CHE 331

TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING AND COMMUNICATION

GROUP PROJECT

BY

GROUP 6

TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING

PROJECT TITLE
 • Definition
Introduction

Categories • Confidential Report

• Non-Confidential Report
Of
report

• Title page
• Abstract
• Content
• Introduction
• Body
Structure • Result and Discussion
• Conclusion

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 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Introduction
A technical report (also scientific report) is a document that describes the process, progress,
or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research
problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research. Unlike
other scientific literature, such as scientific journals and the proceedings of some academic
conferences, technical reports rarely undergo comprehensive independent peer
review before publication. They may be considered as grey literature. Where there is a
review process, it is often limited to within the originating organization. Similarly, there are no
formal publishing procedures for such reports, except where established locally. It can also be
defined as a formal report designed to convey technical information in a clear and easily
accessible format. It is divided into sections which allow different readers to access different
levels of information. This guide explains the commonly accepted format for a technical
report; explains the purposes of the individual sections; and gives hints on how to go about
drafting and refining a report in order to produce an accurate, professional document.
N/B: Grey literature are materials and research produced by organizations outside of the
traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels.
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 Categories of Report
 Confidential Report: This is circulated to persons with a
direct and immediate need for it
 Non-Confidential Report: This category of report has a
wide circulation
 Secret Report : This is restricted in circulation and can
only be read by authorized persons

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 Structure
When it comes to the writing of a technical report, the format is very important because it i
unique from other reports in that it carries technical information. A technical report
contains technical information which should be planned well. You need to understand all
the structure to achieve your objective. A technical report should contain the following:
The Title page
The title page comes first when you wrote your report. The title page contains the title of
the report the date and the institution/organization plus supervisor. The first page is also
referred to as the cover page and for situations were a word count limit is placed on the
report the title page serves as a separate entity and should not be added to the word count
Summary/Abstract
In the summary, you need to write an overview of the whole report including the results
and conclusions made. Hence, this is meant to be the last thing written after the experimen
Contents
In this section the numbers and lists of all the sections and subsections with their heading
and page number are given 5
 Structure
Introduction
In the introduction, you are supposed to highlight the main aim of the paper to
the reader. Let the reader understand the purpose of you writing the report. It
simply states the objectives of the report and comments on the way the topic of
the report is to be treated
Experimental details
This is the part that you need to state every detail of the experiment starting from
the equipment that you used to the procedure for the experiment. This part may
be excluded if the report did not involve any experiment.
Body
The body is the most important part of your report because it carries your
content. You should introduce small subheadings in your report as per the point
being put across. This will make your work look more presentable as the reader
will be guided with this subheading what point you are talking about 6
 Structure
RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS
This is where you are expected to show the calculations done from your experiments
and explain the results that you obtained from your experiments. You should give a
clear explanation so that the reader cannot ask themselves any questions on your
result.
Conclusion
When it comes to the writing of your conclusion what you need to do is write a
summary of the main points in the body of your report and wrap it up. Remember also
that the conclusion should be short and precise avoiding a lot of stories in your
concluding paragraph spare all the stories for the body of your report
Recommendations
The recommendation usually comes after the conclusion. In the recommendation, you
are supposed to suggest solutions to the challenges that are there in the body. This is
where your opinion on what would be the best cause of action or what more could
have been done 7
 Structure
References
In the references you need to list all the materials that you used in your research. You may
have quoted some text somewhere so it’s a point that you need to list it so that it does not
become a plagiarized work. When you write the references, you acknowledge that the
content that you used is from a certain source
Bibliography
A bibliography is more like the references but in a bibliography you can go ahead and list the
sources that you did not use in the research, but they may be useful in the explanation of
your content. Mostly bibliography usually contains sources that can be used for further
reading on the topic .
Acknowledgment
In this section, you are supposed to list all the people that have helped you in coming up
with your report. This includes even those that proofread your work to make sure it is well
written. This is a way of appreciating the effort of other people in your work.
N/B: plagiarism is the wrongful appropriation, stealing and publication of another authors
language, thoughts, ideas or expression 8
 Structure
Appendices
You may have used other materials to put across your points in the report such as
graphs or diagrams but are not necessarily required in the report. This is the place
where you should mention them

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Section Details
Must include the title of the report. Reports for
assessment, where the word length has been specified,
Title page will often also require the summary word count and the
main text word count

Summary A summary of the whole report including important

features, results and conclusions

Contents Numbers and lists all section and subsection headings

with page numbers
States the objectives of the report and comments on the
way the topic of the report is to be treated. Leads straight
Introduction into the report itself. Must not be a copy of the
introduction in a lab handout.
Divided into numbered and headed sections. These
The sections which make up the body of the report sections separate the different main ideas in a logical
order
A short, logical summing up of the theme(s) developed in
Conclusions the main text
Details of published sources of material referred to or
References quoted in the text (including any lecture notes and URL
addresses of any websites used.
Other published sources of material, including websites,
Bibliography not referred to in the text but useful for background or
further reading.

Acknowledgements List of people who helped you research or prepare the

report, including your proofreaders
Any further material which is essential for full
understanding of your report (e.g. large scale diagrams,
Appendices (if appropriate)
computer code, raw data, specifications) but not required 10
by a casual reader
Presentation
For technical reports required as part of an assessment, the following presentation guidelines are recommended;

The report must be printed single sided on white A4 paper.

Script Hand written or dot-matrix printed reports are not acceptable.

Margins All four margins must be at least 2.54 cm

Do not number the title, summary or contents pages. Number

Page numbers
all other pages consecutively starting at 1

A single staple in the top left corner or 3 staples spaced down

Binding the left hand margin. For longer reports (e.g. year 3 project
report) binders may be used.

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How to write a technical report and where to start
\
Assembly of all needed sources for the report
Listing and arrangement of ideas and topics according to their respective
headings
Write a rough draft of the report
Review the first draft and make finishing touches where changes need to be
done and

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TIPS TO A GOOD TECHNICAL REPORT
 Fonts
Avoid the over using of fonts so that your work isn’t fussy and unprofessional. Use them to pinpoint and emphasize an idea
for the reader
 Headings
Use of headings and subheadings to show your different points making it easier for top executives to scheme through the
major headings
 Referencing/Citing
When using a content that doesn’t belong to you it is necessary to quote/cite the reference material it was gotten form so
that it won’t be considered plagiarism
 Source/information verification
These are documents top executives use to make decisions and if your facts are wrong it will lead to a wrong decision.
Hence sources to be verified before use as not everything on the internet is correct
 Proofreading
This is done to make sure that there are no grammatical errors that are avoidable. It can also be used as an avenue to
make sure all the intended points are present
 Graphs
The graph should be well labelled to avoid confusion of the variables
 Diagrams
Simple diagrams should be drawn to make for easy explanation and should appear before or after the content being
discussed
 Tables
The use of tables are very important as they are necessary to list out points and for comparison
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 THANK YOU

THANK YOU

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