UMARU ALI SHINKAFI POLYTECHNIC, SOKOTO

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY
COURSE CODE:
COURSE TITLE: TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
PART I
This lecture note is organized into 5 units. Unit 1 is the main part of the lecture
note. Tutorial questions were given at the end of unit 1 and you are expected to
work on them at home …
Unit 1 What is a Technical Report?
Unit 2 Components of a Technical Report
Unit 3 Report Writing in Science and Technology
Unit 4 Planning Technical Report Writing
Unit 5 Selecting and Preparing the Title

UNIT 1 WHAT IS A TECHNICAL REPORT?

1.0 INTRODUCTION
This unit answers the question: What is a technical report? It is important that you can
answer this question clearly and confidently at the outset as all other study units of the
course will be built on it. You may also need to 'unlearn' some or all the 'wrong' notions
you may have had on the topic and concentrate, in a systematic manner, on its
presentation in this unit. This approach will help you to steadily build up your
knowledge in technical report writing and to apply that knowledge in writing all forms
of technical reports and scientific papers.
Unit 1 is divided into four topics, each of which deals with a different aspect of the
'what is ...?' question and ends with a conclusion and a summary. There are several
self-assessment questions which are very important for helping you to assimilate the
new information being presented to you. Therefore, you will do well not to miss any of
them.

2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
• define and recognise a technical report on any topic in science and
technology
• list the types of technical reports normally encountered in science and
technology
• describe the purpose and functions of technical reports
• explain the major attributes or characteristics of technical reports.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 The Nature of Technical Reports in Science and Technology
A technical report in science and technology may be defined as a written document
which presents the results or findings of an experiment or field observation in a
coherent and logical manner.
This definition emphasises two fundamental concepts which require further
explanation as follows:
"written document" implies that the -writing is done in a particular way to conform
with accepted norms and standards which have evolved in science for a long time;
and "coherent and logical" implies that a process is involved whose outcome
may be considered 'good' or 'poor' on the basis of those norms and standards. Thus,
it is important that you should not only be able to define a technical report on any topic
in science and technology, but also be able to recognise the difference between a
'good' and 'poor' one. Moreover, as stated in the Course Guide, the primary objective
of this course is to help you to write 'good' technical reports on any topic in science
and technology.
The outcomes of many experiments and field observations never go beyond the stage
of technical reports in science and technology. In other words, they never attain the
status of a valid publication.
However, you must present enough information in a good technical report so that its
readers can
i. assess observations
ii. repeat experiments and
iii. evaluate intellectual processes.
(Are the author's conclusions justified by the data?) The rest of unit 1 and the
course will help you to understand how to "present sufficient information" in a
systematic, coherent, and logical manner when you write a technical report.
Furthermore, a technical report, by definition, is a kind of document containing certain
specified kinds of information. A technical report, very much like a scientific paper,
"demands exactly the same qualities of thought as are needed for the rest of science:
logic, clarity, and precision" (Woodford, 1968). This unit and all other units in the
course will help you not only to appreciate the fundamental significance of logic, clarity,
and precision in technical report writing, but to apply them in your writing of the same.
3.2 The Purpose and Functions of Technical Reports
A technical report, whether commissioned, routine, or produced on the author's
initiative, normally aims to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
• accurately and objectively compose and present information on an object, idea,
process, or event (the "communication objective")
• promote or "sell" an idea, product or service through rational/logical
presentation (the "marketing objective")
• clarify issues that may have remained obscure before the report was produced
(the "educational objective")
 • put forward ideas in a conventional, usable or acceptable form (the "social
objective")
• recommend a specific course of action, or non-action (the "judicial objective").
Thus, a well written technical report may perform the function of informing, educating,
clarifying, socialising, modifying attitudes, or directing behaviour, in an organisation.
Even reports that are produced for mere record purposes perform these functions to
varying degrees. In schools, the ultimate purpose and function of all reports is to report
the findings of a laboratory experiments.
You should always keep in mind the purpose or function that a technical report is
written to serve and ensure that no aspect of it contradicts such purpose or function.
If more than one function or purpose is to be served by the report, then you should
designate one as primary and the other(s) as secondary. You should never leave the
reader of your report in any doubt as to its primary purpose or function.
3.3 Types of Technical Reports
It is useful for you to know\ the various types of technical reports that can be written.
However, being able to classify reports is by itself not of much use simply because
one classification is as good as another. For example, reports may be classified
according to:
• degree of formality: Formal and Informal reports
• length: Long and Short reports
• regularity: Routine, Periodic, or Occasional reports, Annual, Biannual, or
Quarterly reports
• phase: Interim, Pilot, Progress, or Terminal reports; and
• format: Alarm form, Letter form, Schematic form, or Mixed form.
You are more likely, however, to see and write technical reports that are classified by
content, such as:
▪ Occurrence report: which describes an event, such as flood disaster
▪ Field trip report, such as is written by an engineer, agricultural specialist, or
technologist just back from a field assignment or Industrial visit
▪ Feasibility report: which develops and analyses an idea or concept or project
to assess whether it is economically or technically feasible
▪ Investigation report: any form of report in which you describe how to perform
tests, examine data, elicit or weigh tangible evidence in order to arrive at your
conclusions
▪ Evaluation report: like, but not the same as the investigation or feasibility
report. In an evaluation report you: start with the idea to be developed
(evaluated) and establish controlling guidelines
• evaluate the idea or concept considering the parameters set and
data collected
• conduct tests to prove or disprove your theories, and
• draw conclusions about the soundness or otherwise of the given
idea or concept.
An investigation report normally begins with known data while an evaluation report
begins with the idea or concept to be evaluated. On the other hand, the feasibility
report, differs from an evaluation report as it tends to concentrate on more concerete
and short-term projects. An evaluation report may, however, take several years to
produce.
You should also know two other types of technical reports: the technical proposal and
the technical brief. You can describe each of them as follows:
▪ technical proposal: which is normally prepared by a company to convince
another company or institution of its technical capability to offer a specific
service or perform a specific task. It is usually expensive
▪ technical brief: in which a new idea is presented in enough depth to enable
the recipient (the contractor or consultant) to assess its practicability and cost.
It is also useful for you to know two other types or reports which, strictly speaking, are
not the types of technical reports, normally written by scientists and technologists: the
staff report and the audit report. The former gives a succinct account of the deployment
and disposition of staff within a given period. An audit report is a short comment on
the degree of efficiency with which a company has operated its financial and material
accounts and kept records of such operations. It is normally based on an extensive
examination of the company's books.
You will probably find the classification of technical reports by content the most
productive and least confusing. In practical terms-, a given technical report in science
and technology is likely to combine many of the features normally used in classifying
reports. You may not always need to know what type of report you are writing, but
there will be times when it becomes very important to do so in order to ensure that you
are doing the right thing at the right time and in the right place for the right target
audience.

