Report Writing

Techniques and methods

Today’s Information:• Reports and Essays – The

differences and rules• Laying out a report• Writing in the third

person and doing it professionally..

• Indicating sources used• Bibliographies • Contents systems• Title pages • Finding information

Essays and Reports.. • It is important to

understand the difference between an Essay and a Report.

• As with many things, it is difficult to come up with a definitive explanation of the difference between the two.

• However there are some rules you can follow.

Author’s Stance.. • In an essay, the author takes

an argumentative stance often stated as a thesis (a specific idea or interpretation). In essays, authors use arguments to make their point (opinion). In a technical report, the author has a main point, but it is not stated directly as an argument.  Rather it is stated as a hypothesis, to be proved or disproved, or a main point.  So, the author takes a non-argumentative stance. In technical reports, authors use definition or fact to make their point.

What is a Hypothesis? • supposition or conjecture

put forth to account for known facts; esp. in the sciences, a provisional supposition from which to draw conclusions that shall be in accordance with known facts, and which serves as a starting-point for further investigation by which it may be proved or disproved and the true theory arrived at.

Examples: • Essay: This essay considers

whether Dan Brown’s ‘The De Vinci Code’ may have effected peoples belief’s in Roman Catholicism in Europe. Arguing that the hype around the book is inaccurate and unjustified.

• Report: Has Dan Brown’s book, ‘The De Vinci Code’ Affected Roman Catholic Belief in Europe? This report will examine research evidence and provide a conclusion. Is the book based on fact or fiction?

Data• In an essay, authors may use

information from all kinds of sources, including personal experience, to support the main point/argument.  The author supports his/her argument with evidence that may vary from personal experience to researched information (usually secondary--library--sources).  In technical writing, the hypothesis or main point is supported with quantitative or qualitative data gathered through either primary research (field work, lab work, interviews with recognized experts, and the like) or secondary research from professional, refereed journals. In technical writing, personal experience is omitted or if the author uses it, he/she substantiates the information with primary or secondary research

Quantitative and Qualitative Research..

• Quantitative: Data gathered from a large sample, with less detail; such as a scale of 1-10 how happy are you?

• Qualitative: More focused research on a smaller sample, obtaining more detail from a smaller sample; such as: how happy are you and why?

• A mixture of these forms of research is important for gathering data.

Audience • The audience for an essay

is usually not specialized; usually it is any group of readers with an interest (often general interest) in the topic.  The audience for a technical report is a specialized group of people with a specialized interest, purpose, and expertise.

Purpose:• When writing an essay, the

author’s purpose is to persuade.  When writing a technical report, the author’s purpose is to help readers solve a specific problem with specific data.  So technical writing is oriented to solving a problem for specialized readers and informing.  The problem may be that readers lack specialised information.

The way you write..• In an essay, authors tend

to use a personal voice.  In a technical report, authors tend to take an authoritative voice: the data becomes the focus rather than the author’s persona.

Subject Matter..• There can be quite a bit of

overlap here. Essays tend to deal with general issues (e.g. the role of corporations in a society, the viability of organic farming, the use of punishment in education, the use of genetically modified food).  Technical reports deal with specific, problem oriented topics.

Quick Report Rules.. • Take an unbiased stance.

Provide specific, specialised data from professional sources

• Write for a specialised audience with technical expertise in the area.

• Solve a specific problem for the audience (in this case the market viability of a product design)

• Write as an expert.• Focus the main point in a very

specific way in context of report and conclusions.

Laying out a report: • Both Essays and Reports

need to have a structure. • Having a structure allows

you to plan the report and write the content more easily.

• To help you: Here is an outline contents for the Market Report.

Contents.. • Title page!• The report should begin with

and Executive Summary. This is commonly misinterpreted as an introduction or a statement of intent.

• Its not! It is a summary of the contents of the document, your main, objectives, points and key conclusions.

• The ‘in the lift with the boss’ scenario. Its got to be quick, snappy and get across the most important findings in the report!

