Writing Technical Reports
Introduction
Technical reports are essential in university education, especially in courses that focus on practical applications, research, and communication skills. Students in technical fields need to be able to produce well-structured, clear, and technically accurate reports, which offers several benefits. The upcoming article will discuss key points about writing a technical report. Following that, there will be a guide on structuring reports using LaTeX. Lastly, I will present the grading table for the lectures that I teach, which is relevant for students taking my lecture.
1. Development of Technical Writing Skills
Writing a technical report encourages students to communicate complex ideas, methodologies, and results clearly and concisely. This skill is critical in both academic and professional settings, where clear communication of technical information is required. For example, engineering and science students must be able to convey experimental findings or project outcomes to peers, professors, or potential employers in a precise and professional manner.
2. Encourages Analytical Thinking
Technical reports require students to not only present data but also analyze and interpret it. By doing so, students learn to engage in critical thinking, draw conclusions from their work, and evaluate the significance of their findings in the context of existing literature or real-world problems.
Incorporating technical reports into lectures fosters the development of problem-solving and analytical skills, as students must assess the validity and implications of their results.
3. Reinforces Research and Experimentation Processes
The process of creating a technical report reinforces important aspects of research, such as hypothesis formulation, methodology design, data collection, and result analysis. It also helps students learn how to follow a structured approach to solving technical problems.
By requiring technical reports, students are given the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the scientific method, best practices in experimentation, and data integrity.
4. Preparation for Professional Work
In most professional fields, technical reports are a standard method of communicating project progress, experimental results, and research findings. By practicing report writing in university, students are better prepared for the expectations of the workplace, where technical documentation is a fundamental component of engineering, research, and technology-driven roles.
Employers often expect graduates to be proficient in drafting technical documents, and mastering this skill during university ensures that students are well-prepared for their careers.
5. Assessment of Understanding
Technical reports offer a comprehensive way for lecturers to assess students’ understanding of the course material. Through the structure of the report, students must demonstrate not only their grasp of theoretical concepts but also their ability to apply them in practical contexts.
By evaluating a technical report, lecturers can gauge a student’s depth of knowledge, their ability to conduct independent research, and their proficiency in translating theory into practice and tasks.
6. Encourages Attention to Detail and Accuracy
Writing a technical report requires attention to detail, from the accuracy of the data presented to the proper formatting of references and figures. This instills a sense of rigor and discipline in students, who must ensure their reports meet high standards of accuracy and professionalism.
In fields such as engineering, computer science, or the natural sciences, accuracy is predominant, and technical reports help reinforce this mindset among students.
7. Collaborative Skills
Many technical reports, especially in project-based courses, are created through group work. This teaches students essential skills in teamwork, collaboration, and the division of responsibilities, which are important in both academic research and industry projects.
Collaborative report writing helps students practice how to work efficiently as a team, balancing individual contributions with group objectives.
Structure of a technical report with LaTeX
In academic works, especially in technical fields, clarity, precision, and organization are key to producing high-quality reports. LaTeX is a powerful typesetting system that is widely used for creating structured, professional-looking documents.
LaTeX allows for consistent formatting throughout the document, ensuring that headings, sections, tables, figures, and equations are uniformly styled. This is especially important in laboratory reports, where clear presentation of data and methodology is crucial. With LaTeX, you can:
- Automatically number sections, figures, and equations.
- Easily format complex mathematical expressions.
- Generate a table of contents, list of figures, and bibliography with minimal effort.
To simplify the report-writing process and ensure consistency across all student submissions, our department will use a specific LaTeX template as a guide. This template will provide a structured format that students can follow, allowing them to focus on the content of their reports rather than worrying about formatting.
In our case, we will follow the “formato-reporte-ingenieria Template.” This template includes the following features: Title page, sectioning commands, automatic bibliography management, figure and table placement.
The LaTeX template includes a basic layout and examples for commands and environments to grasp easily by the student. However, please consider the following recommendations during your report writing process.
