Technical Report Writing Technical Report Format Front Matter

Technical Report Writing

Technical Report Format � Front Matter � Report Body � Back Matter

Front Matter � � � � Title Page Acknowledgements Summary or Abstract Table of Contents List of Appendices List of Tables List of Figures

Title Page The format for this page may vary however the following information is always included. � Report Title � Report Prepared for � Report Prepared by � Date of Submission � This page is not numbered page of report

Acknowledgements � List of people who helped you research or prepare the report, including your proofreaders

Summary or Abstract A summary of the whole report including important features, results and conclusions � � The summary referred to as an Abstract It is considered to be one of the most important parts of a report In order to produce a well written summary, it should be the last part of the report that is written. By reading the abstract, a reader will know whether or not the material contained in the report is relevant to reader’s needs.

Table of Contents The table of contents should indicate page numbers of � � � � Titles Headings Sub-headings References Bibliography List of Figures List of Tables List of Appendices

Report Body � � � Introduction Background Theory Design / Theoretical Analysis Procedure Results and Discussion Conclusions

Introduction � Statement of Problem A brief description of the problem and how it is to be attacked � Motivation Provide the reader with an overview of why the work was performed � Objectives Break the problem in small problems / objectives and indicate how those objectives are met. � Organization of Report The flow of report is mentioned in this part

Background Theory � � The background contains information critical to the development and understanding of the reports main topic. The information will include any necessary facts outlining the events which lead to the writing of the report

Design � � Give the details of your design procedure. Be sure to introduce and describe your design work using sentences, equations alone are not sufficient. Use citations if you wish to refer the reader to reference material. Divide this section in to subsections where appropriate

Theoretical Analysis � � � If there is no design but strictly analysis, then provide the important details of all the analysis performed. Be brief, It is not necessary to show every step sentences can be used to describe the intermediate steps. Further more, if there are many steps to the analysis, the reader should be directed to the appendix for complete details.

Procedure � Author discusses the procedure by describing the method used to test a theory, verify a design or conduct a process. � Presentation of the procedure may vary significantly for different fields and audiences, for all fields, the author should BE BRIEF

Procedure Cont… The procedure section should never include � Specific measurements/results, � Discussion of results, � Explanation of possible error sources. Make sure all diagrams provided are � Numbered, � Titled � Clearly labeled.

Procedure Cont… Procedure Type 1 Use this procedure type if you have been supplied with a detailed procedure describing the steps required to complete the work. Procedure Type 2 Use this procedure type if you have not been supplied with a detailed description of the steps required to complete the work.

Results � Present the results of the work performed using neatly organized and completely labeled tables and/or graphs whenever possible. � When comparative data is available, present the data in a way that facilitates the comparison.

Discussion � Always accompany results with a meaningful discussion. � The discussion explains what the results mean and points out trends. � In some cases, the results speak mostly for them selves and the discussion may be brief as “Table 2 shows that the designed variable Modulus Counter works as expected”.

Discussion Cont… � In other cases, the meaning of the results may not be as clear requiring more detailed discussion

Conclusion � In this final section of the body of the report, the author should briefly bring every thing together. � It is similar to the abstract except that now the results are concluded � Therefore, the conclusion should be a concise description of the report including its purpose � The conclusion should not contain figures or make reference to them.

Back Matter � � � Bibliography References Appendices