Technical Writing
Skills
(Investigative Reports)
7-5-2024
Definition of Technical Writing
• Technical Writing
• Technical writing is writing done in the workplace, although the workplace
may be an office, a construction site, or a kitchen table.
• The subject is usually technical, written carefully for a specific audience.
• The organization is predictable and apparent, the style is concise, and the
tone is objective and businesslike.
• Special features may include visual elements to enhance the message.
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A report is a specific form of writing, written concisely and clearly and typically organised around
identifying and examining issues, events, or findings from a research investigation. Reports often
involve investigating and analysing a problem and coming up with a solution.
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Why Reports are Important
• since they can decide a project future, highlight recommendations,
shown options, highlights results, attract investors looking to invest in
your project and or keep stakeholders informed on progress
• as it helps to communicate information, ideas, and analysis effectively
and efficiently. It can be used in various contexts, such as in school,
university, work, business, and personal projects
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The keys to writing good reports are:
Understanding the types of writing a report involves
•
Being able to identify the audience and purpose of your report
•
Knowing how reports are read by your audience
•
Knowing the purpose of each section in a report (not just where
the information goes)
•
Understanding how good organisation of your report helps the
reader find the information they want
•
Being able to communicate well both in writing and using
graphical data
***The good news is the ability to write good reports will stay with you.
You’re once you leave university but good report writing principles of writing
informatively for a specific audience and purpose will help you communicate
well in whichever career you choose.
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An investigation report is a written document that outlines the findings of an investigation into a
specific incident, issue, or complaint. It provides a detailed account of the investigative process
and its findings, including the facts, evidence, and conclusions drawn from the investigation.
Investigation reports can be used in various settings, including organizations, law enforcement,
regulatory bodies, and legal proceedings.
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Investigative Reports
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Investigative Reports
Goals
• Develop a trip report that meets the needs of the audience
• Compose an effective incident report
• Compose science reports
• Compose forensic reports
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Incident reports
• also called accident reports, describe an unusual incident or occurrence
• could be an accident, a surprise inspection, the outburst of an angry
employee or customer, or a near-accident
(When police write the details of a fender bender, they are writing an
incident report. When an instructor “writes up” a student for missing class,
he or she is writing an incident report.)
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Incident reports
• must be carefully written to reflect what really happened, for it can
become legal evidence used in court
• also must be written to accommodate the needs of a variety of
readers. (These readers may be heads of companies, managers,
oversight organizations such as the FDA, insurance companies, and
criminal justice personnel.)
• are used by many professionals
• communicate a precise description of what happened and provide a
file for later reference
• also are written to help employees and organizations see what is
occurring so they can formulate plans to prevent the incident from
occurring again
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The next slide recounts an incident at a food production plant.
• The most likely readers are supervisors, managers, company heads,
and food safety inspectors. Other possible readers are consumer
groups, news agencies, representatives of insurance companies,
criminal proceedings personnel, and union representatives.
• Because of the potential for many different readers and some distant
from the writer, the report is formal, using an appropriate manuscript
format.
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Sample Incident Report
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To write an incident report:
1. Begin with a brief summary of what happened.
2. Add Background as a heading if information about events leading up to the
incident would be helpful to your readers. Some incident reports combine the
summary and background and do not use a separate heading for this part if it
is short.
3. Under Description, tell exactly what happened in chronological order. Make
sure you cover the Reporter’s Questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why?
and How?
4. Be honest and objective.
5. Use the Outcome section to provide the observable incident results.
6. Use the Conclusion section to tell what was learned from the incident and
how to prevent it from happening again.
***To get started, carefully note any evidence. Interview people separately
who witnessed or who know about the incident. Do not include information
you cannot verify.
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Quiz
True or False
1. Incident reports are only used by law enforcement personnel.
2. Incident reports should be written casually to make them easier
to read for all audiences.
3. Incident reports must include information about events leading
up to the incident.
4. The "Description" section of an incident report should cover the
Reporter's Questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and
How?
5. It is acceptable to include unverified information in an incident
report.
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Answers
1. False
2. False
3. True
4. True
5. False
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Trip reports
• tell supervisors and coworkers what was gained from a business trip
• are a condensed narrative. Often the report does not include
everything about the trip, only those parts that are most useful to the
organization
• is similar to a summary because the writer includes only the essential
details about the trip
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Trip reports
• Businesses often send workers to conferences to learn the latest
developments in their field
(Sometimes associates visit other businesses to negotiate deals or to
learn about operations.)
• is an investigation, a research mission from which the findings must
be shared with others
• provide managers with critical information resulting from a trip
(coworkers may use information from trip reports to do their jobs)
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• The next slide is a trip report from Lily Lang detailing her findings
from a business trip to China.
• While in China, she met with current and potential vendors for her
company—a manufacturer and a wholesaler of hammocks, rugs, and
other household and outdoor furnishings.
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STOP AND THINK
How do writers decide what to cover in
a trip report?
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Example of Trip Report
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To write a trip report:
1. Report information your audience will find most useful. (You do not
need to include all of the details of the trip, only what your
audience requires.)
