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Chapter 4. How Do We Make a Report?

We learn most of what we know through our senses. We smell, touch, taste, see, and hear. Therefore, we know what we can sense and have experiences recorded on or by our senses. When we give an accurate account of our experiences, we are reporting.

James Michener, author of the famous Tales of the South Pacific, went to the New Hebrides to see again the island where so many American soldiers and sailors had lived, fought, and died. He "reports" to his readers about the jungle.

Let me explain just what the Santo forest is like. At the end of a road there is a cascade which was much enjoyed by American troops. From this road a trail leads to a spot some four hundred yards above the waterfall. Once I used that trail and came to where I could hear the cascade tumbling down. I was inclined to cut across the short intervening distance and come back by the road, but an Army officer with me felt we had not the time for such a trip, so we retraced our steps to the highway.

The next day three men followed that same trail, came to the same spot, heard the noisy waters. They took the short cut, and when they had gone fifty feet from the trail realized that the going would be tough. Great vines impeded their way; dense growth of all kinds hemmed them in; so they decided to return to the trail, but in that short distance they had become lost.

For two days they tried to gain the cascade. They could hear it sometimes, but from which direction the sound came they could not tell. If they climbed a tree to survey the ground, they could never get above the tangled canopy.For two days they tried to gain the cascade. They could hear it sometimes, but from which direction the sound came they could not tell. If they climbed a tree to survey the ground, they could never get above the tangled canopy.

The nights were fearful. Insects of all kinds attacked them. Mosquitoes flocked about their faces. There was an armadillo-like multipede six inches long that exuded an alkali which ate away the skin wherever it touched. Thin feelers of the lawyer cane, sometimes forty feet long, tore at them with inverted fish hooks. There were prickly vines, itch plants, poisonous leaves. If they stepped upon a fallen log, it crumbled into dust. If in stumbling they scratched themselves on the rotten wood, the sore festered in six hours and might not heal for six months. They could not drink the water. . . .

At the end of the two days one of these boys was dead. Another was out of his mind, and the third had stumbled into a coastal village. Through all their experience they were within three miles of 100,000 men.*

1. What Is a Report?

A report is a presentation of information. The duty of the reporter is to tell what his senses have reported to him. He is not to amplify or interpret the information. He states just what he has seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled. In the above description, James Michener reported to us on the jungle-what he himself had seen and what he had been told that the three men experienced.

A report is made because one person has more knowledge of a particular subject than others. Michener knows more about the jungle of the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific than we do. Therefore, we must rely on his report to learn about things that we have not experienced.

2. Preparation of a Report

Select a Topic

For the subject of your report, pick a topic on which you can fully inform yourself. If you have not had and cannot get personal experience with the topic, you must make up for the lack of these direct contacts by reading widely and gathering information. Remember that you are reporting to others because you are particularly well-informed on a given point. Do not let yourself down or deceive your audience.

Here are some subjects upon which students can make good reports:

the operation of a local factory
the care of bees, cattle, or pigeons, etc.
an afternoon with the city clerk, town mayor, sheriff, or fire chief, etc.
the operation of the local museum, art gallery, public library, or civic center
the problems of retailing farm machinery, dry goods, or automobile tires, etc.
a novel, biography, or travel book that you have read recently
the therapy used at the neighboring cancer clinic, tuberculosis hospital, and similar medical centers

Some of these subjects are ones on which students already may be informed. Others require interviews and that time be spent observing the operation of institutions which are unfamiliar. Do not stop searching for information until you are certain you have accumulated enough material for a documented report that you can deliver with confidence.

Organise the Material

After the subject has been chosen and the information gathered, you have to organize the presentation of the material for the report.

Decide first what is to be the purpose of your report. Even though you only report, you may achieve more than one goal by the type of material you select to tell. Suppose you had decided to report to the class on Melville's novel, Moby Dick. If you decide your purpose is to entertain your audience, you will limit yourself to telling one or two of the highlights of Captain Ahab's adventures. If your purpose is to stimulate your audience, you will add more detail and create more suspense of the great adventure upon which the whalers embark. If your purpose is to convince the audience that it should read Moby Dick, you will spend more time telling what a famous book Moby Dick has become, how Melville spent time in the South Pacific gathering his material, and what reading it will do for the members of the audience.

