Radical Reporting: Writing Better Audit, Risk, Compliance, and Information Security Reports

by Sara I. James

Overview

Most people dread writing reports; they also dread reading reports. What they don’t realize is that the techniques that make writing more readable make it more powerful. This is especially relevant for professionals in areas such as audit, risk, compliance, and information security.

This small volume provides the tools and techniques needed to improve reports. It does so through addressing crucial concepts all too often overlooked in the familiar rush to perform tasks, complete projects, and meet deadlines.

These concepts – the role of culture in communication; the link between logic and language; the importance of organizing thoughts before writing; and how to achieve clarity – may seem academic or theoretical. They’re not. Unless writers understand their own thoughts, actions, and objectives, they cannot hope to communicate them at all – let alone clearly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032727530
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	01/20/2025
Series:	Security, Audit and Leadership Series
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sara is an internationally recognized expert in internal audit communications, delivering tailored report-writing and other training to internal audit, risk and compliance teams worldwide (www.saraijames.com). With over 30 years' academic, teaching, writing, publishing and corporate experience in the US and Europe, she brings a wealth of varied yet specialist expertise to clients and audiences. Clients include multinational blue-chip organizations in sectors as diverse as finance, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and aerospace; national and local government; legal and medical professionals; and charities. As a member of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (UK and Ireland) Technical Guidance Working Group, Sara has produced many governance, risk and internal audit advisory pieces. Topics include Covid-19-related working practices; privacy legislation (GDPR); taxation (IR35); auditing cultural and heritage entities; and of course reporting. Sara has also produced articles on clear writing for Audit & Risk magazine, and spoken at numerous audit conferences and heads of internal audit forums. Sara is the official rapporteur for the annual international defense internal audit conference. In this role, she is responsible for producing a definitive report that meets UK Ministry of Defence standards and is read by specialists at NATO, NGOs and multiple national European defense departments. Finally, Sara has been fortunate to live, study and work in different countries, including the US, the UK, France and the then-Soviet Union, and speaks five languages. These experiences and skills give her invaluable insight into cross-cultural communication and multi-national teams. She is also a recognized internationally scholar on language and literature, and is regularly asked to contribute essays, articles and conference papers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Author

Introduction

Part 1: Words in the mind

Chapter 1: Communication and culture

Chapter 2: Communication within and among teams

Chapter 3: Clarity – the theory

Part 2: Words on the page

Chapter 4: Clarity – the practice
Chapter 5: Planning

Chapter 6: Structure and layout

Part 3: Words into action

Chapter 7: Findings or observations, and recommendations

Chapter 8: Executive summaries

Chapter 9: Reviewing – making the gain outweigh the pain

Conclusion

Resources

Editorial Reviews

‘If I were giving out an award for "book of the year" for internal audit professionals, I would certainly award it to her outstanding manuscript: Radical Reporting: Writing Better Audit, Risk, Compliance and Information Security Reports.’ - Richard Chambers, Former President and CEO, The Institute of Internal Auditors

From the Publisher