Technical Report

Writing

By
Prof. Dr. M. Abdel Salam
Dr. Ahmad M Abdel-Ghany
Sinai Univ.
Faculty of Engineering
Spring 2020
 Technical Report Writing

The Introduction

Is one of the most important sections of a report—or, for that matter, any document—but
introductions are often poorly written. One reason may be that people misunderstand the purpose
of introductions. An introduction introduces readers to the report and not necessarily, or only
minimally, to the subject matter.
Readers have an understandable need to know some basic things about a report before they
begin reading it: such as what is it about, why was it written, what's it for, for whom it written,
and what are its main contents. Readers need a basic orientation to the topic, purpose, situation,
and contents of a report—in other words, an introduction.
Imagine that you were writing a recommendation report about CD-ROM computer devices.
You might be tempted to use the introduction to discuss the background of compact disc
development or its theoretical side. That might be good stuff to include in the report, and it
probably belongs in the report—but not in the introduction, or at least not in much detail or length.
For 10-page, double spaced reports, introductions might average 1 page. On that one page,
you might have three paragraphs, averaging 6 to 8 lines each. One of those paragraphs could be
devoted to background information, to introducing the subject matter. But the other two
paragraphs must do the job of introducing the report and orienting the reader to the report.

Common Elements of Introductions

The following is a discussion of the common contents of introductions. Each of these

elements is not required in all introductions, and some elements combine into the same sentence.
Rather than mechanically applying these elements, write the introduction that seems right to you,
then come back and search for these elements in it.

Topic: Somewhere early in the introduction, you need to indicate the specific topic of the report.
Some introductions seem to want to hold readers in suspense for a while before they indicate the
true topic. That's a bit of a gamble. A better approach is to indicate the topic early—such that you
could circle the topic words somewhere in the first three to four lines of the introduction.

Purpose and situation: Somewhere, the report needs to indicate why it was written, for whom,
and for what purpose. If the report provides recommendations on whether to implement a

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program, the introduction needs to indicate that somehow. You might also consider indicating
something of the scope of the report—what it is not intended to accomplish.

Audience: The introduction also needs to indicate who are the appropriate or intended readers of
the report—for example, "experienced technicians trained on the HAL/6000." Also, an
introduction should indicate what level of experience or knowledge readers need to understand
the report, if any. If none is needed, say that also. If the report was prepared for council members
of the City of Utopia, Texas, the introduction needs to express that.

Overview of contents: The introduction to a report should, if nothing else, indicate the main
contents of the report. Often this is done with an in-sentence list, as the examples in this part of
the chapter illustrate (a bulleted vertical list is a bit overdoing it). For most reports, some sort of
scope indication is also needed in the introduction: some statement about what topics the report
does not cover.

Background on the topic: This is everybody's favorite! Some minimal background is usually in
order for an introduction—for example, some key definitions, some historical background, some
theory, something on the importance of the subject. Information like this gets readers interested,
motivated to read, grounded in some fundamental concepts. Watch out, though—this discussion
can get away from you and fill up more than page. If it does, that's okay; all is not lost. That just
shows the information is important and should be in the report—just not in the introduction. Move
it in to the body of the report, or into an appendix.

Background on the situation: Another kind of background is also a good candidate for
introductions—the situation that brought about the need for the report. For example, if there were
a lot of conflicting data about some new technology or some problem, which brought about the
need for the research, this background could be summarized in the introduction. For example, if
a company needed new equipment of some kind or if the company had some problem or need and
some requirements in relation to that equipment—discussion of these matters should go in the
introduction.
Notice in the discussion of these elements the word "indicate" keeps getting used. That's
because you'd like to avoid heavy-handed language such as "The topic of this report is..." or "This
report has been written for..." Often there are nicer ways to express these things. For example, if
your report is about grammar-checking software, just make sure that phrase occurs at some
appropriate place early in the introduction—you don't need to drone something like "The topic of
this report is grammar-checking software..." Of course, if this direct approach is the only or the
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best way to express it, then do it! Notice in the example introductions that this kind of phrasing
does occur.

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Revision Checklist for Introductions

As you revise your introductions, watch out for problems such as the following:
I. Avoid writing an introduction consisting of only background information; avoid allowing
background information to overshadow the key elements of the introduction.
II. Make sure the topic of the report is indicated early.
III. Be sure to indicate the audience and situation—what the readers should expect from the
report; what knowledge or background they need to understand the report; what situation
brought about the need for the report.
IV. Make sure there is an overview of the report contents, plus scope information—what the
report doesn't cover.

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Report Main Body

Headings

Are the titles and subtitles you see within the actual text of much professional scientific,
technical, and business writing. Headings are like the parts of an outline that have been pasted
into the actual pages of a report or other document.
Headings are an important feature of professional technical writing: they alert readers to
upcoming topics and subtopics, help readers find their way around in long reports and skip what
they are not interested in, and break up long stretches of straight text.
Headings are also useful for writers. They keep you organized and focused on the topic.
When you begin using headings, your impulse may be to slap in the headings after you've written
the rough draft. Instead, visualize the headings before you start the rough draft, and plug them in
as you write.
Your task in this chapter is to learn how to use headings and to learn the style and format
of a specific design of headings.
Note: Students enrolled in Online Technical Writing are encouraged to take the optional
reading quiz on this chapter. (Anybody else is welcome to try it as well.)