3.4 Characteristics of Technical Reports

Here, you should endeavour to learn thoroughly all the seven characteristics that
experts have agreed as essential for good technical report writing.
3.4.1 Technical Accuracy
To enhance sound scientific judgment and sound business decision-making, based
on data presented in the report. Technical accuracy also preserves your own image
as a careful and dependable person.
3.4.2 Consistency in Presenting: When writing technical reports, consistency should
be maintained in all the following:
▪ weights and measures
▪ decimal or imperial systems, not a mixture of both
▪ numbers by maintaining generally accepted conventions in using words and
numerals throughout the report (e.g. there were five cars conveying 15
workers) and keeping to them consistently
 ▪ alphabetic style: being consistent in your use of capital and small letters
▪ punctuation, especially in your use of the full stop and the semi-colon; and
▪ abbreviations, with or without the full stop.
The benefits of consistency in,these and other regards include pleasurable reading
and avoidance of various forms of disorientation for the reader of your report.

3.4.3 Clarity
For easy comprehension by the non-technical reader. Here, you should carry out
audience analysis, or at least some preliminary consideration of the target reader(s)
of. your report. As an authority on the subject puts it, communication is an act of the
recipient. You should remember, though, that there will be some difficulty in catering
to the comprehension capabilities of the varied audiences for which most technical
reports, even internal ones, are written. For example, a single report may be
addressed to the engineering, production, accounts, personnel, marketing, and
corporate affairs departments of Nigerian Breweries Plc. But the challenge or you as
the technical report writer is to constantly search for the common denominator in
expressing your ideas. You should explore the richness of the English language in the
use of alternatives. And you can establish rapport with your reading audience by:
▪ avoiding the use of jargons and
▪ organising carefully the material in your report.
3.4.4 Mechanical Accuracy
You should follow standard rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Many large
organisations, just like media publishing houses, have their own house-styles. In
addition to making use of these, you should feel free and humble enough to consult
dictionaries and standard reference works when in any doubt. Mechanical language
errors (e.g. 'adopt' for 'adapt', 'twenty sits' for 'twenty seats’) as well as clichés and
colloquialisms, suggest laziness on your part or a lack of concern about your work.
3.4.5 Conciseness
You should say what you have to say in the shortest possible form, e.g. the police
usually /often harass, not `are fond of harassing" or, worse still, "are in the habit of
harassing." Brevity or conciseness makes reading your report less time-consuming for
busy executives. Conciseness is also achieved through:
▪ presenting your report in brief sections with sub-titles, rather than in one long,
unbroken piece, and
▪ avoiding needless repetition.
Remember that:
Newton's Law of Motion contains only 29 words, and
Einstein's earth-shaking Law of Relativity can be summarized using five symbols.
3.4.6 Persuasiveness
You may be tempted to think that this objective is secondary to the transmission of
accurate information, and you will be wrong. You have a selling job to do. What you
are selling is not an appeal to emotion, but the quality and objectivity of the
presentation of your report.
3.4.7 Interest
You must retain the interest of your reader throughout the report without being chatty
or colloquial. You can make your report lively by making it lucid, remembering that
your instructors, businessmen, industrial and financial executives, and other
professionals who are going to read your report are human, too!

4.0 CONCLUSION
Technical report writing is both an art and a science. While most students of science
and technology may be quite comfortable with learning and mastering the content of
their disciplines (the science), they often exhibit obvious deficiencies in how they
communicate that content to others (the art). You have been introduced in unit 1 of
this course to the most basic elements which constitute the foundation of technical
report writing. You have the responsibility of ensuring that this foundation remains as
strong as possible so that the other units of the course that will be built on it will
progressively improve your knowledge of technical report writing. If at any time during
the rest of the course you are in doubt about the strength of your foundation, you
should always return to it.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learned:
✓ how to define a technical report and to recognise the two fundamental concepts
implied in that definition
✓ why a good technical report must present enough information to enable your
readers (a) assess observations (b) repeat experiments, and (c) evaluate
intellectual processes
✓ that a well written technical report must perform one or more of five functions:
communicating, educating, marketing, socialisation, or modifying attitudes
✓ various types of technical reports, especially the occurrence, field trip,
feasibility, investigation, and evaluation reports, as well as the technical
proposal and the technical brief
✓ the seven characteristics of technical report - technical accuracy, consistency,
clarity, mechanical accuracy, conciseness, persuasiveness, and interest.

Take Home:
1. Explain the major attributes of technical reports.
2. List the types of technical reports normally encountered in science and technology.