You will then need to arrange your materials to fit the purpose of the report. Clarity in reporting is essential. Reports must be understood by the audience. Three steps are taken to insure comprehension:

1. Divide your report into two, three, four, or five main points.
2. Link these points together, so that the first one tends to recall the second, the second tends to recall the third, etc.
3. Put your details under the main points you have chosen.

Divide the Report into Parts

You must divide your report into parts to let the audience absorb it bit by bit. What would happen to the person who tried to get from the first floor of your school building to the second floor in one big jump? But, with stairs, the climb can be made in small parts; it becomes an easy matter to get from the first to the second floor. Taking successive steps allows us to reach a total height that otherwise would be impossible. The "steps" of a report are usually limited to no more than five. Our mental vision tends to blur when we have to recall a series greater than five. Our minds must not only make each step, but we must also be able to look backwards to see the staircase as a whole.

Now these two to five main points should be chosen so that they fit into a pattern of thinking familiar to the audience. The points may be arranged according to Time, starting with the first thing that happened, then going on to the second.

THE LIBRARY HAS STANDARD REFERENCE GUIDES HELPFUL IN LOCATING MATERIAL.

Thus, a report on a baseball game that you saw on your visit to New York could be told as it happened. You would not divide your subject up into nine innings, because this would violate the maximum of five points. It would be better to group the action into phases. For example, the first four innings may have been a pitcher's battle; the next two featured increased weakening of both pitchers; the seventh inning may have brought a rally by the visiting team; the last two innings consisted of a renewal of a pitcher's battle by the relief hurlers.

The parts may depend upon geography to arrange them, starting with one area and moving to others.

Your experiences at the ball game could be grouped by telling what you observed at various points in the ball park. You could describe the pitching, then move to the batting, proceed to the fielding, and then describe the activity you witnessed in the stands.

The parts may depend upon their natural order to arrange them, with the first part leading automatically to the second, the second leading inevitably to the third, etc.

What happened at the ball game could be told in its natural (or logical) order. You could describe the type of strategy employed by both managers, which would lead inevitably to your second point, a clash of the two strategies, which in turn would lead to your third point, deciding which strategy was more effective.

Link Each Part with What Follows

Linking sentences are called transitions. An audience likes to be led from one idea to another by smooth transitions. There is something jarring about jumping unexpectedly from one concept to another. You do not have to "spoon feed" your audience or be overly simple, but you must progress from your first point to your second point with sufficient coherence so that the audience does not wonder bow in the world you got there.

You may lead your audience from point one to point two by the review-and-preview method. You can say, "Now that I have given you a description of the type of pitching done at the game, I'll tell you how the batters reacted to the pitching." Such a sentence reviews what you have just done and previews what is coming up.

HELP MAINTAIN THE ATTENTION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE LISTENER BY MOVING FROM IDEA TO IDEA IN SMOOTH, LOGICAL TRANSITIONS.

You may lead your audience from point one to point two by the explanation method. A simple statement of why the next section follows is often sufficient. Michener uses this type in his description of the jungle. His first sentence, "Let me explain what the Santo forest is like" tells the audience that he is going to clarify his preceding statements by a more detailed description.

You may lead your audience from point one to point two by the question-and-answer method. You may say, "Bob keeps saying, 'Sure, the pitching was good, but what about the batting?'" or, "If this was the type of strategy employed by the managers, what happened when the immovable object met the irresistible force?"

There are other types of transitions, but if you learn to use these three in your reporting, you will have sufficient variety to clarify your thoughts successfully. Other methods for relating materials will come automatically to you.

Once you have established the main points, your next step is to work the details under the main headings.

In the following report, Henry J. Taylor has divided his material by time, but the first part, taking place on August 29, is purposely out of place. It may be interesting to comment that there is no mention made of the intense heat which characterizes Italian summers and makes tempers flare up.

General Patton and the Sicilian Slapping Incidents *

Headquarters Seventh Army A.P.O. #758, U. S. Army 29th August, 1943

My Dear General Eisenhower:

Replying to your letter of August 17, 1943, I want to commence by thanking you for this additional illustration of your fairness and general consideration in making the communication personal.
I am at a loss to find words with which to express my chagrin and grief at having given you, a man to whom I owe everything and for whom I would gladly lay down my life, cause for displeasure with me.
I assure you that I had no intention of being either harsh or cruel in my treatment of the two soldiers in question. My sole purpose was to try to restore in them a just appreciation of their obligation as men and soldiers.
In World War I, I had a dear friend and former schoolmate who lost his nerve in an exactly analogous manner, and who, after years of mental anguish, committed suicide.
Both my friend and the medical men with whom I discussed his case assured me that had he been roundly checked at the time of his first misbehavior, he would have been restored to a normal state.
Naturally, this memory actuated me when I ineptly tried to apply the remedies suggested. After each incident I stated to officers with me that I felt I had probably saved an immortal soul. . . .

