Whether you’re currently employed, or are actively seeking (as in, job-hunting is your full-time occupation), one of the most important things that you can do is to build your Portfolio.
We talked about your Portfolio in this previous blogpost, with examples of how to use GitHub, LinkedIn, and your personal domain as “Portfolio bases.”
In this blogpost, we go over FIVE RULES that will help you refine, hone, and target your professional reports so that they position you as a problem-solver.
Your reports will differentiate you from your competition.
They may be the final thing that your prospective boss looks at to clinch the decision – to establish YOU as a key hire, and future leader.
TL;DR: The Five Key Takeaways
- KEY TAKEAWAY #1: Your boss/client is a tired, whiny five-year old. Tell them a bedtime story.
- KEY TAKEAWAY #2: Lead with a strong, compelling Problem Statement.
- KEY TAKEAWAY #3: Keep your narrative tight and focused. Put ALL details into appendices.
- KEY TAKEAWAY #4: Use EVERY POSSIBLE device to VISUALLY present your information, and then write AROUND these visuals.
- KEY TAKEAWAY #5: Use your Lit Review and your Discussion sections to position yourself as someone who understands the problem in its broader sense, and who comes up with solid, substantial problem-solutions. Differentiate yourself from those who can just run data through code.
Rule 1: Keep in Mind – Your Reader Is a Tired, Whiny Five-Year Old
Here’s the single most-valuable tip that I can offer. EVERYTHING that follows will be ways to carry this out.
Treat your reader (prospective boss or client) like a five-year old. A tired, cranky (and secretly whiny) five-year old. The last thing that they want to do is to read your stuff.
KEY TAKEAWAY #1: Your boss/client is a tired, whiny five-year old. Tell them a bedtime story.
So … instead of writing a dry, dull technical report … tell them a bedtime story.
That is the most powerful essence of today’s post.
Everything else supports that overall theme.
To the extent that you can, use storytelling. This works more readily with audio-visual presentations, where you can be more direct and personal. However, in ANY report, you can use storytelling “elements.”
You can encompass storytelling elements into your report by:
- Identify your compelling problem statement – the REASON for everything that you’ve done, and the REASON for your reader to read.
- USE VISUALS, and make your report as simple and as tightly-written as possible – more “pictures” than “words,” and
- Use analogies and actual “stories” (examples, if you can find them) to make your work vivid, instead of tedious and boring.
As an example of storytelling, in the next section, I offer the analogy of you being the hero who has returned from a noble and dangerous quest.
And NOTICE – I embellish that analogy by offering a visual, EARLY in the section!
With the notion that your reader is tired and cranky, it’s important to remember EVERYTHING that you learned in freshman English:
- Tight, focused writing – SIMPLE words, SIMPLE sentences. More Hemingway than Proust.
- Every paragraph leads with the main theme. Everything else in the paragraph supports that. New concept? Start a new paragraph.
- Use EVERY organizational hack that you can think of. Specifically:
- Sections and subsections – divide and conquer.
- Use transitions to focus your reader’s attention: transitional paragraph at the beginning of a section (or subsection) – let your reader know what you’ll talk about, and summary at the end. (This is the old “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.)
- Use tables to consolidate details. Just get everything into a structured, organized format – it will still be text, but it’s more ORGANIZED text. That helps!
Use the structure of your report to consolidate and organize what you’re saying.
So – tell your ruler the essence of your story, remembering Rule #1:
Rule 1. Remember that your reader is tired and cranky, and they REALLY do not want to read your report. Make it as easy as possible, with EVERY ‘tool of the trade’ that you can find and use.”
A.J. Maren – “Five Rules for Writing”
Rule 2: You Are the Hero: Tell Your Story (But Focus on the Problem – Your “Why”)
KEY TAKEAWAY #2: Lead with a strong, compelling Problem Statement.
The essence of the bedtime story is that there is a problem. The problem looms ever larger. It threatens the safety of the kingdom. The ruler (your boss, or prospective boss, or client) dispatches the best knight in the kingdom (you) to solve the problem.
Your VERY FIRST STEP (when you return and give your report) is to present the Problem Statement.
