详情

Technical Report Writing

Course Duration: 2 Days

Introduction

Whilst engineers and technicians undergo many years of training to become proficient in their field of expertise, this does not necessarily include the art of writing because writing takes place in the absence of the ready. It may represent a boring, dull, difficult and unfamiliar chore for the technologist.

Technical writing has a flat style making documents difficult and tedious to read. Complex writing results in a waste of time, lost contracts and alienated customers - in other words, a loss of money.

Business reports are your company's main tool to enable and support critical decision making. if you are proposing a course of action - either within your company or to a client - the report you write will be it's best advocate.

This program has been designed specifically for people who are required to write business reports. It concentrates exclusively on the skills you need to make the writing process easier and the resulting document more effective.

Course Benefits

Upon completion of this course, you will learn on:

Analyze your audience and tailor the content to the specific needs
Gather data efficiently and select the relevant information for your readers
Use best practice in structuring your document
Choose words that support your message and don't distract your reader
Assess the best places to use graphics, and choose the right image to support your content
Edit your draft for maximum impact
Organize reports and plan the sections and subsections you need
Understand the principles of clear and concise writing
Collect, organize, analyze and evaluate information
Keep technical terms to a minimum - avoiding jargon, acronyms and abbreviations
Use good layout to draw attention to key technical information

Key Content

Module 1: Introduction

Goals
Types of report (formal report, technical memo, technical proposals, equipment or maintenance manual, journal articles)
Category of reader (skilled, decision maker, technical, operator, general non-specialists)

Module 2: Compiling the Report

Establishing a framework
Terms of reference (subject matter, purpose, reader identification)

Module 3: Report Structure

Findings
Observations
Discussions
Conclusion
Recommendation
Executive summary
Other sections *(title, table of contents, lists, appendices, references)

Module 4: Development Process

Organizing the report
Development methods (general to specific, specific to general, chronological, sequential, cause and effect, comparison, spatial)
Overview of conclusion/ recommendation section
Practical session

Module 5: Report Outline

Mind mapping
Outline formats (academic and engineering outline styles)
Rough draft
Activate the writing (correct grammar, language expressions and units of measures)
Simplify the writing

Module 6: Report Appearance

White space
Headings/ sub-headings
Color
Illustrations
Practical session

Methodology

Participants practice report writing skills, learning techniques through group discussion, exercises and working on real examples of reports.

This course is designed for all level of management.