Technical report writing

workshop

Physics 73.1
“The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence
to its cleanest components. Every word that serves
no function, every long word that could be a short
word, … —these are the thousand and one
adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.”

“In technical writing, less is more.”

William Zinsser in On Writing Well, 1976

From Writing in the Sciences (Stanford University online course)

Example
“This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of cancer
biology study design, using as examples studies that
illustrate the methodologic challenges or that demonstrate
successful solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological
research.”

From Writing in the Sciences (Stanford University online course)

Example
“This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of cancer
biology study design, using as examples studies that
illustrate the methodologic challenges or that demonstrate
successful solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological
research.”
cut unnecessary words and phrases

avoid lengthy words that can be replaced with simpler ones

“This paper reviews cancer biology study design, using

examples that illustrate specific challenges and solutions”

From Writing in the Sciences (Stanford University online course)

Exercise!

“As it is well known, increased athletic activity has

been related to a profile of lower cardiovascular risk,
lower blood pressure levels, and improved muscular
and cardio-respiratory performance.”

From Writing in the Sciences (Stanford University online course)

Exercise!

“As it is well known, increased athletic activity has

been related to a profile of lower cardiovascular risk,
lower blood pressure levels, and improved muscular
and cardio-respiratory performance.”

“Increased athletic activity is associated with lower

cardiovascular risk, lower blood pressure, and
improved fitness.”
From Writing in the Sciences (Stanford University online course)
Parts of a technical report
 TITLE
“The title is the single most important phrase of a
scientific document. The title tells readers what the
document is. If your title is inexact or unclear, many people
for whom you wrote the document will never read it.”

Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns

 ABSTRACT
- About 100 words

- Summarizes the whole paper

- Motivation, methodology, results, analysis, and

recommendations
 INTRODUCTION
- Discuss background concepts relevant to the activity
- May involve equations used
- Must state the purpose for doing the activity

1. What is the problem?

2. What are previous ways to solve the problem?
3. How will you solve it?
 Methodology
- Don’t just list down the materials. Briefly explain the
choice of materials.

- List the procedures in paragraph form.

- Include a clear and completely labeled schematic diagram

of the experimental setup.
 Results and Discussion
- Present results with neat graphs and tables

- Data must be written in correct significant figures

- Show how conclusive the results are

- Account for all sources of error (not just list down)

 Conclusion
- Restate your main results

- Must answer your objectives: were they met?

- Possible recommendations
 On making figures
Sample data
Figures 120

100

Temperature (oC)
80

□ Axis labels (with units) 60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (s)

Fig 1. Sample data

 Figures and tables
Sample data
Figures 120

100

Temperature (oC)
80

□ Axis labels (with units) 60

40

20

□ Legend if necessary
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (s)

Fig 1. Temperature vs time graph

for the heating process

□ Descriptive caption
 Figures and tables
120
Figures
100

Temperature (oC)
80

□ Axis labels (with units) 60

40

20

□ Legend if necessary 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (s)

Fig 1. Temperature vs time graph

□ Descriptive caption for the heating process

□ No chart title needed

 Figures and tables
Figures
100

Temperature (oC)
□ Axis labels (with units) 80

60

□ Legend if necessary 40

20

□ Descriptive caption 0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time (s)
□ No chart title needed Fig 1. Temperature vs time graph
for the heating process
□ Good image contrast

□ Data centered graph

 References and formatting
- Use appropriate citation format provided in the template

- Template format was adopted from Samahang Pisika ng

Pilipinas.
Rubric
Rubric