Technical Report Writing and Formatting

How Engineers Spend Their Time: Early Career

How Engineers Spend Their Time: Later Career ______% Engineering: Problem Solving ______% Communicating: Writing reports, letters, memos, proposals; giving presentations, talking to colleagues and bosses and customers and clients

Getting started with writing

Elements common to all reports Abstract Introduction Literature review Materials and Method/Metholdology Results/Findings of the investigation Discussion Conclusions Headings or Chapters of the Report Not limited to these only!!!!!! Tell them what you are going to say Say it Tell them what you said

Suggested structure Abstract Introduction Literature review Material and Method/Methodology Results Discussion Conclusions References Appendices

Writing for different audiences Key differences between an ‘Academic’ report and a ‘Consultancy’ or ‘Management’ report The academic report: Tends to be longer Will be marked and graded Will contain contextual descriptions The consultancy report: Has less focus on the development of theory Contains recommendations relating to the organisation’s business

The abstract 200 words A short paragraphs (ca. 200 words ) that answer the questions: 1.What were my research questions and why were they important? 2.How did I go about answering the research questions? 3.What did I find out in response to these questions? 4.What conclusions can be drawn?

Introduction

The Literature Review

It demonstrates your skills Information seeking: the ability to search the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a relevant set of articles (and books) Organisation Appraisal: to identify good evidence/arguments Writing: structure and presentation It is a creative process These skills are part of the assessment!

Structuring the literature review How can you order your literature review? Chronologically (historical) Thematicall y Methodologic ally By key researchers

Methodology

Results

Discussion

Conclusions Tell them what you said

Tips on Technical Report Writing Don’t waste words. Don’t say obvious things. (“Pollution is a serious problem.”) Don’t say things your audience doesn’t need to know (long irrelevant explanations, detailed math). Use spell-check and grammar-check! It’s (contraction of it is) versus its (possessive pronoun). It’s a nice day. Put the CD back in its case. Affect (verb) versus effect (noun). Stress affects everyone differently. The effect of stress can be negative. Include proper citations of others’ work.

Tips on Technical Report Writing Use the full term, then put the acronym in parentheses Eliminate fluff (e.g. “Back in the year of 1973…”, “A man by the name of John Smith…”, “Basically…” (this is the written equivalent of “like”) Avoid vague generalizations. (e.g. “very expensive”, “very difficult”, “very high temperature”)

Tips on Technical Report Writing Proofread carefully. Look for missing words, extra words, and wrong (but correctly spelled) words like: due/do form/from their/there an/and where/were

Avoid sentence fragments. Every sentence must have a subject and verb. “Also to measure things about the tube.” doesn’t. Avoid choppy sentences, especially if they repeat words and phrases. Example: “ This report is about permeation tubes. Permeation tubes are devices that...” “ This report is about permeation tubes, devices that...”

Watch out for misplaced modifiers. Example: “Being poisonous, you have to be very careful about leaks.” “Since the gases are very toxic, care should be taken to avoid leaks.”

Some more… Cut and paste from the lab write-up “Data” used as singular Too many sig figs Missing units in graphs, tables, and sample calculations Axes or curves lacking labels Failure to refer to and explain tables and figures in the text

How to Write Anything Free-write a rough draft. Just write—don’t proofread, edit, revise, correct, look back at all. Then Revise. Organize, check for introduction and conclusion for all sections, build in transitions, get rid of excess verbiage, spell-check and grammar-check. Revise again. Read it out loud. This can help you detect awkward phrases, missing commas, etc.

I believe in miracles in every area of life except writing. Experience has shown me that there are no miracles in writing. The only thing that produces good writing is hard work. (Isaac Bashevis Singer)

Session -2 HOW TO FORMAT A REPORT EFFICIENTLY

Formatting a Report

Content 1.Page setup and Margins 2.Outline 3.Formatting 4.Page Layout 5.Headings 6.Body 7.Page and Section Breaks 8.Table of contents 9.Multilevel List 10.List of figures / Tables/ Equations 11.Final Touch

Page Size and Margins Margins: Generally Left 1.5” and other sides 1” Paper size: A4 Line Spacing : 1.5 CHECK THIS BEFORE STARTING TO TYPE ANYTHING

OUTLINE An example: The title page Abstract Acknowledgement Table of Contents(TOC) Introduction Literature Review Methodology Results/Evaluation/Outcomes Discussion References Appendices Once you know the layout and what to enter under the headings, type your text into a word processor. This guide shows MS Office Word 2010, but, with a little ingenuity you can transfer the instructions to other programs. Start by creating the report's outline. It may look slightly different depending on in which department you are studying. Before writing the report revise the requirements of the report. For e.g. Fonts, style, page layout, margins etc.

