EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Engineers need to write technical reports to communicate their work and provide recommendations on what should happen next. These reports should have a consistent and clear structure, and should be accurate and precise in order to effectively convey the message and avoid confusion for readers.
This report writing guide is intended to help ENGG1100 students create high-quality reports with accurate and consistent structure and formatting. It does not aim to restrict students’ creativity in developing their reports, but rather to set expectations and provide context on the standard norms and conventions of report writing in terms of structure, format, style, and referencing. The contents of the guide are presented as a report for further clarification and reference.
Developing the capability to effectively convey engineering decisions through clear and concise reporting is essential for becoming a professional engineer. It is important to consider the audience when writing technical reports, as they should be able to make informed decisions on the presented topic based on just the executive summary. The executive summary is a standalone overview of the entire report that includes background, aims, approach, main outcomes, and recommendations. It may also include information on risk assessment, budget and timeline, project viability, and future plans, but it typically should not exceed one page in most engineering reports.
Additional guidance on important report components is provided in their respective sections. The corresponding report writing template includes saved styles to minimize the time spent on formatting and allow more focus on writing. As a result, incorrect application of these styles will be more strictly checked, and correct use should require minimal effort
Report Writing Guide i
Code Help, Add WeChat: cstutorcs
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. i Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. iii List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… iv
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1
1.1 Background ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 1.2 Communication Skills …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 1.3 Engineering Reports……………………………………………………………………………………………….1
2. Report Structure………………………………………………………………………………………………………..1
3. ReportFormatting……………………………………………………………………………………………………..3
3.1 Writing Basics……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 3.2 Colours…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 3.3 Tables …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 3.4 Figures ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5 3.5 Equations …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 3.6 Referencing Style ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 3.7 Lists and Bullet Points ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
4. ConclusionsandRecommendations…………………………………………………………………………..7 References …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 Appendix I ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9
Report Writing Guide ii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Example Table 1 …………………………………………………………………………………………………4 Table 2: Example Table 2 …………………………………………………………………………………………………5
Report Writing Guide iii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: UQ primary colour palette (UQ Digital Asset Manager 2021) ……………………………………. 3 Figure 2: UQ secondary colour palette (UQ Digital Asset Manager 2021)…………………………………4 Figure 3: Test space schematic (Aminossadati 2023) …………………………………………………………… 5 Figure 4: A smart art diagram with 4 levels of UQ colours………………………………………………………6
Report Writing Guide iv
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background
Communication is the act of sending and receiving information between two or more people. Effective communication is crucial for success in accurately and effectively conveying ideas (Birkett 2021). It helps to build good working relationships within a team, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. It also aids in successfully leading a project and achieving its goals.
1.2 Communication Skills
Communication skills can take many forms, including:
• Interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills, such as emotional intelligence, listening, assertiveness, questioning, self-talk, affirmations, distorted thinking, and giving feedback.
• Team communication skills, such as face-to-face and virtual meetings, knowledge sharing, mentoring, negotiation, conflict resolution, and coaching.
• Organizational communication skills, such as customer and public relations, public speaking, presentations, interviews, and mentoring.
• Nonverbal communication skills, such as body movement, emotion, facial expression, eye contact, voice, smell, gesture, posture, clothing, and environment.
• Verbal communication, including oral reports, audio-visual presentations, podcasts, public speaking, team and panel discussions, presentations, debates, dialogues, negotiations, interviews, coaching, mentoring, and feedback.
• Graphic and visual communication, including websites, social media, advertising, animation, illustration, art design, video production, and audio-visual presentations.
• Written communication, including reports, essays, texting, email, letters, reviews of literature, published information and data, executive summaries, and referencing.
1.3 Engineering Reports
The work of engineers is complex, occurs over an extended period of time, and often involves many people. No one person can hold all this information in their head. To make progress, engineers must be able to write reports to communicate their work and make recommendations on what should happen next. Reports are different from papers, articles, and essays, which express people’s views on a topic. Instead, reports document an investigation, analysis, or synthesis, draw conclusions, and make recommendations. They serve as a record of what has been accomplished or inform the reader to help them decide on next steps.
