This paper presents a comparison of annual reports released by two companies. The first is the annual report by Bank of America. This report is a statement and detailed explanation of the financial status and performance of the bank in the year 2016 (Bank of America 2016 Annual Report, 2017) . The second is the annual report released by Proctor & Gamble. This report provides a detailed analysis of the performance of Proctor & Gamble for the year 2016 (P&G 2016 Annual Report, 2016) .
With regards to the use of visual aids in maintaining the attentions of the reader, the report by Proctor & Gamble surpasses the Bank of America annual report. Throughout the report by Proctor & Gamble, there are numerous visual images and pictures useful in depicting the success of products produced and released by the corporation. In addition to promoting the products offered by the company, the visuals used in the annual report by Proctor & Gamble are useful in making the entire report attractive and retaining the attention of the reader (Cornelissen, 2014) . The visuals also break the monotony of the prose explaining the financial position of the corporation. The report by Bank of America contains several visual images spread out throughout the report. However, there is very limited use of pictures and other visual aids in the report by Bank of America. Many of the images in the annual report by Bank of America are those of staff and board members in their addresses to the stakeholders of the corporation. These images do not add much to the retention of visual attention in the readers.
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Both reports include a written address from the leader of each corporation as an address to the involved stakeholders. The annual report by Proctor and Gamble includes an address to all stakeholders written by the chairman of the board. This address is short and precise. The chairman of the board at Proctor and Gamble does not dive into or discuss in detail the financial numbers that are contained in the report. The chairman of the board only states in summary the sales numbers and financial ratings of the company as compared to the previous year. In the annual report by Bank of America, the company CEO enters a more detailed discussion of the company numbers and financial information. The letter from the CEO of Bank of America is longer than the written Address by the chairman of the board at Proctor & Gamble. The address by the CEO of Bank of America is separated in subsections with appropriate headings while the letter from the chairman of the board at Proctor & Gamble is short and does not have separating headings.
Both reports take on an illustrative approach in their presentation of number-heavy data. To begin with, the data present in the report by Ban of America is presented in tabular form. All the numerical information is presented in tables for each section of the report. The use of tables makes it easy for the reader to interpret and understand the statistical numbers given in prose (Abraham & Shrives, 2014) . In the report by Proctor & Gamble, tables and charts appear in the numerical sections of the report to assist the reader in assessing the ranking and financial performance of the corporation. In both reports, the use of tables and charts is accompanied by sufficient prose summaries. The prose explanations give the details of the information presented in the reports in an easy to read format for the untrained reader to understand the different presentations. The prose summaries also explain the coded statistics in tables pertaining to the annual performance of the particular corporation because the prose language is easy to understand. In terms of tables and charts, the report by Bank of America makes more use of visual aids than the Proctor & Gamble annual report.
Both reports do not spin negative information to present positive attitudes. Even when the implication presents a negative image of the company, the reports state the facts and give the actual image of the company position and financial situation. Overall, the report by Proctor & Gamble is more interesting than the annual report by Bank of America. This is because of the extensive use of visual aids and images which make the report attractive and interesting to read through. However, in the end, the two company reports are equally convincing in their assertion of the company position.
References
Abraham, S., & Shrives, P. J. (2014, March). Improving the relevance of risk factor disclosure in corporate annual reports. The British Accounting Review, 46 (1), 91-107.
Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory & Practice (4th ed.). London: Sage Publications.
Bank of America Corporation. (2017). Bank of America 2016 Annual Report. Retrieved from http://www.annualreports.com/Click/78.
Proctor & Gamble. (2016). P&G 2016 Annual Report. Retrieved from http://www.annualreports.com/Click/3730.
