Technical Report Writing for Engineers

Learn to communicate effectively through technical report writing

Technical reports are a vital tool for engineers to communicate their ideas. This online course introduces technical report writing and teaches the techniques you need to construct well-written engineering reports.

Each week, we’ll look at a key section of a technical report and the skills needed to write it. You’ll cover areas such as referencing and citations; presenting equations; diagrams and data; and using language and tenses correctly.

We’ll also talk to practising engineers, as well as students and educators who write and mark technical reports, who’ll give their hands-on advice.

This course is designed for both student and professional engineers. It will teach you the technical report writing skills you need to tackle everything from a two-page document to a PhD thesis. As such, it will be applicable for the entirety of your engineering degree or career.

• What is a technical report and why write one?
• Welcome to the course
• Communicating clearly
• What is a technical report?
• Summing up and looking ahead
• Writing your introduction
• Welcome to Week 2
• Introducing your report
• Reviewing the literature
• Explaining the theory
• Outlining the aim and objective
• Summing up and looking ahead
• Explaining your method
• Welcome to Week 3
• What goes in the procedure section?
• Language check: what are the rules?
• Figures and diagrams
• In the lab: writing a procedure
• Summing up and looking ahead
• Communicating your results
• Welcome to Week 4
• What goes in the results?
• Reporting numbers
• Presenting your data
• Summing up and looking ahead
• What does it all mean? Your discussion and conclusion
• Welcome to Week 5
• What goes into a discussion?
• Language check: what are the rules?
• Conclusion
• Summing up and looking ahead
• Putting it all together
• Welcome to Week 6
• The abstract
• Optional sections
• Global formatting
• Summing up