2. REPORTSTRUCTURE
The structure of an engineering report may vary depending on the engineering discipline. However, the standard structure and order provided in this document should be sufficient for most purposes. It is important to note that engineering reports are often not read in their entirety, and the introduction, conclusion, recommendations, and executive summary would benefit from a summary of key points rather than reference to other sections.
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 1
The standard structure of an engineering report includes:
• Title page: This page is unnumbered and should include the name of the school and/or department, course name and code, title of the report, names of the authors (full name and student number), and date of submission.
• Executive summary: This page is numbered with Roman numerals and provides an overview of the entire report. It should include information on the context surrounding the report, aims and objectives, problem statement, scope of the report, and significance of the project.
• Table of contents: This page is numbered with Roman numerals and lists the sections and sub-sections of the report along with their corresponding page numbers. It should come before the list of figures and list of tables. It is important to use the correct heading styles to ensure the accuracy of the table of contents.
• List of figures and list of tables: These pages are numbered with Roman numerals and list all the figures and tables in the report along with their corresponding page numbers. They can be on the same page as the table of contents. It is important to use the “insert caption” function in Microsoft Word under “references” to ensure the accuracy of these lists.
• List of symbols and definitions: Depending on the report, you may need to include a list of all unique names, terminology, acronyms, symbols, and abbreviations used in the report.
• Main body: This includes the bulk of the report and usually starts with an introduction and ends with conclusions and recommendations.
• Introduction: The introduction outlines the context surrounding the report, aims and objectives, problem statement, scope of the report, and significance of the project. It is important to include only information that is directly relevant.
• Other sections: The other sections in the main body present all the critical information on background literature and data collection, methodology and approach, results, analysis, and discussion. The main body should be able to stand on its own, with the appendices serving as supplementary information (e.g. calculations, code, engineering drawings).
• Conclusions and Recommendations: These sections can sometimes be combined. It is important to note that your conclusion should summarize the main points of your body as well as draw a conclusion. This may seem redundant, but it is necessary to support your conclusions. It is also important to provide recommendations for addressing issues that you were unable to address in your findings or for improving upon current conditions in order to justify further action. Make sure to back up all of your statements in both the recommendations and conclusion sections as this is crucial to the effectiveness of your findings.
• References: It is essential to reference all works that are used in engineering reports, even if they are the writer’s own from past submissions. Plagiarism is heavily penalized in all academic areas, including ENGG1100. Maintaining academic integrity is critical for the development of a professional engineer. ENGG1100 does not have a preference for any particular citation style, but you are expected to apply your chosen style consistently and in accordance with the guidelines available on the UQ Library website.
• Appendices: Appendices should be used for supplementary documentation and should not be an extension of the main report. For example, if a report requires a risk assessment, it should be included in the main body of the report. However, additional details about the risk assessment and/or matrix can be provided in an appendix
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 2
CS Help, Email: tutorcs@163.com
3. REPORTFORMATTING 3.1 Writing Basics
It is recommended to use “Body Text” for the bulk of the content as it has been pre-set in this template. It has been formatted differently from the “Normal” text style. In the ENGG1100 template, “Body Text” is pre-set to left alignment with the Arial font at size 11, although Times New Roman is also generally accepted. The paragraph spacing is set to 6 points before and after, and the line spacing is set to Multiple-1.15.
3.2 Colours
Black should be used for the text in the white background. Purple and white are also UQ’s primary colours (Figure 1). Figure 2 also presents the secondary colour palette.
Figure 1: UQ primary colour palette (UQ Digital Asset Manager 2021)
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 3
Figure 2: UQ secondary colour palette (UQ Digital Asset Manager 2021)
3.3 Tables
Tables are an excellent way to present information in engineering reports. Table headings are presented above tables. Table 1 and Table 2 present two example styles that can be used in ENGG1100 reports. It is noted that the font size 10 is recommended for the content of tables even though smaller fonts may be ok for some tables. No vertical borderlines and thick-thin-thick horizontal border lines are used.
