EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
Like tides, writing styles constantly ebb and flow within society in general. This is more
pronounced today with the influence of texting, emails, and non-text-based communications.
Business writing, however, must moderate the peaks and troughs of these waves, because
business documents must stand the test of time. Learn to prepare a well-written, professional
report, understandable now, yet also to an unknown audience in the future.
DEREK KNIGHTS, CFE, CPP, CISSP, PCI
Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives
TD Bank
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Derek recently joined TD Bank’s Global Security & Investigations group as the Senior
Manager, Strategic Initiatives. His responsibilities include enterprise-wide activities, practices,
governance, and—most recently—delivering training sessions in business and report writing
throughout GSI’s mandate.
Before TD, Derek was with Sun Life Financial. His first role there was in IT and Security
Governance, writing policies, standards, and procedures. He later became the Director of
Corporate Investigations. This team handled domestic and international investigations that fell
outside the specific areas of traditional insurance-related matters.
Here he attained three designations:
 CFE—Certified Fraud Examiner (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners)
 CIPP/C—Certified Information Privacy Professional/Canada (International Association
of Privacy Professionals)
 PCI—Professional Certified Investigator (ASIS International)
Prior to Sun Life Derek worked for Ontario Hydro/Ontario Power Generation. He
conducted province-wide investigations and threat/risk assessments, and held management
positions in the security guard and executive protection groups. Derek worked for this
conventional and nuclear power company through the challenges of 9/11 and the 2003
blackout. He acquired his first two designations:
 CISSP—Certified Information Systems Security Professional (International Information
Systems Security Certification Consortium)
 CPP—Certified Protection Professional (ASIS International)
Derek spent 20 years working in Toronto public housing properties in security,
investigations, and property management, dealing with street and serious crimes, and a variety
of frauds (geared to income and procurement, etc.). His career started, fresh out of school in
©2012
the ’70s, at Toronto International Airport. As an armed guard for a number of European
airlines during the urban-guerilla era of hijackings, he protected aircraft, passengers, VIPs, and
high-value goods such as gold and medicinal narcotics (once even a guided missile!).
Derek’s post-secondary education focused on law enforcement, policing, and security. He
recently taught at the Centennial College School of Business, focusing on financial crimes and
fraud investigation.
Senior management at Ontario Power Generation singled Derek out for some specialized
education, which included training in business and report writing. He readily credits this
specific training with enabling his career advancement over the last 15 years.
He has worked his entire career in Toronto, Ontario.
“Association of Certified Fraud Examiners,” “Certified Fraud Examiner,” “CFE,” “ACFE,” and the
ACFE Logo are trademarks owned by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Inc. The contents of
this paper may not be transmitted, re-published, modified, reproduced, distributed, copied, or sold without
the prior consent of the author.
©2012
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
Everything today is about “Brand.” This is not only in the
commercial sense, but from an individual perspective, too.
In the business world, what was once called reputation is
now called Brand. Your written communications to your
peers, your superiors, or to your customers are nowadays
an “ambassador” to your Brand.
And communication today is immediate. We’ve become
accustomed to sending out messages and getting responses
back in hours … minutes … even seconds, with “instant
messaging.” The desire to get a quick response means we
might rashly send out the original message with shortcuts
and errors. The concomitant urge to respond quickly means
we usually repeat back the same language and grammar
shortcuts.
This leads to bad habits. Those habits then lead to similar
language and grammatical errors infecting our “normal”
business writing.
This can be in any communication, including emails (which
can be official business records!), statistical or staffing
reports, memoranda and confirmation letters … or
investigative reports. No matter which—it’s your Brand on
the line.
Something as simple as a consistent and understandable
file-naming protocol, to the complexities of technical
writing, to the seemingly inconsistent rules of everyday
grammar, can have enormous implications.
