Introduction

Whilst engineers and technicians undergo many years of training to become proficient in their field of expertise, this does not necessarily include the art of writing. Because writing takes place in the absence of the reader it may represent a boring, dull, difficult and unfamiliar chore for the technologist. The result is that, too often, technical writing has a flat style making documents difficult and tedious to read. Complex writing results in a waste of time, lost contracts and alienated customers – in other words, a loss of money. Business reports are your company’s main tool to enable and support critical decision-making. If you are proposing a course of action – either within your company or to a client – the report you write will be its best advocate. It takes a lot of skill to communicate technical or commercial information efficiently and accurately. This programme has been designed specifically for people who are required to write business reports. It concentrates exclusively on the skills you need to make the writing process easier and the resulting document more effective.  

Learning Objective What the participants will learn:

• Analyse your audience and tailor the content to their specific needs
• Gather data efficiently and select the relevant information for your readers
• Use best practice in structuring your document
• Choose words that support your message and don’t distract your reader
• Assess the best places to use graphics, and choose the right image to support your content
• Edit your draft for maximum impact
• Organise reports and plan the sections and subsections you need.
• Fully understand the steps in writing a report
• Understand the principles of clear and concise writing
• Develop effective communication with technical as well as non-technical staff at all levels – matching your content to your readers’ knowledge.
• Keep information specific rather than general.
• Collect, organise, analyse and evaluate information
• Appreciate the use of active verbs rather than passive verbs.
• Edit wordy phrases – using simple words rather than complex ones
• Keep technical terms to a minimum – avoiding jargon, acronyms and abbreviations
• Use examples and illustrations.
• Transfer technical information into graphs, flowcharts and tables.
• Use good layout to draw attention to key technical information.

Target Audience  

Engineers, technicians and anyone in management line who writes technical reports.  

Program Duration 2 Days  

Program Content (9.00am -5.00pm)

Day 1 Introduction

• Goals
• Types of report (Formal Report, Technical Memo, Technical Proposals, Equipment or Maintenance Manuals, Journal Articles)
• Category of reader (skilled, decision-maker, technical, operator, general non-specialists)

Compiling the report

• Establishing a framework
• Terms of reference (subject matter, purpose, reader identification)

Report structure

• Findings
• Observations
• Discussions
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• Executive summary
• Other sections (title page, table of contents, lists, appendices, references)

  Day 2 Development process

• Organising the report
• Development methods (general to specific, specific to general, chronological, sequential, cause and effect, comparison, spatial)
• Overview of conclusion/ recommendations section
• Practical Session: Applying the four-stage reading process, group discussion on conclusion and recommendations

Report outline

• Mind mapping
• Outline formats (academic and engineering outline styles)
• Rough draft
• Activate the writing (correct grammar, language, expressions and units of measures)
• Simplify the writing (word/sentence/paragraph lengths, fog index)

Report appearance

• White space
• Headings/sub-headings
• Colour
• Illustrations
• Practical Session: Interpreting graphic material, graphic presentation

  Oral presentation

• Practical Session: Delivery of a two minute presentation (each delegate delivers a presentation on a particular aspect of the technical report)

Training Approach

Over the two-day workshop, delegates practise report writing skills, learning the techniques through group discussion, exercises and working on real examples of reports you bring to the workshop. Designed for all levels of management, this workshop provides a practical hand-on approach to technical report writing. Throughout the workshop, participants will learn through active participation using exercises and questionnaires