Many people do not need a long report, or even a written report. A short summary report, or a verbal report, will satisfy the needs of such an audience. On the other hand, some people need the detailed information which can only be provided by a long report. There is also reason to have a more detailed report for archival purposes. In general, most evaluations conducted by local programs would lend themselves to descriptive analysis of data.
Descriptive analysis is a way of summarizing and aggregating results from groups.
More emphasis will be placed on descriptive analysis in this fact sheet. Verbal Description of Data Many reports rely on narrative information to present most, if not all, of the necessary information. Standard writing style, that is, the use of sentences and paragraphs, is often the best way to present information, especially to audiences that are not accustomed to working with charts, graphs, tables, numbers, etc. It is the only way to present information such as examples and explanations. Tables represent narrative or numerical information in tabular fashion.