This means more than ever your reports and other business
documents must be professional and useful. These two
factors flow from “style” and “substance”—or, how your
document looks and what it contains. Style and substance
are inextricably conjoined.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
1
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
Let’s consider investigation reports…
Style
Constructing (a term sometimes more appropriate than
writing) is a function of Style and Substance, and depends
on the ultimate purposes of the report.
Purpose
A report permits informed decision-making by a
competent authority.
A report needs to be informative—it “reports” back
something that happened and the steps taken to reveal
the circumstances and describe actions taken. It might
also need to be persuasive—it might contain
recommendations on some future course of action, or
preventive measures to prevent a recurrence.
A client or manager might need the report to buttress an
employee termination, an insurance claim, litigation, or
to proceed with criminal prosecution.
A report does not serve its purpose and is not useful if
 The reader can’t understand it.
 The reader stops halfway (or doesn’t even start!)
because reading it is too much of a chore.
 The report doesn’t actually say what the author
meant.
If any of these happens, your report—and your Brand—
has lost credibility.
Plus, a goal of your report is that it answers any
questions your reader might reasonably have. Be tough
on yourself and consider it a failure (or at least a
demerit) if your reader has to call you back with
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
2
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
questions you should have anticipated and addressed in
the report.
“When something can be read without
effort, great effort has gone into its writing.”
—Enrique Jardiel Poncela
Credibility
A report no one has confidence in is not useful. The
report’s structure—its presentation—is as important as
its content. After all, the reader sees the report before
reading it. We all judge books by their covers.
Never underestimate the importance of appearance.
Imagine your reaction to a keynote speaker who shows
up late, in disheveled clothes, shoes on the wrong feet,
unkempt hair or make-up. Before he or she says a word,
you’ve formed a lasting impression. Or if you go to the
same restaurant for a week, order the same dish, and
each day it’s prepared differently. Since you don’t
know what you’ll get, you stop taking the menu
seriously.
Standardization denotes rigour, and rigour instils
confidence in the reader. A report from an investigator
or group should not look different every time. The
reader might assume there is no control; a shame if an
investigation itself was flawless. The absence of a
standardized format does both the reader and the writer
a disservice.
A report with inaccurate information is not useful—
worse, it could be catastrophic. A report with accurate
information but that is written so poorly that the reader
doesn’t understand it, or misunderstands the
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
3
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
information and makes a wrong decision based on it, is
not useful.
Timeliness
A late report doesn’t evoke confidence either. A late
report might be useless. Time is often of the essence.
A consistent structure makes a report easier to organize
and quicker to write. An investigator who is also the
report’s author and is familiar with how he or she will
ultimately arrange information has a leg up on the
clock.
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing
sound they make as they fly by.”
—Douglas Adams
Structure
Investigation reports are structured in many ways. But
there are components common to all. Let’s say your
reports contain these sections:
 Background—why the investigation was conducted
 Executive Summary—summarize actions and
results
 Scope—statement of objective
 Approach—method and participants
 Findings – results of the investigation
 Summary—wrap-up of the investigation
 Impact—effect on the victim


Recommendations—if necessary
Appendices—those documents that will be evidence
down the line; spreadsheets, copies of letters,
invoices, etc.
—from the ACFE Report Writing Manual
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
4
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
These are all things a good report needs to touch on …
but no law says they have to be in this order or even in
these discrete sections. In fact, in today’s business
environment, with the speed of communications and
transactions, and the competition for an executive’s
attention, a literal interpretation of these sections and
their sequence is counterproductive.
You might find a blend of the points above is more
effective in today’s business world. Take how you like
best to write, and how your primary audience likes best
to read, balance it, and then standardize it as your
investigative report format.
And know who your audience is. Does your audience
already have a good familiarity? Or do you have to
explain all the facts, and maybe the terms, from
scratch? What if your audience is a mixture of both?
How do you inform one part without boring the other?
What is usually the hardest part of report-writing?
