Still working as a college instructor back in 2016, this was one of my lectures being a teacher of technical writing.

1. REPORTS EN314 – Technical Report
Writing
B. R. Ybañez

2. REPORTS DEFINED:
Reports could be short (informal or semi-formal) or long.
A short report can be defined as an organized presentation of
relevant data on any topic—money, travel, time, personnel,
equipment, management—that a company or agency tracks in its
day-to-day operations (Kolin, 2014).
Reports show that work is being done, and they also show your boss
that you are alert, professional, and reliable.

3. REPORTS ARE:
•self-explanatory statement of facts relating to a specific subject and
serves the purpose of providing information for decision making and
follow up actions;
•systematic presentations of ascertained facts about a specific event /
subject;
•a summary of findings and recommendations about a particular
matter / problem;
•for the guidance of higher authorities including company executives
and directors; and
•facilitators of timely decisions and follow up measures.

4. WHY ARE SHORT REPORTS IMPORTANT?
Businesses cannot function without short written reports. Reports tell
whether:
•work is being completed
•schedules are being met
•costs have been contained
•sales projection are being met
•unexpected problems have been solved

5. SIX COMMON TYPES OF REPORTS
1. Periodic reports
2. Sales reports
3. Progress reports
4. Trip/travel reports
5. Test reports
6. Incident reports

6. WR ITIN G SH OR T R EPOR TS Guidelines and How-to’s

7. DO THE NECESSARY RESEARCH
Some frequent types of research you can expect to do on the job include:
•checking data in reference manuals or code books
•exploring web-based documents
•searching databases for recent discussions of a problem or procedure
•reading background information in professional and trade journals
•reviewing a client’s file
•testing equipment
•performing an experiment or procedure
•conferring with colleagues, managers, vendors, or clients
•attending a conference

8. ANTICIPATE HOW AN AUDIENCE WILL USE YOUR REPORT
To meet your audience’s needs, answer the following questions appropriately
for your readers:
1. Who is your audience?
2. Why are you writing?
3. What happened?
4. When did something happen?
5. Where did something happen?
6. Who did something or who was involved?
7. How did something happen?

9. BE OBJECTIVE AND ETHICAL
Your reports should be truthful, accurate, and complete. Here are
some guidelines:
1. Avoid guesswork.
2. Do not substitute impressions or unsupported personal opinions
for careful research.
3. Using biased, skewed, or incomplete data is unethical. Provide a
straightforward and honest account; don’t exaggerate or minimize.

10. CHOOSE A READER-CENTERED FORMAT AND DESIGN
Regardless of the format, help your readers easily find information by
including the following:
•A clear, precise subject line.
•Headings
•Bullets or numbers
•Underscoring or boldfacing
•Visuals

11. WRITE CONCISELY AND CLEARLY
Say what you need to say without wasting readers’ time.
Wordy Concise
at this point in time now
make a concerted attempt to Try
take place in such a manner that occur

12. ORGANIZE CAREFULLY: PURPOSE
Organizing a short report effectively means that you include the right
amount of information in the most appropriate places for your
audience. Many times a simple chronological or sequential
organization will be acceptable for your readers.
Purpose
Remember: Always being by telling your readers why you are writing
and by alerting them to what you will discuss. Give your readers a
summary of key events/details at the beginning to help them follow
the remainder of the report quickly.

13. ORGANIZE CAREFULLY: FINDINGS
In this section you give readers the results. Be careful not to
overburden or underestimate the reader.

14. ORGANIZE CAREFULLY: CONCLUSION
Generally, your conclusion tells readers what your data means. A
conclusion can:
•summarize what has happened;
•review what actions were taken; or
•explain the outcome or results

15. ORGANIZE CAREFULLY: RECOMMENDATIONS
A recommendation inform readers what specific actions you think
your company or client should take—market a new product, hire
more staff, institute safety measures, select among alternative plans
or procedures. Recommendations must be based on the data you
collected and the conclusions you have reached.

16. WR ITIN G LON G R EPOR TS

17. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT
Both long and short reports are invaluable tools in the world of work.
Basic differences exits, though, between the two types of reports. A
short report is not a watered-down version of a long report; nor is a
long report simply an expanded version of a short one. The two types
of reports differ in scope, research, format, timetable, audience, and
collaborative report.

18. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT: SCOPE
A long report is a major study that provides an in-depth view of the
problem or idea.
The implications of a long report are wide-ranging for a business or
industry.
The long report examines a problem in detail, while the short report
covers just one part of the problem.

19. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT: RESEARCH
A long, comprehensive report requires much more extensive research
than a short report does.
Information gathered for many short reports can also help you
prepare a long report.

20. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT: FORMAT
A long report is too detailed and complex to be adequately organized
in a memo or letter format. The product of thorough research and
analysis, the long report gives readers detailed discussions and
interpretations of large quantities of data.
To present the information in a logical and orderly fashion, the long
report contains more parts, sections, headings, subheadings,
documentation, and supplements (appendices) than would ever be
included in a short report.
A long report also often includes many graphs, spreadsheets, charts,
and tables to give readers extensive background information.

21. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT: TIMETABLE
The two types of reports differ in the time it takes to prepare them.
A long report is generally commissioned by a company or an agency
to explore with extensive documentation a subject involving
personnel, locations, costs, safety, or equipment.
A short report is often written as a matter of routine duty, with the
writer sometimes given little or no advance notice. The long report,
however, may take weeks or even months to write.

22. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT: TIMETABLE
When you prepare a long report for a class project, select a topic that really
interests you, because you will spend a good portion of the term working on it.
Below is a timetable for such long report.
Gather research Outline or Draft Conference for Revise and Proofread and
Submit
materials Revisions and Finalize Figures Polish Long Report
Further Reading
_______________________________________________________________________________________
4 weeks 3 weeks 1 week 3 weeks 1 week Due Date

23. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT: AUDIENCE
The audience for a long report is generally broader—and goes higher
in an organization’s hierarchy—than that for a short report. Your
short report may be read by co-workers, a first-level supervisor, and
possibly that person’s immediate boss, but a long report is always
intended for people in the top levels of management—presidents,
vice presidents, superintendents, directors—who make executive,
financial, and organizational decisions.

24. LONG REPORT VS SHORT REPORT: COLLABORATIVE EFFORT
Unlike many short reports, the long report in the world of business
may not be the work of one employee. Rather, it may be a
collaborative effort, the product of a committee or group whose work
is reviews by a main editor to make sure that the final copy is
consistently and accurately written.

25. TH E PR OC ESS OF WR ITIN G A
LONG REPORT

26. GUIDELINES TO WRITING A LONG REPORT
1. Identify a broad yet significant topic.
2. Expect to confer regularly with your supervisor(s).
3. Revise your work often.
4. Keep the order flexible at first.
5. Prepare both a work calendar and a checklist.

27. P A R T S O F A L O N G R E P O R T

28. FRONT MATTER: LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
This three- or four-paragraph (usually one-page) letter states the
purpose, scope, and major recommendation of the report. It
highlights the main point of the report that your readers would be
interested in.

29. FRONT MATTER: TITLE PAGE
The title page must contain the full title of you report; tell readers
what your topic is and how you have restricted it in time, space, or
method. Keep in mind that your title determines if and how you have
done your work. Avoid titles that are vague, too short, or too long.
Vague Title: A Report on the Internet: Some Findings
Too Short: The Internet
Too Long: A Report on the Internet: A Study on Dot.com
Companies, Their History, Appeal, Scope,
Liabilities, and Their Relationship to
Ongoing Work Dealing with Consumer
Preferences and Protection Within the Last Five Years in the
Midwest

30. TABLE OF CONTENTS
The table of contents lists the major headings and subheadings of
your report and tells readers on which pages they can be found.
Essentially, a table of content shows how you organized your report.
A table of contents emerges from many outlines and drafts. The
items on those outlines frequently expand, shrink, and move around
until you decide on the formal divisions and subdivisions of your
report.
Include front matter components in your table of contents, but never
list the contents page itself, the letter of transmittal, or the title page
in your table of contents.

31. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
This list of all the visuals indicates where they can be found in your
report.