The title page
The title page provides the first impression of your report. It should include:
- Title: A concise and descriptive title that reflects the main focus of the report; if the lecturer does not give you a title, write your own title.
- Student’s Name: The author of the report.
- Course Title and Code: For proper identification within the course.
- Date of Submission: The date the report is being turned in or deliver it.
Introduction section
The introduction offers the reader the necessary background and context to understand the purpose and scope of the report. It should include:
- Background: This crucial section presents the specific scientific principle, technological issue, or research question that the report will develop.
- Purpose: Clearly state the goal of the report. What are you trying to investigate, test, or demonstrate?
- Scope and Overview: Briefly describe what will be covered in the report. This helps guide the reader through the document.
Thus, the introduction sets the stage by providing background and clearly defining the objectives, ensuring the reader knows what to expect from the report. The length of the Introduction section in a technical report can vary depending on the complexity and scope of the topic. However, for most laboratory reports or shorter technical documents, the Introduction typically ranges from half a page to two pages.
Objectives
The objectives section explicitly states|writes the goals of the experiment, project, code, or research that the report is based on. This section must answers the following questions:
- What are the aims of this report?
- What are the key questions or hypotheses?
The objectives should be precise and measurable. For example:
- “To measure the thermal conductivity of three insulating materials and compare their effectiveness.”
- “To test whether altering the concentration of a chemical solution affects the rate of reaction.”
Therefore, the objectives provide a clear focus for the report, guiding both the writer and the reader in understanding the goals of the research or experiment.
Theoretical Background
This section presents the theoretical foundation on which the report is based. It typically includes:
- Relevant Theories: A concise explanation of the scientific or engineering principles related to the report. For example, laws of thermodynamics, principles of electrical circuits, chemical reaction rates, or mathematical|programming methods used in the experiments or research.
- Literature Review: A brief summary of existing research or studies that are relevant to your work.
You should use this section to explain why the methodology chosen makes sense given the underlying theory.
Then, this section ensures that the reader understands the scientific or engineering principles behind the experiment or research and how these principles inform the work done in the report.
Methodology or Experimental procedure
This section is the most important and relevant in technical reports, because explains the steps taken during the experiment or research. It normally includes in details:
- Materials and Equipment: List the equipment, tools, or software used in the experiment.
- Procedure: A detailed step-by-step account of how the experiment, programming or research was conducted. This should be detailed enough that someone else could replicate the work exactly.
- Diagrams and Flowcharts: Where necessary, include visual aids like diagrams to explain the experimental setup or procedure to obtain the results.
In conclusion, the section provides a clear and detailed description of how the experiment or project was conducted, ensuring that the process is transparent and reproducible.
Results
The results section is where you present the data you collected during the experiment or research. This section normally include:
- Tables, Graphs, and Charts: Use these to present quantitative data clearly. Ensure that each figure is labeled and referenced properly.
- Data Description: Accompany the figures with brief explanations of what the data shows. Avoid interpreting the data here—focus only on presenting the results.
For example, if you conducted an experiment measuring temperature changes, you might present the results in a table or graph showing temperature over time.
Then, the results section provides a factual account of the outcomes of the experiment or research, presented in a clear and structured way.
Conclusions section
In this section, you summarize the key findings and discuss their implications. This includes:
- Summary of Results: Summarize the main findings from the report briefly.
- Interpretation: Analyze the results and explain what they mean. Did they meet your expectations? How do they compare to existing theories or literature?
- Limitations and Recommendations: Mention any issues encountered during the experiment or factors that may have affected the results. Provide suggestions for further research or how the process might be improved.
In essence, the conclusion summarizes the main insights obtained from the report and reflects on the implications of the findings, providing the reader with a clear understanding of what was accomplished and learned.
References
This section presents a complete list of all sources cited in the report. This may include:
- Books, Articles, Lecturer notes and Websites: Ensure that each source is cited properly using the citation style required by your course (e.g., APA, IEEE, or Chicago).
