writing guide - 31.1

31. WRITING

Reports are the most common form of document written by engineering. Report writing is an art that we often overlook, but in many cases can make a dramatic impact on how our work is perceived. Your reports are most likely to find their way to a superiors desk than you are to meet the individual.

31.1 FORGET WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT BEFORE

In my experience, most engineering students have been prepared for persuasive writing, but many of these skills become a negative when writing reports. The items listed below are the most common problems that engineering encounter when writing.

Writing is the last thing you do - Students have been required to do rough drafts to clarify their thoughts and determine what they want to say. To put it simply, if you don’t know what you will say you are not ready to write. When you are ready to write it should already be clear. An author should not start to write the report until all

Don’t find ’creative ways to say things’ - many student have been taught that they should not repeat themselves and find multiple ways to say things. When this is done in technical documents it leads to confusion. Authors should use precise terms (as many times as needed) and avoid trying to generate creative word choices. For example, we could increase confusion by also describing translation as motion, movement, sliding, displacing, etc.

Keep it simple - In an attempt to increase the ’prestige’ of a document many authors will use ’large’ words. This often leads to confusion and should be avoided. In some cases when an author is unsure they will respond by making their writing style more complex but most readers recognize this. For example, “Electronic computer based digital readings can provided a highly accurate data source to improve the quality of the ascertained data.” could be replaced with “Computer based data collection is more accurate.”

Clear, concise and to the point - In the past many students have been required to write reports with a minimum number of words. This encourages writers to break ideas into smaller pieces. But, readers appreciate shorter documents that get to the point. For example, “Readings of the pressure, as the probe was ascending up the chimney towards the top, were taken.” is better put “Pressure probe readings were taken as the probe was inserted”.

There is no great opening paragraph - Over half of all student authors spent a large amount of time on the opening paragraph to set the tone for the report. In my experience the longer a student tries to write the opening paragraph, the worse it is. In most cases it can be removed entirely from the document without any negative impact. Ironically, the writing of these students often improves once they

writing guide - 31.2

get beyond the first paragraph, but they have already lost the interest of the reader.

Transitions are not that important - Students are often coached to create clean transitions between sentences and paragraphs. As a result they often add unnecessary sentences and words. Words that are often warning signs are also and then.

You don’t need to keep the good stuff to the end - Many authors try to write the report so that there is a ’climax’. It can be very frustrating for a reader who reads 90% of a report before they encounter some discussion of the results. (note: a report is not like a mystery novel.)

Saying it more than once is acceptableOver 3/4 of students feel that it is unacceptable to state facts more than once. In truth you want to state fact as many times as necessary to make a technical point. In the case of very important details, this will be in the abstract, introduction discussion and conclusion.

A better procedure for writing engineering reports is detailed below. The method leaves writing to one of the last stages, but it becomes much easier when done this way.

1.Plan and do the work as normal. Regardless of what the report requires this will often include drawings, sketches, graphs/charts of collected data, pictures, etc.

2.Do the analysis (preferably on computer) of the data and results. These should be organized into a logical sequence.

3.Review the results to ensure they make sense and follow a logical flow.If necessary add figures to help clarify.

4.Review the materials to verify that they make sense without the text.

5.Put in point form notes to lay out the document.

6.Write the text for the report.

7.Verify that the report conforms to guidelines.

8.Proofread.

31.2WHY WRITE REPORTS?

Reports are written for a number of reasons, as listed below. In all cases they are designed to communicate technical information. Report readers are often looking for clear details that lead to a clear set of conclusions. By contrast, they are not looking for content that is highly philosophical, or riddled with artistic diversions.

-(lets forget about this one) as a student you must do them to get marks

-to let other engineers know the results of an experiment

-to leave a record of work done so that others may continue on

-as a record you may use yourself if you must do work again some time later

-they are required for legal reasons (contract or legislation)

-they bring closure to the project