Even though, when your ruler sent you forth to do the “dangerous deed,” that was the single most important thing on his or her mind – by the time that you get back, they’ll have forgotten why they sent you on this dangerous quest.
They may have forgotten that they sent you on a quest at all.
They may forgotten YOU.
So your very first step is to remind your ruler WHY you were sent off to perform this heroic, dangerous task.
You need to frame the Problem Statement.
If you do this, you gain your ruler’s (your reader’s) attention.
If you don’t do this, you’ll be politely ushered from the palace.
No reward. No money. No banquets in your honor.
NOTHING.
So establish the Problem Statement first.
For your boss – as tight and abbreviated a summary as possible. Illustrated with pictures. (Remember – cranky, whiny five-year old.)
So – before you report your heroic deeds to your ruler, remind your ruler (your reader) of WHY they should give you their attention. Establish the compelling Problem Statement, VERY FIRST THING.
Rule 2. Every story starts with the heroic challenge. (The ‘Problem Statement.’) But as hero, you’ve already conquered. So make your reporting tight and terse. And lead with the Problem Statement – WHY you went off on the dangerous journey!.”
A.J. Maren – “Five Rules for Writing”
Rule 3: Short, Simple, Summarized
KEY TAKEAWAY #3: Keep your narrative tight and focused. Put ALL details into appendices.
You’re returning to tell your ruler (your boss or client) that you’ve accomplished the mighty, heroic deed. But – keep in mind that all the ruler REALLY wants is to know that the job is done, and done well.
Your job is to tell this story as succinctly as possible.
When you return to tell your story to the ruler, the ruler will be seeing you at the end of the day … and all your ruler wants is to have one more glass of wine and to go to bed.
But … your ruler is a good, conscientious ruler. Someone who wants to be assured that the job is done, and done well. So they’ll listen – for maybe three minutes.
So – tell your ruler the essence of your story, with these important points:
- Highlight, structure, and organize.
- Write for clarity and simplicity.
- Third person but ACTION WORDS. For example, “This study showed that … ” or “Analysis of the data revealed that …”
Once you’ve written your “stuff,” sleep on it. The next day, READ IT OUT LOUD. Preferably, read it to SOMEONE.
If it’s starting to get draggy – then it’s draggy. SIMPLIFY.
Rule 3. Make your story as short and to-the-point as possible. ALL DETAILS go into appendices. Keep the essence very tight and focused.”
A.J. Maren – “Five Rules for Writing”
The ruler (your boss) does NOT want to know all the details.
That person wants to know enough to be certain that you did the job competently. As in, you slew (or maybe even tamed) the right dragon, hopefully in the right kingdom, etc.
Save the details for the town tavern, where if you buy sufficient rounds, someone will feel obligated to listen to you.
There are three essential steps:
- Keep the storyline tight. Move all details to supporting appendices.
- Keep EVERYTHING short. Short sentences. Short paragraphs.
- Introductions, summaries, and transitions. It’s that old rule of “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you’ve told them.”
Remember EVERYTHING that you learned in Freshman Comp 101. (And I just don’t have the time or energy to re-teach you all of that here.)
Rule 4: Use Infographics
KEY TAKEAWAY #4: Use EVERY POSSIBLE device to VISUALLY present your information, and then write AROUND these visuals.
Quick story. Last quarter, my heroic quest was to teach myself generative AI.
Along the way, I realized that we need to use the reverse Kullback-Leibler divergence, not the “regular” Kullback-Leibler divergence, when starting to understand generative AI.
Also, the ORDER in which we used certain “big concepts” was important.
I expressed this in a simple infographic.
I have used this single, simple infographic SO MANY TIMES. In SO MANY YouTubes.
In one simple, visual presentation, I’ve encompassed everything that someone needs to know about the theory underlying ALL forms of generative AI.
Useful, right?
You need to do the same.
- Collapse complexity into simplicity.
- Transform the abstract and arcane into visual and tangible.
- Let your reader immediately grasp complex relationships between diverse components.
THINK about how you want to “tell your story with pictures.”
Then, LATER, use an AI tool (e.g., Midjourney – which I’m using in my current work. Previously, I used Dreamweaver for stock images that fed into my storyline – as I did in Figure 3. Whatever tool you choose, have a clear sense of HOW you’ll use visuals to “tell story,” and then use the tools – which MAY INCLUDE MS Powerpoint (TM) to annotate or explain.
