Preparing Written Reports

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Preparing Written Reports

• Effective Technical Communication
• ES205 Analysis and Design of Engineering Systems

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Our topics today

• Guidelines and Standards for Writing Assignments
• Types of reports for this course
• Elements of each type of report
• Characteristics common to all formats
• Evaluation criteria

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Guidelines and Standards for Writing Assignments

• A manual for the common reports expected of
  engineering students
• Emphasizes
• clarity of communication
• quality of technical information
• Keep on hand for next year

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Types of reports in ES205

• Laboratory worksheets
• Memoranda
• Informal reports
• Formal reports

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Elements of each type of report
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Laboratory worksheets

• A prepared question and answer sheet that you
  complete as you work through the lab.
• Record data
• Answer questions in more than a superficial
  manner.
• Comment on graphs and results.

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Memo

• Assumes the recipient is knowledgeable about the
  subject matter.
• Comes directly to the purpose of the message.
• Limited to 1 or 2 pages (unless the material
  warrants a longer submission)
• No signature initialed by sender(s).

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Memo

• Header
• To From Date Subject
• Online template for 1st page of memo

• Followed by
• Subject and purpose
• Develop the subject
• Conclusions, recommendations, and decisions.

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Informal report

• Communicates results in a time-efficient manner
  (with respect to recipient).
• Structure
• Title page. What was the problem? ?
  goal/purpose
• What is the answer? ? results/discussion
• Source of your answer? ? supporting
• Not chronological.

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Formal report

• Title Page
• Summary or Abstract
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Body
• Results with Discussion
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Appendix

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Formal report

• Title page
• Template online
• Summary or abstract
• Start with brief overview.
• Include all key information from full report.
• Can substitute for the full report.
• Several rewrites

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Formal report

• Table of contents
• See guidelines for format
• Introduction
• Purpose
• Scope of work
• Structure of the report to come

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Formal report

• Body of report, section titles as required
• Theory
• Apparatus, procedure
• Experimental results
• Discussion of results
• Provides all information to duplicate the
  experiment and discuss results.

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Formal report

• Results with discussion
• What was found out what does it mean?
• Compare to theory or known results.
• Quantitative interpretation.
• Blatantly explain what graphs indicate.

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Formal report

• Conclusions and recommendations
• Must be supported by the results!
• Repeat or restate results highlights.
• Decisions or recommendations.
• Discuss shortcomings, limitations, or problems
  with the experiment and suggest possible action
  to remedy the problems.

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Formal report

• Appendices
• Work not directly discussed in the report.
• May include
• References
• Sample calculations
• Equipment list
• Experimental equipment setup and schematics

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Common characteristics of all technical reports
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Structure of the technical story
Objectives what you tried to do
Equipment/Procedure how you did it
Results what you found out
Conclusions/Recommendations what it means
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Graphical elements

• Tables to consolidate large amounts of data
• Graphs to demonstrate trends, patterns, and
  relationships.
• Explain inferences that should be drawn
• Online --- more detail.

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Results and conclusions

• Observed results versus expected values
• Significance of each graph
• Possible experimental errors
• Be quantitative beware of that old standby
  human error
• Be curious.why did this occur?
• Conclusions based on objectives and results
• Do not over-reach

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Evaluation of reports
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Grading a worksheet

• Collect all data
• Answer all questions correctly
• Attachments
• Complete sample calculations
• Correct format of graphs

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Grading a memo

• Format
• Body
• Purpose
• Give the important facts or data
• What decisions or conclusions have been or should
  be made from this data.
• Coherence and clarity
• Initials on memo
• Indicating all team members agree to report
  findings

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Grading a report

• Format
• Technical story is coherent and clear
• Usually requires more than one editor in the
  group
• Dont just cut and paste sections together
• Purpose
• Results
• Credibility

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General criteria

• The purpose or goal of the report is
• Well stated and easily found
• Substantive
• The primary results and conclusions
• Are clearly stated and supported by
  well-integrated figures
• Are thoroughly discussed, with inferences drawn
• The report is technically credible

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For more information

• On report content, organization, format
• Writing guidelines and standards
• On graphics
• Guidelines for graphic elements
• On evaluation criteria
• Rubric for grading reports (in packet)