1. School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Report Writing Skills
Brendan McGrath
Coordinator
FYP – ELEC4840/ELEC4840A/ELEC4840B

2. Overview Introduction – Technical Writing Thesis Requirements
Thesis Structure
Writing Style

3. Technical Writing Communication - the most important engineering skill
What’s the point of having an idea if you can’t tell anyone!
Written communication is particularly challenging. It is a skill that must be developed and practiced.
The act of writing helps you learn!
About the problem
And also how to write technical documents

4. Technical Writing To write a technical document, you must:
Know the purpose of your document
Know your audience
This defines your document structure and style:
E.g. Software documentation for a PC user, verses a code cutter
E.g. Academic research paper, verses technical specification

5. Thesis Requirements The thesis will be a new style of document to you:
A research/development/scientific report
Unlike under-graduate assignments
No clear-cut, pre-defined answer
The audience may know very little about your problem. They are experts, and will know the broad literature
This leads to a distinct thesis style

6. Thesis Requirements
In general a thesis addresses four key considerations:
The problem that must be addressed - “What I did!”
The context and relevance of the problem - “Why I did it!”
The results/analysis/development - “What I found!”
The conclusions and relationship to context - “So what!”
Interim reports will also include:
Long and Short term goals – “How and when I will do it!”

7. Thesis Requirements
The thesis must CLEARLY identify your contributions
The thesis must contain sufficient detail to allow the reader to fully understand what you have done
The reader should be able to replicate your results
But! If you use results, figures, software, hardware from a 3rd party, this must be clearly identified
Plagiarism and academic conduct will be discussed separately

8. Thesis Structure - Preamble
The necessary preamble information
Title Page
Table of Contents
Identification of your original contribution
Acknowledgements (if required)

9. Thesis Structure – The Abstract
Abstract – A concise summary of the project.
Not more than one page
A self contained document – could be published in its own right
It should convey:
The problem
The solution
Closure and extensions - “What it means, and what’s next.”

10. Thesis Structure – Introduction
Introduction – The context of the project
What is the topic, and why is it important?
State the problem, as simply as possible
Take a broad – high level view of the problem
How does the problem relate to the broader discipline?
Assume the reader is not familiar with the field
Recall – examiners know Maxwell’s equations, but what’s CDMA?

11. Thesis Structure – Literature Review
The purpose of a literature review is to position your work in context with the broader discipline
Key questions include:
Where did your problem come from?
What approaches are currently used to address it?
Why do they fall short?
Who is interested in a resolution to the problem?

12. Thesis Structure – Literature Review
Where do the techniques you use come from?
How do these techniques work?
What are their limitations?
The literature review should not be a list of papers with a comment on each
Group the references and extract the key concepts in context to your problem

13. Thesis Structure – The Body
The Body of the thesis (i.e. the central chapters) present your major contributions
The exact structure can vary greatly – depends on content
Generic Scientific Format:
Materials and Methods (Often just methods/algorithms)
Theory (Often incorporate in the above)
Results and Discussion

14. Thesis Structure – The Conclusion
This chapter should :
Summarise the problem and its relevance
State the approach used to address the problem
Present the conclusions of the work
Show the limitations to the completed work
Illustrate avenues for improvement and extension
It should relate back to the Introductory chapter

15. Thesis Structure

16. Appendices A thesis in general will be highly detailed
However - excessive detail obscures the work
Appendices should be used to show:
A complete mathematical development
Software listings
Circuit and system schematics (CAD)
Thesis Body refers to the Appendices

17. Writing Style For technical writing – STYLE counts
Technical readers expect a certain structure
This helps to focus purely on content
Technical readers notice the English only when it’s bad
Key style points follow

18. Writing Style – The Topic Sentence
Paragraphs – One idea only
The topic sentence :
The 1st sentence of any paragraph
It should flag the key idea of the paragraph
Helps avoids waffle – gets to the point quickly
It greatly assists the reader

19. Writing Style – The Topic Sentence
Good Example - The AGE newspaper, May 1st 2006 :
“Women in stressful jobs who become pregnant should virtually halve their time at work right from the start of their pregnancy.”
Bad Example – “Lonely Planet Guide – Korea” :
“Despite rapid economic development and modernisation in recent years, Korea is still Confucian.”
[Paragraph’s actual topic – Gender roles and female employment in Korea]

20. Writing Style – Chapter Entry
There should be one to two introductory paragraphs to each chapter
They state the
Purpose of the chapter
Structure of the chapter
Central themes of the chapter

21. Writing Style – Chapter Exit
The exit paragraphs provide the summary/conclusion
The Summary should:
State the major conclusions from the chapter
Relate these conclusions back to the introductory remarks and the central themes of the chapter
State the relevance of these conclusions
Show how this leads into the next chapter

22. Resources and Tips Project Web site has a list of resources:
Read Theses (Masters, PhD’s, FYP)
Take a Meta position – Look at the writing style, not content
If the thesis reads well – WHY?

23. Figures and Diagrams Figures and Diagrams are key to a thesis
Use appropriate drawing packages:
VISIO, AutoCAD, CORREL, CANVAS
Minimum font in figures = 9pt