For example, in Figure 3, I knew that I wanted three interlocking puzzle pieces. Dreamweaver gave me that as a stock image.
But I then annotated it (using MS Powerpoint (TM)), and when I use that image in a YouTube, I add FURTHER annotations – moving an ellipse around the words that I’m discussing – to help further focus my viewer’s attention.
Rule 4. Use pictures, infographics, diagrams, flowcharts, tables, and every possible well-constructed visual device to tell your story. Use whatever tools help you do this, often in combination – e.g., Midjourney + MS Powerpoint (TM).“
A.J. Maren – “Five Rules”
Rule 5: Use Your Lit Review and Discussion Sections Strategically
KEY TAKEAWAY #5: Use your Lit Review and your Discussion sections to position yourself as someone who understands the problem in its broader sense, and who comes up with solid, substantial problem-solutions. Differentiate yourself from those who can just run data through code.
You see the big picture. And your solutions address more than local specifics; you solve the “big problems.”
This is how you differentiate yourself from competitors.
Putting together a Literature Review may seem like a boring, tedious task.
And writing your Discussion section? The first thing that might – realistically – come to mind is: “What the hell am I supposed to say?”
Your Discussion Section
By the time that you’ve gotten to your Discussion, you’ve done all the work – assembled data, wrangled the algorithms, pushed the data through the code, and assessed results.
What more is there?
Let’s go back to Square One. Your reader is a tired, cranky five-year old.
Your reader will have (probably) read your Abstract and Introduction. They may have given your report interior a passing glance.
But they’ll jump directly to your Discussion.
This is where you explain and interpret your results – preferably, in words your reader can understand. (NOT technical jargon.)
You also relate what you’ve done to the bigger picture.
For example, your initial Problem Statement may have been: “There’s a dragon who is killing and eating the shepherd’s sheep in the Northeast Province. We need you to remove this dragon.”
By the time that you come back, sore, aching, wounded – but victorious – your ruler really DOESN’T want a blow-by-blow of your adventures. (Save that for your drinking buddies at the tavern.)
What your ruler needs to hear is: “Sir. (Or Ma’am.) I found the dragon, and after some wrangling (this is the part that goes into the tavern tales, e.g., the appendices), I convinced her to move to the NORTH-Northeast Province, where she is now protecting the passes into your kingdom.” (Problem solved.)
Now, the Discussion – the “Big Picture.”
“Also, I convinced her to charge legitimate travelers to pay for safe passage through the mountains, and she’s splitting the fees 50/50 with the kingdom.”
And finish with the “Benefits and Future Outcomes.” (Otherwise known as “Future Problems Solved.”)
“Additionally, her clutch of eggs is due to hatch in three months. She’ll train her youngsters how to discern between raiders and thieves and legitimate travelers, and within a year, her offspring will be able to start guarding passes in other boundaries of the kingdom.“
So use your Discussion section to position what you’ve done in terms of the original problem statement, and – if possible – identify broader implications of your work, such as:
If implemented into a mobile app, your solution would enable customers to immediately classify certain events, which would enable your ruler (corporate overlords) to provide solutions, or
Your solution provides a new method that not only addresses the particular problem, but can be broadened to address a suite of related problems (be as specific as you can), or
Your solution, if implemented locally, would allow processing to be done within the budget of the local establishment (hospital, organization, etc.) – and your company would then be the key provider for selling this solution, training personnel, and providing updates on a regular (recurring income) basis.
Just think about your community and their needs – and present what you’ve done as broadly as possible, without being entirely blue-sky.
Your Literature Review/Background
Your Literature Review, or Background section, might seem like the last thing that you want to do. BORING! And so, SO tedious and time-gobbling.
There’s all kinds of reasons to put this off.
But there’s an even better reason to start early, and keep finessing this section.
Your Lit Review establishes your authority.
You know how, in those detective shows, the VERY FIRST THING the detective (or FBI agent, or whomever) does – when they enter the room – is FLASH THEIR CRED PACK?
Yes.
Their very first step is to establish their authority. Their RIGHT to be there. And the fact that they now RULE THE SCENE.
