ENGGEN 204: Technical Communication for Engineers

Module: Engineering report writing

Handout #2
1. Content of report sections
2. Numbering of sections, pages, appendices and
illustrations
Heather Silyn-Roberts, 2008

Table of Contents
1.0 The basic skeleton of sections in a generalised report (other than a design report or
work report) ________________________________________________________________________ 1
2.0 Requirements for the various sections of a generalised report______________________ 2
3.0 Numbering: sections; pages; appendices; figures _________________________________ 6

IMPORTANT
Please dont use only these notes. You should also view the Cecil material for this
section of the module, since it has extra explanatory material that will help you.
The material in ENGGEN 204 gives you the basics of what is needed. For more detailed material, see the
following books:
1.

Silyn-Roberts, H. (2002) Writing for Science: a Practical Handbook for Science, Engineering and
Technology Students. 2nd edition. Pearson Education, Auckland.
Written for undergraduates. Many copies on short loan in Engineering library.

2.

Silyn-Roberts, H. (2000) Writing for Science and Engineering: Papers, Presentations and Reports.
Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Written for postgraduate students and junior professional engineers and scientists: greater scope
and more detail than (1). In Engineering Library.

Heather Silyn-Roberts, 2008

1.0 The basic skeleton of sections in a generalised report (other than a

design report or work report)

Name of section

Required
in most
reports

Title Page

Yes

Executive Summary or Abstract or

Summary

Yes

If you think it is needed

Aim

Recommended

Table of Contents

Recommended

List of Illustrations

If you have a lot of illustrations

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

Recommended

Background or Introduction

The middle sections of your report,

with appropriate headings

Conclusions

Yes

Yes

Yes

Recommendations

If needed

Acknowledgements

If needed

List of References

Appendices

Necessary
if using text
citations

If needed

2.0 Requirements for the various sections of a generalised report

2.1 The Title Page. Should show the following:
:
the title of the report. It must be informative enough to give the reader immediate access to the subject
matter.
Poor, unspecific title
Flow meter experiment
Wind power

Informative title
Measurement of the coefficient of discharge in
a Venturi meter
The current usage of wind power in New
Zealand

your name and department

the title and number of the paper
the date

2.2 The Executive Summary or Abstract

This is a miniaturised version of your whole report. It sits at the beginning of your document. It must be
self-contained and from it your reader should know the context of your work (i.e., why you did it); the way
you did it (your experimental procedures); the results or outcome of it; and your main conclusions. It
should be as precise and quantitative as possible.

Abstract: usually written as a single paragraph; no more than 300 words.

No bullet points, no illustrations, no references.
The aim of the Executive Summary: to give a brief overview of the main material in the whole report.
Placed on a page by itself, immediately after the Title Page.

For more detail about writing summary material: see the summarising section of this module.
2.3 Aim
Very brief statement(s) about what you tried to achieve in the work that you did.
2.4 Table of Contents
Sections listed on the left of the page.
Corresponding page numbers on the right hand side of the page.
For ENGGEN 204 assignment: use Table of Contents function in MS Word.
2.5

List of Illustrations (if needed)

Immediately after the Table of Contents.
Title of each illustration on the left hand side of the page.
Corresponding page numbers on the right.

Glossary of Terms
(Include one if you think that the reader(s) need an explanation of terms used in your report)

Define any terms that you use in the main body of the report, e.g. specific technical terms that you
think need to be defined; Greek or other symbols; acronyms (abbreviations made up of sets of initial
letters, e.g. FTP: file transfer protocol, OOS: occupational overuse syndrome); other terms that you
think your reader may need defined.

2.7 Introduction
To allow readers to understand the background to and the context of the study: to explain why you are
doing it. Gives an introduction to the work presented in the report; it should give the background of the

work and describe why it is being done, i.e. its context, relevance, significance, history, how it relates to
other peoples work, etc.
Common mistakes
Does not clearly state why the study is being done
Too long, with irrelevant material.
Conversely, much too short and general.
Rambling, unstructured.
First sentence is a banal statement of general knowledge.
(The middle part of your report, with appropriate section headings. NOTE: there is no such
heading as Middle Section!)
2.8 (The middle sections of your text)
Choose suitable headings and sub-headings for your topic.
NOTE: Middle Section(s) must not be used as a section heading.

