COMMON MISTAKES IN REPORT

WRITING

Presented by:

Eng. Vincent Ochwo Olie

Contact: Tel 0772454407/0704931368

Email: vochwo@gmail.com
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 PURPOSE OF THE PRESENTATION

 To aid in the improvement of the report writing

 To help Applicants complete their admission to UIPE
as Members and registration with ERB as Engineers
within the stipulated time.

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 GENERAL CHECKS

 Check that uniform font type, size and line spacing is

used throughout the reports
 Always have your reports peer reviewed.
 Avoid unnecessary writings such as footers and headers.
 Recommended colour for text is black.
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 SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

 Ensure that the designs and drawings are endorsed and

stamped by a Registered Engineer.
 Ensure that the application forms are duly signed and stamped
by Proposers and Seconders.
 Both the Career and the Technical Reports must each have a
cover page, separator page and chapter numbering system etc.
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 SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS CONT’D

 For candidates whose names differ in the various

documents such as ID, academic papers, obtain a
notarized affidavit.

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 CAREER REPORT

 Most candidates tend to present their information in

Tabular form
The report should be written in narrative form
 Use of bullets in report writing
 Avoid using bullets
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 CAREER REPORT CONT’D

 For each of the projects participated in, provide the following

information inclusive of the project for the technical report:
 Organisation
 Project title
 Description/scope
 Supervisor
Project cost
 Implementation period
 Applicant’s key roles and responsibilities
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 Challenges faced and their solutions, and Engineering lessons learnt
 CAREER REPORT CONT’D

 Use of CV style in the presentation of Career Report

 This should be in progressive form.
 Use of pictures in the Career Report
 Do not put Pictures/Photographs in the Career
Report.
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 TECHNICAL REPORT

PAGE NUMBERING
 The preliminary pages should be in Roman numerals,
i.e. i,ii, iii, etc.
 The page numbering from Chapter one of the report
onwards should be Arabic numerals i.e. 1, 2, 3, etc.
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 FORMULATION OF PROJECT
TITLE

A good project title is one which:

 Reflects the applicant’s role (e.g. design and
construction/installation supervision aspects etc,)
 Not more than 20 words is recommended
Common mistakes
 Many candidates use the actual project titles. Some of these are
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too long and misleading.
 Project Title

The right way

 Avoid project names as provided by the
client/employer. More often than not they are too long.
 Coin your own project title to reflect what your role was
in the project.
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 Examples of Titles

 Design and Construction Supervision of Water Supply

System in xxxxx Municipality
 Geometric Design Review and Construction Supervision
for xxxxxxx
 Design and supervision of Mechanical installations for xxxx
 Design and Implementation of a new Refrigeration Plant at
xxxxx 12
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (ES)

This reflects key aspects of the report

Common mistakes
 Presentation of ES on more than one page
 Presence of subtitles and bullets in the ES
 Presentation of information which is not in the main report
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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (ES)

The right way

The ES should be presented on one page (an exception can
be made if all key aspects cannot fit on one page.
Information in the ES should be presented in adequate
description
Should be written after the full report is complete. 14
 APPLICANT’S ROLE IN THE
PROJECT

Common mistake

Many engineers provide their role in just one section of the Technical
Report.

The correct way:

Your role must be reflected throughout the various aspects of your

Technical Report as opposed to limiting to a section of the report. 15
 Use of tables, figures and
appendices/attachments

Generally, tables are labelled at the top while the figures are labelled at
the bottom.

Mistakes: Many Applicants present tables, figures and attachments in

their report, but do not refer to them in their narratives.

The right way: All tables, figures and attachments should be referred
to in the report. 16
 OBJECTIVES AND
CONCLUSIONS

The main objective and specific objectives of engineering projects are

usually temporary interventions to problems faced by (part) of society

Conclusions inform the reader whether the project objectives were

achieved

Common mistakes:

 Many state that the objective of the project was registration

 Some do not even present the project objectives 17
 OBJECTIVES AND
CONCLUSIONS cont’d

The right way:

 Have the main objective

 Then the specific objectives
 Note the objectives must be SMART
 At the end of the report, conclusions must be provided stating whether or
not the objectives were met.
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 The specigfic objectives and conclusion should be “talking” to each other.
 DESIGN REVIEW VS.
DESIGN CHECK

Design review: Necessary when some changes have

been observed in fundamental issues.
Design check: “Inspection” of the design for correctness
before implementation.
Common mistakes
Many candidates mistake design check for design review 19
 DESIGN REVIEW Vs DESIGN
CHECK cont’d

The right way:

 Always provide a justification for the design review
 When you do design review, provide a comparison of the
design being reviewed and the outcome of the design
review in terms of design output and costing
 Provide proof that you participated in the design review 20
 DEMONSTRATION OF KNOWLEDGE
IN DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Common mistakes

Many candidates present designs without explaining their choice

of considerations

The right way

Always provide the reasons for your choice of certain
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parameters.
 CHALLENGES FACED IN THE
PROJECT AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

Common Mistake:

Many candidates present personal challenges

The right way:

Restrict your challenges to project related issues only.

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 SKILLS Vs LESSONS LEARNT

Lessons learnt: Experiences distilled from past activities and should be

used in future activities

Skills: Expertise acquired to do a job/task

Common mistakes: Many use the two interchangeably

The right way: Lessons presented in the report must be learnt from the
challenges faced.
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 BILLS OF QUANTITIES
(BOQS)

As an Engineer equip yourself with some costing knowledge

which will give you an advantage in cost control of the project.

Common mistakes

Many candidates provide BOQs without any build-up of unit

rates.
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 BOQS CONT’D

The right way:

 Provide a build-up of unit rate for the components of the

project enough to convince the Assessors and the Interview
Panellists that you participated on the costing of the project.

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 QUALITY, TIME AND COST
CONTROL

Common mistakes:

Most Applicants provide scanty or no information on the control of these

three elements of project implementation (Quality, Time and Cost).

The right way:

Information on how the Applicant handled these aspects should be

provided in depth.
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 TABLES, FIGURES AND
ATTACHMENTS

Common mistakes

Many Applicants have the above in their reports but do not make
reference to them .
Other mistakes:

 Poor labelling of the tables, figure

Unclear attachments
 
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 TABLES, FIGURES AND
ATTACHMENTS cont’d

The right way:

 Always make reference to tables, figures and attachments

in text
 All tables, figures and attachments must be easily legible
 Tables should not be allowed to span over more than one
page 28
 PAGE NUMBERING

Common mistakes:
 Numbering of the entire report without a break.
 Treating the two reports (Career and Technical) as
one by providing continuous page numbering from
one document to the other.
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 PAGE NUMBERING cont’d

The right way:

 Career Report and Technical Report must be treated
separately and also numbered separately, even
though they are bound together.
 The preliminary pages of the Technical Report must
be numbered using lower case Roman numerals i.e.
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 CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

Common mistakes:
 Most candidates start with recommendations and then make
conclusion.
The right way
 Conclusion should come fisrt before recommendations
 Recommendations must have a connection with the lessons
learnt from the challenges. 31
 THE END

Thank you for listening to me

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