Business Communication, Third Edition

SQ4 What guidelines should you follow for writing report decks?

When Josh Leibowitz, an executive with Carnival Cruise Corporation, first joined the company, he was surprised to find that PowerPoint is “the tool of choice for sharing management updates and plans.”¹¹ In fact, many organizations use presentation software such as PowerPoint to write reports.¹² These PowerPoint-based reports, called report decks, differ from traditional slide presentations because decks are designed to be read as well as presented; therefore, they must be understandable without a presenter. Often, the writer sends the report deck as an email attachment, and the audience reads the report deck onscreen one slide at a time. Sometimes, the writer prints the report deck ...