Effective Technical Report Writing Technique

Reports are your company’s main tool to enable and support critical decision-making. If you are proposing a course of action – either within your company or to a client – the report or proposal you write will be its best advocate. It takes a lot of skill to communicate technical or commercial information efficiently and accurately. This course has been designed specifically for people who are required to write business reports. It concentrates exclusively on the skills you need to make the writing process easier and the resulting document more effective.

By the end of the course, you will know how to:

• Analyse your audience and tailor the content to their specific needs
• Gather data efficiently and select the relevant information for your readers
• Use best practice in structuring your document
• Choose words that support your message and don’t distract your reader
• Assess the best places to use graphics, and choose the right image to support your content
• Edit your draft for maximum impact

• Technical personnel
• Executives
• Engineers.

Technical Report Writing – the Basics

• Technical Reports – What They Do
• Analysis of Bad Reports – What is Not Right?
• Writing Assessment – How Good Are You In Writing Technical Reports? – What is Your Writing Problem
• The Decoding and Interpretation Preference – How the Reader’s Mind Assimilates Information
• The Encoding and Delivery Preference – How the Writer’s Mind Generates & Reports Information
• The Mismatch Between Encoding, Decoding and Interpreting Information
• Reader Friendly Technical Reports

Technical Report Objectives – Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

• The Audience and Your Assumptions
• Information (including Data) and Details Required
• Quality of Information – its Levels
• Information Reliability
• Information Quality Control Tools and Techniques
• Assessing Precision & Accuracy of Technical Reports

Technical Report Strategy – Structuring the Framework

• How the Mind Understands Information
• Logical and Sequential Thinking Skills Builder
• Technical Report Structure, Layout, Format
• Components of a Technical Report
• The Flow – Presenting Complex Technical Information
• Writing Architecture – Paragraph Logic and Linking
• Report Strategy Challenge – Becoming a Report Architect

Technical Report Storyboarding – Enjoyable Reading

• An Analysis of the Best Reports
• How Did They Tell the “Story”?
• Nature of Quality, Professional Reports

Tell Your Report Story – Structuring Bits of Information

• Getting the Flow Right
• Waste Management in Technical Report Writing

Technical Report Reverse Engineering – Reinforcing the Architect

• Breaking Down the Technical Report & its Information – Analyzing its Quality
• Linking the Information Flow and Understanding its Logic
• What Were the Objectives, their Classes & Allocated Information?

Technical Report Writing – Preparing for the Report

• Project Management for Technical Report Writing
• Teamwork and Logistics for Major Reports
• Estimating Your Development Time
• Generate the Blueprint
• Action Oriented Technical Reporting
• Organize the Sections and Components
• The Numbering System
• Content from Existing Documents, Systems and Experts

Technical Report Writing – Generating the Report

• Clarity in Reporting – Use of Emphasis, Concise Active Voice
• Abbreviations, Acronyms and Double Meanings
• Why Readers Become Confused
• One Person’s Jargon Is Another Person’s Vocab
• Technical Report Tones for Style and Impact
• Using Bullet Points and List
• The Art of Managing Redundancy
• Visual Literacy – Using Images, Charts, Graphs, Pictures, Diagrams, Sketches, Tables
• Reducing the Access Time to Critical Information

Technical Report Writing – Completing the Report

• Drafts to Final Copies – Reviewing, Editing and Testing
• How Good is Your Proofreading?
• Writing Impressive Conclusions
• Writing Precise Executive Summaries
• Using Writing/Word Software Effectively for Spelling, Punctuations, Grammar, Structure, Vocabulary, Homonyms
• Technical Report Writing Productivity

This training course will utilize a variety learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension, retention of the information presented.

Over the workshop, delegates practise report writing skills, learning the techniques through group discussion, exercises and working on real examples of reports you bring to the workshop.

Drills & Hands-Practices:

• Identifying your readers and their priorities
• Choosing clear, simple words
• Cutting out the waffle
• Writing direct, active sentences
• Recognising jargon and management-speak
• Mind-mapping a report
• Drafting an executive summary