BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI,

KK BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

INSTRUCTION DIVISION Course Handout (Part II)
First Semester 2020-2021
Date: 03/11/2020
(updated on 01-12-2020)
In addition to part I (General Handout for all courses appended to the time table) this portion gives
further specific details regarding the course.
Course No : BITS F112
Course Title : Technical Report Writing
Instructor-in-charge: Geetha Bakilapadavu
Instructors: Geetha Bakilapadavu/Shradha Kochhar (Sec. 1), Amitendu Bhattacharya/ Shail Jha (Sec.
2), K. A. Geetha/ Hajara Abdul Hameed (Sec.3), Rayson. K. Alex/ Neethu Prakashan (Sec.
4), Solano Da Silva/ Meera S (Sec. 5), Bidisha Banerjee/ Navaneetha Suresh (Sec. 6).
Scope and Objective of the course:
The main objective of the course is to help the learners develop skills in writing technical reports.
The students will learn about the various stages involved in formulating a problem, conducting a
study and presenting their findings in the form of a Technical Report.
2. Textbook:
Sharma, R. C. and Mohan K. (2016). Business Correspondence and Report Writing: A Practical
Approach to Business and Technical Communication (5th Edition) New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
3. Reference Books:
Ref.1: Anthony, L. (2010). Presenting Research in Science and Engineering. Tokyo, Japan: DTP
Publishing

Ref. 2: Birkenstein, C. and Graff, G. (2014) ‘They Say / I Say’: The Moves That Matter in Academic
Writing (3rd Edition) New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Ref. 3: Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G. and Williams, J. M. (2008) The Craft of Research (3rd Edition).
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4. Course Plan:
Offered over 15 weeks, the 30 discussion-cum-practice classes of this course will follow online
classroom mode. Some of the modules have video lectures that have been uploaded in the Quanta
server. Students are required to go through these videos and try to comprehend the content.
Two contact classes every week will be used to develop the skills of technical report writing. Classes
will also be used to discuss the videos and to get the doubts clarified. The Schedule of Classes along
with the text/ video references is given below.

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 Schedule of Classes

Chapter No. (Text

Session Video
Topic Sub Topics Book/ Reference
No. No.
Material)

Course Overview:
1 1.0 --------
Introduction to the Importance, topics
Course Communication as story Mazurkewich, K
2
telling (2018)1

Anatomy of Academic
3 Academic writing Writing and Types of Branson (2004)2
Academic Writing

Understanding Technical
Reports; Definition,
Importance, 9.1 to 9.4
4-6 Technical Reports Text book, Chapter 17
Characteristics; Types of & 11.1
reports : Informational,
Interpretive, Routine
The process of formulating
a Research Problem;
Identifying a Topic, 10.1 Ref. 3: Chap. 3 & 4
7–8
Narrowing the Scope, 10.1 Text Book Chap. 17
Asking questions,
Looking for problems
Reviewing the literature
Ref. 2: Chap. 1, 2 & 3
9 – 10 Planning and and revisiting the research ___
Ref. 3: Chap. 5 & 6
Executing your problem
Project Collecting new data;
10.2
Working with different
11 – 12 & Text Book, Chap. 19
sources and devising data
10.3
collection methods
Working with collected
data; Analysing Data and 10.4, 10.5
13 – 14 Text Book, Chap. 19
Presenting information & 11.3
Concept Mapping
Thinking about
Audience; Purpose; Ref.1: Section 1, Unit
15 Writing: Writing at _______
Organization; Outline 2
the Macro Level

1
Mazurkewich, K (2018) Technical Experts Need to Get Better at Telling Stories, Harvard Business
Review. Online: https://hbr.org/2018/04/technical-experts-need-to-get-better-at-telling-stories
[Accessed on 25 Oct 2020]
2
NCSU Libraries (2009) 'Anatomy of a Scholarly Article' Available online:
https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/scholarly-articles/ [Accessed on 5th June 2019]

2 of 3 pages
 Report Structure:
11.2
Prefatory Parts, Main
16 12.1 to Text Book, Chap. 18
Body and Supplementary
12.5
Parts
Style: clarity, precision and
17 3.1 to 3.5 Text Book, Chap. 20
language
Ref.1: Section 2, Unit
18 Writing Abstract 11.2
Eight
Writing Introduction:
Background, Objectives,
Ref.1: Section 2, Unit
19 Scope, Limitation, 11.3
Five and Six
Drafting the Methods of Data
Report: Flow, Style, Collection, Overview
Structure and Writing Discussion:
Presentation Analysing Findings;
Results; Citing References; Ref.1: Section 2, Unit
20 - 22 11.3
Explaining Results; Seven
Representing Data in
Tables and Charts
Writing Conclusions and Text Book, Chap. 18
23 11.4
Recommendations and 23
Documentation and
24 11.5 Text Book Chap. 23
Report Formatting
Structuring Information
25 – 26 10.5 Text Book, Chap. 21
with Tables and Graphs
27 – 29 Automating your report Workshop mode
30 Summing up

Evaluation Scheme: Total 200 Marks

Sr. Evaluation Weightage

Duration Date & Day Remarks
No. Component %
1. Assignment 10% -- 17th Dec 2021 (11:59 p.m.) Group
2. Mid Semester 30% 90 Min 29 Dec 2020 (16:00-17:30) Individual
3. Technical Report 25% -- 25th Jan 2021 (11:59 p.m.) Group
Comprehensive
4. 35% 120 Min 23rd Feb 2021 (AN) Individual
Exam

Chamber Consultation Hour: To be announced by the instructors in the respective sections.

Geetha Bakilapadavu
Instructor-in-Charge

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