writing technical report

8/3/2019 Writing Technical Report

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Writing Technical ReportWriting Technical ReportDr. Seif Fateen

LayoutLayout

Whats in a Technical Report

Primary and Secondary Sources

Searching for materials online

MS Word Tips


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TenseTense As the writer is usually writing about

events which have already happened, thetense of the paper is mainly past tense.

In some parts of the document, it may beappropriate to use present or futuretense. facts that were, are, and forever shall be true

If the author is writing about experimentsor activities yet to come, future tense isappropriate.

Components of a Technical ReportComponents of a Technical Report

Title Page

Abstract

Table of Contents

Nomenclature

Chapters/Sections

References

Appendices


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Table of ContentsTable of Contents The table of contents is a listing of the

main headings of the document.

This includes the abstract, nomenclature,

chapters, chapter sections, references, and

appendices.

Generated automatically by MS Word

when Styles are used.

NomenclatureNomenclature

The nomenclature is a tabulated listing of

the variables (and their units) that will be

used in the document.


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Chapters/SectionsChapters/Sections The chapters/sections make up the body

of the document.

They include the detailed information the

author wants to convey.

Introduction/Body/Conclusion

ReferencesReferences

This section lists the books, magazines,conversations, websites, and other sourcesof information you used in writing yourdocument.

They should be formatted in one of thewidely accepted Styles.

Write the references to your paper.Thisallows you to put references into the text asyou type your document. It will save youtime as you will eliminate the extra step ofreading the paper once or twice to insertand correct references.


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AppendicesAppendices Appendices contain information which is

important, though in most cases

secondary to the purpose of the

document.

For instance tabulations of scientific data,

detailed calculations, and similar material

are often good candidates for appendices.

Writing processWriting process

Plan an outline

Dont start from the beginning

Start anywhere. Dont worry about

corrections. Proof read many times

Write abstract, introduction and

conclusion


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SourcesSources Primary Sources

The person who did the research is reportingon it.

Found in conference papers and journalarticles

Secondary Sources

Report on research done by someone else

Often summarizes the information

Found in review articles, handbooks,encyclopedias and text books

Using and creating citationsUsing and creating citations

You will learn how to

How to interpret citations

How to create your own

Why is it important to cite your sourcesproperly

A bibliographic citation is

A reference to a published item, such as a

journal article, book or web site, which

uniquely identifies it.


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Elements of a CitationElements of a Citation Authors

Titles

Date

Page numbers

These elements will be presented

differently depending on which citation

style is in use.

Citation StylesCitation Styles


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Citing web pagesCiting web pages

Why is it important to cite yourWhy is it important to cite your

own sources?own sources? It shows your professors that youve done

a thorough job in researching your topic

It also shows that youve given credit to

the original author for using his ideas orwords. Failure to do so constitutes

plagiarism.


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Search StrategiesSearch Strategies Basic

Keyword searching

Boolean operators

Truncation

Advanced

Subject searching

Field searching

Limiting to publication types

Google vs. Google ScholarGoogle vs. Google Scholar

Google

Searches the free web

Commercial sources

Personal sites

Government information

Educational sites

Google Scholar

Copyrighted sources

Scholarly journals

Commercially published sources


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TipsTips Citations Index

Google Scholar tells you who cites the paper that you havejust found

Use it to expand your results

Getting a paper May be its available online. Use google and filetype:pdf

Use sciencedirect.com on one the university computers todownload it

Ask a friend who studies overseas to access it online andemail it to you

Do Not Dont go to the National Academy of Sciences Dont go to the library for papers. Go there only for books.

MS Word TipsMS Word Tips

Use Styles Heading 1, 2, 3

Normal

Use numbered list for headings Use Captions Use cross references Insert Table of Contents, List of Figures, and List

of Tables automatically Use build-in citation and bibliography in MS Word

2007 Use predefined styles Use predefined cover pages

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