along. This might work out just fine or be as confusing as The Maury Show on Father’s Day. Considering that the report involves statistics, you can guess which it would be.

历史的方法。这是没有经验的报告作者使用的另一种方法。他们重复上次做类似报告时所做的事情。这也可能工作得很好。但最后的报告可能是失败的，无法传达其信息。

The Historical Approach. This is another approach that inexperienced report writers use. They do what was done the last time a similar report was produced. This also might work out fine. Then again, the last report may have been a failure, ineffective in communicating its message.

“标准”方法。有的公司或组织对他们的所有报告都有一套标准的准则，甚至要求在报告发布之前先经过正式的审查。许多学术和专业期刊使用这种规定性的方法。结果可能好也可能不会很好，但至少看起来像其他报告。

The “Standard” Approach. Sometimes companies or organizations have standard guidelines for all their reports, even requiring the completion of a formal review process before the report is released. Many academic and professional journals use such a prescriptive approach. The results may or may not be good, but at least they look like all the other reports.

军事方法。你告诉他们你要告诉他们什么，然后告诉他们，然后再告诉他们你已经告诉他们什么了。军事方式可能是冗余而无聊，但有些职业靠它而生。如果你有一个可能会丢失细节的重要信息，这种方法效果很好。

The Military Approach. You tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, you tell ‘em, and then you tell ‘em what you told ‘em. The military approach may be redundant and boring, but some professions live by it. It works well if you have a critical message that can get lost in details.

跟随数据的方法。如果您具有非常结构化的数据分析，则可以按顺序报告每个数据片段。调查往往属于这一类。这种方法使编写报告变得容易，因为在按照原始顺序重新组合之前，可以将报告各个部分分开并分发给其他人写。缺点是这种方法通常没有给出综合的结果。读者只能自己思考这一切意味着什么。

The Follow-the-Data Approach. If you have a very structured data analysis it can be advantageous to report on each piece of data in sequence. Surveys often fall into this category. This approach makes it easy to write the report because sections can be segregated and doled out to other people to write, before being reassembled in the original order. The disadvantage is that there usually is no overall synthesis of the results. Readers are left on their own to figure out what it all means.

讲故事的方法。这种方法认为阅读统计报告不应该像修剪草坪一样枯燥。相反，你应该引导读者的好奇心，就像解开神秘的谋杀案之谜，你一点点地提供线索，但当把所有的线索放在一起时你给出的结论又十分合理。这与上述的“跟随数据的方法”几乎相反。在讲故事的方法中，报告从最简单的数据分析开始，逐渐地过渡到精彩的高潮 - 分析的结论。与结论不相关的分析将被省略。通常报告的过程有一些弧线，譬如先前介绍的分析结果在后面的章节中被重申，以显示它是如何支撑整个故事情节。图表在这种方法中非常重要。提纲更像是故事概述。对于每个文本页面，可能图表占据了一大半。讲故事的报告通常比其他方法的报告需要更长的时间，但是如果你的读者有耐心阅读完，那么结果将是会更深刻的（也就是说，不要试图把故事讲给路人听）。

The Tell-a-Story Approach. This approach assumes that reading a statistical report shouldn’t be as monotonous as mowing the lawn. Instead, you should pique the reader’s curiosity by exposing the findings like a murder mystery, piece by piece, so that everything fits together when you announce the conclusion. This is almost the opposite of the follow-the-data approach. In the tell-a-story approach, the report starts with the simplest data analyses and builds, section by section, to the great climax—the message of the analysis. Analyses that are not relevant to the message are omitted. There are usually arcs, in which a previously introduced analytical result is reiterated in subsequent sections to show how it supports the story line. Graphics are critical in this approach; outlines are more like storyboards. There may be the equivalent of one page of graphics for every page of text. Telling a story usually takes longer to write than the other approaches but the results are more memorable if your audience has the patience to read everything (i.e., don’t try to tell a story to a Bypasser.)

所以，确保你有一个合适的提纲，但不要让它限制你。有一个地图并不意味着你不能半途改变你的路线（只要能到达目的地，什么路线都可以）。在构建提纲时，尽量平衡各部分，使读者有周期性的休息。但是，在每个部分中，小节的长度应与其重要性相对应。

So, be sure that you have an appropriate outline but don’t let it constrain you. Having a map doesn’t mean you can’t change your route along the way, you just need to get to the destination. In building the outline, try to balance sections so the reader has periodic resting points. Within each section, though, make the lengths of subsections correspond to their importance.