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Writing Technical Report

Dr. Seif Fateen

Layout
Whats

in a Technical Report Primary and Secondary Sources Searching for materials online MS Word Tips

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Purpose
Purpose: To

learn how to communicate technical information in writing. Importance: The main modes of communication are written, verbal, and visual.As a scientist or engineer, you will want to share your work.This is commonly done through thesis, journal papers, and books.This type of writing has a different purpose than creative story telling or other types of writing you may have done.There are rules, standards, and formats which are commonly used.You should know these before you embark on publishing your work.

Why technical reports?

Technical

writing is used to report information. This is different from creative and other types of writing styles in many ways. As a scientist/engineer, it is important for you to be able to be able to communicate your work to others in writing.

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Voice
Technical writing needs to be objective. The purpose of the document is to relay

information.This is most easily accomplished by reporting just the facts. Adding opinions, personal observations, and other extraneous material can cloud the communication between the author and reader. Technical documents are often "serious documents", meaning that much depends on them.

Opinion
The

author uses her words to relay information about facts and events that have happened.The author typically does not relay opinions, except in the cases where an unexplained event or phenomena has occurred. In a technical paper, the author remains independent from the subject of the article. Technical documents usually do not contain the following words:
you, we..... I,

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Tense
As

the writer is usually writing about events which have already happened, the tense of the paper is mainly past tense. In some parts of the document, it may be appropriate to use present or future tense.
facts that were, are, and forever shall be true
If

the author is writing about experiments or activities yet to come, future tense is appropriate.

Components of a Technical Report

Title

Page Abstract Table of Contents Nomenclature Chapters/Sections References Appendices

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Title page
Title Authors Author

affiliation Date published Others

Abstract
The

abstract is a concise report on the important contents of the document. Abstracts are usually one or two paragraphs. The purpose of the abstract is to provide a quick review of the important contents of the document so that others can determine if they should invest time reading the rest of the document.

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Table of Contents
The

table of contents is a listing of the main headings of the document. This includes the abstract, nomenclature, chapters, chapter sections, references, and appendices. Generated automatically by MS Word when Styles are used.

Nomenclature
The

nomenclature is a tabulated listing of the variables (and their units) that will be used in the document.

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Chapters/Sections
The

chapters/sections make up the body of the document. They include the detailed information the author wants to convey. Introduction/Body/Conclusion

References
This

section lists the books, magazines, conversations, websites, and other sources of information you used in writing your document. They should be formatted in one of the widely accepted Styles. Write the references to your paper.This allows you to put references into the text as you type your document. It will save you time as you will eliminate the extra step of reading the paper once or twice to insert and correct references.

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Appendices
Appendices

contain information which is important, though in most cases secondary to the purpose of the document. For instance tabulations of scientific data, detailed calculations, and similar material are often good candidates for appendices.

Writing process
Plan

an outline Dont start from the beginning Start anywhere. Dont worry about corrections. Proof read many times Write abstract, introduction and conclusion

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Sources
Primary

Sources

The person who did the research is reporting on it. Found in conference papers and journal articles
Secondary

Sources

Report on research done by someone else Often summarizes the information Found in review articles, handbooks, encyclopedias and text books

Using and creating citations

You

will learn how to

How to interpret citations How to create your own Why is it important to cite your sources properly
A

bibliographic citation is

reference to a published item, such as a A journal article, book or web site, which uniquely identifies it.

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Elements of a Citation
Authors Titles Date Page

numbers These elements will be presented differently depending on which citation style is in use.

Citation Styles

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Citing web pages

Why is it important to cite your own sources?

It

shows your professors that youve done a thorough job in researching your topic It also shows that youve given credit to the original author for using his ideas or words. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.

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Search Strategies
Basic

Keyword searching Boolean operators Truncation

Advanced

Subject searching Field searching Limiting to publication types

Google vs. Google Scholar

Google

Searches the free web Commercial sources Personal sites Government information Educational sites
Google

Scholar

Copyrighted sources Scholarly journals Commercially published sources

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Tips
Citations Index

Getting a

Google Scholar tells you who cites the paper that you have just found Use it to expand your results May be its available online. Use google and filetype:pdf Use sciencedirect.com on one the university computers to download it Ask a friend who studies overseas to access it online and email it to you Dont go to the National Academy of Sciences Dont go to the library for papers. Go there only for books.

paper

Do

Not

MS Word Tips
Use

Use numbered list for headings Use Captions Use cross references Insert Table of Contents, List of

Heading 1, 2, 3 Normal

Styles

of Tables automatically Use build-in citation and bibliography in MS Word 2007 Use predefined styles Use predefined cover pages

Figures, and List

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