Content. Often the necessaries for legal action will
dictate what goes into the report, but how and where is
up to the writer. The writer must base this on the needs
of the audience and report’s structure. Much of the
detail should go in the appendices.
The narrative needs to be able to tell the story
understandably and easily. So, how does the writer tell
a 25-page-worthy tale in 4-page document? A wise use
of a report’s layout and structure, coupled with some
great tools in word-processing software is a big help. So
are headings and appendices … and charts and tables
are also helpful. These might not be worth a “thousand”
words, but they’re worth a bunch. A carefully
constructed table can replace several paragraphs of
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
5
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
explanation. Form and content … what you write and
how you write it.
Here Style starts to blend into its partner, Substance.
Front-Load
Judge Mark Painter from Ohio says this in his book,
Write Well:
“Too many memos, letters, reports, and
other documents start out by stating the
facts. That is a mistake. Unless you are
writing a mystery, do not leave the reader
wondering where you are going. Do not
start out giving facts without giving the
context. Organize your document to be
front-loaded; that is, educate the reader as
to what is coming.”
Consistent Appearance
Here’s a sample format for the narrative sections, and
some discussions on the rationale:
“ISSUE”
This is a blend of “Background” and “Scope” points above.
In two or three brief paragraphs it should state what
happened that needs investigating. It could also describe
who (which department or agency) is investigating, which
brings “Approach” in a bit, as well.
This section identifies the “predication” for the
investigation.
Judge Painter again:
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
6
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
“Do not start writing until you have a
succinct statement of what you are writing
about. And you must do this in 50-75 words.
If you can’t explain the issue in 75 words,
you do not understand it very well, and
neither will your reader.”
So, something like this:
On Monday, June 15, 2010, two employees at Branch
#1245, Toronto, ON, observed a colleague remove
funds from a cash drawer, and put it in a bag. This
employee put the bag in the lunchroom. The witnesses
advised the manager who made further inquiries.
Ultimately the funds were recovered, and the employee
was sent home pending the investigation. The Branch
consulted Human Resources and Corporate Security.
“FINDINGS”
This section is what the client or applicable business unit
needs to make any decisions. It says who did what, how,
and sometimes why.
The “ISSUE” section above and this “FINDINGS” section
are, in effect, the “Executive Summary.” This is what the
boss or client needs to know. If they only read this far, they
understand what happened. Everything that follows is
support and, to some, merely window dressing. Don’t
misunderstand—it’s very important window dressing—but
it’s not what the CEO needs to deal with.
Derived from the resolutions section below, it might look
something like this:
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
7
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
The subject employee was Joe Blow, Counter Teller, at
Branch #1245. He started employment in October 2005,
and assumed his current position in 2009.
Security and HR interviewed Mr. Blow on June 18, and
he admitted taking the funds on June 15. A subsequent
review of his activities revealed a number of other
matters, which Mr. Blow also acknowledged he had
done. They are:
1. He did this.
2. He did this.
3. Etc.
Security found sufficient evidence to file criminal
charges. The Branch manager and HR determined that
Mr. Blow knowingly breached the company Code of
Conduct.
Security consulted the business, HR, and Legal, and has
reported this matter to the police. HR terminated Mr.
Blow’s employment effective June 25, 2010.
“INVESTIGATION”
This is the meat and potatoes of the report. In here is
comment on the five Ws, synopses of interviews,
descriptions and assessments of evidence, and so on. This
section builds on Approach and Summary from the points
above.
This section needs to address, at least, whatever was
discussed in “ISSUE” and “FINDINGS.”
Opinions rarely have a place in an investigative report
unless they are comments in an expert’s report (a type of
report that would be in an appendix). But remember that a
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
8
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
careful analysis of facts and pointing out the logical
conclusion is not necessarily an opinion. The author of an
investigative report—for example, a CFE—knows what he
or she is talking about, and their analysis of facts is
important.
