Preparing Written Reports
Effective Communication in
Chemical Engineering
Freshman Design
Preparing Written Reports
Professor Julia Williams
Coordinator of Technical Communication
and Assistant Professor of English
Preparing Written Reports
Peters and Timmerhaus Reports Manual
 Components of the Project Report
 Report Preparation
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Peters and Timmerhaus
Reports Manual
A Guide to Good Writing
Peters and Timmerhaus
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Intended to help you
prepare various types
of reports
Emphasizes clarity of
communication and
quality of technical
information
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Not just the results of
the study but the
manner in which they
are presented
Questions a writer
must ask him/herself
Writer’s Questions about Readers
What is the purpose of this report?
 Who will read it?
 Why will they read it?
 What is their function?
 What technical level will they understand?
 What background information do they have
now?
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Academic vs. Industrial Reports
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Audience: Professor
Purpose: Inform
Reading: All parts of
the report
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Audience: Peers,
Supervisors, Clients
Purpose: Inform,
instruct, and persuade
Reading: Different
parts read by different
readers
Academic and Industrial Reports
Audience: Professional non-expert
 Purpose: Inform and persuade
 Information: Technical features, experiment
results
 Reading: Report parts must provide
information reader expects to see
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Types of Written Reports
Formal reports: research, development,
design
 Detailed results; format
 Informal reports: memos, letters, progress
reports, surveys
 Summary; format
 Academic and industrial specifications
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Freshman Design Project Report
Form and Content
Project Report Form
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Letter of Transmittal
Title Page
Table of Contents
Summary
Introduction
Previous Work
Discussion
Final design and data
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Conclusions and
Recommendations
Acknowledgment
Table of Nomenclature
Literature References
Appendices
Letter of Transmittal
Audience: Professional non-expert
 Purpose: Introduces report to its readers
 Information: States report’s subject and
purpose; focuses on one or two key points
dealing with the document’s preparation or
content; encourages questions and
comments
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Project Report: Summary
Objectives: what you did
Process/Equipment: how you do it
Results: what you found out
Conclusions/Recommendations: what it means
Project Report: Introduction
Audience: Professional non-expert
 Purpose: Relate necessary background and
theory for the project
 Information: Report scope, purpose, design
feasibility
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Project Report: Previous Work
Audience: Professional non-expert
 Purpose: Survey the work of others on this
topic
 Information: Literature-survey results,
previous work
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Project Report: Discussion
Audience: Professional non-expert
 Purpose: Describing the methods used for
developing the proposed design
 Information: Methods for reaching final
conclusions, validity of those methods,
assumptions and limitations on the results,
graphs/tables/figures
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Project Report: Design and Data
Purpose: Present your design and justify its
feasibility
 Information: Drawings of design (flow
sheets), tables listing
equipment/specifications, tables giving
material/energy balances, simple cost
estimates
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Project Report: Conclusions and
Recommendations
Purpose: Offer conclusions based on
objective and results
 Information: Questions posed by objectives
with specific conclusion
 Pattern of Organization: In order of
importance; more detail than Summary
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Project Report:Appendices
Purpose: Present information that was not
part of the Project Report body
 Information: Sample
calculations,derivation of essential
equations, tables of data, results of
laboratory tests
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Report Preparation
It’s All in the Details!
Make a plan
Outlining function in Word
 Create headings and subheadings
 Fill them in as you go along
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Label, label, label
Label/caption all tables, graphs, figures
 Include units
 Match format to information type: tables
for definite numerical values, graphs to
show trends/comparisons
 More specific instructions on page 461
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Get ready to revise
Customary Rose-Hulman approach to
written work
 Write a draft
 Revise the draft
 Revise it again
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Write like an engineer
Reduce use of personal pronouns
 Reduce use of passive voice
 Reduce use of nominalizations
 Reduce use of useless redundancy
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Preparing Written Reports
Effective Communication in
Chemical Engineering
Freshman Design
Preparing Written Reports
Peters and Timmerhaus Reports Manual
 Components of the Project Report
 Report Preparation