Very respectfully.

G. S. Patton, Jr. Lieut. General, U.S. Army

When General Patton gave me a copy of this letter he lay back on the bed in his field-trailer and said, "What does that sound like to you?"
"It sounds to me like only half of the story," I said.
So, first, let's see what actually happened.
Private Charles H. Kuhl (in civilian life a carpet layer from South Bend, Indiana), ASN 35536908, L Company, 26th Infantry, 1st Division, was admitted to the 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry aid station in Sicily on August 2, 1943, at 2:10 P.M.
He had been in the Army eight months and with the 1st Division about thirty days.
A diagnosis of "Exhaustion" was made, at the station by Lieutenant H. L. Sanger, Medical Corps, and Kuhl was evacuated to C Company, 1st Medical Battalion, well to the rear of the fighting.
There a note was made on his medical tag stating that he had been admitted to this place three times during the Sicilian campaign.
He was evacuated to the clearing company by Captain J. D. Broom, M.C., put in "quarters" and given sodium amytal, one capsule night and morning, on the prescription of Captain N. S. Nedell, M.C.

On August 3rd the following remark appears on Kurd's Emergency Medical Tag: "Psychoneurosis anxiety state-moderately severe. Soldier has been twice before in hospital within ten days. He can't take it at front evidently. He is repeatedly returned." (Signed) Captain T. P. Covington, Medical Corps.
By this route and in this way Private Kuhl arrived in the receiving tent of the 15th Evacuation Hospital, where the blow was struck that was heard round the world.
"I came into the tent," explains General Patton, "with the commanding officer of the outfit and other medical officers.
"I spoke to the various patients, especially commending the wounded men, I just get sick inside myself when I .see a fellow torn apart, and some of the wounded were in terrible, ghastly shape. Then I came to this man and asked him what was the matter."
The soldier replied, "I guess I can't take it."
"Looking at the others in the tent, so many of them badly beaten up, 1 simply flew off the handle."
Patton squared off in front of the soldier.
He called the man every kind of a loathsome coward and then slapped him across the face with his gloves.
The soldier fell back. Patton grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and kicked him out of the tent.
Kuhl was immediately picked up by corpsmen and taken to a ward.
Returning to his headquarters Pattern issued the following memorandum to Corps, Division and Separate Brigade Commanders two days later:

Headquarters Seventh Army APO #758 U. S. Army

5 August, 1943

It has come to my attention that a very small number of soldiers are going to the hospital on the pretext that they are nervously incapable of combat.
Such men are cowards, and bring discredit on the Army and disgrace to their comrades whom they heartlessly leave to endure the danger of a battle, while they themselves use the hospital as a means of escaping.
You will take measures to see that such cases are not sent to the hospital, but are dealt with in their units.
Those who are not willing to fight will be tried by COM it-Martial for cowardice in the face of the enemy,

