Many college students have found it difficult when writing a technical report, stuffs like differentiating between a summary and an abstract have been a tug of war for students, so we would be discussing extensively and in clear and simple language Technical Report Writing For College Students.
We hope that this article would solve your puzzle about technical writing.
What Is A Technical Report?
A technical report can be written documentation of factual information based on an investigation or research, the research can either be an assignment or during industrial training.
A technical report is a formal report designed to convey technical information in a clear and easily accessible format. it is divided into sections that allow different readers to access different levels of information.
How To Present Technical Report Writing For College Students
Technical Report Writing For College Students need some form of technicality, you don’t just start writing there are basic steps and procedures you take before beginning your writing.
We would be discussing a few points below on how to present a technical report writing for college students.
1. Organization
A technical report is meant to be organized, any writing that is not organized would be difficult for a reader to access the information embedded inside the report.
The purpose of a report is to inform the reader, and to achieve this organization of the report is looked into.
A logically organized report is important and helpful both to the reader and the writer.
2. Title
This is another important aspect of the technical report, The title is your reader’s first contact with your report it aims to inform the reader about the content. it must be brief and must contain enough information to distinguish it from another similar report.
A good title must be written in unambiguous English.
The title is written on the cover page, and other information conveyed by the cover page includes the Name of the institution, the name of the supervisor, the date, and the name of the report writer.
Note that details on the cover page do not include in the word count, the cover page is a separate entity.
3. Abstract or Summary
An abstract is the summary of the writing, the purpose of an abstract is to give a brief overview of the whole report and not just of the conclusion and recommendation.
An abstract is the last thing you should write when writing a technical report, although it is placed immediately after the title, when writing an abstract you don’t have to give out the necessary information about the report, you only have to answer the question (why), I.e why you embarked on the specific writing.
for a short report a short abstract may be considered a total of 100 to 150 words may be appropriate, but for a long report at most one page of an abstract may be considered.
How To Know A Long And Short Report
You can know if a report is a long or short report with the following criteria.
- depending on the methodology used.
- a number of pages are used to consider a short or long report.
The 30-page report can be considered a short report for undergraduate academics while a master’s can be up to 150 pages as short report.
Also Read: Free MIT Online Courses With Certificate 2022
4. List Of Content
The list of content is another very important part of a technical report, it is there to help your reader find specific information in your content.
The list of content must be arranged according to how the chapters are arranged serially and the pages should be of the same match.
5. Introduction
The purpose of the introduction is to set up a scene for your readers so that they know what to expect from the report. it is important to remember that the introduction introduces the report and not the subject.
You have to state the objective of your report and also comment on the way you want the topic to be treated.
6. Experiment Details
This is a part of a Technical Report Writing For College Students where specific details about your experiment are highlighted, starting from the apparatus and equipment used to the procedures applied during the experiment.
Note that if your report has no experiment included, this part should be excluded from your report.
7. Result And Discussions
This is a part where you outline the result obtained when after you carried out the experiment.
You should give a piece of clear and precise information here so that the reader wouldn’t doubt your experiment and proceed in asking further questions.
8. The Body
This is the most important part of a technical report, it carries your content. It is divided into chapters depending on the information you are trying to pass across.
You should make use of sub-headings when working on your body, every new point should come with a sub-heading for easy understanding.
You can also make use of a list or number form when presenting your points so that readers can easily understand.
9. Conclusion
Writing the conclusion of your report is just a brief summary of the main points you highlighted in your body.
When writing the conclusion make sure you use words that suggest you are wrapping off to prepare the minds of your readers that the report is coming to an end.
Avoid writing more stories in your conclusion, it should be short and precise any story can be written in the body of the report.
10. Recommendations
After the conclusion, the next thing that follows is the recommendations, you should suggest solutions about how to solve the research problem in your own opinion.
11. Reference
This is another important part of writing a technical report, you need to list all the sources of materials you compiled together to organize your report.
When you write a reference it helps you avoid plagiarism which is serious the fence in writing a report.
You may need to quote some tests where you copy word by word.
12. Bibliography
This is also an important tip during Technical Report Writing For College Students, it is more like a reference but here you list sources that you did not use in your work, but might be helpful to the reader.
If a reader wants to go deeper into your report, he would follow your bibliography to see similar works.
13. Acknowledgment
This is where you show gratitude to people that helped you organize your report, this includes those that proofread your report and help you either by guidance or any aspect at all.
Standard Presentation Guidelines When Organising Technical Report Writing For College Students
- Script: When organizing a technical report writing for college students, the standard paper used is an A4 paper, it should be printed, a handwritten one is not acceptable when presenting a technical report.
- Page Numbers: All pages in the report should be numbered except the title page and abstract or summary. The numbering should match the table of content for easy accessibility.
- Margins: The preferred margin used for technical writing reports should be at least 2.54cm.
- Font & Style: The standard font used for report writing is size 12, while the standard style is New Roman, you should use a spacing of 1.5 or 2 depending on instructions from your supervisor.
- Binding: after you are done with organizing your work, you should staple it at the top, but if the report is large you should consider binding the pages together with either a spiral bind or clamp bind.
Tips On Writing A Perfect Technical Report
For your technical report to be close to perfect, there are certain criteria you have to abide by, below are some of those criteria.
- Avoid using different fonts: This is a key criterion to have a good report, avoid using too many fonts, use the recommended font and stick with it till you complete your work. If you want to highlight a certain point instead of using a different font you can just underline the word, it makes your work looks neat and mature.
- Always use sub-heading: A reader would easily understand your points when you categorize them into different sub-headings, it would save your reader so much time as every point would already be figured out.
- Avoid Plagiarism: This is another top criterion to abide by if you want your work to look professional, most college students have formed the habit of copying other people’s work word for word this is a crime and it’s punishable. Always use your own word after researching a topic, and avoid copying and pasting.
Even if you copy someone’s work always cite the person in your reference.
Always ensure that the source of your information is credible as there is much fake information on the internet, avoid using sources like Wikipedia or Quora for your articles, they aren’t reliable instead use journals and textbooks and always cross-check other works of the writer to confirm that the writer is credible.
A good author would always have many positive reviews or comments on his writings.
How To Check Out For Plagiarism In Your Report
When you are done with writing always make sure you check your writing for plagiarism before submitting it, always use a paid plagiarism tool checker, and avoid free tools as their information might be wrong.
The recommended plagiarism tool checker for college students is Turning Tin, it is a paid tool. Your plagiarism ratio should be less than 25%.
- Proofreading: This is the final step in organizing your report, always proofread your report to avoid grammatical and spelling errors.
When you proofread your work you would see a few mistakes and make necessary corrections.
