Seminar

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) Don’t use contraction It’s (contraction of it is) vs. 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.

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”)

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.”

Dr. Lim’s pet peeves 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

Dr. Lim’s pet peeves Using someone else’s data Font size too small in Excel spreadsheet Use of first person and present tense in procedure description No-No’s: Using someone else’s data Copying from a previous lab report

addresses intended audience A good report: addresses intended audience provides introductions and conclusions for internal sections as well as the whole paper provides transitions between sections avoids “stream of consciousness” (rambling) writing looks professional in style and appearance recognizes that the document should be persuasive

How to Write 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.

Getting help Get your paper read by as many friends as possible Experts are good Non-experts are also very good Each reader can only read your paper for the first time once! So use them carefully Explain carefully what you want (“I got lost here” is much more important than “Jarva is mis- spelt”.)

رحم الله امرئ أهدى إلي عيوبي Listening to your reviewers Always thank them! Be (truly) grateful for criticism as well as praise Read every criticism as a positive suggestion for something you could explain more clearly Think positively

Experience has shown me that there are no miracles in writing. 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)