Report Writing
Performance Schedule
Four three-hour sessions
Twelve instructional hours
Course Objective
Writing effective reports means more than just writing correctly. It means developing a sensitivity to the reader’s needs, an awareness of the purpose of a specific report, and an ability to order ideas and words for maximum impact. By the conclusion of the course, participants will be more constructively critical of their own writing and will begin to apply the writing principles discussed in class.
The instructor serves as motivator, resource person, and evaluator of student progress.
Specific Course Goals
- Analyze the purpose and scope of a technical report and adapt their writing to the situation.
- Assess the needs, knowledge, and feelings of the reader(s) so that the report is appropriate for the audience.
- Understand the purposes of different types of technical reports, their structure, and their characteristics.
- Organize ideas logically and communicate the organization clearly through framing and headings.
- Collect data efficiently and skeptically.
- Write and analyze abstracts, both informative and descriptive.
- Develop key words for an abstract.
- Effectively report statistical and other technical information.
- Write acknowledgments
- Write concisely.
- Use natural words whenever possible.
- Use the active voice to give vigor to reports.
- Write smoothly constructed sentences.
- Use graphic aids, including tables, charts, and figures
- Use lists effectively.
- Use an appropriate tone for formal technical reports.
- Calculate the fog index.
Materials
The contractor will provide more than 100 pages of handouts in a loose-leaf binder; a textbook may be included.