Habeel Community Development collage.

Department;ICT
Course tittle;Technical Report writing
Course code;DIT 125

Firstly it is very important to know what is technical

report writing,

A technical report is a formal report designed to convey technical information in a clear

and easily accessible format.

A QUICK GUIDE TO WRITING TECHNICAL

REPORT IN ENGINEERING.

A quick guide to writing technical reports in Engineering.

The main purpose of an Engineering technical report is to present a solution to a
problem in order to prompt action. Technical reports provide a record of your developing
expertise and are a legal record of your work and decision making.

A technical report can either act as a cherry on top of your project or can ruin the entire
dough.
Everything depends on how you write and present it.
A technical report is a sole medium through which the audience and readers of your
project can understand the entire process of your research or experimentation.

A technical report is described as a written scientific document that conveys information

about technical research in an objective and fact-based manner.

Some common areas in which technical reports are used are agriculture, engineering,
physical, and biomedical science. So, such complicated information must be conveyed
by a report that is easily readable and efficient.

Similarly, before writing a technical report, you must keep in mind who your reader is
going to be.

Whether it is professors, industry professionals, or even customers looking to buy your

project – studying the target audience enables you to start structuring your report. It
gives you an idea of the existing knowledge level of the reader and how much
information you need to put in the report.

FEATURES OF TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING

(1) Objectivity
(1) Clarification
(3) Accuracy
 (4) Structure
(5) Visual
(6) Recommendation

Importance of Writing a Technical Report

1. Efficient communication
Technical reports are used by industries to convey pertinent information to upper
management. This information is then used to make crucial decisions that would impact
the company in the future.
Examples of such technical reports include proposals, regulations, manuals, procedures,
requests, progress reports, emails, and memos.

2. Evidence for your work

Most of the technical work is backed by software.

However, graduation projects are not.

So, if you’re a student, your technical report acts as the sole evidence of your work. It
shows the steps you took for the research and glorifies your efforts for a better
evaluation.

3. Organizes the data

A technical report is a concise, factual piece of information that is aligned and designed
in a standard manner. It is the one place where all the data of a project is written in a
compact manner that is easily understandable by a reader.

4. Tool for evaluation of your work

Professors and supervisors mainly evaluate your research project based on the technical
write-up for it. If your report is accurate, clear, and comprehensible, you will surely bag a
good grade.

A technical report to research is like Robin to Batman.

Best results occur when both of them work together.

How to Write a Technical Report?

Approach
When writing a technical report, there are two approaches you can follow, depending on
what suits you the best.
= Top-down approach- In this, you structure the entire report from title to sub-sections
and conclusion and then start putting in the matter in the respective chapters. This
allows your thought process to have a defined flow and thus helps in time management
as well.
= Evolutionary delivery- This approach is suitable if you’re someone who believes in ‘go
with the flow’. Here the author writes and decides as and when the work progresses. This
gives you a broad thinking horizon. You can even add and edit certain parts when some
new idea or inspiration strikes.

STRUCTURE
A technical report must have a defined structure that is easy to navigate and clearly
portrays the objective of the report. Here is a list of pages, set in the order that you
should include in your technical report.

(1) Cover page- It is the face of your project. So, it must contain details like title, name of
the author, name of the institution with its logo. It should be a simple yet eye-catching
page.
(2) Title page- In addition to all the information on the cover page, the title page also
informs the reader about the status of the project. For instance, technical report part 1,
final report, etc. The name of the mentor or supervisor is also mentioned on this page.
(3) Abstract- Also referred to as the executive summary, this page gives a concise and
clear overview of the project. It is written in such a manner that a person only reading the
abstract can gain complete information on the project.

(4) Preface– It is an announcement page wherein you specify that you have given due
credits to all the sources and that no part of your research is plagiarised. The findings
are of your own experimentation and research.

(5) Dedication- This is an optional page when an author wants to dedicate their study to
a loved one. It is a small sentence in the middle of a new page. It is mostly used in
theses.

