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Technical Writing

Report Writing Procedure

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The 5 Phases of Report Writing

Basically, there are five phases involved inputting a technical report together:

Data gathering

Preliminary organisation

Initial draft preparation

Revision

Final inspection

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Data Gathering

As an engineering writer, you usually startwith minimal knowledge of a subject,collect additional information on thesubject and then write a summary of whatyou have learned.

As an engineer on the job, you will findthat you already group most of the

information you need for a report and thatbulk of the remaining specific data isavailable from your daily work.

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Data Gathering

It is usually true that the problem you willbe facing is not finding enough informationbut rather how to limit and select from thedata you have at hand.

There are four main methods of obtainingtechnical data and information:

Direct observation and experience

Testing and experimentation

Consultations

Library and web research

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Preliminary Organisation

Perform a detailed communication contextanalysis (purpose and audienceetc.)

and write out your analysis.

On several sheets of paper, write down -inrandom order as they occur to you- the

specific items of information that you might

include in the report.

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Preliminary Organisation

Gather related items of informationtogether:

Use index cards and post it notes to label

your items Collect items that have similar labels together

in piles or box-files

Think of a title for each pile or box-file

Separate unrelated items of information

and place them in a miscellaneous pile.

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Preliminary Organisation

If the amount of information is largeenough, repeat the same procedure witheach group to create sub-titles.

Give some thought to the arrangement ofthe different groups you have:

Are they related in any way?

Do some things have to be understood before

others can be? Should information be presented

chronologically or in order of importance?

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Initial Draft Preparation

Regard everything you write at this stageas something you are going to have to

write over again.

Do not strive for perfection first time round.The primary job in this phase is just getting

ideas into words.

Use double spacing and leave largemargins in your draft to make it easy to

revise and re-write.

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Initial Draft Preparation

Do not start at the beginning with yourintroduction. The introduction is usually thehardest part of your report.

Start with the easiest section or the sectionyou know most first.

If you get stuck at a certain section, leave it,move to another section and then come back

for it later.

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Initial Draft Preparation

Pick your most productive time of the dayto do your initial draft writing and block out

significant amount of time for this task.

To be effective in draft writing, you shouldhave all your information at hand and be

enthusiastic to write it down.

Consider using a tape recorder for gettingyour ideas down smoothly.

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Revisions

The primary suggestion for the revisionphase is to give yourself some time ( a

couple of days ) before you start.

Do your major revisions first, and then doyour minor revisions.

Reorganisation:

The entire report may need to be reorganisedor only some sections or paragraphs.

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Major Revisions

Completeness and brevity: This may include addition or deletion of large

blocks of information.

Graphics and illustrations: Consider the notes that will be mentioned

later.

Writing style: The writing style must be revised at the

paragraph, sentence and word level.

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Revisions

Minor revisions include: punctuation,spelling, grammar, word usage and overall

smoothness.

The main recommendation here is to dothe minor revisions on multiple stages.

Go through the entire report looking for

spelling, then do the same for punctuation,word choice and so on.

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Final Inspection

The main aim of this stage is elimination oferrors and achieving an excellent

document.

Mark everything to be changed, and thenmake the changes section by section.

Check for the following:

Typographical errors Missing or repeated words or phrases

Missing page numbers or pages out of order

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Final Inspection

Misspellings of peoples names or names offirms

Mistakes in numerical data, tables and figures

Inconsistencies in abbreviations or the use of

symbols

Inconsistencies in terminology and references

Inconsistencies between section headings and

the table of contents Inconsistencies in headings formatting, line

spacing, fonts, or margins