Technical Report Components

Types of Technical Reports

• Classified according to:
  • Degree of formality (formal and informal reports)
  • Length (long and short reports)
  • Regularity (routine, periodic, or occasional reports; annual, biannual, or quarterly reports)
  • Phase (interim, pilot, progress, or terminal reports)
  • Format (alarm form, letter form, schematic form, or mixed form)
• Classified by content:
  • Occurrence report (describes an event)
  • Field trip report (written by an engineer, agricultural specialist, or technologist after a field assignment)
  • Feasibility report (develops and analyzes an idea or concept to assess its economic or technical feasibility)
  • Investigation report (describes how to perform tests, examine data, and weigh tangible evidence to arrive at conclusions)
  • Evaluation report (starts with an idea to be developed and evaluated)
• Other types of technical reports:
  • Technical proposal (prepared by a company to convince another company or institution of its technical capability to offer a specific service or perform a specific task)
  • Technical brief (presents a new idea in sufficient depth to enable the recipient to assess its practicability and cost)
  • Staff report (gives a brief account of the deployment and disposition of staff within a given period)
  • Audit report (a short comment on the degree of efficiency with which a company has operated its financial and material accounts and kept records of such operations)

Characteristics of Technical Reports

• Technical accuracy (ensures sound scientific judgment and preserves the writer's image as a careful and dependable person)
• Consistency in presenting (maintains consistency in weights and measures, decimal or imperial systems, numbers, alphabetic style, and punctuation)
• Clarity (ensures easy comprehension by the non-technical reader, requires audience analysis, and explores the richness of the English language)
• Mechanical accuracy (follows standard rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and uses dictionaries and standard reference works when in doubt)
• Conciseness (presents information in the shortest possible form, avoids needless repetition, and uses brief sections with sub-titles)
• Persuasiveness (creates interest and curiosity, has a good speech melody, and includes an additional subtitle)
• Interest (uses a clear, true, honest, short, and accurate title that creates interest and curiosity)

Requirements of the Title of a Technical Report

• Must be clear, true, honest, short, and accurate
• Must contain the main topics or main keywords
• Must create interest and curiosity
• Must have a good speech melody
• Must have an additional subtitle

Methods of Data Collection

• Gives sufficient detail to leave the reader in no doubt about the methods used, why they were used, and any special circumstances for using them

Analysis and Interpretation of Data

• Analyzes and interprets data for the study, not someone else's
• Compares analysis and interpretation with those of previous or contemporary writers with care

Findings/Results

• Lists results/findings in a logical manner suitable for the kind of study being reported
• 'Results' are the outcome of experimental research, while 'findings' normally relate to field observations

Discussion and Conclusions

• Gives discussion full reign by citing as many relevant references as possible
• Leads logically to conclusions and numbers all conclusions for easy grasp

Recommendations

• Based on conclusions, presented in a numbered list, and justified with pertinent conclusions
• Must derive scientifically from material within the report, not outside it