Technical Writing and Research

Methodology

Technical Report Writing

MEng 3102

by: Kuleni Diro (MSc)

Contents
 What is technical writings?
 Technical Vs Non-technical writing
 Why technical writing?
 format in technical writing
 How to write information from referred sources?
What is Technical Writing?
Is used to inform, instruct or direct a specific audience through maximum clarity and precision with
a specific tangible goal in mind.
Taking complicated subject matter and transforming into easy to understand information for the
reader.
• Technical Writers design, write, and edit documents for engineering, scientific, industrial, and
governmental organizations. These include technical reports, computer manuals, brochures,
proposals, technical specifications, educational and training materials, and marketing or public
relations releases.
• In technical writing:-
• Information is organized, presented and communicated in a specific format.
• The writing is concise, clear and accurate. The writing presents information to help
readers solve a problem or gain a better understanding of a situation.
• The writing conveys technical, complex, or specialized information in a way that is
easy for a non-technical reader to understand.
How is technical writing different?
• The information is organized, presented and communicated in a specific format.
• The writing is concise, clear and accurate.
• The writing takes into account the audience’s needs, preferences and prior
understanding.
• The writing presents information to help readers solve a problem or gain a better
understanding of a situation.
• The writing conveys technical, complex, or specialized information in a way
that is easy for a non-technical reader to understand.
• Technical writing requires 100% accuracy.
• technical writing is
Objective
Direct
Clearly defined
precise
Why should you care about writing?

You must communicate your work to the world

If people don’t know about it they don’t use it
Increase probability of adoption
Clear writing requires clear thinking
Muddled writing is a sign of muddled thought
Be kind to your readers good writing can be a joy; bad writing
is agony
These skills transfer to other endeavors
• A good technical written document :
pertains to a technical subject
Use a language which is very direct and straight to the point
Be clear and straight forward (Avoid vague and abstract language)
It is very detailed and informative
Be brief, short, summarizing:
Take the audience into consideration
Use active voice while writing
• Passive Example: The electricity meter  is read six times a year by a trained technician.
• Active Example: A trained technician reads the meter six times a year.
It is very structured and should follow standard format
 Avoid redundancy
Overall coherence and logical flow
Academic writing vs technical writing

• The three major components of written communication are:

Purpose,
Format,
Language
• Academic Writing has a receiver, but may have a reader or may not have a
reader.
• Technical Writing will always have a reader. The primary reader is the person
who ordered the report
Purpose
Academic Writing Technical Writing
Entertain Inform
Persuade Persuade
inform Research
Cont.
Format
Academic Writing Technical Writing
Paragraphs Major Headings
Topic Sentences Sub Headers
Pictures Markers
Bullets
Underlings
Bold type
White Space
Illustrations
Graphs
Tables
Pictures
Drawings
 Cont.
Language
Academic Writing Technical Writing
Words Words
Elaborate Active vocabulary
Transitions Plain
Subjective Easily understood
Cogitative Objective
Multiple meaning no prejudice on the basis of gender
Sentence Structure Avoid pronouns
Complex Sentence Structure
Uncomplicated Repetition
Embellishment Active voice
Excessive words
Synonyms
Passive voice
 Cont.
Academic Technical Writing
Writing
Descriptive Writing Job Description, Incident Report,
Résumé, Process Explanation
Narrative Writing Observation Report, Progress
Report
Analysis Performance Evaluation,
Feasibility Report
Cause and Effect Analytical Report, Product Field
Test Report
Compare-Contrast Product Comparison, Feasibility
Report
Persuasive Writing Proposal, Action Plan
Examples of Technical Writing:
• Action Plans Feasibility Report Persuasive Proposal
• Advertisement Field Test Report Product Comparison
• Agenda Incident/case Report Proposal
• Audit Report Informational Form Questionnaire
• Book Review Informational Poster Research Report
• Brochure Instructions Résumé/Portfolio
• Budget Job Application Scientific Paper/Report
• Business Letter Job Description Training Manual
• Business Plan Lesson Plan Travel Guide
•Contract Letter of Inquiry Work Order
•Data Book or Display Meeting Minutes
• Diagram, Chart, or Graph Newsletter
Letter of Recommendation Observation Report
Marketing Plan Performance Evaluations
Technical Vs Non-technical writing
• Writings like Lecture Notes and Essays may not be exactly classified under
Technical Writing and they are Academic writing.
• The academic writer purpose may be to write an assignment, a story, a
letter, etc.
• Creative writing: The author can write to charm, to arouse interest, to
appeal to emotion, to impress the reader. Such style of writing is very
restricted in technical writing.
• Technical writing: The author writes to persuade, to convince, to describe,
to express, to appeal to the readers reason (logic)...
Formats of technical report writing
Front Matter Text Back Matter

