Many students of industrial engineering underestimate the importance of writing well.

Good writing
skills are necessary in order to convey ideas to clients, managers, and other engineers. The ability to
communicate your ideas in writing is therefore crucial to your success, both as a student and as a
professional engineer.

The ability to communicate well, particularly through the writing of project reports, is a crucial skill that
all engineers should master. All engineering students are required to submit at least one project report
during their degree, and in many universities they are asked to prepare one every semester.

The Structure of an Engineering Report

The typical format of an engineering report is as follows:

Transmittal letter

Covers and label

Table of contents

List of figures

Executive summary

Introduction

Body of the report

Conclusions

Appendixes

References

(For a more detailed breakdown of what should be included in each of the above sections of an
engineering report, please consult this page.)

How to Write a First-Class Engineering Report

“Poor communication skill is the Achilles' heel of many engineers, both young and experienced – and it
can even be a career showstopper. In fact, poor communication skills have probably claimed more
casualties than corporate downsizing.” (H. T. Roman, 2002)
Writing an engineering report can be a difficult challenge, especially for those students doing it for the
first time. What follows are some helpful writing tips for composing a first-class piece of work, be it a
technical report or other type of assignment.

Develop an outline before proceeding to a rough draft. Your outline defines the structure organisation
of the report, while the rough draft serves to fill it out with details and data.

The body of the report

should be organised logically and broken up into appropriate sections:

− Theory and Analysis

− Experimental Procedures

− Results

− Discussion

should communicate information in the most effective way by using:

− figures and tables

− bulleted and numbered lists

− formatting to break up long chunks of text.

Use simple technical English. Keep the sentences short and to the point.

Make sure any abbreviations and acronyms are defined when they first appear.
Although scientific papers used to be written in the third person, passive voice, past tense, the trend
now is increasingly to favour the first person, active voice, past tense.

Ideally you should be aiming to replicate the style and level of academic writing found in the best
journals in your field, so be sure to study them for both content and style.

Devote attention to the logical sequence of paragraphs and groups of paragraphs:

Paragraphs that are too long, or which cover more than one point, can be hard to follow, so break them
up in order to make the report more readable.

Too many paragraph breaks can also detract from readability, so bring together short paragraphs that
treat the same basic point.

Include short synoptic paragraphs at the beginning of sections and subsections.

Use graphics. Graphical representations make it easier for readers to understand the report by
conveying quantitative information in illustrative form. Graphics are especially useful when concepts,
data, designs, or processes are too complex to describe in written form.