Technical Report Writing

With this course, you gain the essential skills of producing technical reports of which you can be proud.

Technical reports often present complex information to non-specialists.  Their effectiveness depends as much on the quality of the writer’s ideas as on the accuracy of their information.  An effective technical report displays complicated information in ways that make it easy to understand, and – above all – relevant to the reader.

You will learn how to construct coherent arguments and explanations, and how to present information to support them.  We shall look at how to offer complex material to support managerial and strategic decision-making.  We shall work on how to make language work for us, and how to make reports look as good as they read.

Throughout the course, we shall work directly with participants’ own reports.  Working in English as a second or further language will be a reference theme throughout.

Course  Objectives of Technical Report Writing:

You will learn how to:

• write more efficiently;
• understand the functions of different kinds of technical reports, especially evaluations and proposals;
• adapt and focus the writing on the needs of the target audience;
• organise material effectively to support explanations and arguments;
• create effective summaries and introductions – and clearly understand the difference between the two;
• improve your style on three levels: paragraph, sentence, word; and
• make your reports easier to navigate.