TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
INSTRUCTOR: BARIRA ABREJO
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS TECHNICAL REPORT?
Technical report is a document that describes the
progress, process, or results of scientific or technical
research. It also can include some recommendations
and conclusions.
Technical reports are a great source of technical or
scientific information. They can be written both for
wider or internal distribution.
TECHNICAL REPORT ELEMENTS
A typical technical report consists of the following elements:
The title page
The introduction
The summary
Experimental details
Results and discussions
The body
Conclusion
The conclusion may include:
-Recommendations
-Reference
Bibliography
-Acknowledgments
-Appendices
TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE A TECHNICAL REPORT
A technical report doesn’t differ much from other types
of technical documents. First steps are the same — learn
your audience, goals of the technical report, what
recourses (articles, blogs) can help you write a good
report, and so on.
When you’re searching for information on the Internet,
keep in mind, that not all the information is reliable, so
check it twice. The best way is to read relevant books,
journals, and articles.
Speaking of formatting, stick to one format — don’t use
different fonts in your work. If you want to highlight an
idea, use bold or italic.
Heading and subheadings should be clear in order to ease
the searching for necessary information. They also help
readers get the main
It’s okay to use the information of other people but use
citation — plagiarism is not a good idea of writing
content.
Must proofread your content.
Purpose of technical writing - Technical report writing has
two basic purposes:
1.To inform
2. To persuade
Importance of Writing a Technical Report
1. Efficient communication
2. Evidence for your work
3. Organizes the data
4. Tool for evaluation of your work
CHARACTERISTICS
clear - Technical writing presents information
clearly, leaving little to no room for
misunderstanding. It requires the use of
clear, concise sentences.
straightforward - This type of writing is
straightforward; it requires relaying information in
a way that is direct and straight to the point,
without the use of literary devices.
precise - The language used in technical writing
should be very precise, describing objects and
procedures in an exact manner.
easily understood - Effective technical writers
avoid words that people may not understand and
will avoid complicate writing style.
denotative meanings - This type of writing
relies on the denotative meanings of words to
ensure that misunderstandings don’t occur due to
differing interpretations based on connotation.
detailed - Technical writing is very detailed and
informative, leaving nothing to the imagination.
The perfect example of technical writing is a
textbook. Most textbooks describe the subject
matter as fully as possible.
very structured - Technical writing is very
structured. This type of writing needs to have an
obvious composition that makes it easy for
readers to follow along. The audience needs to
be able to rely on technical writing for step-by-
step instructions.
skimmable - Technical documentation should
be designed with skimmability in mind, so it’s
easy for readers to scan through the full
document and easily find information they need.
Technical writers should incorporate
meaningful, descriptive headings and include a
thorough table of contents and/or index.
problem-solving focus - Technical
documents should be created with problem
solving in mind. Readers use these
documents to learn how to perform certain
tasks or gain technical information, so they
should be easy to follow and organized in a
way that’s easy to refer back to as questions
come up.