technical report writing and research methodology pdf

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Guide to technical report writing

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Open Technical Writing: An Open-Access Text for Instruction in Technical and Professional Writing

(3 reviews)

Adam Rex Pope, University of Arkansas

Copyright Year: 2018

Publisher: University of Arkansas

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Joyce Bower, Part-Time Professor, Linn-Benton Community College on 8/4/20

Adam Rex Pope does a good job of covering the basics and giving cooking metaphors to help readers understand the concepts. Unfortunately, there is no glossary or index to help students with finding and defining concepts. Technical writing... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

Adam Rex Pope does a good job of covering the basics and giving cooking metaphors to help readers understand the concepts. Unfortunately, there is no glossary or index to help students with finding and defining concepts. Technical writing documents also were not thoroughly explained and demonstrated. Pope provides brief explanations of some documents, but analytical reports were not explained. These are things that an instructor can supplement, however, so if an instructor wants a good overview of what technical writing is, this book would be a good choice.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The content is fine, and in general, it is accurate, but sometimes Pope can be confusing: "In our examples below, we’re always conveying 'the facts,' in our messages or our boxes. And, in those examples, it would seem that no matter what we’re still conveying 'just the facts' once we cut out all the extra cruft. The essential facts never change in those examples, but when we do technical writing they very well can!" (p. 23). That doesn't make sense. Punctuation (commas) are needed for a better understanding, and what does he mean that when we do technical writing, the essential facts can change? This is not good writing or technical writing. Pope also does not reference other sources throughout. (He does cite two sources at the very end, but there are no in-text citations.)

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content is a general explanation of technical writing, so it will not be obsolete quickly; however, it is almost too general to be used alone.

Clarity rating: 4

Pope explains concepts with cooking metaphors, something that many people can relate to. The tone is very casual, using terms like "folks." It may make it more accessible for some.

Consistency rating: 5

Following his own advice, Pope's terminology and framework for the text is very consistent and easy to follow.

Modularity rating: 5

The table of contents and section headings make it easy to assign readings and help readers find what they need easily.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Pope organizes the topics well, moving from general topics of technical writing through more specific topics such as genres and research. (Unfortunately, the genre and research sections are not very thorough or helpful.)

Interface rating: 4

The text is available to download and is easy to navigate (other than a few blank pages here and there between pages/sections, which can be distracting).

Grammatical Errors rating: 2

Not only is the tone casual, but the editing is also casual. Several misspellings and grammatical errors distract from the content and can confuse the message. Also, when I teach technical writing, I teach correctness to ensure readability and conciseness. The author does not show this in his writing, which would undermine what I am teaching.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Pope does a good job of discussing audience/users in general but does not address cultures much.

Reviewed by Forrest Johnson, Part-Time English Faculty, Linn-Benton Community College on 1/14/20

The text does a fine job of covering the breadth of technical writing concepts, but there is no index or glossary. Still, the table of contents is detailed enough to make the content fairly discoverable. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The text does a fine job of covering the breadth of technical writing concepts, but there is no index or glossary. Still, the table of contents is detailed enough to make the content fairly discoverable.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Pope does a good job of making it clear that he is writing from his own perspective and set of biases, but the text could be tightened up to be a better demonstration of good technical writing.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Pope clearly worked hard to make a text that speaks to students currently in technical writing courses, but that also has staying power. There are references to technologies that will likely be out of date in 5 years, but the concepts and principals taught will remain relevant.

The conversational tone of the text makes it feel more accessible, but it also makes the text feel a bit bloated and, in some cases, may lead to confusion. I suspect that there are some students who struggle with traditional textbooks who will find the tone of the text helpful, while students used to formal writing may be frustrated that the tone is not more authoritative.

The text does a fine job of defining terms and using them consistently.

Modularity rating: 4

As Pope mentions in the "Note to Instructors", the chapters are long and packed with subsections. I think the content could be divided and reordered with out much confusion. However, the subsections are not always designated as clearly as they might be.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The major concepts flow logically. Because it is written in a conversational tone, some of the examples of the concepts take a while to develop and connect.

Interface rating: 5

The text is just a PDF, but the table of contents is interactive and looks to be reasonably accessible to a screen reader and to other accommodation needs.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There are some areas where the conversational tone leads to grammatical choices that could be disputed, but it is well written overall.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

While Pope certainly writes with a culturally situated voice, he does a good job of using examples that are inclusive and engaging.

I think this would be a particularly good text to use in an online course because of its conversational and personal tone. Pope's writing feels more like a guided discussion than a dry lecture. The text does an excellent job of giving technical writing life and a human context. There instances where the conversational tone results in modeling habits like over using adjectives that I would probably edit if/when I use the text in my own course, but the content is good enough to make this a minor issue.