That’s what YOU need to do – establish authority. And you do that by letting people know that you understand what’s going on.
Check out this YouTube.
A Really Good Lit Review Example
The Literature Review in the LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) paper by Blei et al. (2003) is really blended into the Introduction in this paper, but it does a FABULOUS job of walking you (the reader) through a combination of Problem Statement and Lit Review:
- It establishes the need for a new method,
- It very clearly articulates the “who has done what” – and the limitations of all previous methods, and
- It identifies the fundamentals underlying previous approaches, clearly paving the way for introducing their new method.
In short, this is a GREAT EXAMPLE of a “sit up and take notice” Intro and Literature Review/Background (combined). We should all read this not only for technical content, but also as inspiration for our own writing!
Here’s the citation and link:
- Blei, David M., Andrew Y. Ng and Michael I. Jordan. 2003. “Latent Dirichlet Allocation.” Journal of Machine Learning Research 3: 993-1022. (Accessed Nov. 7, 2025; available online at LDA PDF.)
So to summarize:
Rule 5. Use your Lit Review and Discussion sections to establish authority and differentiate yourself from the competition.”
A.J. Maren – “Five Rules”
And may success and power be yours!
The Necessary Postscript: “Writing with AI”
Oh, GAWD!
I’d finished this blogpost update. Actually, I’d THOUGHT I’d finished.
Made tea. Rummaged in the kitchen for snacks. (Been writing since I got up early this morning, and a single biscotti and a pot of coffee will not, in themselves, fuel more than a few hours of writing.)
So there is NOTHING more polarizing right now than the whole “how do I work with AI?” issue. NOTHING.
Not in education.
Not in certain legislative and government circles, where certain judges and politically appointed officials SHOULD have read and DOUBLE-CHECKED what their interns put out using ChatGPT. (And if you don’t know what I’m saying, check out this AAAS summary of a report put out by under the auspices of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Or just enter the string “judge used chatgpt to create legal opinion” in Google (which will, of course, invoke its Gemini AI) to get a slew of incidents involving use and mis-use of AI for generating legal opinions and other legal documents.
So the key takeaway: It’s not whether to use or not to use – it’s that you should exercise oversight, control, and just be damn suspicious of ANYTHING produced by a LLM.
Hallucinations are real. They’re not going away soon. They are a DIRECT by-product of the probabilistic algorithm and there is NO easy means to eradicate this tendency.
On the other hand, NOT USING AI is not the answer, either.
Here’s an article that I’ve found useful:
I personally have not yet used AI for my writing.
Everything that I write is STILL … just me.
With my own very idiosyncratic style. (So you KNOW it’s me.)
And my own very particular point-of-view.
But when I DO start using AI … I’ll likely take Sid Bharath’s suggestions into account.
PPS – My Personal Take
Suppose that you use an AI tool to write your report, or the majority of it. And you just look at it and say, “Good enough,” and turn it in.
And you’re shooting to move UP in the next tier of six-figures-salary jobs.
And you figure that you’re WORTH IT, having invested more than $50K in your Master’s degree from Northwestern.
And in the meantime, the front desk receptionist has invested … maybe $5K – in an online “how to use AI for writing” course. (That’s if she took one offered by MindValley, which was promoting their AI courses this last summer.)
OR … she’s paid $500 for a course on the same from the local community college.
OR … she’s just studied, for free, using all sorts of YouTubes, LinkedIn posts, Substack tutorials, and more … and put together her OWN course, and really gotten the hang of this “AI-generated writing” thing.
And suppose that … she puts together a report that is AWFULLY SIMILAR to yours.
So what will management do?
Hire or promote you, to the next six-figure-tier?
Or promote this hard-working and creative gal, who would be THRILLED to have a salary bump from $30K to $60K, and a new job in (AI-assisted) writing for the company?
YOU figure it out.
The bottom line, as always, is: differentiate yourself from others.
Let ChatGPT (or Claude, or any other of its ilk) be your servant.
YOU must be master in your own kingdom.
“Live free or die. Death is not the worst of evils.” *
* Attrib. General John Stark, U.S. Revolutionary Army.
AJM. (Blogpost originated April 29, 2024, updated Nov. 7, 2025.)