Tuesday, November 14, 2006

On Report Writing


[Aloysius Lee Fook Kwang] reminded the [school inspectors] that preparing an inspection report was not easy and they, therefore, should revise and redraft their report several times. “No one, however gifted, can produce a passable first draft. Writing means rewriting,” he said, quoting Barzun, J. and Graff.
— “School inspectors receive tips to produce quality reports,” The Brunei Times, 14-Nov-06

The youth thinks he is writing essays like T. S. Eliot’s, yet he cannot write a report like a well-trained policeman.
— Jacques Barzun, The House of Intellect (1959).