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