4-Box Writing Guide

Writing a 4-Box Report

4-Box – Purpose – Preview – Details – Review:

The 4-Box Report is proposed in the Franklin Covey Writing Advantage Workshop. The steps in the program are to plan by thinking for the reader, brainstorming before writing, and identifying the document’s purpose. Using a standard design, the next steps are drafting and revising. The approach for planning, drafting, and revising are covered in previous sections.

The design of the 4-Box Report includes the following sections:

· Purpose

· Preview

· Details

· Review

For more information, read the following article:

Recap for the Franklin Covey Writing Advantage Workshop (Links to an external site.)

Style of the 4-Box Report

The style and tone of the 4-Box are formal and directed at a leadership audience. Sentences should be concise, direct, use bias-free language, and use an active voice. Writing quality matters as you lose credibility when you have writing mistakes

General Formatting:

· Double-space document

· Use 1″ margins on all sides and .5″ indents for new paragraphs

· Use 12 point, Times New Roman font

· Include a page header (the title of your paper) and a page number on the top of each page

· The title page is not required unless specifically identified in the assignment

· Each section of the 4-Box should have a section title (i.e. Purpose, Preview, Details, Review)

Citation

Outside resources are not required but if they are used, the APA approach will be used for in-text citations (author, date) and a reference page. Use the following guide for formatting in-text citations and reference section 

Sample_APA_Paper__103017 copy-1.pdf.

Planning your 4-Box Report

The primary purpose of the 4-Box report is to communicate information. Examples include documenting a reflection, a summary, or the synthesis of a topic. The 4-Box can also be used to report information and can be used to document analysis. The important parts are the purpose and outlining the details. 

Purpose

This includes the topic that you are writing about. This can include the question from the assignment or the definition of the problem. This should be paraphrased (restate the in your own words) and be as concise as possible. The reader should understand why they are reading this document in the first 10 seconds. If this is a reflection, define the action or topic that you are reflecting on. If this is a summary, state the main point of the entire article and if this is a synthesis, this will be your topic sentence. 

Preview

This section is the same function as the executive summary in the SBAR. The preview is a summary of the main points in the detail section. This section should be written last. For the detail section, highlight the main ideas of each section. Pull the major ideas together and condense by combining sentences, generalizing and eliminating unnecessary words and phrases, Use transition words to link phrases.

Details

This section includes any contextual information and describes each of the major points. Start this section with any background information that the readers need to understand the main topics. Data sources and methods of measurement can be included here. The next part is the main points to be covered. In an analysis, this can be the primary root cause of the issue. In a reflection or summary or synthesis, these can be the three supporting examples or themes. Use an outline to plan this section starting with a list of the topics. Give readers the relevant details. 

Review

Use this section to propose a solution to the problem. Use problem-solving methods to choose the best solution and describe how this solution resolves the initial problem. This section can also be used to document the primary root case to solve. For a summary, reflection or synthesis, use this section to restate your primary objective and conclude the paper.