Technical Report

In the engineering and scientific professions, communication skills are as important as in other fields. Following the development of an innovative design and a cost estimate that predicts large profit, the designer must be able to communicate the findings to other people. There is an old adage that a tree falling in a forest doesn't make a sound unless there is someone to listen. Similarly, the best technical design in the world might never be implemented unless the designer can communicate the design ideas to the proper people in the right way.

The quality of a report generally provides an image in the reader's mind that, in large measure, determines the reader's impression of the quality of work. Of course, an excellent job of report writing cannot disguise a sloppy investigation, but many excellent design studies have not received proper attention and credit because the work was reported in a careless manner.

A formal technical report usually is written at the end of a project. Generally, it is a complete, stand-alone document aimed at persons having widely diverse backgrounds. Therefore, much more detail is required. The outline of a typical formal report consist of

1.

Cover page: Should have

• title of the report
• name of author(s)
• address

2.

Summary: summarize the work and should also include a short conclusion

3.

Table of content

4.

List of figures and list of tables include the corresponding page number.

5.

Introduction: Back ground of the work (market analysis) to acquaint reader with the problem and purpose of carrying on the work.

6.

Design Process: Details of the procedure followed in the design process.

7.

Discussion: The discussion could be divided into several subsections such as This section should contain the comprehensive explanation of the results. The discussion could be divided into several subsections such as

• technical analysis (force requirement, speed, etc.)
• details of the build up of the artifact
• equipment used
• assembly and setup procedures
• experimental setups and results
• details of the final results

8.

Conclusions: This section states in as concise a form as possible the conclusions that can be drawn from the study.

9.

References This section lists all the documents to which the writers referred. The information on each document must be complete and must follow the same formate throughout.

10.

Appendices: This includes material deemed to be beyond the scope of the main body of the report. The appendix section may be divided into as many subsections as necessary.