Readability for specific stakeholders is an important consideration. It is generally good to remember the KISS principle again when compiling your final report. Let the words SUPER SIMPLE be foremost on your mind. What do people want and need to know?

In an ideal situation (recognizing that the “ideal” is not always possible or practical), reports are made for the various stakeholders—all containing the essential information, but executive summaries or wrap-around analyses constructed for individual audiences. An executive summary is a critical item for any evaluation summary and it needs to address the findings and recommendations from the point of view of person for whom it was written. Again, what do they want and need to know? What are possible recommendations? How do you want the stakeholders to respond?

Here are some tips to get the impact you want:

1. The report, itself, should be as straightforward and factual as possible. Written comments by respondents should be blocked in attractive, easy-to-read formats.

2. Quantitative responses should be tabulated with a mean, range, and standard deviation.
A mean is an average score.
The range is the lowest and highest score answered.
The standard deviation is a number most tabulation programs generate that indicate the variations in the scores. If the respondents varied widely on their answers to an item, the standard deviation will be higher. If they mostly agreed on an item, the deviation will be lower. Thus, standard deviation hints at how “reliable” an item is as discussed above. Moreover, when a reader knows the mean and standard deviation, the reader knows that  68% of the respondents scored within 1 standard deviation of the mean. For example, if you gave people a 5-point scale between Never and Always and the mean score was 3, with a standard deviation of 1, you would know that 68% of the respondents scored this item between 2 and 4.

3. Variations in presentation are also appealing as well. Sometimes, substituting charts or graphs for long lists of mean-data can help readers visualize the results and tract changes over time.

Always remember in evaluation: The point is to inform, reinforce, and change. Busy people don’t have time to trudge through dense, convoluted reports. Foremost in their mind are these questions:

What does this mean to me?
What I do to improve the project?

To the extent that you can keep these questions foremost in your mind as you share information, is the extent to which the efforts undertaken to construct and implement a thorough evaluation system will have the attention and action that is deserved. 

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