2.8.1 Middle sections for an experimental report

Methods or Experimental Procedure (or other suitable headings appropriate to your work) gives details
of how you carried out the investigation. Include enough detail of the equipment and the procedure so that
another competent person could repeat exactly what you did, working only from your description.
Common mistakes

Faults with the amount of detail: not enough or too much.

Writing it as a series of instructions. Laboratory manuals and other types of instructions for an
investigation are often written as a series of instructions (see box):
Example of Methods/Experimental Procedure as in a lab manual (written as instructions)
1. Measure width, thickness and length of specimen.
2. Pass specimen through hand-rolls with (a) width parallel to rolling direction and (b) one end
aligned with edge of the rolls at the widest opening end.
3. Measure thickness profile.
4. Place specimen in 600 C furnace, 15 min; water quench.
5. While heating specimens, prepare Graphs 1a, 1b and 2.
6. Etch in Tuckers reagent.
7. Mark specimen at 1 cm intervals along its length.
8. Record the number of grains/linear cm across the specimens width at each centimetre.
Many students copy these instructions word-for-word from the manual. The important point to
remember is that you must write it, in the past tense, to describe what you actually did.
Example rewritten in a style suitable for a Procedure section:
Experimental Procedure
The width, thickness and length of the specimen was measured to the nearest x mm. It was then passed
through hand rolls with its width parallel to the rolling direction and one end aligned with the edge of
the rolls at the widest opening end. The thickness profile was then measured to the nearest x mm. After
heating for x minutes at 600 C and water quenching, the sample was etched in Tuckers reagent for x
minutes. The number of grains per linear centimetre was then recorded at centimetre intervals along the
samples length.
Notes:
1. It is written as a narrative, not as instructions.
2. Instruction Number 5 in the lab manual was not part of the experiment. It is therefore not included
in the Experimental Procedure section.
3. The manual gave no instructions about the accuracy to which you were required to measure. You
had to decide. This information must be included in your Experimental Procedure section.

2.8.2 Results
Give the information that leads to conclusions about your investigation.
Remember that graphs and tables merely present data; they don't state results. You need to ensure that
there is a linking, explanatory text, describing the significant features of the results to the readers.
Draw the graphs and tables you need from the experimental data you recorded.
Write the text to describe them. Many people make the mistake of having a Results section made up
of only graphs and tables. Graphs and tables merely present data; they dont state results. They must be
linked by explanatory text. This is important. Moreover, for your text, dont just write The data are
given in Figure 1 and Table 1.
Here are guidelines for writing the text in the Results section:
1. State the results briefly. Dont describe the curves themselves (as in, The curve showed
an initial increase, followed by a steep decline). State specifics: The flow showed an
initial increase, followed ....
2. Write something about each figure and table.
3. Refer to each one in the text by its figure or table number
4. Do not discuss the results, just present them. The place for comparing your data with
theory and for interpreting them is in the next section, the Discussion.
Common mistakes
Presenting only graphs and tables, without any linking explanatory text (see above).
Placing the raw data in the Results section and the interpreted data (graphs etc.) in an Appendix. Put
graphs in the Results section and complex raw data in an Appendix. It should be vice versa: graphs
(interpreted data) in the Results section; raw data in an Appendix.
2.8.3 For a report on work that is not experimental:
Choose suitable headings and sub-headings for your topic. Make it into a logical story.
2.9 Discussion
Comment on your results and interpret them in relation to the objectives of your work and to other
peoples work. Say what you think your investigation means.
Discussion: What to do if an experiment or investigation has gone wrong:
See page 58: Silyn-Roberts, H. (2002) Writing for Science: a Practical Handbook for Science,
Engineering and Technology Students. 2nd edition. Pearson Education, Auckland. Written for
undergraduates. Many copies on short loan in Engineering library.
Consider using a Results and Discussion section instead of the two separate sections. It is often a more
useful and elegant way of presenting and discussing your results.