This section might not grab the attention of the CEO, but it
is the part the lawyers and law enforcement will focus on. It
can get much more detailed, like this:
Initial incident
On June 15, 2010, at approximately 3:45 p.m., Jane
Doe, CSR, and Mark Twain, Financial Advisor (FA),
approached their Branch Manager, John Drysdale. They
reported that minutes before, they had seen Joe Blow
take several bundles of cash from his cash drawer and
put it in a small gym bag. They watched him go into the
lunchroom, and from where they stood, they could see
him put the bag behind the water cooler. He then left
the lunchroom and returned to his workstation.
Ms. Doe and Mr. Twain did not believe Mr. Blow had
noticed them watching him.
Mr. Drysdale followed up on this. He went to the
lunchroom and saw the bag. He called Mr. Blow into
the lunchroom, and … blah, blah, blah.
Interview with Joe Blow
On such and such a date, I interviewed Mr. Blow …
blah, blah, blah.
Contents of Mr. Blow’s Workstation
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
9
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
NOTES
And so it goes.
“RESOLUTION”
This section fleshes out the results of the investigation, and
is what the preceding “FINDINGS” section digested.
“APPENDICES”
Here is everything else, such as: interview transcripts,
invoices and transactions, emails messages, photos, CDs of
audio and video data—in electronic versions, these could
be audio and video files attached.
It’s likely that there will be a number of references—e.g.,
“See Appendix A”—in the body of the narrative; that’s
much more effective than interrupting the flow of the report
with large clunky chunks.
When devising a report template, include two types of
headings: Main Headings for the sections, such as “ISSUE”
and “FINDINGS” in the example above, which are
constant, and sub-headings unique to the circumstances of
the particular report. In other words, an audience should
know that
ISSUES/FINDINGS/INVESTIGATION/RESOLUTION
will be in every report they see. Sub-headings like
“Interview with Joe Blow” or “Forged Cheques” can pop
up when appropriate for clarity. Use a change in formatting
between the main and sub-headings to differentiate them.
Avoid further levels of sub-headings—headings should
enhance understanding, not create complexity. (And don’t
be flashy—bolding or underlining is okay, but save
gigantic fancy fonts and colours for garage-sale flyers.)
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
10
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
It’s not the “names” of the headings that’s so important.
“ISSUE” could be “EVENT” or “INCIDENT”;
“INVESTIGATION” could be “SYNOPSIS” or
“SUPPORTING INFORMATION” … whatever works
best for you or your organization. All that matters is the
headings are logical, and, once they’re set, they’re set.
Consistency is important.
Reports don’t necessarily need a title page. Sometimes it’s
a good idea; particularly if the first page of the report or the
table of contents contains sensitive information and you
want to keep it covered. Don’t make the title page a canvas
to display prowess with graphics. Title pages, like titles
themselves, should be distinct and succinct.
Use headers and footers. Headers may contain a logo, but
must contain the report’s title, last revision date, and
security classification (if any). Don’t use the word
processor’s “date field” function—it inserts the current date
when anyone opens the report. The date needs to static.
Footers should have the author’s name and details, and
page numbers (page x of y). If individual copies of the
report itself are also numbered, that should be in the footer
as well. Headers and footers are not only for the ease of the
reader, but in case pages get lost or separated during
printing or tumble out of a file folder.
Substance
Readability
Look at these two paragraphs. Which is easier to read?
 Operationally, UNO teaching effectiveness is
measured by assessing the levels of agreement
between the perceptions of instructors and students
on the rated ability of specific instructional behavior
attributes that were employed during course
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
11
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS

instruction. Due to the fact that instructors come
from diverse backgrounds and occupy different
positions within a given university, both individualand organizational-based factors may contribute to
the variance in levels of agreement between
perceptions.
At the University of Northern Ontario, we measure
in-class teaching effectiveness by asking:
 How well students think their instructors speak,
present, and explain; and
 How well instructors think they speak, present,
and explain.
