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WEEK FOUR
1.3 Writing a Technical Report
All reports need to be clear, concise and well structured. The key to writing an effective report is
to allocate time for planning and preparation. With careful planning, the writing of a report will
be made much easier.

The essential stages of successful report writing are described below. Consider how long each
stage is likely to take and divide the time before the deadline between the different stages. Be
sure to leave time for final proof reading and checking.

Stage One: Understanding the report

This first stage is the most important. You need to be confident that you understand the purpose of your
report. Consider who the report is for and why it is being written. Check that you understand all the
instructions, requirements, and task at hand. Ask questions if anything is unclear.

Stage Two: Gathering and selecting information

Once you are clear about the purpose of your report, you need to begin to gather relevant information.
Your information may come from a variety of sources, but how much information you will need will
depend on how much detail is required in the report. You may want to begin by reading relevant literature
to widen your understanding of the topic or issue before you go on to look at other forms of information
such as questionnaires, surveys, actual project activities, etc. As you read and gather information you need
to assess its relevance to your report and select accordingly.

Stage Three: Organizing your material

Once you have gathered information, you need to decide what will be included and in what sequence it
should be presented. Begin by grouping together points that are related. These may form sections or
chapters in your report body. Remember to keep referring to initial instructions and be prepared to cut
any information that is not directly relevant to the report. Choose an order for your material that is logical
and easy to follow.

Stage Four: Analysing your material

Before you begin to write your first draft of the report, take time to consider and make notes on the points
you will make using the facts and evidence you have gathered. What conclusions can be drawn from the
material? What are the limitations or flaws in the evidence? Do certain pieces of evidence conflict with
one another? It is not enough to simply present the information you have gathered; you must relate it to
the problem or issue you set out to address.

Stage Five: Writing the report

Having organized your material into appropriate sections and headings you can begin to write the first
draft of your report. You may find it easier to write the summary and contents page at the end when you
know exactly what will be included. Aim for a writing style that is direct and precise. Avoid waffle and
make your points clearly and concisely. Chapters, sections and even individual paragraphs should be
written with a clear structure. The structure described below can be adapted and applied to chapters,
sections and even paragraphs.

• Introduce the main idea of the chapter/section/paragraph

• Explain and expand the idea, defining any key terms.

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• Present relevant evidence to support your point(s).

• Comment on each piece of evidence showing how it relates to your point(s).
• Conclude your chapter/section/paragraph by either showing its significance to the report
as a whole or making a link to the next chapter/section/paragraph.

1.3.1 Writing the first draft

Who is going to read the report? For coursework assignments, the readers might be fellow students
and/or faculty markers. In professional contexts, the readers might be managers, clients, project team
members. The answer will affect the content and technical level, and is a major consideration in the level
of detail required in the introduction.

Begin writing with the main text, not the introduction. Follow your outline in terms of headings and
subheadings. Let the ideas flow; do not worry at this stage about style, spelling or word processing.

1.3.2 Revising the first draft

This is the stage at which your report will start to take shape as a professional, technical document. In
revising what you have drafted you must bear in mind the following, important principle;

• the essence of a successful technical report lies in how accurately and concisely it conveys the
intended information to the intended readership.

Use what you learn high school and the pre-requisite English courses to guide you. Most importantly,
when you read through what you have written, you must ask yourself these questions;

• Does that sentence/paragraph/section say what I want and mean it to say? If not, write it in a
different way.
• Are there any words/sentences/paragraphs which could be removed without affecting the
information which I am trying to convey? If so, remove them.
Using Transitional Words and Phrases

Transition words and phrases illustrate relationships between other words and phrases. Also called linking
or connecting words, they can be used to link together different ideas when writing technical reports.
When used, they help the reader to follow your arguments by expressing the relationships between
different sentences or parts of a sentence. Examples of transition words can be found as a separate
attachement on Google Classroom. A few include:

• furthermore
• moreover
• likewise
• on the contrary
• since
• due to
• in the event of
• in summary
• in conclusion
• to conclude

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Because they do so many different jobs, transition words are divided into distinct categories. An
accompanying text is provided on the Moodle platform. Read it to understand more about transitional
words.