32. TEXT OF THE REPORT: INTRODUCTION
Remember: The introduction is essential because it tells readers why
your report was written and thus helps them to understand and
interpret everything that follows.
1. Background
To understand why your topic is significant and hence worthy of the
study, readers need to know about its history. The history may
include information on such topics as who was originally involved,
when, and where; how someone was affected by the issue; what the
implications of your study are.

33. TEXT OF THE REPORT: INTRODUCTION
2. Problem
Identify the problem or issue that led you to write the report. Your
problem needs to be significant to warrant a long report on it.
Because the problem or topic you investigated will determine
everything you write about in the report, your statement of it must be
clear and precise. That statement may be restricted to a few sentence.
Example:
The construction industry has not satisfactorily met the needs for accessible
workplaces and homes for all age and physical ability groups. The industry has relied
on expensive and specialized plans to modify existing structures rather than creating
universally designed spaces that are accessible to everyone.

34. TEXT OF THE REPORT: INTRODUCTION
3. Purpose statement
The purpose statement, crucial to the success of the report, tells
readers why you wrote and what you hope to accomplish or prove: it
expresses the goal of all your research.

35. TEXT OF THE REPORT: INTRODUCTION
4. Scope
This section informs readers about the specific limits—number and
type of issues, time, money, locations, personnel, and so forth—you
have placed on your investigation.
Example:
This report examines the recent techniques involved in the disposal of liquid
and solid wastes; gaseous wastes are not discussed in this report.
You also might limit your report by directing it to a particular
audience or by writing at a particular technical level for that audience.
Example:
This report is intended for non-engineering managers to acquaint them with
recent investigations in unit mechanization design.

36. TEXT OF THE REPORT:
THE BODY
Also called the discussion, this section is the longest, possibly
making up as much as 70 percent of your report. Everything in this
and all the other sections of your report grows out of your purpose
and how you have limited your scope. The body of your report should
supply readers with statistical information, details about the
environment, and physical descriptions, as well as the various
interpretations and comments of the authorities whose work you
consulted as part of your library research.

37. TEXT OF THE REPORT:
THE BODY
The body of your report should do the following:
•be carefully organized to reveal a coherent and well-defined plan;
•separate material into meaningful parts to identify the major issues
as well subissues in your report;
•clearly relate the parts to each other; and
•Use headings to help your reader identify major sections more
quickly

38. TEXT OF THE REPORT:
CONCLUSION
Things to remember in writing the conclusion:
1. The conclusion should tie everything together for readers by
presenting the findings of your report.
2. Regardless of the type of research you do, your conclusions should
be based on the information and documentation in the body of the
report.
3. Your conclusion should grow out of the work you describe in the
body of the report.
4. Your conclusion should not stray into areas that your report did
not cover.

39. TEXT OF THE REPORT:
RECOMMENDATIONS
A research report for a course may not require a recommendation
section. But for a business of scientific repot, the most important part
of the report, after the abstract, is the recommendation(s) section,
which tells readers what should be done about the findings recorded
in the conclusion. Your recommendation section shows readers will
expect you to advise them on a specific course of action—what
equipment to purchase, who to hire for which positions or programs.

40. BACK MATTER:
GLOSSARY
Included in the back matter of the report are all the supporting data
tat, if included in the text of the report, would bog the reader down in
details and cloud the main points the report makes.
Glossary
The glossary is an alphabetical list of the specialized vocabulary used
in the report and the definitions.

41. BACK MATTER:
REFERENCES CITED
Any sources cited in your report—Web sites, books, articles,
television programs, interviews, audio-visuals—are usually listed in
this section (see Chapter 9 on preparing a Works Cited or Reference
list).

42. BACK MATTER:
REFERENCES CITED
Any sources cited in your report—Web sites, books, articles,
television programs, interviews, audio-visuals—are usually listed in
this section (see Chapter 9 on preparing a Works Cited or Reference
list).

43. BACK MATTER:
APPENDIX
An appendix contains supporting materials for the report—tables and
charts too long to include in the discussion, sample questionnaires,
budgets and cost estimates, correspondence about the preparation of
the report, case histories, transcripts of telephone conversations.