Design and Format

Technical reports (including handbooks and guides) have various designs depending on the industry, profession, or organization. This chapter gives an overview of traditional design. If you are taking a technical writing course, ask your instructor for any design specifications they have for your documents. The same is true if you are writing a technical report in a science, business, or government context. Organizations very often have their own stylesheets on which all organizational document designs are based, so make sure the design presented in this chapter is acceptable. This is especially true if you are writing a report for publication—each journal provides its own guidelines for submission.

In general, reports should be typed, double or single spaced on 8-1/2 x 11 paper on one side of the page only, and letter-quality print or better is expected. The spacing and margins are often dictated by the audience and genre. For example, in technical fields, single spacing is often preferred, while some classroom instructors may prefer another size. Refer to your guidelines or examples of similar reports to ensure you use correct spacing.

You will likely have several pages of Front and Back Matter in your document, such as the transmittal letter, cover page, table of content, and reference page.  The information below discusses design considerations for the main body of the report.

Headings

Headings are an important feature of professional technical writing; they alert readers to upcoming topics and subtopics, help readers find their way around in long reports and skip what they are not interested in, and break up long stretches of straight text. They also keep you (the writer) organized and focused on the topic. The following are some helpful tips for incorporating headings in a report:

• Use self-explanatory headings: Instead of “Background,” make it more specific, such as “Physics of Fiber Optics.”
• Make headings indicate the range of topic coverage: Do not exclude major section concepts or descriptions for brevity.
• Avoid “stacked” headings: Avoid two consecutive headings without intervening text.
• Avoid pronoun reference to headings: If you have a heading “Torque,” do not begin the sentence following it with something like, “This is a physics principle…..”
• Omit articles from the beginning of headings: For example, “The Pressurized Water Reactor” can easily be changed to “Pressurized Water Reactors.”
• Avoid headings as lead-ins to lists or as figure titles: Always include text that describes and provides context for lists and subtitles.
• Avoid “widowed” headings: Keep at least two lines of body text with the heading or force it to start the new page.

Page Numbering

Page numbering style used in traditional report design differs from contemporary report design. Check with your instructor or employer to ensure you are following the correct format. Below is a list of general page number requirements:

• Traditional: Use lowercase Roman numerals in front matter (everything before the introduction) (i, ii, iii). All pages in the report (within but excluding the front and back covers) are numbered; unless the format style of the field states otherwise.
• Contemporary: All pages throughout the document use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). On special pages, such as the title page and page one of the introduction, page numbers are not displayed.

Page numbers can be placed in one of several areas on the page. Usually, the best and easiest choice is to place page numbers at the bottom center of the page (remember to hide them on special pages).

Bulleted and Numbered List

• Use lists to highlight or emphasize text or to enumerate sequential items

• Use a lead-in to introduce the items and indicate the meaning or purpose of the list
• Use consistent spacing, indentation, punctuation, and caps style for all lists
• Use parallel phrasing
• Ensure each item in the list reads grammatically with the lead-in
• Avoid using headings as lead-ins for lists
• Avoid overusing lists; using too many lists destroys their effectiveness
• Use similar types of lists consistently in the same document
• Following up a list with text helps your reader understand context for the information distilled into list form

Graphics

In a technical report, you are likely to need drawings, diagrams, tables, and charts. Display data that is relevant to your topic and goals, interesting or surprising, or complex data that can be clarified by a visual. These not only convey certain kinds of information more efficiently but also give your report an added look of professionalism and authority. If you have never put these kinds of graphics into a report, there are some relatively easy ways to do so—you do not need to be a professional graphic artist. Common software such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and Google Docs can create effective charts and graphics for a report, while freeware such as Inkscape and Gimp are available online.

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively throughout the text, and, in a thesis or long report, separate lists of tables and figures are normally included at the beginning. Tables and figures should always have descriptive captions, and if they come directly from sources then the sources must be properly credited. Never present tables and figures without some useful interpretation of them in the text. In other words, graphics should clarify the information in the text, while the text should explain and support the graphics. Always ensure your graphics are ethical and display honest data.