An Introduction To Technical Report Writing

Objectives
You need to be able to:

• Know differences between academic and technical writing.
• Identify the characteristics of effective technical writing.
• Identify the steps in the writing process.
• Identify the components of good design.
• Identify the steps in organizing and writing instructions.
• Identify some tips to help your documents.
Academic vs. Technical Writing
Academic Technical
Purpose: Demonstrate what you Getting something done
know about a topic
Less than teacher who is More than the reader
Knowledge of
evaluating them
Topic:
Audience: Teacher Several People

Criteria for Depth, logic, clarity, unity Clear and simple
Evaluation: and grammar organization of ideas
What is Technical Writing (really)?
“Technical writing conveys specific information about a
technical subject to a specific audience for a specific
purpose…The words and graphics of technical writing are
meant to be practical: that is, to communicate a body of
factual information that will help an audience understand
a subject or carry out a task.”
- Michael H. Markel
Director of Technical Communication, Boise State University
Types of Technical
Reports/Communication
Examples are:
• Annual Report
• Books
• Computer Hardware Guides
• Magazines
• Newsletters
• Organizational Manuals
• Scholarly Articles/Journals
• Software Guides
• Technical Reports
Characteristics of Effective
Technical Writing
The four C’s:
• Clarity -- it is easily understood by your intended
audience
• Comprehensiveness -- all of the necessary
information must be presented
• Conciseness -- it is clear without excess verbiage
• Correctness -- it is grammatical and follows
conventions
Theory of Design
Good design is:
1. Visually simple and uncluttered.

2. Highlights structure, hierarchy, and order.
3. Helps readers find information they need.
Writing
Write positive language.
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Don’t write in upper case for more than A WORD OR

TWO.
Writing (cont.)
Use lists whenever possible.
Use the title to define the task.
Use headings and subheadings.
Label segments in a way that reflects how readers are

likely to think about the operation or procedure.
Writing (cont.)
Provide only one way to do something within a step.
Be precise with your instructions.
Use warnings.
Write a conclusion.
Example: Congratulations! You’ve just created your first
document!
Don’t annoy the reader.

Writing
Chunk your information.

Keep your paragraphs short.
Less is better.
Control the text width by using columns.
The Written Report: Why?
You waste your time unless you can communicate

what you have been doing with it.
The medium for most technical communication is

the written report, so you had better be good at it!
Some characteristics of reports
1. Everybody hates to write them,
2. Everybody hates to read them,
3. Almost nobody does read them,
4. They take a HUGE amount of time to write,
5. Being a Computer Scientist they are
absolutely CRUCIAL to YOUR success!
Further characteristics of reports
They are also almost always:
6. Too long,
7. Badly organized,
8. Incomplete.
Where to find materials to write
the report?
Examples are:
• Documents related to the project / work currently being done
• Google, Bing, Yahoo
• Google hacks/scripts (filetype, intitle, inurl, site)
• Journals (ex: Emeraldinsight.com, DOAJ.org, HighWire.stanford.edu)
• Scitopia.org
• Scirus.com
• Wolframalpha.com
• RSS readers – (Pageflakes.com)
• Newsgroup (Google Groups, Yahoogroups)
• Filesharing – Bittorent.com, Furk.net, Mininova.org
• Social site – Facebook, Myspace, Friendster
• Youtube.com, Metacafe.com etc.
• Reference, bibliography – Bibme.com
• Free Ebooks – Hongkiat.com - 20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books.
OPPapers.com – Research Papers and Essays
Basic Technical Overview
Professionalism and ethics in reporting
Knowing your audience
Outline writing
Report writing (rigid structure)

Professionalism & ethics in reporting
Different individuals have different
personalities, and different modes for
communicating.
If you apply a canned formula to your technical

communications, the result may be awkward.
Within the general structure of formal technical

communication, there is room for your
personality to show through.
Knowing Your Audience
At the very beginning… think about your likely
audience.
The word selection, level of motivation, and

background required for a report (or a presentation)
depends greatly on the background of the audience.
Outline Your Writing Purpose
 Why am I presenting this work? What do I want
the audience to get out of this paper or this
presentation?
Write the Report, but how long?
 The length of your presentation - either written
or oral - is often dictated by others.
 With respect to oral presentations, you will often

find yourself up against a strict time limit:
 Hint: carefully rehearse your talk with a stop-

watch in hand…
Common Report Formats
There are a number of accepted formats for any type
of document that you write, but…
The commonly accepted standard for engineering

reports is IMRaD - Introduction - Methods - Results -
and Discussion.
Note: Your reports do not necessarily need to follow

this format strictly, but should use this as a guideline,
and contain all of the information discussed in the
following paragraphs.
Format Example
1. How to Write a Technical Report from Alan
Smithee - A format using single column.pdf
2. Template from IEEE for writing a Proceeding
Manuscript - 2 columns.doc
3. Guide to a Journal Writing Format from MUST -
2 columns.doc
4. A sample of how to use MS Word to submit a
Technical Report to a lecturer.doc
5. A Detail Articles on how to write a Technical
Report.doc

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Objectives

You need to be able to:

Audience: Teacher Several People

Good design is:

1. Visually simple and uncluttered.

Don’t write in upper case for more than A WORD OR

Use the title to define the task.

Use headings and subheadings.

Label segments in a way that reflects how readers are

Be precise with your instructions.

Don’t annoy the reader.

Chunk your information.

You waste your time unless you can communicate

The medium for most technical communication is

Knowing your audience

Report writing (rigid structure)

If you apply a canned formula to your technical

Within the general structure of formal technical

The word selection, level of motivation, and

 With respect to oral presentations, you will often

 Hint: carefully rehearse your talk with a stop-

The commonly accepted standard for engineering

Note: Your reports do not necessarily need to follow

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