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Writing Technical Reports

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Try to agree on the correct ratings. ... Affect (verb) versus effect (noun). ... get rid of excess verbiage, spell-check and grammar-check. Revise again. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Writing Technical Reports


1
Writing Technical Reports

2
How Engineers Spend Their Time Early Career
25-50
  • ______ Engineering Designing, measuring,
    calculating, problem-solving
  • ______ Communicating Writing reports,
    letters, memos, proposals giving presentations,
    talking to colleagues and bosses and customers
    and clients

50-75
Performance evaluation and job advancement
usually depend more on communication skills than
on technical skills.
3
How Engineers Spend Their Time Later Career
5-10
  • ______ Engineering Problem Solving
  • ______ Communicating Writing reports,
    letters, memos, proposals giving presentations,
    talking to colleagues and bosses and customers
    and clients

90-95
As you advance in your career, even more of your
time is spent communicating rather than
calculating.
4
Evaluation Exercise 1
  • Individually, read Example 1 and fill out the
    grading checklist
  • In pairs, compare and discuss your ratings. Try
    to agree on the correct ratings. Revise the
    individual ratings to reflect the discussion.
    Identify opportunities for improvement.

5
Evaluation Exercise 2
  • Individually, read Example 2 and fill out the
    grading checklist.
  • In pairs, compare and discuss your ratings. Try
    to agree on the correct ratings. Revise the
    individual ratings to reflect the discussion.
    Identify opportunities for improvement.
  • What are the principal differences between the
    first and second summaries?

6
Tips on Technical Report Writing
  • Dont waste words. Dont say obvious things.
    (Pollution is a serious problem.) Dont say
    things your audience doesnt need to know (long
    irrelevant explanations, detailed math).
  • Use spell-check and grammar-check!
  • Its (contraction of it is) versus its
    (possessive pronoun). Its 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.

7
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)

8
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

9
(No Transcript)
10
  • Avoid sentence fragments. Every sentence must
    have a subject and verb. Also to measure things
    about the tube. doesnt.
  • 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...
11
  • 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.
12
Dr. Lims 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

13
Dr. Lims pet peeves
  • Font size too small in Excel spreadsheet
  • Use of first person and present tense in
    procedure description
  • No-Nos
  • Using someone elses data
  • Copying from a previous lab report

14
  • 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

15
How to Write Anything
  • Free-write a rough draft. Just writedont
    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.

16
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)
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