• 250-350 word max. I usually bullet point the facts.

• So; though this is the first page, it is the last thing you do!

Contents.. • Next, a contents page,

detailing main chapters, sub-headings and the pages they correspond too.

• Introduction: Tell me what you are going to do.. Key objectives for the report, introduction to the product you are reviewing and a hypothesis as to what you think you may find.

Contents.. • Market situation.. A brief

overview of the market, total turnover, identify the main competitors and who are market leaders etc.

• Competitor Analysis.. Overview of main competitors, turnover, market position and share, products directly competing with yours.

• Any in-direct competitors you feel relevant.

• Product Analysis. • SWOT analysis.

Contents.. • Consumer analysis, look at

current market intelligence from research sources, and identify target customers.

• Trends.. From analysis, identify key trends in the market and identify market opportunities.. What has not been done?

• Brief customer profiles.. Profile a minimum of two customers.. Give them and identity, age, occupation, earnings, hobbies and attitude in-line with trends. Key examples of the types of customers that will buy your product.

Contents.. • Analyse your findings from

your research and give a summary/evaluation of what the market situation is for your product.. How will you compete? Why will certain types of customers buy this product and how specifically will it be better then other products? How much might it cost… if you do not feel it will be successful, why? If its going to be the next best thing.. Why?! Was your hypothesis correct? Discuss.. You can also add in a brief strategic plan – your own marketing mix. Then summarise with recommendations in bullet points.

Contents.. • Design Criteria.. In

response to your report, identify key design criteria that the product must meet to respond to the market conditions your have discovered. Especially if you have identified essential improvements to your existing design that must take place for the product to be commercially viable.

Writing in the third person.. • Remember that reports are

based on fact.. You try to prove or disprove a Hypothesis. Its NOT your opinion, it’s a logical conclusion based on solid information.

• Therefore.. Its important to write in the third person perspective and not the first.

• The first person is ‘I consider this to be’ I am very impressed with’

• The third person: ‘Research suggests that consideration of market factors is important’

Quick Break.. • Back in ten minutes

please!!

Using research sources..• So – now you are writing

in the third person, you need to be able to source you facts. There are a number of ways of doing this. Which we are going to look at in word.

Bibliographies.. • Once you have indicated

your sources in the context of your report, itemise them in you bibliography using the Harvard system once again.

• Do them in order, corresponding to books websites and magazine, newspaper or journal articles.

Appendix.. • Appendices are information

additional to the report that are referred to in the context and contain relevant information but are to long or not suitable for the body of the report, such as interview transcriptions, questionnaire pages or long technical articles. The appendix should have a contents at the beginning and be clearly marked using a system you can refer to in the main report – e.g. refer app. 1.2

Contents page.. • Separate your report into

sections – Section 1, Introduction, Section 2, Market Situation.

• Under the sections, for subheadings use numerical breakdown. 1.1 Product overview 1.2 Report objectives etc.

Report layout.. • Use font schemes to highlight

titles and body text: e.g.1.1 Introduction: The purpose of this report is to analyse and

evaluate the potential market for the product design..

• Don’t forget to use colour! • You are designers.. Do

something attractive, a scheme or background, but be careful!

• Include images and diagrams to illustrate your text and key findings and summarise information into bite size pieces.

Report Layout.. • Don’t forget to add page

numbers so your contents page works!

• Please – No word art!!! • Don’t blab, try to be

concise this will help to keep your word count down.

• Include a clear title page, including name, university, course, module title, date of hand in, word count.

• Remember about the hand in slips – make sure the do not get lost. Use a folder.

Main tips: • Plan your work: • Sort out relevant research • Make sure the body text is

your own work and diagrams too.

• Keep it factual – no ‘I thinks’ • Allow time for drafts and

editing – this can take a long time

• Proof read – not just you, but others. No excuses!!

• Backup your work, the dog ate it, lost my USB etc. is not good enough!

• Allow plenty of printing time!!

Tutorials..• Next week and week after

– tutorials!!