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BJU Engineering Report Writing Checklist

This document is a comprehensive checklist for writing reports, outlining essential formatting, citation, technical prose, visual elements, and group work considerations. It emphasizes clarity, consistency, and professionalism in technical writing, ensuring that reports are well-structured and free from errors. The checklist serves as a guide to enhance the quality and effectiveness of report presentations.

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2 views

BJU Engineering Report Writing Checklist

This document is a comprehensive checklist for writing reports, outlining essential formatting, citation, technical prose, visual elements, and group work considerations. It emphasizes clarity, consistency, and professionalism in technical writing, ensuring that reports are well-structured and free from errors. The checklist serves as a guide to enhance the quality and effectiveness of report presentations.

Uploaded by

F La
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHECKLIST FOR WRITING REPORTS

Adapted with permission from United States Naval Academy Report Writing Guide, 2018

REPORT WRITING CHECKLIST


The scope of this checklist is purposely broad. Some items may not apply depending on the type of
report and the instructions provided. Use your own judgment to decide how to use it for the assignment
at hand.

General format
□ Title page or cover sheet is formatted as specified.

□ Pages are in correct sequence.

□ Pages are neatly stacked before stapling.

□ Report is in a folder (if specified in the instructions).

□ Followed specified section sequence and section titles if given.

□ Report structure and flow are clear in the section headers and subheaders.

□ Lists of tables and figures included if specified in the instructions.

□ Section and subsection titles have styles that highlight them and make the document’s structure
clear.

□ Paragraphs have the same style (font, line spacing, indentation, justification, etc.)

□ Essential contents only. No filler.

Bibliography or references
□ Followed specified citation style.

□ References cited in the text appear in the reference list.

□ References listed are cited in the text, unless clearly labeled as supplemental.

□ All references are capitalized according to the same convention. Capitalization conventions among
publishing houses vary, but the convention within one document must be consistent.
□ Authoritative, peer-reviewed references are used when available through the library or on-line.
Textbooks, journal,articles, monographs, and references provided by your instructor should be
used whenever possible in technical writing.[1] FOOTNOTE 1

Technical prose
□ No needless jargon or words and phrases overly complex for the intended audience.

□ Tone and style are appropriate for a formal technical document. Concise, direct, and precise
writing is preferred. Avoid overly long, hard-to-parse sentences; imprecise colloquialisms; and
poetic flourishes. Quantify when the information permits it.
□ Proper grammar and punctuation.
□ Tense, mood, voice, person, and tone change only when appropriate to fit the flow of the narra-
tive.

□ Figures and tables are allowed to speak for themselves. The prose must not merely repeat infor-
mation that is obvious and most likely better shown in the figure or table. Figures and tables are
for displaying information. Words are for observations and conclusions based on the displayed
information.
□ Relevant and meaningful conclusions.
□ Intellectual standards satisfied, e.g., accuracy, clarity, fairness, logic, precision, and relevance.

1.1 Equations, figures, tables, and other visual elements


Equations, inline math items, and physical quantities
□ Physical values are stated with consistent, justifiable precision.

□ Displayed equations (i.e., equations typed on a separate line from the surrounding text) and inline
math expressions are typeset as is conventional in scientific and engineering fields.
□ Italics for all variables but upright style for numbers.

□ Displayed equations are punctuated to flow with the surrounding prose.[2] Use a colon to intro-
duce an equation only when it is proper.
□ Displayed equations are numbered primarily to support cross referencing. Equations that are
early or intermediate steps in obtaining a final result should not be numbered unless they will be
referred to later in the document.

Units for physical quantities[3]


□ Units are typed in an upright style with one-half to one full space between the number and the
unit, depending on the capabilities of the typesetting engine. For example, an electrical current
of 2.3 mili-amperes ought to be typed as i = 2.3 mA, not i=2.3mA.
□ Should not be spelled out unless necessary for clarity. Write 25.4 mm, not 25.4 millimeters.
□ If using U.S. customary units for force and mass, write lbf and lbm, not lb, and never lbs.
□ A single, consistent system of units is used throughout. SI or U.S. customary units are not mixed.

