58:080 Experimental Engineering
1
Technical Reports
Presentation and report of engineering or scientific work are probably as important as the
actual work. Credit for a discovery or development of new concepts cannot be received until the
work has been described in a report or paper that is readily available for other people to read. It is
often stated that engineers upon graduation will spend their first few months of work doing about
30 percent engineering and 70 percent writing. Other related statements are "graduates of
engineering programs must have substantial communication skills if they are to function
effectively in industry and government" and "engineering graduates often wish they had more
training in communication skills in college." One goal of this course is to develop effective
written and oral communication skills. This will be accomplished by requiring written technical
reports for each experiment and an oral presentation by the group. Appendix A of Ref. [1]
provides general guidelines for report writing.
In numerous environments, a report is written for a specific audience. Thus, it is important to
first identify the intended audience (e.g., a supervisor as compared to a colleague) and to
recognize the type and order of information the reader is seeking. The report format, therefore,
varies. However, most reports include three essential elements: introduction, narrative, and
conclusion. Remember that brevity and clarity are important and the report should be of high
quality to be read. All reports should be written in the third person (e.g., use "the pressure was
measured..." instead of "we measured the pressure...").
A good dictionary should be nearby when the report is being written. No excuses for
misspelled words. Proof reading cannot be over-emphasized. If possible, have someone read the
report for grammar, style, spelling, clarity, and typographical errors. Make sure nouns and verbs
agree.
ABET, the accreditation board for college and university programs in applied science,
computing, engineering, and technology, requires evaluation of reporting skills in terms of
Organization in Writing (sequence of information, graphics, discussion and conclusions, design
of contents) and Writing Skills (grammar, spelling, sentence clarity, syntax). These are graded in
Experimental Engineering using the Technical Reports and reported to ABET. All students must
have at least a Satisfactory grade in Organization in Writing and Writing Skills to pass the
class.
The report is limited to ten pages plus appendices, with the following format:
1 GRADE SHEET
2 TITLE, AUTHORS AND ABSTRACT
3 INTRODUCTION
4 EXPERIMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Error Analysis
6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7 REFERENCES
8 APPENDICES
All material is to be written using computer word processing on double-spaced standard 8-1/2
x 11 in unlined paper. All margins (top, bottom, right and left) will be 1 inch. This allows space
for grader’s comments and marking. Any oversized sheets of paper that are necessary to the
report (plots, figures, computer programs and listings, results, etc.) should be neatly folded and
