Atherton Training Consultants Ltd

Technical Report Writing Courses. One-day. On-site training.

TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING COURSES

Full-day courses for up to 12 people at your premises. Now in its 11th year!

Email direct to Tony Atherton or phone 07976-390960

Technical reports can be very different from business reports. This is a technical report writing course. Most report writing courses are about business reports (click here for our version). The presenter was for many years a Chartered Engineer (CEng), and is a professional trainer and a published writer.

COURSE AIM - Technical Report Writing Course

To help delegates to write shorter and better technical reports and to write them faster. It should also make it easier and faster for line managers to check and approve reports.

Quote from a recent client: 'You'll be pleased to know we are regularly benefitting from the (technical report writing) training you provided (six months ago).'

IS THERE A TRACK RECORD?

There is. The course is now in its 11th year. Tony Atherton designed this technical report writing course and ran it for the first time on 23 May 2001 for a group of engineers at Qinetiq, the defence research organisation. Other clients have included: BP, Thales, EON, Northumbrian Water, Scottish Power, Martin Baker Aircraft, Transport for London, RAF/MOD and many others - more are listed in the column on the right.

Technical report writing can be difficult and, frankly, there are some terrible reports around. Frequently, a technical report may be the only 'product' a client ever sees and many line managers have to spend too much time improving technical reports before they can be sent to clients.

Nevertheless, writing a good technical report can be made easier. This one-day course, run at your premises usually for groups up to 12 people, will help your delegates to prepare, write and edit good - and more readable - technical reports. It is suitable for those working in any technical environment, including IT departments in non-technical organisations.

Tony is a former Chartered Engineer (CEng) and trainer with over 25 years' experience of running training programmes. He was the Training Manager at NTL, a major telecommunications company, for several years and is a published writer with four books and about 90 articles to his name.

COURSE FEES

Please email or phone for a quotation. Email direct to Tony Atherton or phone 07976-390960. Please note that we do not use any sales pressure.

COURSE CONTENT - Technical Report Writing Courses

Writing for the reader is the 'Golden Rule' in any writing. Many readers of technical reports, such as senior managers or some clients, may not fully understand the technical jargon or even some of the illustrations. They need your technical writing to be as understandable as possible and they probably need far less detail than you have available. Above all, they need to be able to get what they want from your report as quickly, easily and accurately as possible.

• Technical report writing skills - differences between good and bad technical reports
• Twin goals: to do it better and to do it faster
• How to write a technical report - a process for making it easier: planning, writing, editing
• Planning reports - agreeing the purpose or terms of reference
• Your readers - how much detail, how much jargon?
• Report writing format - structuring a technical report, section by section
• Structuring complex arguments and complicated information
• Dealing with non-essential information
• Planning - down to paragraph level when necessary
• Report writing skills - using plain English in report writing and when to use jargon
• Controlling paragraph and sentence lengths - plain English again
• Using pronouns, technical data, numbers and units, diagrams, graphs, tables, illustrations, captions, bullet points, numbering systems, references, etc.
• Editing reports - making them clear, concise and correct
• Active and passive verbs
• 'Smothered verbs' in technical reports
• Some troublesome points of style
• Using the Microsoft grammar and style checkers
• Using the readability statistics
• Using illustrations, writing captions
• Punctuation problems - reference list

Some comments from delegates:

• Excellent all round - Thanks!
• We are still seeing a good payback from the Technical Report writing training you delivered across the business - reports continue to be generated and the formatting, design and presentation of the reports is of an excellent standard.
• Thank you very much for the technical report writing course. All the feedback I've had so far has been very positive and there was genuine enthusiasm from most of them which is quite unusual as they can be quite a cynical bunch!
• The feedback was all very positive and all the guys have taken something from the course. Two of the engineers even went back and looked back at their reports with a view to rewriting them.
• Informative, very useful and will give me confidence in report writing.
• His [a graduate placement] reports immediately took on a completely different look and feel. Although some report writing training was given as part of his Uni course, he in particular benefited from the training - and while he was with us, generated some very good pieces of work.
• Very useful and relevant to the way we write reports on the computer.
• The course was very useful and enjoyable. Very informative, good notes to take away.
• Interactive - everyone's ideas made it more enjoyable.
• The course was well received and very quickly assimilated by all of us - a lot of the tips and tools are now second nature.
• The trainer came across very well, I thought, and the material he provided was very good. It has made me realise that there is more to report writing than it looks.
• Learnt a lot, will help when writing a technical report - definitely.
• Very useful on all aspects of report writing.
• I'm actually using quite a bit of the information and tips we gained from Mr Atherton. I am now more aware of the layout of my reports when I put them together and the affect this can have on the reader. More than anything though I think I am planning more! Something that Mr Atherton put across as being very important. This planning has saved me time in the long run and has meant that I now feel more confident when handing over my reports to QA for final approval.
• One of the most enjoyable courses I have attended.

COURSE DETAILS - Technical Report Writing Courses

INTRODUCTION

• Technical report writing - the difficulties.
• The difference between good and poor technical reports.
• How to write a technical report: a methodical approach: Planning, Drafting, Editing.

PLANNING TECHNICAL REPORTS

• Your specification or terms of reference. Gaining agreement.
• How much detail will be needed to achieve your objectives?
• Your readers, their technical competence. What do they need from your report? What do you want them to know, feel and do as a result of reading your report?
• Your information: how much do you have and how much do they need, how can it be presented best?
• Your structure, needing and getting a logical flow to complex information.
• Your format - conventional formats for technical reports, sections and sub-sections, what goes in which section.
• Your paragraphs, planning detail down to paragraph level. Discarding non-essentials.
• The importance of illustrations and appendices in technical reports.
• Your plan or blueprint for a perfect technical report.
  

WRITING TECHNICAL REPORTS

• Going from the plan to the draft.
• The order in which to write sections.
• Determining style.
• Paragraph and sentence lengths. Why they are important.
• Verb tenses.
• Writing numbers and units.
• Using appropriate words and dealing with jargon; plain English.
• Using pronouns, bullet points, numbering systems, references.
• Using illustrations, making them meaningful for readers to follow. Writing meaningful captions.
• Using appendices.

EDITING TECHNICAL REPORTS

• Going from the draft to the finished report.
• Editing to make it clear, concise and correct.
• The Microsoft grammar and style checkers.
• Using readability statistics.
• Active and passive verbs - how active can you be?
• Controlling 'hidden' or 'smothered' verbs.
• Eliminating waffle. Improving clarity.
• Some troublesome points of English grammar.
• Punctuation: main pitfalls, reference list.
• Making it look good.
  

TRAINING STYLE

THE TRAINER

Also - Click here for:

• Article: Report Writing - How to write a business report
• Article: Report Writing - Editing your report

CONTACT US:

E-mail direct to Tony Atherton

Phone 07976-390960

Covers: United Kingdom

Technical Report Writing Courses: Last updated 7 September 2011