Column Heading 1
Column Heading 2
Column Heading 3
Table Text
• Table Bullet 1. Table Number
Table 1: Example Table 1
Table Text
• Table Bullet 2. Table Number
Table Text
• Table Bullet 3. Table Number
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide
Column Heading 1
Table Text Table Text
Table Text
Table 2: Example Table 2
Column Heading 2
Table Text Table Text
Table Text
Column Heading 3
Table Text Table Text
Table Text
Table Text
Table Text Table Text
When using tables, make sure to introduce them in text. This applies to larger tables as well as tables used to draw comparisons as well as smaller supporting tables. Avoid using images in tables and ensure to reference appropriately where required. In general, tables, like figures, are supplementary to text, and cannot be self-standing sections.
3.4 Figures
Figures should be used in the report to present the details and results of analysis and design in a clear and effective way. Figure captions are presented below figures. If figures are copied from other sources, they need to be referenced properly. An example of a figure is presented in Figure 3, which presents a schematic diagram of the test rig extracted from the ENGG1100 Learning Guide (Aminossadati 2023).
Figure 3: Test rig in UQ Innovate (Aminossadati 2023)
When using figures, make sure to refer to them in text. For example, Figure 4 demonstrates the use of a smart art diagram with UQ approved colours, this is an excellent way to indicate relationships between sub-systems and components. In general, figures, like tables, are supplementary to text, and cannot be self-standing sections.
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 5
T ext T ext
T ext T ext T ext T ext T ext T ext
T ext T ext
T ext T ext
Figure 4: A smart art diagram with 4 levels of UQ colours
Images, graphs and other miscellaneous components (ie. Engineering drawings, Gannt charts, risk assessments) are also classified as figures when included in the main body of a report. As such, they will need to be introduced and referred to in text.
3.5 Equations
Equations may need to be included in academic and professional reports. Equations should be numbered, and they can be referenced in the text if necessary. Where used to support decisions it is critical to further outline variables of listed equations.
−∇𝑃𝑃 + 𝜌𝜌𝑔𝑔⃗ = 𝜌𝜌𝑎𝑎⃗ (1) 3
For example, Equation 1 presents the general static pressure equation for fluids.
where, 𝑃𝑃 is the fluid pressure (Pa), 𝜌𝜌 is the fluid density (kg/m ), 𝑔𝑔 is the gravitational acceleration 22
(m/s ) and 𝑎𝑎 is the fluid acceleration (m/s ).
3.6 Referencing Style
Referencing is a crucial aspect of academic and professional writing as it allows you to give credit to the work of others, including patents, research findings, ideas, information, communication, and artwork. Proper referencing is essential to avoid the appearance of plagiarism, which is the use of someone else’s work without proper attribution. The EndNote referencing software is available for students and staff at UQ to help automate their referencing process. At UQ, there are several acceptable referencing styles, with Harvard being the preferred format for ENGG1100. There are two types of citations in an engineering report:
1- In-text referencing and the reference list. In-text referencing consists of brief citations placed within the text of the report when directly quoting or paraphrasing a source. These citations typically include the last name of the author(s) and the year of publication.
2- The reference list, on the other hand, is a comprehensive list of all sources used in the report, arranged alphabetically and placed at the end of the document. It includes detailed information about each source, such as the author’s name, year of publication, title, city of publication, publisher, and page numbers. A guide to the Harvard referencing style can be found in the UQ Library (2021).
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 6
3.7 Lists and Bullet Points
List and bullet points are another excellent way to display information clearly and efficiently. A section of the report that will include a list should start by introducing what will be listed and the paragraph should not start with the list. It should not be necessary to require more than 5 levels of indentation. In the following an example of the List Bullet and List Number styles are presented:
List Bullet style is set up to continue indenting and switching between styles of bullets. ‘Tab’ at the start of a bullet to get to the next bullet indent and style.
• ‘Shift Tab’ to move back to the previous bullet and style.
– There are five bullet levels.
• This is the final bullet at 3cm.
