I was deciding what to do for the new Saint Joseph’s University MS BI capstone course that I will be teaching online next semester when I realized that for all the analytical and technical training this program offers, one thing is missing! I determined that what is needed is a course that helps to insure that our business intelligence (BI) graduates can demonstrate that they are able to communicate with a less technical audience in an effective way. One important way this communication occurs is though writing.

The importance of good writing skills in the business world has become more evident even as companies rely increasingly on computers and other new technologies to meet their obligations. Indeed, business experts warn that any business's positive qualities – from dedication to customer service to high-tech expertise – will be blunted to some degree if they are unable to transfer that dedication and knowledge to the printed page. "Whether you are pitching a business case or justifying a budget, the quality of your writing can determine success or failure," writes Paula Jacobs in InfoWorld. She adds, "Writing ability is especially important in customer communication. Business proposals, status reports, customer documentation, technical support, or even e-mail replies all depend on clear written communication."

Communication skills are vital to any profession. Yet, in this day and age, professional organizations, businesses, and corporations continue to struggle with recent college graduates who lack effective communication skills. One article, “The Best Places to Launch a Career” (Business Week, 2007), highlighted the fact that communication skills were seen as the most desirable trait among new employees. Yet, the business community continues to complain about the poor quality of college graduates’ communication skills, with information systems and computer science graduates being criticized the most severely. Indeed, poor communication skills are frequently cited at the top of CIO lists of concerns on surveys about incoming recruits. This trepidation about employee written communications is important when one considers that the quality of written communication reflects not just on the employee, but also on their management and the company they work for.

Writing provides evidence of reasoning and it documents a decision-making process. Knowledge management argues that documents are an explicit form of intellectual capital. Documents serve as an important means for creating, storing, and sharing knowledge across time and place. Poorly written reports therefore detract from the value of the firm’s intellectual assets.

In business intelligence, technical and analytical competence is often expressed in writing. In fact, in many business intelligence job postings, “Strong written and verbal communications skills” is stated in the list of requirements. However, typically, writing effectiveness is something that clearly needs to be validated through practice.

Written communication is just as essential as verbal or non-verbal communication. In fact, in today’s world, it may be more critical since it is so easy to disseminate. It is important to realize that while you can’t take back what you say, you also can’t take back what you write. Once it’s out there, it’s out there! Writing says something about who you are and it helps to shape the opinion others have of you. A written document can make you famous – so you need to make sure it’s for the right reason. Enron executives knew all about the power of the written word when they bought all those shredders.

Consider the following statements about the importance of written communications:

• Writing is an acquired skill, not an innate one.
  
  
• Writing may not get you a job, but it can sure help you lose one.
  
  
• The best analysis in the world is moot if a client can’t understand and derive value from the content of your report.
  

Business intelligence is a misnomer if a report is not readable or is not able to be clearly understood. No matter how good one’s analytic and technology skills are, the inability to effectively communicate in writing compromises one’s value to the firm. Good writing needs to be seen as a critical success factor in business intelligence performance.

Since writing in business intelligence oftentimes takes the form of a report, I decided to examine how best to educate my students about how to deal with this issue. After much soul searching and research on the issue, I got the idea that writing a business intelligence report can, and even should, be viewed in the context of writing a thesis. Consider the definition of thesis:


What this statement says is that the topic of interest will be studied carefully, enabling the writer to form an opinion on the issue under examination before the thesis statement can be formed and presented. In other words, a thesis statement is the result of the analytical effort. It is not simply a title for a report.

Thesis statements will usually include the following four attributes:

• It takes on a subject about which reasonable people could disagree.
  
  
• It deals with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment.
  
  
• It express one main idea.
  
  
• It asserts one’s conclusion(s) about the subject under evaluation.
  

A strong thesis statement:

• Takes some sort of stand,
  
  
• Justifies discussion,
  
  
• Expresses one main idea, and
  
  
• Is specific.
  

As we know, business intelligence employs analytics to explore data and information to facilitate the discovery of evidence that may prompt and support new or existing decision-making activities. In effect then, in business intelligence, we routinely make (or should be making) thesis-like statements in our reports. That is, the BI analyst’s “thesis” statement is his or her evidence-based assessment of a situation derived through the use of specific analytics that have been applied to scrutinize data relevant to the issue at hand. The report articulates the methods employed and the evidence found that justifies the analyst’s thesis statement.

In this context, it is easy to understand why effective report writing is so important for business intelligence. Writing an effective thesis statement and report can be viewed as a critical means though which people demonstrate their ability to exercise and express their BI expertise. It documents their knowledge and their value creation ability for the firm – and, if crafted well, it tells management that the author possesses a highly valued skill: the ability to communicate well.

Writing is not a media rich form of expression. That is, while writing employs the senses of touch and sight, reading employs just one – sight. This means that one must be very careful to write reports clearly, thoughtfully, and logically to compensate for the lack of any other sensory information available to readers when they read the report.

One of the key factors that I will teach my students about report writing is the importance of structure. It is critical to provide structure in a report, because you need to be able to manage the expectations and the attention of your reader. Effective reports tell the reader up front what they are going to be told, how the arguments are going to be presented and in what order, and what conclusion the evidence will yield and why. It’s like being a lawyer in a trial. In BI reports, the author needs to build a well-crafted, evidence-based argument that will convince the jury (the reader) that the conclusion and the means for reaching it are sound.

In reference to communication, Mark Twain once said that people have a front stage and a back stage. The front stage is what you express to people and your back stage is what you really know. His point in stating this was that sometimes our front stage does not reflect our back stage. That is, what you are saying or writing does not adequately convey what you in fact know. You and I can tell when this has happened to us whenever we say, “That’s what I meant!”

The point of the Mark Twain anecdote is that when BI analysts write their “theses,” they must not only write well, they must remember that the reader can only read their words and not their mind. This means that the individual writing the report must always make certain that he or she is meticulously transparent in his or her writing, being as thorough as possible to write what he or she means…and to write it well.

I close by offering this simple truth:

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