5 Tips for Writing a Summary Report

Welcome to Le français des affaires 5 tips series. Here we’ll give you 5 tips on how to improve an aspect of your professional French.

Here are 5 tips on how to write a summary report (rédiger un compte-rendu):

1. Outline the report before the meeting or phone call begins. You can put the names of the speakers (les intervenants), the date, the questions if it is an interview, or the themes of the discussion. If there is a meeting agenda (l’ordre du jour), use it as a reference.

2. Include only the key points from the event. This means eliminate filler words, repetition, small talk and anecdotes.

3. Be concise. The goal of the report is not to reproduce everything that was said, but to give a clear summary of the items discussed to someone who was not present. The key elements of the discussion need to be reformulated to be clear and concise.

4. Use bullet-points to facilitate clarity. If you set up an outline of a report before going into the meeting, you can fill in the categories with bullet points to keep your report clear and concise. Be careful: your bullet points need to follow the same grammatical pattern.

Example:

5. Re-read your report! Make sure there are no grammatical mistakes or incomplete phrases or sentences (including phrases in bullet-point form), and that the report clearly mentions the important information from the meeting or phone call.

Now you’re ready to go and write a stellar report!