Then we compare the responses and consider each
instructor’s background, experience, and role. This way
we can assess any significant gaps and resolve them.
Actually, the second example is only a guess at a
translation; who knows what the author of the first
actually meant. Plain language is so much more
understandable.
Plain Language
Keep sentences short. Use common words and phrases.
Avoid jargon. DYA (define your acronyms). Use
proper grammar. And write, rewrite, obtain feedback,
and rewrite again. Your work is important; ensure your
writing does it justice.
Your job is to write reports to inform people, not to
keep understanding away from them. Write as you
would speak. Remember, it is up to you to deliver an
understandable message to them; it’s not up to them to
divine it from some unintelligible complexity.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
12
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
“Don’t write so you can be understood;
write so you cannot be misunderstood.”
—Epictetus
Writing Rules and Tips
Use Plain Language Principles:
 Accuracy—A document with wrong information is
no good. Always check and confirm.
 Brevity—Get to the point as quickly as possible.
Don’t use extra words.




Clarity—Make sure your audience can understand
what you write, or else there is no point. It’s up to
you to deliver the message; it’s not up to the reader
to “figure it out!”
Active Voice—Always use active voice except for
the rare instances when passive voice is appropriate.
Active voice sentences are shorter and are easier to
understand—and to write. Passive voice sentences
are longer, harder to understand, and are “officious”
sounding.
Passive Voice—You can identify passive voice
when you see a form of the verb “to be”—am, are,
is, was, were, be, been, being—and a past
participle—carried, taken, kept, etc. Passive
sentences, such as “The money was taken” normally
often include a prepositional phrase beginning with
by: “The money was taken by Frank.” A better
sentence is “Frank took the money.” It’s more direct,
shorter, clearer, easier to understand, and easier to
write. Passive voice is not always bad or wrong. But
lots of it kills readability.
Gender Neutral—Use gender-neutral writing when
you can. This can be difficult because English does
not lend itself to gender neutrality easily. You may
have to use the clumsy “he or she” or “his or hers”
from time to time.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
13
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS

Writers trying to be gender neutral often resort to
making singular plural: “A manager should ensure
their employees follow procedures.” This is
incorrect. Say either, “Managers should ensure their
employees follow procedures,” or “A manager
should ensure his or her employees follow
procedures.”
Overcomplicated Words—Say “the guard on patrol
walked around the building,” not “the guard on
patrol circumnavigated the building.” Do not use
reports or other business documents to show off

your vocabulary. Simple words will do; for
example, say “use,” not “utilize.”
Only use big, fancy words when the specific reason
for which they were grammatically invented occurs.
You know, like “inextricably conjoined.” Don’t
sound (or be) pretentious.
Incorrect Words—Make sure you know what a
word means before you use it. If you learn a new
word, make sure you truly understand it and how to
use it. The person you heard it from might be using
it incorrectly. Remember what Inigo Montoya said,
“You keep using that word. … I do not think it
means what you think it means.”1 Your dictionary is
your friend.
Similarly, when using foreign words or terms, use
them properly. For example, “e.g.” is, in Latin, a
short form for exempli gratia, which means, “for
example.” When used, “e.g.” is followed by one or
more examples. I.e. in Latin is id est, or “that is.”
When used, “i.e.” is followed by one specific,
definite item.
“Joe looked for items that stood out, e.g., incorrect
totals, erasures, stale dates. But what he really
1
The Princess Bride, 20th Century Fox, 1987.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
14
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS


needed was the thing that would bring it all together,
i.e., the missing disc.”
Contractions—They aren’t a problem. Sometimes
they’re even more appropriate than their root words.
Some people will try to tell you that contractions
have no place in business writing. Don’t listen to
them. Use contractions; you’ll be fine.
Punctuation—Most people misuse punctuation. Oh,
they normally get periods and question marks right,
but that’s about it. Dashes and hyphens, commas,
ellipses, apostrophes, quotation marks, parentheses
and brackets, colons and semi-colons; correct use
seem to evade everyone! Use proper punctuation.
