The document provides tips for writing an engineering report, including: 1. Create an outline and table of contents to organize your thoughts and sort figures, tables, and charts into their appropriate sections. 2. The structure of a technical report includes an introduction, discussion, and conclusion sections. Tell the reader what will be discussed and then recap what was discussed. 3. Supporting materials like figures, tables, and appendices should be referenced within the main body of the report. The introduction presents the topic, discussion provides details and references supporting information, and the conclusion summarizes key points.

1. How to Write Engineering
Report

2. Report Writing plan
• An outline will always save time by helping to
organize your thoughts.
To generate a report plan, it is the most
practical to create :
• A table of contents with the various section
and subsection titles.
• Sort the figures, tables and charts into their
associated report section or subsection.

3. The structure of technical writing
The structure of any piece of technical writing
consists of the following key components:
• introduction
• discussion
• and conclusion.

4. The principle of writing technical report
sections:
• Tell the reader what is about to be said,
• then recap what has just been said to the
reader. Phrases such as “it will be shown later
that …” and “this manufacturing error will be
shown to be the key to the poor performance
…”
The structure of technical writing

5. Referencing of supporting materials within the
main body of the report.
• Such supporting material can include
• Figures
• Tables
• Appendices, or external contents (e.g. website
documents, papers, standards, or
communication messages).
The structure of technical writing

6. Report Writing Tips: Writing Contents
Students
Technical report section content:
• Introduction
• each key point is discusses in detail with
reference to supporting information shown by
tables, figures, data, calculations or cited
references.
• Finally, write a section conclusion to
summarize and restate key points of
discussion.

7. Report Writing Tips: Grammar, Writing
Tone, and Formality
grammar mistakes can be avoided with thorough report
proofreading
• never begin a sentence with a con- junction (and, or, so, also,
etc.)
• the authors avoid the use of first and second person
• (Avoid using: I, we, you, our).
• Employ past tense for “historical events”, and employ present
tense to describe things that are always true
• Avoid stating “beliefs,” “feelings,” and “predictions” without
supporting them with substantiation or basis in fact.

8. Report Writing Tips: Rules of
Referencing and Citations
• Reference—Style 1
• The world is flat [1]. However, there is some evidence that the
world is a sphere [2].
• References—Style 2(a)
By papal declaration, Urban (1633) declared that ‘the
world is flat’. In a series of observations Galilei (1632)
however has shown that the earth is not the center of the
universe and that it revolves about the sun.

9. • References—Style 2(b)
• There has been some discussion in the
literature as to the nature of the shape of the
earth being either a flat disc (Urban, 1633) or
in the shape of a sphere (Galilei, 1632). There
is evidence (Galilei, 1632) however that shows
that the earth is not the center of the universe
and that the earth revolves about the sun.
Report Writing Tips: Rules of
Referencing and Citations

10. Report Writing Tips: Graphics
• In a technical report, the use appropriate graphs, illustrations,
or flow charts is highly recommended.
Fig. 15.1 shows a function chart
about the user operation steps of
an alarm clock module.
REMEMBER to make explicit
references to, and give specific
titles for the individual figures,
flowcharts and tables in the
report text

11. Illustrations
What Would Make This Illustration More
Effective?
• Annotations
• A descriptive figure titles

12. Report Writing Tips: Formatting