guide to report writing -...

Guide To Technical Report Writing 1 v5.1

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Electronic Engineering

Guide to Technical Report Writing

Introduction

A technician who is unable to communicate effectively with his superiors or colleagues will never

receive due credit for his/her work. Information must be transmitted in a clear and concise manner

in order to enable decisions to be made. The most popular method of technical communication is via

the report.

Points to consider before starting your report

The following should be considered prior to starting your report:

1. Why is the report being written?

2. Have the contents been planned in a manner that can be easily understood by the reader?

3. Who will read the report?

This decides the level of technical information that is to be included.

Suggestions to improve the quality and presentation of your report

1. Choose a short, meaningful title;

2. Include as many tables and diagrams as you think are appropriate. Remember that a single

diagram will often clarify what would otherwise be a very confused paragraph;

3. Use a simple, clear style of writing. Long and involved sentences are a hindrance to easy

understanding and often contain grammatical errors.

Format of the Start of the Report: Title Page and Plagiarism Declaration

The format to be followed for the title page and plagiarism declaration is shown on the next page.

Note that a correctly formatted template in MSWord format is available for download from the

department website under the Industrial Project 4 section.


Project Title

By

Your Surname and Initials here

Your Student Number here

Submitted in the Faculty of Engineering: Department of Electronic Engineering

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

National Diploma in Electronic Engineering

at the

Durban University of Technology

Insert Month and Year Here

___________________________

Signature of Student

___________________________ ___________________________

Signature of Supervisor Date

16 pt Calibri, bold Centre justification

12 pt, bold

Bachelor of Technology for B.Tech degree


PLAGIARISM DECLARATION

1. I know and understand that plagiarism is using another person’s work and pretending it is

one’s own, which is wrong.

2. This report is my own work.

3. I have appropriately referenced the work of other people I have used.

4. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing

it off as his/her own work.

___________________________ __________________ _____________________________ Surname and Initials Student Number Signature ___________________________ Date

14 pt, bold

11 pt


REPORT LAYOUT

The following sections are typically included in all technical reports. Each section is to start on a new

page:

Acknowledgements (BTECH ONLY)

Optional: You can use this section to express your gratitude to those who assisted you with your

project. Only necessary with large reports and should not be used to increase the size of your

document.

Abstract (BTECH ONLY)

A clear and concise summary of the contents of the report, stating your aim, results obtained and

conclusions reached.

Table of Contents

The contents list must contain the main and sub-paragraph headings and the respective page

numbers. The table of contents is formatted using right tab stops with dot leaders. (see example on

page 7)

List of Figures and/or Tables (OPTIONAL at Undergraduate Level)

List of Constants and Abbreviations (OPTIONAL at Undergraduate Level)

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

The objective of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the problem using relevant background

information on the topic, and to point out the purpose and significance of the report. The

specifications and scope of the project are clearly defined.

CHAPTER 2 – DESIGN

The body contains the primary message of the report, described in detail. The subject matter

discussed in the body must be logically developed and presented in a manner that is easy for the

reader to understand. All aspects of your design are to be discussed in this section.

System Block Diagram: Give the system’s block diagram including signals and discuss the function of

each stage (block on the diagram).

Circuit Diagram: If relevant, draw the circuit diagram and clearly indicate all its different stages. The

methodology used to design your circuit must also be discussed in this chapter. For example, if you

were designing a driver circuit to provide sufficient current to operate the car motors, then you must

describe the operation of this circuit and also mention the points taken into consideration during the

selection of the driver transistor/s or integrated circuit. All information on the selected components

can be found in the respective data sheets and application notes. Calculations are to be shown

wherever necessary. Also mention any safety features that you may have incorporated in your


design. For example, you may have used an opto-coupler to isolate the micro-controller from the

motor driver circuit.

CHAPTER 3 – CONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER 4 – TESTING

Procedures used to test various stages of the project must be included here.

Software and software design: For micro-controller based projects, the software design method

must be given. For high-level programming, the top-down design should be included.

Certain aspects of the software, such as any calculations used must also be detailed in this chapter.

The complete software listing must be shown in an annexure.

CHAPTER 5 – RESULTS

All results obtained during testing should be documented and compared to expected results.

Remember, a graphical representation of your results is usually more meaningful and therefore

preferable to tabulated results.

Analysis of the results should also be documented.

CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION

This chapter discusses the efficiency of the system’s design and the conclusions arrived at, based

upon the performance of the design ascertained during the testing stage. You may also make any

worthwhile recommendations, to improve the performance of your project, in this chapter.

REFERENCES

All references used to design your system must be stated and referred to in the body of the report.

The following format must be adhered to when stating references:

[1] Cebekhulu R, Groenewald S, Naidoo T, Student’s Guide to Project Design. Prentice-Hall, 2000.

[2] Astronomy 161 The Solar System, available at:

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/coordinates.html [accessed 10 September

2007]

[3] Chambers W R, Dictionary for Science and Technology. Pearson, 2009.

[4] Bose N K, Digital Filters, Theory and Applications, 2nd Edition. Elsevier Science Publishing

Company, New York, 1975.

[5] ANSI/IEEE Standard 488.1, IEEE Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation.

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, 1987.

Note that for website references, the actual website page reference must be used and NOT simply

the generic website address (see [2] above). The date the website is accessed must also be included.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/coordinates.html


ANNEXURES

The following are examples of the type of data that could appear in an annexure:

Complete Circuit Schematic

PCB Layout

Bill of Materials (costing table)

Full Code Listings

Data sheets should be included as an annexure only if certain details on the datasheet need to be

referenced in your text. If details on the datasheet are not needed as a reference in the body of the

report, the datasheet should NOT be included.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRELIMINARIES

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. ii

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... iii

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... iv

List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................... v

List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................ vi

Constants and Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ viii

CHAPTER 1 (Introduction – this chapter details research done into your project topic)

1.1 Background Information .................................................................................................................... 1

1.3 Project Specifications ......................................................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER 2 (Design – this chapter details the design of the project and problems overcome)

2.1 Project Design .................................................................................................................................... 5

2.1.1 Mechanical ............................................................................................................................ 6

2.1.2 Electronic ............................................................................................................................... 9

2.1.3 Software .............................................................................................................................. 12

CHAPTER 3 (Construction – this chapter details any construction of the project)

3.1 Mechanical ....................................................................................................................................... 15

3.2 Electrical ........................................................................................................................................... 16

CHAPTER 4 (Testing - details the testing procedures that you used to obtain your results)

4.1 Electronic .......................................................................................................................................... 17

4.2 Software ........................................................................................................................................... 18

CHAPTER 5 (Results - results listed graphically and the analysis of those results)

5.1 Analysis of Results ............................................................................................................................ 20

CHAPTER 6 (Conclusion – must be based on the results and analysis that you have obtained)

5.1 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 27

5.2 Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 28

REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 29

Annexure A: Schematic ......................................................................................................................... 30

Annexure B: PCB Layout ........................................................................................................................ 31

Annexure C: Bill of Materials ................................................................................................................ 32

Annexure D: Code Listing ...................................................................................................................... 33

An example of the Table of Contents layout. Note that headings marked with asterisks may not be included in undergraduate reports.

* *

* * *

Note that page numbers and sub-headings listed are for example only!


Report Format

The following format must be adhered to when writing a technical report:

1. Font / Typeface

The body text of the document must be typed in Calibri 11pt font.

2. Paper

Only one side of white, A4, bond paper is to be used.

3. Page Margins

Left margin = 3cm

Right margin = 2cm

Top and bottom margins = 2cm

The left margin must be greater than the right margin to allow for binding along the left of the

page.

4. Justification

Full justification is to be used for the body of the text.

5. Line Spacing and Document Length

1.5 line spacing should be used throughout the document text. An extra line space should

appear between paragraphs. For code listings, a line spacing of 1.15 is used.

6. Pagination

The page number should appear centered at the bottom in the footer of the page. The page

number should appear on its own and should not be followed by a full stop.

7. Italics / Bold / Underlining

Italic/bold should always be used for emphasis. Underlining is not to be used at all in a

technical document.

8. Tense

The report is to be written in the third person, past tense, for example “the instrument was

calibrated” as opposed to “I calibrated the instrument”.


9. Punctuation for lists

The following punctuation rules must be applied when using bulleted lists:

1. First point;

2. Second point;

3. Third point.

Tab stops (not spaces) are used to align bulleted and numbered lists.

10. Spelling and Grammar

The authority on spelling is the Oxford English Dictionary. The spell check facility on the word

processor must be used to check the document spelling but remember to use either the South

African or UK dictionary (NOT the USA dictionary). It is a good idea to get someone else, not

necessarily a technical person, to read what you have written and to check for grammatical

errors. Do not make the report sound like a pub chat. Remember that it is a technical

document and should read as such.

11. Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be avoided if possible. If using abbreviations always omit full stops, eg

NSRI, not N.S.R.I.

12. Numbers

The general rule for using numbers is to spell out larger numbers which can be expressed in

two words, eg two million. For other numbers use numerals, eg. 2054 students, 139 pages.

Numerals must be used for dates, street numbers, telephone numbers, decimal values and

percentages. Numerals should also be used if the number has a unit associated with it eg 5 V,

32 MHz. See the booklet titled “Standard Symbols and Notation” for details.

13. Equations

Word processors have an equation editing facility which correctly formats an equation. All

equations must be numbered and this number must be used when referring to the equation in

the body of the text. The following shows an example of an equation number 10 in Chapter 2:

2

3

x

cmxy

[2-10]

A line space must be inserted before and after the equation.


14. Quotations

All quotations should be within double quotation marks and the source thereof must be

acknowledged with the reference in square brackets eg “This is a quotation” [12].

15. Units

Always refer to measured quantities in terms of their SI units and accepted derivations

thereof. This applies to all text, tables, graphs and calculations. The omission of physical units

in an engineering report is totally unacceptable.

16. Table of Contents

The layout of the table of contents is set up using tab stops. The last tab stop must be a Right

Tab Stop with a Dot Leader which automatically inserts the dots into the line up to the page

number. Note the type of numbers for each section (Roman numerals or integers). (See

example on page 7)

17. Headings

The main headings should be centred on the page and should be in bold type. Section

headings or sub-headings should start against the left hand margin.

The following layout gives an example of the way headings on a page should be laid out:

CHAPTER 2

2.1 Section Heading

This is the paragraph text for this section.

2.1.1 Sub-section Heading

Excessive subdivision of headings should be

avoided, with the two levels outlined above

usually being sufficient.

14 pt, bold, capitals

12 pt, bold

11 pt, bold, italics

11 pt, Calibri font, full justification, line spacing = 1.5


18. Tables

All tables used in the report must be numbered and titled and referred to in the text. Do not

include tables in the document that are not referred to.

19. Diagrams / Figures

Diagrams are a very important communication tool in a technical report. The objective of a

report is to convey information to the reader in the clearest, most effective way. Technical

information is often best communicated with the aid of a diagram.

Before including a diagram in your report, consider the information you wish to convey and

whether the proposed diagram conveys this information clearly. Conversely, consider whether

a proposed textual explanation would be more effective if a diagram was used.

Diagrams must always be accompanied by explanatory text that makes clear reference to the

diagram. A diagram must be numbered (eg Figure 3.2 for the second diagram of Chapter 3)

and the diagram must have a title. (See examples on page 12)

Diagrams must be kept simple, clear and fully explained with supporting text. Block diagrams

are particularly useful in the introduction and early chapters of a report. Circuit diagrams, flow

charts and line graphs are other commonly used diagrams in Electronic Engineering reports.

Take Note:

Do not waffle or try to pad the report with unnecessary or irrelevant information.

Technical reports should be concise and to the point.

Do not conclude that results “were as expected” or “not expected”, “that you learnt a

lot”, “that the project was interesting”, “that the equipment broke down”, “that the

results were good, bad, inaccurate, etc.”, unless you have argued these points in the

discussion and you have quoted figures to back up your statement in the conclusion.


Examples of Diagrams/Figures

Figure 19.1 is a block diagram of the complete system. This project deals with the design,

construction, and testing of the D/A converter, the amplifier and the speaker. The rest of the block

diagram of Figure 19.1 falls outside the scope of this project.

Figure 19.1: Audio Playback System Block Diagram

The graph of Figure 19.2 shows a four times oversampled audio signal. The difference between two

recorded digital samples is divided by four. This quarter difference is then added to the first sample

three times to generate three additional virtual samples.

Figure 19.2: Four-times Linear Interpolated Oversampling

Audio Signal

Recorded Samples

Interpolated Virtual Samples

Time

Quarter

Amplitude

Difference

FLASH MEMORY

8 M X 16 bit

PROCESSOR

D/A

AMP 8 bits 16 bits

TRIGGER

DEVICE DEVICE DEVICE

CONVERTER

DEVICE

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