Report Writing Lecture

Aerospace 305W Laboratory

S. Conlon & R. Auhl

 Grading of Reports
Teaching Assistants will be grading your reports
under the instructor’s supervision.
Grading is difficult and subjective - some reports just
work better than others without specific reasons.
Instructors will be adjusting grades upward and
downward as we learn more about each TA’s
perspective on grading. (+/- 4% of report)
Don’t underestimate the presentation factor! - spend
some extra time making things look good.
 Notes about Writing
You will learn to write by writing!
If you have 2 hours to write something, spend 30
minutes planning what to write.
Trade final drafts with someone you respect and give
each other constructive feedback.
Good writing takes a long time to do.
Abraham Lincoln – “I must apologize for this long
letter, but I did not have time to write a short one”
…The candy illustration…
 Notes about Writing
“A man who uses a great many words to express his
meaning is like a bad marksman who instead of
aiming a single stone at an object takes up a handful
and throws at it in hopes he may hit”
– Samuel Johnson

Perfectionist ? - Know when good is good enough.

DiVinchi – “A work of art is never really finished, it is
simply abandoned”
You will never have enough time to get it perfect
- Especially in industry!
 Notes about Writing
The majority of your grade will be dependent upon
your actual writing.
It is critical to your career as an engineer to develop
good writing (and presentation) skills.
- USA 200 pg / wk
Regardless of how good your ideas may be, if you
can’t communicate them effectively your success will
be limited!
The aim of every technical report or paper is to:
communicate useful information effectively,
concisely, and objectively.
 Notes about Writing
Know your audience and purpose: teaching,
reviewing, presenting?
For this class assume the readers is an aerospace
engineer who is not familiar with the experiment.
….Therefore write with only as much detail as needed
for this experienced engineer to reproduce the results.
As you proof read, ask yourself - Can this sentence be
removed without negatively impacting the report?
Write objectively - essential to avoid future
embarrassment of you or your company.
 Sitting Down To Write
Focus and organize your ideas first
Identify what is important and emphasize it in your plans
Outline the information in writing (use a PC or Paper)
Prominent ideas deserve prominent placement in the text
Use headings liberally to separate topics
Use short paragraphs. Use appendices as needed
Write simply and directly
Favor simple, familiar words (“evince” …becomes “show”)
Eliminate waste (“due to the fact” …becomes “because”)
Reduce “it” constructs (“it should be noted” …becomes
“note”)
 Technical Writing Style Discussion
You want to come across objective and scientific…
3rd person perspective – “one might notice”…
Simplifies translation into other languages.

Passive voice draws attention to the object

Active voice draws attention to the subject

Passive voice for straight reporting

75% of the time
Active voice to express opinion or others’ work
25% of the time
“it is believed that” …becomes “the author believes”
 Technical Writing Style Discussion
Choose a verb tense and be consistent throughout…

Present – Ongoing research, things unlikely to change, scientific

truths, things happening at the time of testing, writing, or reading.
(...from your selected perspective)

“a body in motion tends to remain in motion.”

“the test section dimensions are 2 ft x 3 ft.”

Past – things that were selected, or happened before the testing,

writing, or reading. (…from your selected perspective)

“for the first part of the experiment the power was off.”

A careful mixture can help make the report easier to understand.

“the results are different compared to when to when the power was
on.”
 Universal Recipe
Title Page
Abstract 305 reports
List of Symbols (optional) should contain
5 to 7 pages of
Introduction
written text
Experimental Procedure
Results and Discussion
Conclusions
References (related to theory / previous work)
Appendices (as needed)
“The Universal Recipe for Scientific Reports,” from Style for Students: A Manual
for the Sciences and Engineering, J. Schall, McGraw Hill (1993).
 Universal Recipe
Title Page
Author’s primary method of explaining the paper
NOT too short, NOT too long, NOT too general
NO excess words
For 305W - Include all information requested

Example: Preliminary Effects of High Temperature Air Flow

Over an Aluminum Lifting Body
…becomes High Temperature Air Flow Over a Lifting Body
 Universal Recipe
Abstract
Write This Section Last ~ 200 Words
Researchers don’t have time to read everything in
their area of specialization
It is vital that authors convey everything they can
about the paper
Condensed version of the paper
Self-sufficient – DO NOT cite anything inside the
report. (…also NO abbreviations or Acronyms)
Emphasize results, conclusions, and
recommendations
 Universal Recipe
Introduction
Present the purpose and goals of the experiment
Describe the nature and scope of the problem
Spell out specific objectives and explain the significance of
the potential results
Includes previous work, theoretical equations, and
predictions
End with succinct statement of the problem
State what the rest of the paper will be about
State the hypothesis that requires X, Y, and Z to be
measured
 Universal Recipe
Procedure
Write This First - It is easy to do and helps reboot!
Explain what was used and how it was used
Use schematics and pictures with labels
NOT a step-by-step manual. DO NOT copy handout!
Recall that your audience is familiar with the equipment
Can they reproduce the results using this information?
Identify instruments, statistical methods, computer programs,
data manipulation, and precision of measurements
Describe how X, Y, and Z were measured
 Universal Recipe
Results and Discussion
Most Important Section - Discuss Graphs / Figures
Process and present data using tables and graphs
Evaluate results, pointing out trends and ranges
Often writes itself from the Tables and Graphs
Keep discussions brief and relevant to the goals
Compare results with published data
Interpret the results relative to goals in introduction
Present X, Y, and Z and examine them against
expectations ... Exhibit A… Exhibit B…
 Figures
Figures, Tables & Raw data Should be included in the Intro, Procedure and R&D

Use these elements as needed to support your text. They may be located at the end of the report or
included within the text. They also may be shared among group members within your section. Make sure
that all tables and figures are completely self-sufficient in that you would not have to refer to the text to
determine anything about the table or figure. Include titles, labels & units for all table columns & graph
axes. Also include a legend on all graphs. Do not include a table or graph that is not referred to in the
report. Title your tables and figures according to Figure 1.

Table 1. Title of
the table located at
the top of the table

Figure 1. Title of the

figure located at the
bottom of the figure

Figure 1. How to title figures and tables

 Universal Recipe
Conclusions
Discuss OBSERVED results with reference to the
goals stated in the introduction
DO NOT repeat the discussion section verbatim
Explain how the results prove the hypothesis and
contribute to the field being examined
Recommendations for future work
Combine X, Y, and Z to prove your hypothesis from
the introduction.