Formal Technical or Professional Report

Before you start:

1. Resources should be form Hinkle library (I will provide you the username later)
and google scholar (they must be 2008-2016).
2. Any figures that you use should be only from the articles (resources) nothing from
google!
3. Do not copy even a single word, everything should be in your own words, if you use
some ideas or figures from any resources, you should write the resource number by
the end of the sentence or under the fig. if you used fig. Ex. [1], [3] these numbers
represent the resource in the references page.
4. Read the below structure:

Report Overview, Purpose, and Audience

The formal report you write in this class is similar to what is called a technical
background report, which is one of the most common types of reports. Your
purpose in writing this report is to focus on a very specific technical or
professional subject and convey specialized information about it to an audience of
semiexperts or nonexperts. Any topic is possible providing it
is technological, scientific, or professional in nature;
relates either to your major or minor field of study or to a technical skill,
ability, or aptitude you possess;
has a strong professional or business orientation; is focused and
researched.
You must conduct research and cite at least three credible sources. Only one of
your sources can be a textbook, and you cannot base your report it. 3 Sources
should all be published after 2008. You are encouraged to take advantage of
the research resources available at the Hinkle library, especially the online
databases.

1.Visual Design
You can visually design your technical report as you feel appropriate for your
audience using text boxes, columns, headings, banners, borders, images, and so
forth. You can also work with prefabricated templates. Where can you get these?
Microsoft Word has many themed templates and design tools that can be modified
to fit the format for your report. In addition to that link, you can open the program
and go to File New. Many folders will appear that contain templates. Look at
whats available, especially in Reports and in Plans and Proposals. You can also
search for templates online using key words like, for example: template technical
report
doc. The doc at the end will bring up downloadable Word documents that you can
modify. Beware: while some will be usable, others will be crappy. Look at several
before selecting one.

Hint: Getting a Sense of how Reports are Formatted, Structured, and Visually
Designed
Many technical and formal reports can be found online. Check them out and
see how they are
composed and designed. This report on Inuit small business
projects is visually appealing,
logically structured, clearly written, wellsupported, and readable (that is, usable). This report
on wind energy resources
has a basic design and is well structured. This report by Microsoft on human-computer
interaction is very slick and in terms of general structure. The first few pages of this
lengthy data-packed report on water quality at vacation beaches may be worth

2.Format
The structure of your report will follow this standard format given in our online
textbook but will be visually designed as described above.
2.1 Front Matter
The front matter consists of documents the following documents, in this order.
Although you will produce these after you write the text of your report, they will
precede the text.

(1)Abstract or Executive Summary. If your report is technical or scientific, you

will have an abstract; if it is business-related, then you will have an executive
summary. Both items provide an overview of your report. The one-paragraph
abstract you write should look like this and be about 120-150 words. An
executive summary is often longer than an abstract, but for this report you
could write a 200 word summary that is basically a longer abstract and might
look something like this. Your abstract or executive summary could appear
on its own page, or it could appear above the Table of Contents if there is
enough room on that page; in addition, if your report is scientific in nature,
then your abstract can appear just before the introductory section or your
report, as shown here. Even though it comes at the very beginning of your
report, your abstract or executive summary is the last thing you will
write.

(2)Table of Contents: The Table of Contents should list all sections (headings and
subheadings) of the text of your report. It typically does not include front matter
pages, which either do not have page numbers or, if they do, use small Roman
numerals instead of numbers (i, ii, iii, iv). The example at the above link and
even this assignment have numbered sections (1, 2) that are furcated (1.1, 1.2,
etc.). A very formal technical or scientific report should do the same thing,
although less formal reports often have different
structures. Important: Be sure your document has page numbers on it and
that they match
up with the Table of Contents!
(3)List of Figures. Figures are charts, diagrams, tables, 1 and other infographics
that visually illustrate what you describe in the surrounding text. Following this
model, please title each figure (not pictures inserted for visual appeal)2 with a
descriptor, a short phrase describing the figure, which should appear both on
your List and in a caption under the figure in your report. Always captialize
specific figures (Figure 1, Figure 2) in both your list and in your text. This list can
be its own page or, if there is room, it can come below the Table of Contents.

2.2

The Text of Your Report

2,500 words : It should be single spaced, 10 point font if presented in
columns and 11-12 pt font if not.
It should address a professional audience, but not necessarily an expert one.
It should incorporate research, including graphics (diagrams, charts,
images, etc) that illustrate key points. Correctly citing at least three viable
researched sources will establish your credibility as an author.
o Do not over-cite your sources! The main points of each section should
be yours, not those of others. Only 10% to 15% of your report should
be quoted or paraphrased.
o Your online sources must be credible! Only high school students cite
catch-all websites like Wikipedia and eHow.
It should be organized into sections using headings and subheadings. Each
section should be one to two paragraphs in length. These sections are
themselves constituents of three main parts:
o The first few paragraphs of your report should be considered an
introduction or background section. Here is where you describe
and contextualize (give background information on) the subject of your
report.

1 Often, tables appear in their own list called List of Tables. You can consider tables figures
for this report if you wish to.
2 Hard-core technical reports rarely include purely aesthetic or decorative images.
Many professional reports, however, often have images that serve as pictures. Since
pictures do not convey specific information, they are not cited as figures. Only
information-based graphics that are referred to in the text of the report are listed as
figures.

The body of report is comprised of multiple sections as described in

our online textbook. This is where you develop your topic at length and
in detail.
o The conclusion is a one- to two-paragraph ending at the end of the
report.
Your report should include two or more figures, which will be correctly
captioned using labels (ex: Figure 2), a brief descriptor, and an indication of
where the figure came from. You should refer to and describe each figure in
the text of your report, and that information should be in close proximity to
the figure that illustrates it. Do not let the
figures speak for themselves! Your job is to contextualize each figure so
that the reader
sees exactly what he or she is reading about.
o

2.3 Back Matter

The back matter of a report consists of an appendix (optional) and a bibliographic
section (required).
Appendix (optional for you): You dont need to have an appendix
for this report. However, if you have extremely large data-based
graphics (charts, tables) that dont fit neatly in the text, then you can
put them in the Appendix.
Your bibliographic section (required) and citation style should be
modeled after an article from a peer-reviewed publication in your field.
If a standard article in your field is documented like this as opposed
to, say, this article or this one then follow that format exactly. It
should be titled correctly: Notes, References, Works Cited, etc.

Citation Style and Documentation Format

In the past, you may have probably used MLA citation style for papers written in
English classes. Please dont use MLA for your formal report unless you are a
Humanities student! You should use the citation style used most commonly in your
discipline. The Hinkle Library has created an excellent source page of citation styles for
your reference.
The easiest way to cite and document sources in your report is to follow the lead of
one of the research-based articles from your major field of study that you will use in
your report. Just look at how research is cited in the text and documented in the
bibliography and do the same thing.
IMPORTANT!
Do not paste to your biographical page obscenely long urls of the kind that look like this:
https://www.technicalreportwriting.com/archives/411/q=technical+writing&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X
&ei=eBFEVLT0
M82wyAS-m4G4AQ&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw&biw=1093&bih=514eBFEVLT0M82wyASm4etcetcetcetc

Instead, embed the link in the title of the document or website you are linking to

3.Responsible Research and Ethical Considerations

You must conduct your research responsibly. If more than 15% of your report is
flagged by Turnitin, you will need to revise to bring that number down. Overt
plagiarism will result in failure of the report and potentially the class.