A technical report is the conventional format for reporting the results of your research, investigations, and design projects. The ability to produce a clear, concise, and professionally presented report is a skill you will need to develop in order to succeed in your future career. While reports vary in the type of information they present (for example, original research, the results of an investigative study, or the solution to a design problem), all of them share similar features and are based on a similar structure.
Common features of technical reports include:
Designed for quick and easy communication of information
Designed for selective reading (a manager or client may only read a section of the report depending on what they are interested in learning)
Have sections with numbered headings and subheadings
Use figures and diagrams to convey data
Based primarily on original research
If you use information, ideas, media, etc that someone else has created, you must properly cite your sources with footnotes.
Failure to cite the sources of ideas in your report is considered plagiarism. This violates professional ethics and will result in you losing respect among peers and can even lead to the loss of a job.
Based on the research you did during your HCD interviews and observations, you should have a lot information and insights that you can use to put into a report. Review the notes, photos, and other documents you made during the Empathise/Research phase and group them into big ideas or topics (review this section of the HCD curriculum if you are unclear what to do). Once you’ve figured out all the topics you want to cover, start to think about a logical order to present these ideas. One good way to organise your ideas is to create an outline.
The first step in writing any report is to create an outline. An outline breaks down the parts of your report in a clear, hierarchical manner. You should always create an outline before you start writing, because it will help you organise your thoughts. If your outline is good, your paper should be easy to write.
The basic format for an outline uses an alternating series of numbers and letters, indented accordingly, to indicate levels of importance. Here is a very basic structure for an outline.:
| Part of Outline | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Introduction | This is the first main section (after the title page and table of contents). This section is where you state your main argument, often called a thesis, and tell the reader what you will cover in the report. So an Introduction gives an overview of the topic and your thesis statement. |
| 2. First main idea | |
| 2.1 Supporting evidence #1 | |
| 2.2 Supporting evidence #2 | |
| 2.2.1 Details about it | |
| 2.2.2 More details | The body follows the introduction, and breaks down the points you wish to make. |
| 3. Second main idea | Note that most sections have subdivisions. The more information you can add to the supporting evidence of each idea, the easier it will be to write the full report |
| 3.1 Supporting evidence #2 | Often these “first main idea” sections will be the titles for the various sections of the report. The “supporting evidence” and “details” lines may be subheadings or, preferably, sentences which describe your findings in detail. |
| 3.1.1 Details about it | |
| 3.1.2 More details | |
| 4 Third main idea | |
| Etc. |
Start your outline with a very brief description of each topic/section. Read through this and see if it makes sense. If it doesn’t, rearrange or add more topics to your outline until it makes sense. Then, if the order seems logical, continue to fill in the outline with more details. The more detail you include in your outline, the easier it will be to write the full report.
See a few examples here: http://www.austincc.edu/tmthomas/sample%20outline%201.htm
Once you’ve completed your outline you can start with writing your paper. Use your outline to create the appropriate headings for your paper and then start expanding upon the big ideas with full sentences (and images, if necessary).
As you start writing, take a look at the table below. It lists all of the sections you must include in your paper. You’ll notice that your outline only covers the Introduction, Main sections, and Conclusions part of this table. The other section are formal parts that must be included in a technical report and they will be relatively straightforward to make. See the next section for more details on how to create references and a bibliography.
| Section | Details |
|---|---|
| Title page | Must include the title of the report, name of author(s), the date is was produced, the company/organisation it was produced for |
| Executive Summary | A summary of the whole report including important features, results and conclusions |
| Table of contents | Numbers and lists all section and subsection headings with page numbers |
| Introduction | States the objectives of the report and comments on the way the topic of the report is to be treated. Leads straight into the report itself. |
| Main sections of the report | Divided into numbered and headed sections. These sections separate the main ideas in a logical order |
| Conclusions | A short, logical summing up of the themes or insights developed in the main text |
| References | Details of published sources of material referred to or quoted in the text |
| Bibliography / Further Reading | Other sources 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 proof-readers |
| Appendices (if appropriate) | Any further material which is essential for full understanding of your report (e.g. large scale diagrams, computer code, raw data, specifications) but not required by a casual reader |
In professional contexts, the readers of a report might be managers, clients, or project team members. Depending on your audience (the readers) you will have to alter the language, content and technical details of your report. Remember that there will be varying levels of technical understanding amongst these groups and you should adjust your report accordingly.