(6) Acknowledgment- Here, you acknowledge the people parties, and institutions who
helped you in the process or inspired you for the idea of it.

(7) Table of contents– Each chapter and its subchapter is carefully divided into this
section for easy navigation in the project. If you have included symbols, then a similar
nomenclature page is also made. Similarly, if you’ve used a lot of graphs and tables, you
need to create a separate content page for that. Each of these lists begins on a new
page.
(8) Introduction- Finally comes the introduction, marking the beginning of your project.
On this page, you must clearly specify the context of the report. It includes specifying the
purpose, objectives of the project, the questions you have answered in your report, and
sometimes an overview of the report is also provided. Note that your conclusion should
answer the objective questions.

(9) Central Chapter(s)- Each chapter should be clearly defined with sub and sub-sub
sections if needed. Every section should serve a purpose. While writing the central
chapter, keep in mind the following factors:

= Clearly define the purpose of each chapter in its introduction.

Any assumptions you are taking for this study should be mentioned. For instance, if your
report is targeting globally or a specific country. There can be many assumptions in a
report. Your work can be disregarded if it is not mentioned every time you talk about the
topic.
= Results you portray must be verifiable and not based upon your opinion. (Big no to
opinions!)
= Each conclusion drawn must be connected to some central chapter.
(10) Conclusion- The purpose of the conclusion is to basically conclude any and
everything that you talked about in your project. Mention the findings of each chapter,
objectives reached, and the extent to which the given objectives were reached. Discuss
the implications of the findings and the significant contribution your research made.

(11) Appendices- They are used for complete sets of data, long mathematical formulas,
tables, and figures. Items in the appendices should be mentioned in the order they were
used in the project.

(12) References- This is a very crucial part of your report. It cites the sources from which
the information has been taken from. This may be figures, statistics, graphs, or
word-to-word sentences. The absence of this section can pose a legal threat for you.
While writing references, give due credit to the sources and show your support to other
people who have studied the same genres.

(13) Bibliography- Many people tend to get confused between references and
bibliography. Let us clear it out for you. References are the actual material you take into
your research, previously published by someone else. Whereas a bibliography is an
account of all the data you read, got inspired from, or gained knowledge from, which is
not necessarily a direct part of your research.

Style ( Pointers to remember )

Let’s take a look at the writing style you should follow while writing a technical report:

= Avoid using slang or informal words. For instance, use ‘cannot’ instead of can’t.
= Use a third-person tone and avoid using words like I, Me.
= Each sentence should be grammatically complete with an object and subject.
= Two sentences should not be linked via a comma.
= Avoid the use of passive voice.
=Tenses should be carefully employed. Use present for something that is still viable and
past for something no longer applicable.
= Readers should be kept in mind while writing. Avoid giving them instructions. Your
work is to make their work of evaluation easier.
= Abbreviations should be avoided and if used, the full form should be mentioned.
= Understand the difference between a numbered and bulleted list. Numbering is used
when something is explained sequence-wise. Whereas bullets are used to just list out
points in which sequence is not important.
= All the preliminary pages (title, abstract, preface..) should be named in small roman
numerals. ( i, ii, iv..)
= All the other pages should be named in Arabic numerals (1,2,3..) thus, your report
begins with 1 – on the introduction page.
= Separate long texts into small paragraphs to keep the reader engaged. A paragraph
should not be more than 10 lines.
= Do not incorporate too many fonts. Use standard times new roman 12pt for the text.
You can use bold for headlines.
Proofreading
If you think your work ends when the report ends, think again. Proofreading the report is
a very important step. While proofreading you see your work from a reader’s point of
view and you can correct any small mistakes you might have done while typing. Check
everything from content to layout, and style of writing.

Presentation
Finally comes the presentation of the report in which you submit it to an evaluator.

= It should be printed single-sided on an A4 size paper. double side printing looks chaotic
and messy.
= Margins should be equal throughout the report.
= You can use single staples on the left side for binding or use binders if the report is
long.