2. Preview the report in your introduction.
3. Cover the Reporter’s Questions as you write the report: Who?
What? When? Where? Why? and How? Write a section for each
major concept or activity to be reported.
4. Include a heading for each section (major concept or activity) in the
report body.
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To write a trip report:
5. Use bulleted lists for important events or knowledge gained.
6. Decide whether your report needs Conclusions and/or
Recommendations sections. Some trip reports require both, others
neither, and some only one.
• Use Conclusions to summarize the trip benefits or findings.
• Use Recommendations to suggest further action(s).
7. Choose chronological order or order of importance.
8. Use active voice and first person—I or we—to make the report
sound natural.
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To write a trip report:
• do not try to retell every element of a trip.
• do not include information that has no relevance to your audience,
such as the chance meeting of a childhood friend or the fabulous
Indian restaurant you discovered.
• Prepare for writing a trip report before you leave.
• Find out what the purpose of the trip is and what your organization
expects you to learn.
• Investigate these concerns during your trip and address them in the
report.
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Quiz
Multiple Choice
1. What is the purpose of the "Outcome" section in an incident report?
• A) To provide a brief summary of the incident
• B) To list potential readers of the report
• C) To describe what happened in chronological order
• D) To provide observable incident results
2. What should the "Conclusion" section of an incident report include?
• A) A summary of the background information
• B) Information about events leading up to the incident
• C) What was learned from the incident and how to prevent it from
happening again
• D) Unverified details about the incident
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Science Lab Report
• is born of a curiosity about the world along with the creative thinking
to figure things out
• become the vehicles for testing knowledge of concepts and
procedures in the classroom
• become the basis of science articles submitted to major journals
(The steps of the scientific method dictate the structure of science
reports. The scientific method uses both inductive and deductive
reasoning.)
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Science Lab Report
*** Reasoning from a particular observation (I sneeze every time I am
around a rose) to a general conclusion (Therefore, I think roses make
me sneeze) is called inductive reasoning.
***Reasoning from a general conclusion (I think roses make me sneeze)
to a particular situation (I probably won’t sneeze if I give my mother
candy instead of roses) is called deductive reasoning.
***Using inductive reasoning, scientists arrive at a tentative hypothesis,
then use deductive reasoning to test that hypothesis for validity. The
science report is the written record of this process.
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Organize
• As you review the notes taken during your experiment or procedure,
organize your information into these sections:
• Introduction: Tells the purpose or the objective of the lab (what the
lab is expected to prove) and can provide background of the situation
under investigation, tells under whose authority the lab was
conducted, and provides relevant dates. The introduction does not
always have a separate heading in shorter reports.
• Materials and Method (also called Experimental Section,
Methodology, or Procedures): Lists materials, items, evidence, and/or
instruments used. This section describes the procedure and includes
relevant calculations. Materials can be presented in a separate
heading from Methodology if the report is long.
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Organize
• Results and Discussion (or just Results): Presents test results with
relevant calculations, including any accompanying graphics such as
tables or graphs. This section presents the results and explains why
things happened. Results can be presented in a separate heading
from Discussion if the report is long.
• Conclusion(s): Includes a brief summary that tells how the test
results, findings, and analyses meet the objectives of the lab. This
section tells what was learned or gained from the experiment.
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Write
• After organizing your data, you are ready to write. you will most likely use
the scientific jargon of the field. When writing, remember to:
1. Use precision when describing procedures or offering numerical
calculations.
• ✓ Precise (The tadpole measured 3.15 cm long.)
• ✗ Approximate (The tadpole measured about 3 cm long.)
2. Use passive voice (the verb to be + the past participle of the verb) when
describing the methodology or procedures. Passive voice focuses on the
process and keeps the report objective.
• ✓ Passive Voice (Tiny shifts in blood flow to parts of the brain were
detected with functional MRI.)
• ✗ Active Voice (Using functional MRI, we detected tiny shifts in blood flow
to parts of the brain.)
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Write
3. Maintain objectivity by describing observable results without letting
personal bias or emotions influence your observations.
• ✓ Objectivity (The client fidgeted, her eyes darted around the room,
and she pursed her lips tightly.)
• ✗ Personal Bias or Emotions (The client was clearly angry.)
4. Separate observable results (the facts) in the Results section from
conclusions drawn (what the facts mean) in the Conclusions section. A
result is not the same as a conclusion. A result is simply what happened.
A conclusion goes beyond what happened and requires the researcher
to draw an inference and interpret the data.
• ✓ Results (The patient’s temperature remained stable, ranging from
97.5° to 98.1° over the last 48 hours.)
• ✗ Conclusion (The patient is no longer contagious.)
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Write
5. Document any sources that were used and provide a list of
references.
6. When required by the discipline and length of the lab, consider
adding:
• A Theory section if the lab relies on extensive theory.
• An Instrumentation section if the lab tests equipment.
• A Calculations section if the lab uses lengthy mathematical computations.
• A Recommendation section if future research is warranted.
• An Appendix (a separate section at the end of the report if complex data such
as tables and graphs would otherwise disrupt the flow of the report.)