Reports are intended as factual documents containing objective information. Avoid using ‘I’, ‘I think’ or ‘in my opinion.’ You want to present the information professionally.
While the content of your report is of the utmost importance, the presentation of information can also help make it more understandable. Think about:
It can be very useful to take advantage of the default heading styles of your word processing software to layout your information eg. Heading 1 for titles, Heading 2 for subtitles etc.
Perhaps some information is more easily read in a bulleted or numbered list
You could start every chapter/section on a new page
You could include horizontal lines to separate sub headings
Is your font legible and professional? Is it a good size?
Is double line spacing easier to read?
Have you chosen a good colour? Black is best unless you have specific reasons to use other colours.
Images in your document - Are they clearly labelled? and consistently laid out?
Have you used a consistent colour palette - for headings? In your diagrams?
You might only think of these things once you have finished your first draft but it is useful to keep them in mind while writing to minimise the amount of formatting you have to do at the end.
Whenever you make use of other people’s facts or ideas, you must indicate this. The source might be a website, a book, a video, another report, or a variety of other materials. Any phrases, sentences or paragraphs which are copied unaltered must be enclosed in quotation marks and material which has been paraphrased doesn’t need to be in quotation marks but must still be referenced. This is so that the reader can
make sure the information is correct and the report is based on real facts.
find more information on the subject.
There are many systems for doing this but you will be using the MLA8 system which uses footnotes and a reference list (at the end of your report). More information about this system can be found here: http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-format/
To make referencing easier we recommend that you create an account with http://www.easybib.com or a similar online referencing tool.
When you have used information from a different source within your report, you cite it using a small number which can then be found in a footer at the bottom of the page with a citation of the referenced material:
For example:
Some have argued that such an investigation would be fruitless. ¹
¹ Russell, Tony. “Welcome to the Purdue OWL.” Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide, 23 Mar. 2018, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/04/.
This numbering system continues throughout the document. EasyBib (http://www.easybib.com) will help you generate the citations using information that you enter about the source.
Broadly speaking most citations require:
The name of the author(s)
The title of the piece
The publisher/website
The URL
The year the information was published/written
The particular place in the source where you found the information eg. page number, video time
Apart from the footnotes on each page, at the end of the report you will also need to include a list of all the sources you have referenced. This is sometimes called a bibliography and it compiles all your sources organised in alphabetical order by last name of the author.
You will be able to do this easily using http://www.easybib.com. When you create an account it can keep track of all the sources you are using and generate a bibliography for you at the end.
Below are some example reports. Remember that they may be using a different referencing system and dealing with a completely different discipline.
https://www.cibse.org/getmedia/81bb2666-9afd-4a10-8431-d8e948fbda3d/Technical-Report-4-CEng.pdf.aspx
https://www.cibse.org/getmedia/c0758775-08ef-4cb9-9b8a-169074be5ee5/Technical-Report-1-CEng.pdf.aspx
Most people will spend more time editing than initially writing the content for a report so get your ideas down and work from there. Once you have written all the content you want to include in the report, broadly organised it and referenced your materials you might consider printing it out and reading it. At this stage, you might know that it’s not finished and still want to tweak parts here and there but it is still good to get an overview of what you have written so far.
Once you have created a draft of your report you, or someone else, should proofread it. This process refers to the checking of every aspect of a piece of written work from the content to the layout. You should acquire the habit of never sending or submitting any piece of written work without at least one, and preferably several, rounds of proofreading. This can be done digitally or on paper.
Some specific things to look out for:
Spelling mistakes, (your word processing software might do this automatically, but always check again when reviewing your work)
Fluidity in the content? Does the introduction link directly to the conclusion? Do the points you have made lead logically to the conclusion?
Does it look professional?
Are your page numbers/table of content items correct?
Are your diagrams and images useful and helpful to the reader?
You will probably go through this process a couple of times before you’re happy with your report.
Now, let’s get to writing!