2.10 Conclusions (NOTE: NOT Conclusion)

Made up of a series of the conclusions arising from the material in the Discussion.
Each one must be directly and logically drawn from your findings.
Make each conclusion as brief and as quantitative as possible.
This section is best written as a bulleted or numbered list, starting with the most important conclusions
and working down to the least important. Do not present any new material.
Common mistakes
Writing vague statements that should be supported by detail, e.g. The strength of Sample 1 was
much greater than that of Sample 2.
Unsupported conclusions

2.11 Acknowledgements
Acknowledge help you may have had from other students, members of staff, people in industry and
other organisations, etc. Use formal wording.
2.12 List of References
A list of the sources of your information. Needs to conform to the conventions. See separate handout.
List of References
A list of the your information sources that you cited in the text of the report. Needs to conform to the
conventions.
See the Referencing section of this module.
2.13 Appendices
Contain detailed material that is not critical to the overall understanding of the document. They should
contain supplementary material that may be needed by specialists/experts. In professional engineering
organizations, appendix material may be critical for legal issues.
Each appendix must be numbered and referred to at the relevant point in the text.

3.0 Numbering: sections; pages; appendices; figures

3.1 Document section numbering
This section describes the conventions for the decimal point numbering system for numbering chapters or
sections of a document, and their associated sub-headings and sub-sub-headings.
The main chapters/sections are given Arabic numerals. The sub-sections are denoted by putting a decimal
point after the section number and another Arabic numeral:
1.0

Title of first main chapter/section

1.1 First sub-heading
1.2 Second sub-heading

2.0

Title of second main chapter/section

2.1 First sub-heading
2.2 Second sub-heading
2.2.1 First division in the second sub-heading
2.2.2 Second division in the second sub-heading
2.2.3 Third division in the second sub-heading
2.3 Third sub-heading

3.0

Title of third main chapter/section

3.2 Page numbering

Place the Executive Summary or Abstract on a page by itself immediately after the Title Page and
before the Table of Contents page. Do not put a page number on this page.
Page 1 should be the first page of the Background or Introduction.
Number the pages between the Table of Contents page and the Introduction with Roman numerals (i,
ii, iii ,iv, v, etc)

3.3 Appendix numbering

Note singular and plural difference. Its one Appendix; two or more Appendices
Appendices can be named either:
Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3 etc
or
Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C etc.

The page numbers of the Appendices are separate from those of the main body of the document, and are
related to the numbering of the Appendix. For example:
Page 1-1, 1-2. 1-3 etc. or page A-1, A-2. A-3 etc.
Illustrations in an appendix
Tables and figures in Appendices do not belong to the two series in the main body of the document. They
are labelled as two separate series in their own right, according to the numbering of the Appendix.
Figure 1-1 (Figure 1 in Appendix 1), Figure 1-2 (Figure 2 in Appendix 1) etc.
or
Figure A-1 (Figure 1 in Appendix A), Figure A-2 (Figure 2 in Appendix A) etc.
or
Figure 2, Appendix 1, etc.

3.4 Numbering of illustrations (figures and tables)

Every illustration (figure or table) in a document MUST have a unique number and an
informative title. The title should be a phrase, not a sentence.
An illustration may also be given a caption (also known as a legend) if an explanation of the
illustration is needed.
IMPORTANT: Every illustration MUST be referred to at an appropriate place in the text as
follows:
Table 2.1 shows that . . .
. . . the strength of the samples varied with (Figure 3).

There should be two numbering series:

1. One numbering series for all the figures, i.e. everything that isnt a table - graphs, maps, line
drawings, flow diagrams etc.
2. Another numbering series for the tables.
This means that there will be Figure 1, Figure 2 . . . and Table 1, Table 2 . . . .

Numbering and captions of tables and figures

1.

Table/figure numbers should be in Arabic numerals and be assigned in the order in which the
tables/figures are referred to in the text (eg. Table 6, Figure 10, etc)

2.

In a large document the table/figure numbers can reflect the number of the section or chapter of which
they are part. For example: Table 6.2 ( the second table in Section 6). Try to avoid subdivisions such as
Figure 6.3.2 (the second figure in section 6.3): it becomes too complicated and is rarely necessary.

3.

The title may contain abbreviations and symbols that have been defined in the text.

4.

If you need to identify a source, it is set in brackets as the last element of the caption.
Figure 4.1 A typical graphite block heat exchanger (Adapted from Hewitt, 2006)