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Write
7. Use the straightforward language of the science report.
• To Verb + What Phrases: To determine the differences between several
aquatic ecosystems, samples were taken in November from three sites in
Georgia.
• Lists: A survey was sent to 150 students, 25 instructors, and 50 parents.
• Description of Processes: The blood was drawn from the patient’s finger
and placed on the slide. The sample was examined under a microscope.
• Cause-to-Effect Reasoning: The data from the table suggests that the
resolution is highest with the pH 7/45% meOH buffer solution (alpha=3.35).
***Do not include results in the Conclusions section or conclusions in the
Results section. Do not allow your personal bias to influence the conclusions
you draw. Finally, do not leave out any relevant data. Record results exactly as
they happen. The next slide shows a science lab report.
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STOP AND THINK
What is the difference between results and
conclusions? Why do writers of science lab
reports use passive voice?
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Science Lab Report
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• Ex 1 (Page 219)
• Jacob has a dilemma in that other studies have shown no side effects
for the latest drug whereas his has found one. The issue is that their tests
were done on a small sample size. The way forward should involve
another testing phase on a larger sample size to confirm their new
findings.
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Forensic reports
• are investigative reports that analyze evidence for legal purposes
( From the Latin forensic (“of the forum,” or “public”), forensics is the branch
of science that uses scientific principles and methodology to evaluate various
kinds of evidence.)
• includes a variety of specialties, including the study of handwriting,
fingerprinting, blood, ballistics, tire treads, and computer hard drives
***Highly trained in their respective fields, forensic experts write reports
and often testify in legal proceedings. As a specialized type of science lab,
forensic reports strictly adhere to the scientific method—similar to the
science lab reports discussed in the preceding section.
***A forensic report is a crucial document that summarizes the findings
and analysis of a digital forensic investigation. It can be used as evidence in
court, as a reference for further action, or as a source of learning and
improvement.
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The following Figure shows a forensic report.
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Writing a forensic report is not a simple task. It requires careful planning,
organization, clarity, accuracy, and ethics. You will learn about the key
components of a successful forensic report and how to write them
effectively.
What are the key components of a successful forensic report?
• 1 Purpose and Scope
• 2 Evidence and Analysis
• 3 Conclusions and Recommendations
• 4 Appendices and References
• 5 Executive Summary
• 6 Format and Style
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• Ex 1 (Page 223)
• Omitting relevant details in order to protect an employee should only
be done if the information about the employee includes things such as
personal information. Otherwise, lying on a report to prioritize a
personal relationship is considered unethical.
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To write a forensic report:
1. Identify the credentials of the expert (name, title, education, and
sometimes years of experience). This information can be included
at the beginning or end of a report.
2. Identify the specimens under investigation, usually by number.
These specimens may become exhibits in a case.
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To write a forensic report:
3. Organize the report according to the principles of the basic forensic
report, as follows:
 Evidence: A description of the evidence collected.
 Method: A description of the method or procedure used to test the
evidence, using charts, graphs, photos, and/or diagrams as necessary.
 Observation (sometimes called Interpretation, Results, or Conclusion): The
conclusions that can be reasonably drawn from the evidence. The report also
notes if the evidence is not conclusive or if evidence is missing.
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To write a forensic report:
4. Write descriptions, discussion, and observations using the basic
principles of scientific and technical communication: Use specific and
precise measurements and vocabulary. Remain objective and focus on
the process and the data.
5. Use strategies for communicating unfamiliar information to a lay
audience.
Explain terms as you write, provide quick definitions (in parentheses or
in the next sentence), explain scientific concepts using common
analogies, and break down complex processes step-by-step.
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To write a forensic report:
6. Provide headings and subheadings as necessary.
For example, if you are asked to determine the number, sex, age, and
condition of a set of bones, the report might include these headings:
Number, Sex, Age, and Condition of Remains.
7. Provide references as they are used. You can cite references with
parenthetical citations and a list of references at the end.
***Do not allow prejudice or bias to influence your findings. Rely on
evidence, not conjecture. Do not draw inferences if the evidence is
incomplete. Simply point out that the evidence is insufficient.
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STOP AND THINK
• Why is it important for forensic specialists to include their credentials
in a forensic report?
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SUMMARY
• 1. Trip reports tell supervisors and coworkers what was gained from a
business trip. The report includes only those details of the trip that
are most helpful for the audience.
• 2. Incident reports, also called accident reports, describe an accident
or an unusual incident or occurrence.
• 3. Lab reports answer these questions: What was the purpose of the
lab? What materials were used? What was the procedure? What
were the results? What are the conclusions?
• 4. Forensic reports give the credentials of the examiner, describe
evidence, describe the method used to examine the evidence, and
make observations.
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Checklist
• Have I analyzed my audience(s) and determined what readers need to
know?
• Have I designed, organized, and written the document with the
audience in mind?
• Is my format appropriate for the audience and the situation?
• Have I included relevant background information?
• Are the data under each heading organized appropriately?
• Is the information complete and accurate?
• Have I presented problems as facts, not accusations?
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