Mechanical Engineering Techniques
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
Purpose:
Knowledge of
Topic:
Academic
Demonstrate what you
know about a topic
Technical
Getting something done
Less than teacher who is More than the reader
evaluating them
Audience:
Teacher
Criteria for
Evaluation:
Depth, logic, clarity, unity Clear and simple
and grammar
organization of ideas
Several People
What is Technical Writing?
“Technical writing is the art, craft, practice, or problem of
translating that which is logical into that which is grammatical.
Technical writing forms a bridge between the logical (the
primarily binary concepts understood by computers, robots,
lawyers) and the illogical (the haphazard, inconsistent concepts
misunderstood carbon-based life forms, highly intelligent
computers, lawyers) via the medium of the grammatical, the
haphazardly logical system incomprehensible to both. The
practice of technical writing presupposes that you, the illogical,
actually want to learn about the logical subject, which of course
is in all cases false. This basis in a false presupposition makes
technical writing a pursuit typically favored by those with arts
degrees from obscure universities.”
- Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
(The Movie and Book by Douglas Adams)
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:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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•
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 is present
• 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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Do use:
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and keep it confidential.
• 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 away that reflects how readers
are likely to think about the operation or procedure.
• Don’t use: Components
• Do use: How to Check the Components
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Everybody hates to write them,
Everybody hates to read them,
Almost nobody does read them,
They take a HUGE amount of time to write,
They are absolutely CRUCIAL to YOUR
success in engineering!
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:
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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-ebooks. 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?
•
Hint: formulate one or two simple "take-home
messages" that you will try to impart to your
audience.
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:
 Be sure that you can get your take-home message
across without hurrying
•
Hint: carefully rehearse your talk with a stopwatch 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
Please refer to uploaded documents at
http://www.zaipul.com/download/tdp
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