Lecture 1B - Technical Report Writing

8/6/2019 Lecture 1B - Technical Report Writing

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Technical Report Writing Skills

Gordon Wyeth

Edited by: Donald Cook

The University of

Queensland


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Why Bother Writing?

The written word is the chief form of

communication for engineering knowledge. Engineers do a lot of writing.

Clear reports are essential to largeorganizations.

Writing focuses the mind.


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Effective Documents

Have all the information.

Show why, not just what. Have structure.

Are concise.

Are about the job at hand, not you. Are clearly referenced.


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Steps for Writing

1. Generate ideas.

2. Organise your ideas.3. Write a quick draft.

4. Revise.

5. Revise.6. Revise.

7. Revise.


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Revision

Comprehensiveness.

Accuracy. Organization.

Emphasis.

Paragraphing. Style.

Spelling and Grammar.


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Structure

Use informative headings.

Use lists. Use introductions.

Use conclusions.

Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell

them what you told them.

Anon.


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Paragraphs

1. Begin with a clear topic sentence.

2. Support the topic sentence logically.3. Emphasise the coherence of the paragraph.

4. Keep paragraphs to a manageable length.


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Example

The RoboRoos are one of the longest serving teams in theRoboCup Small Size league. The robots competed at RoboCup98 [7] where they were runner-up, and in RoboCup '99 [8]

where they were eliminated in the quarter finals, despite a 56-1goal difference during the round robin stage. In RoboCup 2000,the team was eliminated in the semi-finals after a 36 - 2 goaldifference in the round robin stage. The field robots haveremained mechanically and electronically the same through theyears of competition, with significant improvements being made

through software revision. The goalkeeper has been re-designed several times over this period with the latest revisiondetailed in this description.


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Sentences

Beware passive voice.

Use appropriate tense. Avoid compound sentences.

Use modifiers meaningfully.

Make parallel items parallel.


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Passive Voice

The cat sat on the mat.

The mat is being sat on by the cat.


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Tense

The report was written in the past tense. It

describes the project in all its details.

The report was written in the past tense. Itdescribed the project in all its details.


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Compound Sentences

Our product uses the LM324 operational

amplifier and it draws 50 mA operatingcurrent.

Our product uses the LM324 operational

amplifier. The LM324 draws 50 mA operatingcurrent.


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Meaningful modifiers

The very good amplifying circuit has a fairly

large input impedance and not so muchoutput impedance.

The amplifier has a high input impedance

and a low output impedance.


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The Right Word

Choose simple, clear words and phrases.

Replace fancy words with plain. Think about your audiences language.


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Parallel Lists

The circuit has two resistors, five capacitors,

three transistors and an inductor. The circuit uses:

two resistors,

five capacitors,

three transistors

and an inductor.


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Graphics

Make the graphic self-sufficient.

Do you really need a graphic? Choose the right kind of graphic.

Place the graphic close to the text.

Tie the text to the graphic.


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Bad

The RoboRoos system has a camera that is

connected to a frame grabber in a PC thatdoes vision processing to work out where therobots are so that the radio can tell therobots where they are and where the ball is

and where the opposition is.


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Good

Off-boardComputer

FM Radio

MAPS Comms

Robot (x5)

CommsNavigationModule

RobotHW

Overhead

CameraVision


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Page Design

Leave adequate margins.

Use appropriate line spacing. Use appropriate justification.

Design titles and headings for emphasisand clarity.

Design lists for clarity.

Include page numbers on all pages.


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Font Choice

Use easy-to-read fonts.

Use different members of a single typefamily.

Use type sizes appropriately.

Use uppercase and lowercase.


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Crazy slide Hmmm, lets see how many fonts we can use of one

page The more the merrier

Im sure I can get another.

One more just for fun.

Note: clashing colours.


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How to do well in your reports

Make sure you fully read the report criteria.

Report 1 results are usually fairly low, sincestudents tend to fill their report with non-relevantfluff. EXAMPLE....

Use the report marksheet.

Watch your formatting! You will instantly lose25% of your mark if you do not adhere to theformatting rules.


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How to do well in your reports

Show a draft of your report to a tutor.

Students who show draft reports to the tutors tendto receive MUCH higher marks.

Be honest in your reports!