C. S. Pattern, Jr.
Lieut. General, U.S. Army
Commanding

Five days later General Patton, not a medical man, again took matters into his own hands.
He slapped another soldier.
Private Paul G. Bennett, ASN 70000001, C Battery, Field Artillery, was admitted to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital on August 10th, at 2:20 P.M.
Bennett, still only twenty-one, had served four years in the Regular Army. He had an excellent record. His unit had been attached to the II Corps since March and he had never had any difficulties until four days earlier when his best friend in the outfit, fighting near by, was wounded in action,
Bennett could not sleep that night and felt nervous. The shells going over "bothered" him. "I keep thinking they're going to land right on me," he said. The next day he became increasingly nervous about the firing and about his buddy's recovery.
A battery aid man sent him to the rear echelon, where a medical officer gave him some medicine which made him sleep. But lie was still nervous, badly disturbed.
On August 10th the medical officer ordered him to the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, although Bennett begged not to be evacuated because he did not want to leave his unit.
General Patton arrived at the hospital that day.
Bennett was sitting in the receiving tent, huddled up and shivering.
Patton spoke to all the injured men. He was solicitous, kind and inspiring. But when he and Major Charles B. Etter, the receiving officer in charge, reached Bennett and Patton asked the soldier what his trouble was, the soldier replied, "It's my nerves," and began to sob.
Patton turned on him like a tiger, screaming at him:
"What did you say?"
"It's my nerves," sobbed Bennett. "I can't take the shelling any more."
In this moment Patton lost control of himself completely. Without any investigation of the man's case whatever, he rushed close to Bennett and shouted: "Your nerves . . . You are just a ... coward, you yellow . . ."
Then he slapped the soldier hard across the face.
"Shut up that . . . crying," he yelled. "I won't have these brave men here who have been shot seeing a yellow . . . sitting here crying."
Patton struck at the man again. He knocked his helmet liner off his head into the next tent. Then he turned to Major Etter and yelled, "Don't admit this yellow . . . , there's nothing the matter with him. I won't have the hospitals cluttered up with these . . . who haven't got the guts to fight."
Patton himself began to sob. He wheeled around to Colonel Donald E. Currier, the 93rd's commanding Medical Officer. I can't help it." he said. "It makes me break down to see brave boys and to think of a yellow . . . being babied."
But this was not all. In his blind fury, Patton turned on Bennett again. The soldier now was managing to sit at attention, although shaking all over.
"You're going back to the front lines," Patton shouted. "You may get shot and killed, but you're going to fight. If you don't, I'll stand you up against a wall and have a firing squad kill you on purpose."
"In fact," he said, reaching for his revolver, "I ought to shoot you myself, you . . . whimpering coward."
As he left the tent Patton was still yelling back at the receiving officer to "send that yellow . . . back to the front line."
Nurses and patients, attracted by the shouting and cursing, came from the adjoining tent and witnessed this disturbance.
Patton made no initial report of these affairs to his superior, General Eisenhower, who was then in his Headquarters at Tunis on the North African mainland.
"I felt ashamed of myself," General Patton told me, "and I hoped the whole tiling would die out."
But an official report by Lieut. Colonel Perrin H. Long, Medical Corps consulting physician, was already on the way to Allied Headquarters through Medical Corps channels.
"The deleterious effects of such incidents upon the well-being of patients, upon the professional morale of hospital staffs, and upon the relationship of patient to physician arc incalculable," reported Lieut. Colonel Long. "It is imperative that immediate steps be taken to prevent a recurrence of such incidents."
General Eisenhower received this report on August 17th. His communication to General Patton was sent off that night.
In his message, which Patton showed me, the Commanding General told Patton of the allegations, told him that he could not describe in official language his revulsion, informed Patton that he must make, on his own initiative, proper amends to the soldiers involved and take steps to make amends before his whole army.
"This all happened practically on the eve of a new attack in which I had been written in for a large part of the plans, already issued," Patton explained, "and General Eisenhower stated therefore that he would temporarily reserve decision regarding my relief of command until he could determine the effect of my own corrective measures.
"Then Eisenhower did four things: He sent Maj. General John Porter Lucas to Sicily to make an investigation of the charges, sent the Theatre's Inspector General to investigate command relationships in my entire army, sent another general officer to interview the two soldiers, and made a trip to Sicily himself to determine how much resentment against me existed in the army.
"Eisenhower's problem was whether what I had done was sufficiently damaging to compel my relief on the eve of attack, thus losing what he described as my unquestioned military value, or whether less drastic measures would be appropriate.
"I went to see both Kuhl and Bennett," Patton continued, "explained my motives and apologized for my actions.
"In each case I stated that 1 should like to shake hands with them; that I was sincerely sorry. In each case they accepted my offer.
"I called together all the doctors, nurses, and enlisted men who were present when the slapping occurred. I apologized and expressed my humiliation over my impulsive actions.
"Finally, I addressed all divisions of the 7th Army in a series of assemblies, the last of which was an address before the 3rd Division on August 30th.
"I praised them as soldiers, expressed regret for any occasions when I harshly treated individuals and offered my apologies as their Commanding General for doing anything unfair or un-American.
"Beyond that, except to leave the Army and get out of the war, I do not know what I could have done."

3. Delivering the Report

The presentation of a report varies from good conversation, in that the reporter will need to use sufficient energy to make himself effective to large as well as small groups of people. When all the preliminary preparations for a report have been made, we should next consider what to do to deliver it effectively.

