Technical reports work persuasively to document activities or guide decisions. To write them effectively you need to be able to:
- Plan the report by determining the purpose of the report, analyzing the audience, defining the problem to be solved, and developing the schedule for completing the report.
- Organize the report using standard components (briefing, evidence, and evaluation), tailor the organization according to how you approach the audience (direct or indirect), and choose an appropriate structure for developing ideas within subsections.
- Consider appropriate design options, such as whether to number sections, how to paginate the report, how to use bullets judiciously, how to design readable and accurate graphics, how to smoothly integrate mathematical formulas into the text, and how to present statistics and visual information ethically.
- Edit the report so it has a situationally appropriate tone, a consistent style, completeness, no unnecessary use of passive voice, a variety of sentences, and few acronyms and abbreviations.
As with all international communication, writing reports for audiences in other cultures requires you to think about the cultural expectations of your audience, particularly with regard to cultural approaches to organizing reports.