Fill your report with text and anything else that should be there. Don´t worry about any formatting at this stage. This heading will be at the top of next page, but we will solve that later by inserting a Page Break. Do not use the Enter key to force it into the next page! Write your text continuously under each heading. The only time you should use the ENTER key is where you want to create a new paragraph! And maybe to create a little "air" on the pages once you finish formatting. Outline, continued

Formatting It's up to you when you want to start formatting but my suggestion is to write as much as possible from the beginning. Optionally, you can format the headings at the beginning to more easily find the document. If you do not use RefWorks, you have probably already done some formatting of your references - italicized book titles and more. How do you do to keep the italics formatting? I will show you soon. NOTE! The formatting used here are examples only. You should use the fonts, sizes, etc. listed in the study guide or other governing documents.

Formatting, continued

Tip! Make a list of your headings and heading levels. NOTE! Foreword, Summary, Abstract and TOC will just look like heading level no 1. These will not appear in the TOC so therefore we will format them manually. You can of course give them heading style, but then you have to remember to remove them from the table of contents.

Headings, continued Select what will be a heading. Go through your document and format all the headings. You can always add, delete and change heading level. Normally, limit the number of heading levels to three. Click on desired heading format. In this case heading 1.

Headings, continued With the heading still selected, right-click the Format button and click Update Heading 1 to match selection. This will change all number 1 headings. Repeat with the other heading levels.

Headings, continued A quick way to keep an eye on the headings (and the Page and Section Breaks that come later) is to click the Outline under the View tab. Here you can very easily move, change order and level.

Page breaks and Section breaks

Page breaks and Section breaks, continued Start with the section break. Place the cursor directly in front of the Heading Introduction. Select Page layout – Page setup – Breaks – Section Breaks– Next Page. Repeat with Heading Appendices.

Page breaks and Section breaks, continued

Pagination Before you insert page numbers, remove the link in the Footer between your Sections. Position the cursor on the page where the Introduction is. Under the Insert tab, choose Footer, and click Edit Footer. Clear Link to Previous Repeat with Appendices

Pagination, continued Insert the cursor again on the page where the Introduction is. The will be page number 1. Under the Insert tab, select Page Number and click on Bottom of page. Click Plain Number 3 to place the pagination at the bottom right.

Pagination, continued Click on Format Page Numbers… under Page Number. Click on Start at: and chose 1.

Table of Contents(TOC) Formatting your heading has now made it possible to insert an automatic table of contents. It is usually placed directly before the Introduction. If you already have a heading for the table of contents, select the row below it. Under References, click Table of Contents and then click Insert Table of Contents...

Table of Contents(TOC), continued Choose the format and how many levels you want displayed. Normally three. How to update the table of contents? See the section on Multilevel List.

Multilevel List Sometimes the chapters are numbered. This is done best by creating a Multilevel List. Multilevel list keeps track of the numbers if you decide that you must rearrange, add or remove parts of your report. Place the cursor on a heading. Click on Multilevel List under Paragraph and select from the List Library. I think this one gives the best result. It also affects the other heading levels with one click.

Multilevel List, continued

List of Figures Click on the picture, table, equation etc. Then click on Insert Caption under References or right click the picture/table/ equation etc. and click insert caption. With all the parts described, place the cursor after the table of contents and select Insert Table of Figures.

Final touch It is time to review the report and fine-tune the layout. Look for... Inserted pictures, diagrams, etc. Are they within the margins? A few lines of text on an otherwise blank page? Right-click the paragraph, choose Paragraph, and change the Line Spacing to Exactly and to try to fit the lines into the previous page. If not, you can try to reduce the line spacing in the paragraph above.

Final touch, continued Tables. Will they fit on one page? If not, add table headers also on the following page / pages to improve readability. Sometimes it seems that evil spirits have control over the document. The spirits are often paragraph marks and other hidden formatting. Make them visible alternatively, click on. When you see them you know what to do with them! Remember to update your table of contents when you have finished your final touch!

Good luck with your Report Writing! -Sunil