About Formal Technical Reports

1.   About Formal Technical Reports

The main objective of formal technical reports is to communicate information and research in a professionally written style and format using recognized conventions, such as discussed in this guide. Such reports are typically used by decision-makers to plan departmental and organizational projects. These documents often report on research findings, offer recommendations or proposals to solve problems, and assess feasibility; indeed, they can be used to address a variety of purposes depending on context and need, like inspections and incidents.  Formal (also known as long) reports contain many components, including front and back matter, that aid the reader in understanding the context and content of your document.

  1.1 Your Audience

In your courses, your audience is your technical communication professor. However, in the workplace, your audience may not only be your immediate supervisor, but also secondary readers who might be decision-makers. Write with the understanding that your document may be shared with readers you may not expect. Doing a good audience analysis as part of the document planning process will help you to anticipate potential readers and to adapt the content and approach so as to best address their needs and achieve your goal. Assessing such factors as role, knowledge, interest, language, demographics and culture, along with attitude will help you to make decisions about various document elements, including content, language, and approach.

  1.2 Report Length

Unless otherwise directed by your professor, for college courses expect your final report to be about 10-12 pages of single-spaced text in 12-point, sans serif font, with margins of not less than one inch. If a printed copy is required, pages are printed single-sided with a one-inch margin all around; a serif font may be used for printed copies. Pages are to be numbered as described in Section 4 of this document.

  1.3 Report Style

Adapting the language to suit the audience and content will help to create a document that is readable. Write your report at a technical level using plain language that is understandable to this audience; i.e., a reader who has a basic understanding but who may not be familiar with your particular area of work or the terminology and acronyms commonly used in that context. Make sure that you define all acronyms and terms that are not commonly used. A glossary placed at the beginning of your report can assist the reader without hampering the readability of your report.

Write your report in a formal style, avoiding colloquial or slang expressions, and avoiding first-person references (I, we, me, us). Use an active, concise, clear, coherent, and specific approach. Sentences such as “I machined five of these cylinders on the lathe” should be expressed as “Five of these cylinders were machined on the lathe,” which makes use of a concise, active, and direct style. Use passive verb constructions to avoid first person, but use active constructions in most other cases; e.g., “The cylinders passed the pressure test,” in which the actor precedes the verb.

Writing style, spelling, punctuation and the report format will constitute a significant portion of your marks. See the rubric provided by your professor for the distribution of marks. For information about writing styles as well as report formatting, consult Resources and References at the end of this document and Technical Writing Essentials (Potter, 2019/2021).