1.3.3 The report layout

The appearance of a report is no less important than its content. An attractive, clearly organised report
stands a better chance of being read. For optional guidance, use a standard, 12pt, font, such as Times New
Roman, for the main text. Use different font sizes, bold, italic and underline where appropriate but not to
excess. Too many changes of type style can look very fussy.

1.3.4 Headings
Use heading and sub-headings to break up the text and to guide the reader. They should be based on the
logical sequence which you identified at the planning stage but with enough sub-headings to break up the
material into manageable chunks. The use of numbering and type size and style can clarify the structure
as follows;

3 Types of Water Treatment Process

3.1 Filtration
3.2 Disinfection
3.2.1 Chlorination
3.2.2 Ozonation

Figure 8: Example of Headings

1.3.5 Refer to diagrams, graphs, tables and equations

In the main text you must always refer to any diagram, graph or table which you use.

Label your diagrams and graphs as follows:

Figure 1.2 Chlorinated well in Mount Barclay community

For the above example, the second diagram in section 1 would be referred to by "...see figure 1.2..."

Label tables in a similar fashion:

Table 3.1 Graph of quantity of chlorine added to per day

In this example, the first table in section 3 might be referred to by "...with reference to the chlorine
quantity provided in Table 3.1..."

Number equations as follows:

F(dB) = 10*log10(F) (3.6)

In this example, the sixth equation in section 3 might be referred to by "...noise figure in decibels as given
by eqn (3.6)..."

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1.3.6 Originality and plagiarism

Whenever you make use of other people's facts or ideas, you must indicate this in the text with a number
which refers to an item in the list of references. Any phrases, sentences or paragraphs which are copied
unaltered must be enclosed in quotation marks and referenced by a number.

Material which is not reproduced unaltered should not be in quotation marks but must still be referenced.
It is not sufficient to list the sources of information at the end of the report; you must indicate the sources
of information individually within the report using the reference numbering system.

Information that is not referenced is assumed to be either common knowledge or your own work or ideas;
if it is not, then it is assumed to be plagiarised i.e. you have knowingly copied someone else's words, facts
or ideas without reference, passing them off as your own. This is a serious offence. If the person copied
from is a fellow student, then this offence is known as collusion and is equally serious.

Examination boards can, and do, impose penalties for these offences ranging from loss of marks to
disqualification from the award of a degree.

This warning applies equally to information obtained from the Internet. It is very easy for markers to
identify words and images that have been copied directly from web sites. If you do this without
acknowledging the source of your information and putting the words in quotation marks then your report
will be investigated and you may face a disciplinary panel

1.3.7 Finalising the report and proofreading

Your report should now be nearly complete with an introduction, main text in sections, conclusions,
properly formatted references and bibliography and any appendices. Now you must add:

• page numbers
• contents
• title pages
• write the summary.

1.3.8 The Summary

The summary, with the title, should indicate the scope of the report and give the main results and
conclusions. It must be intelligible without the rest of the report. Many people may read, and refer to, a
report summary but only a few may read the full report, as often happens in a professional organisation.

• Purpose - a short version of the report and a guide to the report.

• Length - short, typically not more than 100-300 words
• Content - provide information, not just a description of the report.

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1.3.9 Final Proofreading

This refers to the checking of every aspect of a piece of written work from the content to the layout and
is an absolutely necessary part of the writing process. You should acquire the habit of never sending or
submitting any piece of written work, from email to course work, without at least one and preferably
several processes of proofreading. In addition, it is not possible for you, as the author of a long piece of
writing, to proofread accurately yourself; you are too familiar with what you have written and will not
spot all the mistakes.

When you have finished your report, and before you submit it, you must check it very carefully yourself.
You should then give it to someone else, e.g. one of your fellow students, to read carefully and check for
any errors in content, style, structure and layout. You should record the name of this person in your
acknowledgements.

Note: Research the software called “Grammarly” to help you with proof reading

Figure 9: The Communication Continuum

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Figure 10: Comparison: Technical Writing vs Essay

I. B.K. Freeman, BSc, MSc. 1ST Semester 2021/2022 GENG 211