Misuse can be dangerous.
 According to Toronto’s Globe and Mail, a
misplaced comma in a contract to string cable
lines along utility poles may cost “…a
whopping $2.13 million.”
 Man-eating shark = man eating shark? No. The
hyphen is important.
 “Let’s eat, people.” Remove the comma and
change the meaning.
 The teacher wrote on the blackboard: “A
woman without her man is nothing” and asked
the students to insert punctuation.
All the boys wrote: "A Woman, without her
man, is nothing."
All the girls wrote: "A Woman: without her,
man is nothing."

Punctuation is powerful.
Footnotes or endnotes—don’t fear footnotes. They
can be quite useful for a number of purposes. From
time to time a writer might want to briefly clarify a
point made in the body of a document in an offset
manner to add, or even diminish, emphasis—as a
sort-of “whispered aside”—or more frequently to
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
15
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS

cite a source or explain origin. Try to avoid using a
mixture of footnotes and endnotes in reports—pick
one or the other. Usually footnotes are better.
Microsoft Word makes it easy to use and track
footnotes.
Emphasis—now that I’ve mentioned it, always use
italics for emphasis. Save bold and underlining for
headings. Use italics for unusual, foreign, or
specialized words or terms, such as literati. You can
use underlining, though, for titles, such as
Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, but you can

also use italics. Or put it in “quotes.” Be consistent.
Redundancies—Watch for things like: “in order to
facilitate the organizing of a meeting….” Instead,
write, “to organize a meeting…” or “organizing a
meeting...”
“At this point in time…”—write “at this point” or
“at this time” or even better, “now” or “currently.”
“It was an unexpected surprise when a pair of baby
twins was born at 12 midnight” becomes “It was a
surprise when twins were born at midnight.”
Point of View
Point of view means the author’s perspective. It could
be first person (singular; plural)—I did this; we went
there—or third person (singular; plural)—she did this;
they went there. Second person—you did this; you went
there—is inappropriate for reports; but it is appropriate
for some things: parts of this article are in second
person.
Investigators can write reports from a first-person point
of view; “I interviewed the complainant.” Many people
dislike this because they use “I” a lot, “I did this, I did
that, I I I I I….” In his book, On Writing Well, author
William Zinsser observes
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
16
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
“Writers are obviously at their most natural
when they write in the first person. … I urge
people to write in the first person: to use ‘I’
and ‘me’ and ‘we’ and ‘us.’ They put up a
fight. …getting writers to use ‘I’ is seldom
easy. They think … it’s egotistical …
undignified.”
Besides, in third person—using “he” and “she” a lot—
there’s no real difference. There’s a sort-of modified
third-person method that uses terms such as “the
author,” “the writer,” “the investigator”—which
ultimately has the same issue.
Some writers use a virtual entity, i.e., “[company name]
attended the scene and interviewed witnesses.”
Point of view should be mostly a personal preference;
use what is easiest to write. But a report is a discrete
thing, so use one point of view for the whole narrative.
Don’t start out with “the writer did” but forget and
switch to “I did,” and eventually end with “[company
name] did.” Parts, such as statements from witnesses,
will be as the witness said or wrote them, and identified
as such. Present other components, such as a technical
review on a hard drive examination, as that author
wrote them—but distinguish and identify the source.
Segmented pieces, as happens in this article, can flip
points of view from segment to segment. Much of it is
in a form of third-person omniscient; others in second
person. Different parts have different tones, aims, and
possibly different authors.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
17
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
In a report, everything you write should maintain the
same point of view.2
Proofreading and Vetting Reports
Proofread your reports and documents, and wherever
possible have colleagues check your report before it
goes to the manager.
Failing to critically examine your work (or your peers’
when you are giving them feedback; or they yours)
means sentences like these can escape:



“The ladies of the church have cast off clothes of
every kind and they can be seen in the church
basement on Friday afternoons.”