- In-text Citations: Every claim, theory, or fact that isn’t common knowledge should be referenced properly to avoid plagiarism.
Using a reference management tool (like BibTeX for LaTeX or EndNote) can help automate this process.
The references section ensures academic integrity and gives credit to the sources you used in your research, providing the reader with the opportunity to explore the original sources.
How your work is graded
The grading of the laboratory reports is based on several key components that ensure the work is of high quality, adheres to technical and academic standards, and demonstrates clear understanding and application of the subject matter. For the lectures that I teach, each report will be assessed on four main areas: format and layout, content, required tasks and scripts, and conclusion writing. Each of these areas is worth 25 points, contributing to a total of 100 points.
The grading criteria are structured to encourage professionalism in report writing, critical thinking, and technical accuracy. Below is a detailed breakdown of the grading system:
1. Format and Layout (25 Points)
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Excellent | The report is perfectly formatted in LaTeX, includes all required sections, references, figures, equations, and scripts. |
| Good | The report is formatted in LaTeX, with all required sections and figures, but lacks minor elements like scripts or equations. |
| Fair | The report is in LaTeX, but several required sections or figures are missing or incomplete. |
| Poor | The report is formatted in LaTeX, but lacks several required sections, figures, or the structure is inconsistent. |
Key Focus: This section evaluates how well students follow the provided formatting guidelines, their use of LaTeX, and the overall structure of the report. Proper layout enhances the readability and professionalism of the report.
2. Report Content (25 Points)
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Excellent | The report is well-written in third person, free from plagiarism, and uses correct grammar and proper citations throughout. |
| Good | The report is mostly well-written, but contains minor instances of improper third-person usage, citation errors, or a few grammatical mistakes. |
| Fair | The report contains several grammatical errors, improper use of third-person, or inadequate citations, with signs of potential plagiarism (e.g., direct quotes without attribution). |
| Poor | The report has significant grammatical issues, extensive plagiarism, improper citations, and lacks use of third-person perspective. |
Key Focus: This section assesses the clarity and quality of the writing, adherence to academic integrity, and proper use of citations. Students are expected to write technically sound and original content.
3. Required Tasks and Scripts (25 Points)
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Excellent | All tasks are completed, and scripts return accurate results without errors. |
| Good | All tasks are completed, but the script occasionally returns errors or inconsistent results. |
| Fair | Tasks are completed, but the script returns incorrect results or contains significant issues. |
| Poor | The tasks are incomplete, and the script is either missing or completely fails to execute the assigned task. |
Key Focus: This section evaluates the technical execution of tasks and the correctness of the scripts developed in the report. Accurate implementation of the required scripts and analysis is critical for a successful report.
4. Conclusion Writing (Individual Assessment) (25 Points)
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Excellent | The student writes a well-structured, insightful conclusion that thoroughly addresses the primary objectives of the laboratory session. |
| Good | The student provides a solid conclusion that relates well to the objectives but lacks depth in analysis or interpretation. |
| Fair | The conclusion is brief, somewhat connected to the objectives, but lacks sufficient detail or critical analysis. |
| Poor | The conclusion is weak, fails to connect to the objectives of the session, or is too vague to offer meaningful insights. |
Key Focus: The conclusion section tests each student’s ability to summarize key findings and link them to the main objectives of the lab session. Strong conclusions demonstrate critical thinking and technical comprehension.
Conclusion
This grading system has been carefully crafted to provide thorough feedback on all elements of the technical report. It aims to help students excel not only in technical tasks but also in developing strong communication skills, adhering to formatting guidelines, and presenting their findings in a professional manner. By following the provided report layout, you can strive to create an outstanding technical report. Remember, it’s normal to face challenges when starting to write or expressing ideas, but with practice and feedback, you will progress and produce reports that will earn the respect of every engineer. Nice writing time!