GOOD PRESENTATION OF A REPORT INCLUDES DIRECT EYE CONTACT.

But if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable that His Majesty could select among his fair subjects; and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence. It mattered not that he might already possess a wife and family, or that his affections might be engaged upon an object of his own selection. The king allowed no such subordinate arrangements to interfere with his great scheme of retribution and reward. The exercises took place immediately, and in the arena. Another door opened, and a priest, followed by a band of choristers and dancing maidens advanced to where the pair stood, and the wedding was promptly and cheerily solemnized. Then the gay brass bells rang forth, and the innocent man led his bride to his home.

When making the report, talk directly to the members of the group, using a conversational approach, but keeping sufficient vitality and variation in your voice to carry your information.

You may either sit or stand for a report, depending upon how many people are present and how well you may be heard if you remain seated.

If you are going to present statistics, or talk about geographical areas, or try to explain a complicated procedure, you should plan to use visual aids. Remember that when our Representative to the United Nations was required to answer Russian charges that we were sending airplanes over their territories, he had prepared large maps showing that the Russians were violating our territories time and time again.

You may also wish to use a chart to clarify the main divisions of your speech. A chart showing the main divisions of Mr. Taylor's report is shown below.

1943

AUGUST 29...letter from Patton to Eisenhower
AUGUST 3....first slapping incident
AUGUST 10...second slapping incident
AUGUST 17...Eisenhower receives report
AUGUST 30...Patton concludes apologies, speeches

Of course, if this material were placed on a chart, it would also help to bring out the statistics in the speech, pointing out clearly that the incident took place in less than a month in 1943.

Beware of emotion and of becoming overly involved in your material. Refrain from becoming any more emotional than your material will permit; in fact, you will do well to be far less emotional than your material may justify. There are those who would say to you, "Show no emotion in a report." We feel that such people are actually trying to say just what has been stated. They do not want you to exhibit exaggerated or misrepresented emotional speech. However, any reporter must show some emotion or he will be ineffective and uninteresting. You must, therefore, stress the emotional "mean" between the two "extremes" and cause the audience to think.

If you study several T.V. news reporters, you will notice a variety of emotional content, from announcer to announcer, as well as from topic to topic. But, in general, they are the best guides for how to present a report.

The position of the reporter is extremely important. It is only by means of accurate reporting that members of the class, or the nation, or the world can exchange information with confidence. The ethics of the reporter must be above suspicion.

Student Check List 4: DO YOU PRESENT A GOOD REPORT?
How would you rate yourself?	Point Value	Your Score
1. In preparing a report, do you always first decide what is its purpose so that it will contain the necessary information?	25
2. Do you divide each report into principal topics, subtopics, and supporting details?	15
3. Do you use appropriate sentences providing smooth transitions in introducing each new topic?	15
4. In presenting an oral report, do you always write it first so that you can check it for accuracy and practice reading it aloud?	25
5. In presenting an oral report, do you speak in a conversational but enthusiastic tone of voice?	20
TOTAL	100
If your score is less than 70, keep these points in mind when preparing your next report, and then try this test again.

Exercises

1. Present a five-minute report to the class on an interesting field trip that you have made. Write the three, four or five main headings of your report on the blackboard before you begin to speak.

2. Read (or re-read) a non-fiction book and report on its contents. Divide the material you wish to present from the book into not more than five parts.

3. Answer the following questions concerning Henry Taylor's report on the slapping incidents:

a. Was Taylor's purpose to entertain, to stimulate, or to convince?
b. Into what pattern of thinking are Taylor's main points arranged?
c. Do you think Taylor simply reported the information he received and the personal experience he had, or do you think he amplified and interpreted the information with his own personal attitudes?
d. How do you think Taylor knew the exact words that Patton had used in talking to the two soldiers? Since there was no one there taking down in shorthand what Patton said, how could Taylor have reconstructed the General's words?

4. Answer the following questions concerning James Michener's report on the jungle:

a. Was Michener's purpose to entertain, to stimulate, or to convince?
b. Into what pattern of arrangement are Michener's main points placed?
c. Do you think Michener only reported the information he received and the personal experiences he had, or do you think he amplified and interpreted the information with his own personal attitudes?

5. Explain any of the following charts to the class.

UNEMPLOYMENT Annual Averages, 1929-60

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