7.4 Technical Reports
Longer technical reports can take on many different forms (and names), but most, such as recommendation and evaluation reports, do essentially the same thing: they provide a careful study of a situation or problem, and often recommend what should be done to improve that situation or problem.
The structural principle fundamental to these types of reports is this: you provide not only your recommendation, choice, or judgment, but also the data, analysis, discussion, and the conclusions leading to it. That way, readers can check your findings, your logic, and your conclusions to make sure your methodology was sound and that they can agree with your recommendation. Your goal is to convince the reader to agree with you by using your careful research, detailed analysis, rhetorical style, and documentation.
Composing Reports
When creating a report of any type, the general problem-solving approach works well for most technical reports; the steps below in Table 7.4, generally coincide with how you organize your report’s information.
| 1. Identify the need | What is the “unsatisfactory situation” that needs to be improved? |
| 2. Identify the criteria for responding to the need |
What is the overall goal? What are the specific, measurable objectives any solution should achieve? What constraints must any solution adhere to? |
| 3. Determine the solution options you will examine |
Define the scope of your approach to the problem. Identify the possible courses of action that you will examine in your report. You might include the consequences of simply doing nothing. |
| 4. Study how well each option meets the criteria |
Systematically study each option, and compare how well they meet each of the objectives you have set. Provide a systematic and quantifiable way to compare how well to solution options meet the objectives (weighted objectives chart). |
| 5. Draw conclusions based on your analysis | Based on the research presented in your discussion section, sum up your findings and give a comparative evaluation of how well each of the options meets the criteria and addresses the need. |
| 6. Formulate recommendations based on your conclusion | Indicate which course of action the reader should take to address the problem, based on your analysis of the data presented in the report. |
Structuring Reports
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- INTRODUCTION: The introduction should clearly indicate the document’s purpose. Your introduction should discuss the “unsatisfactory situation” that has given rise to this report (in other words, the reason(s) for the report), and the requirements that must be met. Your reader may also need some background. Finally, provide an overview of the contents of the report. The following section provides additional information on writing report introductions.
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- TECHNICAL BACKGROUND: Some recommendation or feasibility reports may require technical discussion in order to make the rest of the report meaningful. The dilemma with this kind of i