“The plot is less than the sum of its parts. It
concerns an unconventional family—a free-spirited
mother and her three young-adult children—that
visit an English seaside resort. There they meet a
young dentist, who falls in love with the older
daughter, his grumpy landlord, the mother's nervous
solicitor, the friendly waiter, and a stuffy barrister.”
“Chief Constable Gerry Hamilton this morning
discussed the problems of lodging in the jail
unconscious people suspected of being drunk with
the York County Commissioners.”
Vetting is a quality-control function performed by
supervisors to maintain professional standards for
report writing. Professional standards for reports should
be maintained, monitored, and modified as appropriate.
If such quality control and standards are not
maintained, the quality of work will rapidly
deteriorate—experience shows this is what usually
2
In case you missed it, in this section, I switched between third person
and second person (and then first person for this footnote). There’s an
exception to every rule. But not in a report.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
18
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
happens. Poor or inadequate reports increase liability
and risk.
Supervisors and managers are accountable for the
quality of the report, but the writer is responsible for it.
Areas for attention are shown in the following chart.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
19
NOTES
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
Type of Error
Examples
Errors of Style
Failure to
follow
established
reporting
procedures.
These errors are
often
“cosmetic” and
Improper Format. The report is not consistent with
the proper format.
Tolerance Level
Typos. Typing errors not corrected.
Errors of style should
be avoided, but from
time to time a manager
may accept a report
with a limited number
of errors, in the
interest of expediency.
Font. Ensure fonts are consistent. If general text is
When time is not of
should not
Arial 10 or Times New Roman 12 in the first
the essence, the report
create serious
consequences.
paragraph, it should be everywhere else. Same with
headings—though some size differences are usually
okay. Note: sometimes it is appropriate to use a
smaller font in tables and charts. And footnotes are
usually a smaller font size.
should be returned to
the author for
corrections.
Errors of
Substance
Factual or other
Incomplete Content. The report’s content is not
complete. Required information is missing: the 5Ws
& H, or persons, places, events, and things are
Errors of substance are
professionally
unacceptable. Reports
material errors
in the
investigation, or
preparation and
delivery of the
report. These
errors could
have serious
consequences.
inadequately described. There is inadequate detail.
with errors of
substance must be
rewritten.
Improper File Number. The report is misidentified
by file number.
Incorrect Content. The report is not accurate.
Required information is wrong. Opinions might not
be distinguished from facts. Persons, places, events,
and things are described inaccurately.
Spelling and Grammar. Words are misspelled;
incorrect words used; poor sentence and paragraph
structure; poor layout.
Occasionally errors of
substance will indicate
some investigative
work must be redone
(or done in the first
place).
Managers must never
accept a report with
any instance of this
type of error.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
20
EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATION REPORTS
Every CFE should have one or more of these books:
 The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, by
Edward P. Bailey, Jr., Oxford University Press
 Plain English at Work, by Edward P. Bailey, Jr.,
Oxford University Press
 The Elements of Style (any recent edition), by William
Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, Penguin Books
 Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, by Lynne Truss, Gotham
Books
 The Little English Handbook for Canadians, 2nd
Edition, by James B. Bell and Edward P. J. Corbett,





Wiley
Garner’s Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner,
Oxford University Press
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English
in Plain English, by Patricia T. O’Conner
On Writing Well, by William Zinsser, Harper Collins
Write Well, by Judge Mark Painter, Cincinnati Book
Publishing
Report Writing Manual, Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners
I was very lucky, and I attribute any good writing skills I
have to two people: Sally McBeth of Clear Language and
Design, and my mentor, David Stolovitch, CD, CPP,
CISSP, CISM, CIPP/C. Mistakes and errors are entirely my
own.
My advice: latch onto a good writer and learn from him or
her.
©2012
2012 ACFE Canadian Fraud Conference
21
NOTES