Figures
Figures must adhere to conventions for technical documents.

□ Each figure and table has a number and a caption. The caption is below the figure unless specified
above the figure by the publisher.

□ Figures do not have titles. (The caption fills this role.)

□ Axes have concise and clear titles and units

□ Data markers are used to indicate distinct data points and to distinguish the data from best-fit
curves

□ Axes are scaled and have appropriate grid or tick marks for the displayed range of values.

□ Annotations are made to help the reader easily distinguish separate data series on the same graph.
Legends may suffice, but annotating the separate curves is better.

□ Figures are cited properly in text before they appear on the page.

Tables
Tables must adhere to conventions for technical documents.

□ Each table has a number and a caption. The caption is above the table unless specified below the
table by the publisher.

□ Units are shown in the column or row headers

□ Consistent precision for numerical values. Precision should reflect the justifiable resolution in
the data. Alike items are justified to the left, center, or right in the same way.

□ Empty cells are indicated with a dash or other marking to confirm that the cell ought to be empty.
Borders styles conform to instructions.

□ Tables are cited properly in text before they appear on the page.

1.2 Visual aesthetics


Visual aesthetics must suffice for a technical document. The document must look like a document writ-
ten by a professional who wishes to make a good impression. This catch-all category includes elements
not already listed above that, when mishandled, leave the reader with a bad impression irrespective of
the quality of the technical results. Be sure your document satisfies the following items:

□ Use the same style for alike items. For example, all Level 1 headers must have the same font and
font size.

□ Fonts and styles for section titles, paragraphs, captions, etc. promote readability and do not get in
the way of digesting the report. Styles must signify the role of the item in question (Is it a section
title or subsection title?) without clashing or being overly ornate.
□ Tabs must be the same size for every alike paragraph. Tab styles vary between publishers. Some
publishing houses use a tab at the start of the first paragraph in a section; others do not. Whatever
tab convention you follow, be consistent.

□ No orphaned section headers at the bottom of a page

□ No double spaces after periods in a word processor.[4]

1.3 Group work


Group work should come across as teamwork. The whole should be more than the sum of the parts.

□ Co-authors are listed in an agreed-upon order. Most often in course work this is alphabetical
order, but in professional work other standards might be appropriate.

□ Co-authors’ names are spelled correctly.

□ Co-authors’ contributions are itemized (if specified in the instructions).

□ No silly errors that ought to be caught in a group report through reasonable cross-editing and
proofreading. Some examples: pages out of sequence, mismatches between singular and plural
words, misspellings of common words, improper use of homophones and commonly confused
words (e.g., plain and plane, principal and principle, here and hear, affect and effect, it’s and its,
assess and asses), cut-and-paste errors, figures not cited in the text, references cited in text but
missing from the bibliography, etc

Notes
1. Web sites ranked by an search engine algorithm outside your control or understanding do not
count as authoritative references, especially if you are not qualified to interpret their validity or
recognize the author by reputation.

2. Check the flow from the prose to the equation by reading the surrounding passage and the equa-
tion aloud. The equation should sound like a natural part of the sentence in which it appears. Unlike a
figure or table, an equation must not be divorced from the prose and referenced separately.

3. See, for example, NIST Guide to the SI - Check List for Reviewing Manuscripts. http://www.nist.gov-
/pml/pubs/sp811/sec11.cfm

4. In the before time, the long long ago (1995), a book was written with the goal of changing the
world in a small but significant way. The PC is Not a Typewriter took on the seemingly trivial but
over- whelming multi-generational task of teaching old dogs that two spaces are not required after a
period when using a word processor. If you have no idea why someone would put two spaces after a
period, good! If you are still using two spaces and you aren’t using a typewriting, the kerning police are
coming for you.

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