General Guidelines for Headings

In this section, you use a specific style of headings. This style is the standard, required
format if you take a course that uses this online textbook. If you want to use a different style,
contact your instructor. Here are some specific guidelines on headings (see the figures at the end
of this chapter for illustrations of these guidelines):

I. Use headings to mark off the boundaries of the major sections and subsections of a report.
II. Use exactly the design for headings described here and shown in the illustrations in this
chapter. Use the same spacing (vertical and horizontal location), capitalization, punctuation,
and underlining. (You can, however, do a one-for-one substitution of bold for underlining.)
III. Try for 2 to 3 headings per regular page of text. Don't overdo headings: for example, a
heading for each of a series of one- or two-sentence paragraphs. (Also, you don't need a
heading per every paragraph; normally, an individual heading applies to multiple
paragraphs.)

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IV. For short documents, begin with the second-level heading; skip the first-level.
V. Make the phrasing of headings parallel.
VI. Make the phrasing of headings self-explanatory: instead of "Background" or "Technical
Information," make it more specific, such as "Physics of Fiber Optics."
VII. Make headings indicate the range of topic coverage in the section. For example, if the section covers
the design and operation of a pressurized water reactor, the heading "Pressurized Water Reactor
Design" would be incomplete and misleading.
VIII. Avoid "lone" headings-any heading by itself within a section without another like it in that same
section. For example, avoid having a second-level heading followed by only one third-level and then
by another second-level. (The third-level heading would be the lone heading.)
IX. Avoid "stacked" headings-any two consecutive headings without intervening text.
X. Avoid pronoun reference to headings. For example, if you have a third-level heading "Torque," don't
begin the sentence following it with something like this: "This is a physics principle....."
XI. When possible, omit articles from the beginning of headings. For example, "The Pressurized Water
Reactor" can easily be changed to "Pressurized Water Reactor" or, better yet, "Pressurized Water
Reactors."
XII. Don't use headings as lead-ins to lists or as figure titles.
XIII. Avoid "widowed" headings: that's where a heading occurs at the bottom of a page and the text it
introduces start at the top of the next page. Keep at least two lines of body text with the heading, or
force it to start the new page.

Headings: Specific Format and Style

In this section, you use a specific style and format for headings. It is not, however, the
"right" or the "only" one, just one among many. It's important to use this style, however, because
that's the way it is for many technical writers-they must write according to a "house" style. Most
organizations expect their documents to look a certain way. Using the style and format for
headings described in this book gives you some experience with one of the key requirements in
technical writing-writing according to "specifications."
To see our "house style" for headings-the style and format for headings we will use, see
the illustrations in this chapter. Pay close attention to formatting details such as vertical and
horizontal spacing, capitalization, use of bold, italics, or underlining, and punctuation. Notice that
you can substitute bold for underlining.

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Now, here are the specifications for headings in this section:

First-Level Headings

Follow these guidelines for first-level headings:

 Make first-levels all-caps.

 Use Roman numerals with first-levels.
 Either underline the words but not the Roman numeral, or bold the entire heading
including the Roman numeral.
 Make first-levels centered on the page.
 Start a new page whenever you have a first-level heading.
 Begin first-levels on the standard first text line of a page.
 Leave 3 blank lines between first-levels and the first line of text.

Second-Level Headings

Follow these guidelines for second-level headings:

 Make second-levels headline-style caps.

 Underline or use bold on second-levels.
 Do not include outlining apparatus such as "A." or "B." or "1." or "2." with second-levels.
 Make second-levels flush left.
 Leave 2 blank lines between previous text and second-levels.
 Leave 1 blank line between second-levels and the following text.

Third-Level Headings

Follow these guidelines for third-level headings:

 Make third-levels sentence-style caps.

 Underline or use bold for third-levels (but don't underline the period).
 End third-levels with a period.
 Do not include outlining apparatus such as "A." or "B." or "1." or "2." with third-levels.
 Indent third-levels 5 spaces (or the standard paragraph indentation).
 Do not make third-levels a grammatical part of sentences that follow.
 Use the standard spacing between paragraphs for paragraphs that contain third-levels.

Designing Your Own Headings:

If you want to use your own style and format of headings, contact your instructor. Together,
you two may be able to work out alternate heading specifications.
If you design your own style of headings, remember that the fundamental principle of
heading design has to do with decreasing noticeability of headings, the lower the heading level.
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In any heading style, you'll notice the top-level heading (called first-level here) is the largest,
darkest, boldest, most highly visible heading on the page. The tools you can use to achieve this
greater or lesser degree of visibility include bold, italics, type size, different fonts, relationship to
surrounding text, graphics elements attached to headings, and so on.
When you design your own heading style, be careful about going overboard with fancy
typographical elements. Also, continue to use the guidelines presented in this chapter; they apply
to practically any design. And finally, use your heading design consistently throughout your
document.