Writing a Technical Report

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Forging new generations of engineers
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Writing a Technical Report

• JUST THE FACTS!

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Report Format

• Reports need to be neat, organized and
  word-processed. When done someone could read
  your report and duplicate the results. Written
  in third person with no pronouns.
• TITLE PAGE
• Title of project, names of student participants,
  course title, institution were work was done,
  date.
• ABSTRACT
• A summarization of the report. This summary
  should include the objectives of the project and
  what was accomplished. This summary should be
  short and to the point with specific information
  and one paragraph in length.

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Report Format

• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• All sections listed in order with page numbers to
  find the information.
• INTRODUCTION
• Should be a brief explanation of the project or
  activity. What is the purpose of the activity?
  What are you going to learn and what are you
  going to do?

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Report Format

• BACKGROUND
• Information and background research of the topic.
  Information gathered in order to accomplish the
  task. What you studied of previous research and
  designs done by others. Explain why your work is
  different.
• MATERIALS
• List of materials needed to do the project or
  activity.

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Report Format

• PROCEDURE
• Details on how you did the lab, activity or
  project. Step by step process showing sketches,
  schematics, equations, photos, etc. This written
  part needs to be very specific as to your step by
  step procedure as well as what you learned in
  each of the steps. This section may be broken
  into subsections.

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Report Format

• RESULTS
• How well did you accomplish your objectives?
  Discuss suggestions for improvement and errors
  and problems that occurred during the process.
  Where could this project go in the future? Do
  the results agree with your purpose?
• CONCLUSION
• Brief explanation of what you learned and what
  the activity was all about.

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Report Format

• APPENDIX
• This section should include Drawings
  orthographic, isometric, assembly, schematics,
  exploded views, written programs, flow charts,
  and tables of information pertinent to the report
  but too large to fit in the written
  documentation.
• CITATIONS
• Books, magazines, journals, Internet sources,
  etc. that were used to obtain and learn
  information. Since this is a technical report
  the format should follow APA guidelines.

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Section Breakdown.
INTRODUCTION One paragraph.
KEY IDEA 1 As many paragraphs as needed.
KEY IDEA 2 As many paragraphs as needed.
KEY IDEA 3 As many paragraphs as needed.
CONCLUSION One paragraph. Emphasizes the point
in the introduction.
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PARAGRAPH BREAKDOWN
One concept or principle per paragraph. You may
need more paragraphs.
INTRODUCTION SENTENCE
FACT, EXAMPLE 1
FACT, EXAMPLE 2
FACT, EXAMPLE 3
CONCLUSION SENTENCE
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Example Paragraph
Presently the current circuit will count, but
simply attaching the outputs on the 74163 to a
hex display will not work, a decoder is
necessary. The 7447 is the decoder that will
change the binary information that exits the
74163 into a code that a hex display can read and
display the information. The 7447 is not a
difficult integrated circuit. The input pins A3
A0 receive information from the 74163 in
binary. The pins called test, RBI, and RBO all
need to be connected to a power source for the
circuit to function properly. The pins that are
labeled a-g are the hex output pins. The 7447 is
placed into the circuit between the 74163 and the
hex display. The information will come from the
74163 and exit towards the seven-segment display.
A group of resistors will be needed between the
7447 and the hex-display. Figure 4 in the
appendix will show where these resistors are
located. The seven segment display reads
information as decimal and displays it so it can
easily be read. Pins a-g act as inputs for the
device, this device also requires that it be
connected to a power source. The displays are
implemented so that any person can read the
clock, and no conversions are necessary. The
entire schematic for the ten-minute clock can be
seen in the appendix.
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Quality Technical Sentence?
Identify the project
The project we made used many engineering
principles.
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Quality Technical Sentence?
Identifies the key operational principles that
will be discussed in each paragraph.
The bottle cap assembly end effecter has three
main parts the servo motors, the gripper
mechanism, and the pressure sensor.