1. Cover page (for over 10 pages) 5. Introduction 10. Appendix

2. Title Page • Problem Statement 11. Bibliography
3. Abstract/summary • Objectives, scope 12. List of symbols
4. Contents 6. Analysis/main body acronyms and
• Methods, Assumptions abbreviations
• Procedures 13. Glossary
7. Results and Discussion 14. Index
8. Conclusion 15. Back cover
(&recommendation)
9. References
Types of Technical Writing
Front Matter:
• Enable the reader to find the report
• Helps reader to quickly decide whether or not the material with in the
report relates what they are investigating
Text:
• Objectives, methods, assumptions, procedures, discussions, results,
recommendations
Back Matter:
• Supplements and clarifies the body of the report, makes the body easier
to understand and shows additional information
 Cont.
1. Cover (Front and back)
• For pages of more than 10
• Provides physical protection for the printed doc.
2. Title page
• A short, clear, which clearly indicates what the report is about.
• The title page will normally include the date and who the report is for.
3. Summary /abstract
• A summary of the whole report including important features, aim, methods, scope, results
and conclusions
• Or should address what is done, why, how, what result
• Not more than 200 words
• Doesn’t contains undefined symbols, abbreviation &make no reference
• Always write abstract at the very end of the writing process
• Abstract can be informative, descriptive or Executive summary (hybrid of informative and
descriptive abstracts)
Cont.
4. Contents:
• Lists all section and subsection headings with page numbers
• Automatic tables of contents ….
• List of tables and figures (Graphics)
Graphics:
Includes, Pictures, Tables, Graphs and Charts
Is a very powerful tool to convey relevant information and data
presentation.
Note: Numbers and titles for figures, charts and graphs appears bellow the
figure, while table numbers and titles are above the table.
 Cont.
5. Introduction
• States the objectives (general and specific) of the report and comments on the way
the topic of the report is to be treated.
• Includes scope, theory, background and significance
6. Main body of the report
• These sections separate the different main ideas in a logical order (may be by
chapters)
• Includes assumptions, methods (material, design, procedure, measurement),
analysis
7. Result and discussion
• Describes what you have learned about the problem
• How accurate your findings are and significant of results
Cont.
8. Conclusions
• A short, logical summing up of the theme(s) developed in the main text
• Gives your view of significant of the finding to the reader
• This is often a decision to be made by the writer of the report
9. References
• Details of published sources of material referred to or quoted in the text
(including any lecture notes and URL addresses of any websites used.
Cont.
Cont.
Bibliography
Other published sources of material, including websites, 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
Appendices (if appropriate)
Any further material which is essential for full understanding of your report
(e.g. part and assembly drawings, computer code, large scale diagrams, raw
data, specifications) but not required by a casual reader
 Writing information from referred sources
Reference is used to:
• to acknowledge the source of information or ideas you used in your writing or
• acknowledging other peoples work that you used in your writing or work
Reason for referencing: Citations are not only used to avoid plagiarism, but
also:
To acknowledge and give credit the contribution of other writers and researcher
in your work
To provide evidence to support the declarations and claims in your own work.
To make your writing more persuasive
Helps the reader to find the original source if they wish
Cont.
It is unethical or illegitimate to simply copy and paste others idea in writing,
rather one should either,
• Summarize (stating the main ideas and findings of a text into your own
words)
• Paraphrase (captures the entire text and re-expresses it in new language) or
• Quote (copying short sentences or passages from the original text word-for-
word and places within “quotation marks” )
When to summarize?
If passage from a source is too long to quote or paraphrase and only the main
ideas of a source are relevant to your paper.
When to Quote?
when the author's words convey a powerful meaning or to introduce an
author's position that you want to discuss
When to paraphrase?
As another option to quoting or to express someone else's ideas in your own words.
• Example
 Cont.

Re-write the following paragraph by

(a) Paraphrasing (b) summarizing (c) quoting
• Main aim of semi-automatic dish washer machine is to reduce human efforts and time
with its innovative simple design which is also environment friendly. A dishwasher is
a low cost machine made up of easily and readily available parts in daily life. The
model of semi-automatic dish washer machine is new concept, which in its one
washing cycle does all the operations of conventional dish washing i.e. spraying soda
water, scrubbing with brush and rinsing with clean water similar to fully automatic
dish washer machines in market. The dishwasher operates with help of DC motor,
Universal motor, conveyor belt and microcontroller for time delay.
Shilpa N. Dmachine , Government Polytechnic College, Jalna, Maharashtra (India),
July 2016
ehedkar , Design of basic model of semi-automatic dish washer
When You Don't Need to Cite
•  When its your original idea (Your own observation, primary data, your
own analysis and results, your own conclusion, ...)
• When its common Knowledge
 There are seven days in a week

• When its Common Sense

 e.g. Driving within speed limit helps to avoid getting hurt or hurting others

• Historical overviews
 (When multiple sources provide the same information about historic events)
Thank you !!!