Technical report characteristics, parts, examples

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David Holt
Technical report characteristics, parts, examples

A technical report It is a document that aims to describe the process, progress or results of a technical or scientific investigation. In some cases, it may include preliminary recommendations and conclusions about an ongoing investigation.

Unlike the publication of scientific articles and specialized literature, technical reports rarely go through a peer or peer review process prior to publication. This is because the content review process is in charge of the organization that is preparing them..

Today, it is one of the most commonly used methods to present technical and scientific information, in a simple way, about a research project that needs to be financially promoted by sponsors..

Since the technical report is aimed at a specialized audience, made up of engineers, architects, scientists or academics, the language used for its writing must follow certain standards that allow the reader to understand its content in a complete and agile way.

Article index

  • 1 Characteristics of a technical report
    • 1.1 Language
    • 1.2 Reliability
    • 1.3 Structure
    • 1.4 Graphics
    • 1.5 Documentation
    • 1.6 Audience selectivity
    • 1.7 Headers
    • 1.8 Presentation
  • 2 Parts of a technical report
    • 2.1 Title and cover
    • 2.2 Summary
    • 2.3 Table of contents or index
    • 2.4 introduction
    • 2.5 Body of the report
    • 2.6 Conclusions
    • 2.7 References and bibliography
  • 3 How to make a technical report?
    • 3.1 1- Planning
    • 3.2 2- Construction of the draft
    • 3.3 3- Review of the draft
    • 3.4 4- Inclusion of graphs and tables
    • 3.5 5- Final design of the report
    • 3.6 6- Location of headers
    • 3.7 7- Inclusion of information sources
    • 3.8 8- Writing the abstract
    • 3.9 9- Final review
  • 4 Example of a technical report
    • 4.1 Other examples
  • 5 References

Characteristics of a technical report

A technical report can be presented in physical or virtual format

The main characteristics of a technical report are:

Language

It must be written in a formal, concise and clear language.

Reliability

The veracity and accuracy of the data with which you work are essential for the evaluation of the report.

Structure

Its organization and structure must allow easy reading and understanding of its content.

Graphics

Example of a graph included in a UNAM technical report (see the final section of this article)

Include graphs, images, photos, and tables to display data.

Documentation

Information sources are very important in technical reports, they provide reliability to the study.

Audience selectivity

It is intended to be read by a specific type of audience, interested in the results of the report.

Headers

The titles should be located in such a way that the reader can easily locate the information of each section within the text.

Presentation

They should be built on A4 size sheet, with 2.54 cm margins. The pages are all numbered.

Parts of a technical report

The parts that a technical report should contain are the following.

Title and cover

Cover of a UNAM report (see examples section)

A title should be chosen as short and concise as possible, trying to give a general idea of ​​what is going to be exposed in the report.

The title has the task of capturing the attention of the reader, for this it is necessary that it begins with an important word, related to the content of the report. This should be included in three parts of the report:

  • On the title page, where the publication date and author's name are also placed.
  • On the summary page.
  • On the first page of the body of the report.

The title page includes the title, the authors of the report, the institution that made it and the institution that commissioned it, if applicable..

Resume

It should always be positioned at the beginning of the report. It is aimed at potential readers, giving them a brief idea of ​​what they will find within the report. The results or the conclusions obtained are not put. Ideally, no more than 200 words should be

Table of contents or index

Composed of the names of the sections, together with their page numbers. It is a tool that makes it easier for the reader to locate the topics that interest them. Generally used when the report is very long.

Introduction

It is the presentation of the topic to be developed. The information it contains depends on the type of report being carried out. If it is the development of a process, the introduction explains how it works, the reason for its development and who will benefit from its implementation..

In the case of reviews, the introduction should set the scope of the report and to whom it will be addressed. When talking about experiments, a summary should be made, showing how the work carried out improves or complements previous work. For investigations, the introduction of the technical report should indicate what the scope of the investigation will be

Report body

Without a doubt, it is the most important part of a technical report. The use of graphs and tables facilitate the understanding of the same.

