CHE 331 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING AND COMMUNICATION GROUP PROJECT BY GROUP 6 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING PROJECT TITLE Introduction Categories Of • Definition • Confidential Report • Non-Confidential Report report Structure • Title page • Abstract • Content • Introduction • Body • Result and Discussion • Conclusion 2 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING Introduction A technical report (also scientific report) is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research. Unlike other scientific literature, such as scientific journals and the proceedings of some academic conferences, technical reports rarely undergo comprehensive independent peer review before publication. They may be considered as grey literature. Where there is a review process, it is often limited to within the originating organization. Similarly, there are no formal publishing procedures for such reports, except where established locally. It can also be defined as a formal report designed to convey technical information in a clear and easily accessible format. It is divided into sections which allow different readers to access different levels of information. This guide explains the commonly accepted format for a technical report; explains the purposes of the individual sections; and gives hints on how to go about drafting and refining a report in order to produce an accurate, professional document. N/B: Grey literature are materials and research produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels. 3 Categories of Report Confidential Report: This is circulated to persons with a direct and immediate need for it Non-Confidential Report: This category of report has a wide circulation Secret Report : This is restricted in circulation and can only be read by authorized persons 4 Structure When it comes to the writing of a technical report, the format is very important because it is unique from other reports in that it carries technical information. A technical report contains technical information which should be planned well. You need to understand all the structure to achieve your objective. A technical report should contain the following: The Title page The title page comes first when you wrote your report. The title page contains the title of the report the date and the institution/organization plus supervisor. The first page is also referred to a the cover page and for situations were a word count limit is placed on the report the title page serves as a separate entity and should not be added to the word count. Summary/Abstract In the summary, you need to write an overview of the whole report including the results and conclusions made. Hence, this is meant to be the last thing written after the experiment Contents In this section the numbers and lists of all the sections and subsections with their heading and page number are given 5 Structure Introduction In the introduction, you are supposed to highlight the main aim of the paper to the reader. Let the reader understand the purpose of you writing the report. It simply states the objectives of the report and comments on the way the topic of the report is to be treated Experimental details This is the part that you need to state every detail of the experiment starting from the equipment that you used to the procedure for the experiment. This part may be excluded if the report did not involve any experiment. Body The body is the most important part of your report because it carries your content. You should introduce small subheadings in your report as per the point being put across. This will make your work look more presentable as the reader will be guided with this subheading what point you are talking about 6 Structure RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS This is where you are expected to show the calculations done from your experiments and explain the results that you obtained from your experiments. You should give a clear explanation so that the reader cannot ask themselves any questions on your result. Conclusion When it comes to the writing of your conclusion what you need to do is write a summary of the main points in the body of your report and wrap it up. Remember also that the conclusion should be short and precise avoiding a lot of stories in your concluding paragraph spare all the stories for the body of your report Recommendations The recommendation usually comes after the conclusion. In the recommendation, you are supposed to suggest solutions to the challenges that are there in the body. This is where your opinion on what would be the best cause of action or what more could have been done 7 Structure References In the references you need to list all the materials that you used in your research. You may have quoted some text somewhere so it’s a point that you need to list it so that it does not become a plagiarized work. When you write the references, you acknowledge that the content that you used is from a certain source Bibliography A bibliography is more like the references but in a bibliography you can go ahead and list the sources that you did not use in the research, but they may be useful in the explanation of your content. Mostly bibliography usually contains sources that can be used for further reading on the topic . Acknowledgment In this section, you are supposed to list all the people that have helped you in coming up with your report. This includes even those that proofread your work to make sure it is well written. This is a way of appreciating the effort of other people in your work. N/B: plagiarism is the wrongful appropriation, stealing and publication of another authors language, thoughts, ideas or expression 8 Structure Appendices You may have used other materials to put across your points in the report such as graphs or diagrams but are not necessarily required in the report. This is the place where you should mention them 9 Section Title page Summary Contents Introduction The sections which make up the body of the report Conclusions References Bibliography Acknowledgements Appendices (if appropriate) Details Must include the title of the report. Reports for assessment, where the word length has been specified, will often also require the summary word count and the main text word count A summary of the whole report including important features, results and conclusions Numbers and lists all section and subsection headings with page numbers States the objectives of the report and comments on the way the topic of the report is to be treated. Leads straight into the report itself. Must not be a copy of the introduction in a lab handout. Divided into numbered and headed sections. These sections separate the different main ideas in a logical order A short, logical summing up of the theme(s) developed in the main text Details of published sources of material referred to or quoted in the text (including any lecture notes and URL addresses of any websites used. Other published sources of material, including websites, not referred to in the text but useful for background or further reading. List of people who helped you research or prepare the report, including your proofreaders Any further material which is essential for full understanding of your report (e.g. large scale diagrams, computer code, raw data, specifications) but not required by a casual reader 10 Presentation For technical reports required as part of an assessment, the following presentation guidelines are recommended; Script The report must be printed single sided on white A4 paper. Hand written or dot-matrix printed reports are not acceptable. Margins All four margins must be at least 2.54 cm Page numbers Do not number the title, summary or contents pages. Number all other pages consecutively starting at 1 Binding A single staple in the top left corner or 3 staples spaced down the left hand margin. For longer reports (e.g. year 3 project report) binders may be used. 11 How to write a technical report and where to start \ Assembly of all needed sources for the report Listing and arrangement of ideas and topics according to their respective headings Write a rough draft of the report Review the first draft and make finishing touches where changes need to be done and 12 TIPS TO A GOOD TECHNICAL REPORT Fonts Avoid the over using of fonts so that your work isn’t fussy and unprofessional. Use them to pinpoint and emphasize an idea for the reader Headings Use of headings and subheadings to show your different points making it easier for top executives to scheme through the major headings Referencing/Citing When using a content that doesn’t belong to you it is necessary to quote/cite the reference material it was gotten form so that it won’t be considered plagiarism Source/information verification These are documents top executives use to make decisions and if your facts are wrong it will lead to a wrong decision. Hence sources to be verified before use as not everything on the internet is correct Proofreading This is done to make sure that there are no grammatical errors that are avoidable. It can also be used as an avenue to make sure all the intended points are present Graphs The graph should be well labelled to avoid confusion of the variables Diagrams Simple diagrams should be drawn to make for easy explanation and should appear before or after the content being discussed Tables The use of tables are very important as they are necessary to list out points and for comparison 13 14 15