List Number style is set up to continue indenting and switching between styles of numbering. ‘Tab’ at the start of a number to get to the next number indent and style.
i. ‘Shift Tab’ to move back to the previous number and style.
A. If you need to manually restart the list numbering, place the cursor over the number, right-click and select ‘Restart at 1’.
Punctuations are recommended to be used at the end of each dot point and the word ‘and’ on the second last entry. An example is presented below:
The following items are used in the build:
• chassis, • wheels,
• turret, and
• a motor.
4. CONCLUSIONSANDRECOMMENDATIONS
This template provides guidelines for students enrolled in ENGG1100 to help them write clear, consistent, and high-quality reports. Its purpose is to outline the expected formatting for various types of information that should be included in a report, such as an executive summary, text, tables, figures, design drawings, use of colours, charts, photographs, discussions, critical analysis, conclusions, referencing, and appendices.
When preparing ENGG1100 reports, it is recommended to use this template and guide as a starting point to ensure that you meet the minimum requirements. Minor deviations that do not negatively impact the readability or professionalism of a report are acceptable within reason. As always, use common sense and consider the standards of professional engineering reports when creating your own ENGG1100 report.
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 7
REFERENCES
Aminossadati, S 2023, ENGG1100 Learning Guide, Course Blackboard Site, The University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Birkett, G 2021, Personal Communication, Associate Professor, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 20 Jan. 2021.
USQ Library, 2018, Referencing and Academic Integrity, viewed 10 March 2021
UQ Digital Asset Manager, 2021, 3.3 Brand Guidelines Colour, viewed 10 March 2021,
UQ Library, 2021, UQ Library Official website: UQ Harvard referencing style, viewed 14 March 2021,
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 8
Github
APPENDIX I
Albanese, A (Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) 2009, Fairer compensation for air travellers, media release, 29 January, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Canberra, viewed 30 January 2009,
Australian Government Publishing Service 1987, Commonwealth printing and publishing manual, 2nd edn, A.G.P.S., Canberra.
Be, know, do: leadership the Army way 2004, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Berkman, RI 1994, Find It fast: how to uncover expert information on any subject, HarperPerennial, New York.
Bernstein, D 1995, ‘Transportation planning’, in WF Chen (ed.), The civil engineering handbook, CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 231-61.
Bhattacharjee, M 1998, Notes of infinite permutation groups, Lecture notes in mathematics no.1698, Springer, New York.
Bourassa, S 1999, ‘Effects of child care on young children’, Proceedings of the third annual meeting of the International Society for Child Psychology, International Society for Child Psychology, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 44-6.
Bowden, FJ & Fairley, CK 1996, ‘Endemic STDs in the Northern Territory: estimations of effective rates of partner change’, paper presented to the scientific meeting of the Royal Australian College of Physicians, Darwin, 24-25 June.
Cengel, YA & Boles, MA 1994, Thermodynamics: an engineering approach, 2nd edn, McGraw Hill, London.
Donahue-Wallace, K & Chanda, J 2005, ‘A case study in integrating the best practices of face-to- face art history and online teaching’, Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer- Enhanced Learning, vol. 7, no. 1, viewed 30 January 2009,
Huffman, LM 1996, ‘Processing whey protein for use as a food ingredient’, Food Technology, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 49-52.
Jull, G, Sterling, M, Fallah, D, Treleaven, J & O’Leary, S 2008, Whiplash headache and neck pain: research-based directions for physical therapies, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
Kamal, AA 2010, 1000 solved problems in modern physics, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, viewed 3 April 2014, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-04333-8, (SpringerLink).
Pring, R 2004, Philosophy of educational research, 2nd edn, Continuum, London.
Reid, DH, Parsons, MB & Green, CW 1989, Staff management in human services: behavioral research and application, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield.
Sjostrand, S (ed.) 1993, Institutional change: theory and empirical findings, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y.
Willmott, WF 2006, Rocks and landscapes of the national parks of central Queensland, Geological Society of Australia, Queensland Division, Brisbane.
ENGG1100-Report Writing Guide 9