The objectives of the study, the theoretical proposals, the methods used to carry out the research, comparisons with other reports, and the results obtained within the process carried out are explained here..

Conclusions.

The conclusions are the answer to the questions that have arisen in the study and must be directly referred to the body of the report..

References and bibliography

It is a list of the sources consulted for the research on which the report is based. Serves as a reference to readers and adds credibility to the work.

How to make a technical report?

To make a technical report, the following steps must be followed.

1- Planning

In this stage, bibliography and reports are sought on what you want to study, then individual ideas or issues that are important to address are noted, and finally the report is structured.

2- Construction of the draft

Here you start writing, delving deeper into the ideas proposed during the planning stage. It is advisable to start with the body of the report, following the structure that was proposed in the previous step.

Do not be so careful with the language style you use, as it will be corrected later.. 

Simultaneously, in this step you can make freehand graphs or diagrams to enter data. Then proceed to write the conclusions and finally the introduction. All this on a preliminary basis and subject to subsequent changes.

3- Review of the draft

In this step, a thorough review of everything that has been written is made, giving a more technical language to the work and ordering the parts in a coherent way.

4- Inclusion of graphs and tables

Here, a definitive format is given to all the tables, graphs and diagrams that you have, and they are placed in a logical way within the report.

5- Final design of the report

In this phase, the final design of the report is drawn up. Generally, a font size of 12 pt is used for the text, and the sizes for the titles and subtitles can be changed..

Using many different font sizes is not recommended as it can be confusing for the reader.

6- Location of headers

Titles and subtitles are used as a guide for readers and also to shorten paragraphs. They should be placed following the sequence planned during the previous steps, in such a way that there is always coherence in the presentation of the content.

7- Inclusion of information sources

All consulted sources must be properly referenced.

8- Writing the abstract

Having completed all the previous steps, we now proceed to write the report summary, which should not exceed 200 words.

9- Final review

Once the report is completed, a full review of the report is performed for errors. Likewise, it can be examined by another person versed in the subject covered by the investigation, to ensure a higher quality of the report..

Technical report example

The following is an example of a technical, non-academic report sent from a workshop to the research department of a motor oil factory..

Manolito Workshop

November 11, 2008

AFFAIR: Technical Report on oil testing.

Mr. Jaime Quiroga

Head of research

Aceites Quiroga S.A.

Once the tests of the different types of oils had been carried out on the tested engine, the following was generated:

TECHNICAL REPORT

The following oils were tested:

  • Synthetic.
  • Mineral
  • Conventional
  • High mileage.

The results obtained have yielded the following data:

WARM UP: Using Synthetic and high mileage oils, the engine has a temperature of 90 ° C, and with Mineral and Conventional, it was 103 ° C.

GAS EMISSION: Only the high mileage oil obtained a gas emission below the allowed limit. The remainder reached emissions that exceeded the limit between 20% and 30%.

CONCLUSION: Based on the results of the tests carried out, we consider that the high-mileage oil is the best of the four tested.

Other examples

Technical report of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Technical report of the Bolivian Ministry of Agricultural, Peasant and Fisheries Affairs.

References

  1. TO THE. Moorthy, C. K. (1997). TECHNICAL REPORT-WRITING: METHODS AND PROCEDURES. Retrieved from drtc.isibang.ac.in
  2. Batovski, D. A. (2010). How to write a technical report. Retrieved from researchgate.net
  3. Joffré Encinas, J. (2020). GUIDE FOR THE DRAFTING OF TECHNICAL REPORTS. Retrieved from ingenieria.uaslp.mx
  4. McMurrey, D. A. (2020). Technical Reports. Retrieved from tu-chemnitz.de
  5. Prance, D. H. (2010). Guide to Technical Report Writing. Retrieved from sussex.ac.uk

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