Reviewed by Kelly Zepp, Assistant Professor, Community College of Denver on 11/4/19

The author of the text spends so much time on lesser important elements like X-height and too little time on more important issues like the various technical writing genres. Also, the title of the book explicitly states that it will over... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 2 see less

The author of the text spends so much time on lesser important elements like X-height and too little time on more important issues like the various technical writing genres. Also, the title of the book explicitly states that it will over professional writing as well as technical writing. Given this, I would expect that emails, memos, letters, and resumes would be included in the genre section; however, the book doesn't discuss these at all. I also would expect a book with this title to discuss style/readability; however, this is not included.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I did not find any inaccurate information; however, there are topics that I would prefer to be handled differently; for example, I would never reference taxonomy in the same way that Pope was. I would refer to it as chunking information and developing hierarchy.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

With the exception of acid wash jeans, it doesn't seem like the material will become dated quickly. The author makes use of some design tools. Overall, it doesn't seem like it would be easy to update because it is a PDF file.

Clarity rating: 3

Some people will like the author's fun, chatty style. Unfortunately, I thought it was distracting and took my focus from the material and put it on the author. The author discloses that this was an intentional choice, and I can imagine that his students might enjoy having a text that sounds like their professor. It seems, however, that this choice makes it hard for other professors to adopt this text. Also, all his asides lead to writing that is less concise than it should be, which is esp. unfortunate in a technical writing text.

Author is consistent with his references like "signposts" and "genre."

Modularity rating: 3

Here is what Pope has to say on the modularity of his book, "When it comes to daily teaching, you may notice I don’t have that many chapters. Each chapter is fairly lengthy, and they are not intended to be covered in a single day. Instead, each chapter has major chunks that can be assigned with suggested activities at the end of each major chunk. These activities are provided to give you some direction in classroom exercises to help students internalize and make use of the concepts covered in each section. You don’t have to stop each class when a chunk of text terminates with activities, but I’ve provided these spots to break up the chapters in ways that make sense in my own mind."

For me, what makes sense in Pope's mind, does not always make sense to me. This text does not seem like it lend itself well to someone who wanted to approach the content in a different way.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

Some of Pope's organizational choices do not make sense to me. For example, I would not expect to find a detailed description of the writing process in a chapter called "The User." Likewise, I would not expect to see signposting and taxonomy in the "What is Technical Writing" chapter.

Interface rating: 3

A book on technical writing ought to make good use of design; while this text is not awful, there are some elements that I wish the author addressed. For example, all headings, the info in the green boxes, and all info in the TOC is in ALL CAPS. This makes these sections more difficult to use. Also, most of the book uses large chunks of text that span the entire page. Some variety of design elements like indenting or bolding information or using small caps or title caps would have helped me navigate the text more easily. There are also a number of widows and orphans throughout the text. Lastly, the images could be integrated more effectively. For example, the image on page 149 is too far down and makes the page feel bottom heavy. This would be frustrating in any text, but it's even more so in a text that needs to teach students about effective document design. I also was disappointed that there are very few images in the visual communication section.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

Overall, it was fairly well proofed; however, it is not error-free. For example, the following heading on page 153 made me laugh, "A table to be used to asses Objectives and time allotment" I am pretty sure the author meant "assess."

The following is a SV agreement error on the "A Note to Instructors" page, "Because of this approach, the text try to dictate exact moves that much, especially when it comes to particular genres like white papers and the like."

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Overall, there don't seem to be many cultural references, and they generally seem to be used well and inoffensively. It would be even stronger in this area without the many references to Halloween and the Jack O'Lantern in the visual design section to discuss how to stack design elements.

In his note to instructors, Pope writes the following: "In this text, I try to present technical writing as an approach to researching and carrying out writing that centers on technical subject matter. As part of this, each and every chapter is devoted to helping students understand that good technical writing is situationally-aware and context-driven. Technical writing doesn’t work off knowing the one true right way of doing things—there is no magic report template out there that will always work. Instead, I’ve focused on offering students a series of approaches they can use to map out their situations and do research accordingly. Because of this approach, the text try to dictate exact moves that much, especially when it comes to particular genres like white papers and the like. This is entirely by design. Nothing specific that I could write here would have any amount of a lifespan with a particular genre, so I’ve opted instead to provide a research framework and some specific tips and tricks with each genre. For researching and teaching a particular genre, I would recommend focusing on the method I suggest to research the genre and then to build your class time around finding example texts and building your own image of what the genre looks like. "

If you don't agree with his approach you probably, like me, will not find this text useful. I would need to supplement this text with so many other resources, etc. that it is not worth my time adopting it.

Also, this book is only available as a PDF, which makes it more difficult for one to pull modules into one's LMS. In its current version, I'm not sure its very accessible. For example, in 5 pages of very dense text, there are only two subheadings. This would be very difficult to navigate by someone with a screen reader.

Table of Contents

• What is Technical Writing?
• Visual Communication & Technical Writing
• Document Design in Technical Writing
• Writing in Genres
• Managing a Project
• Research Methods for Technical Writing

Ancillary Material

About the book.

This book presents technical writing as an approach to researching and carrying out writing that centers on technical subject matter. Each and every chapter is devoted to helping students understand that good technical writing is situationally-aware and context-driven. Technical writing doesn’t work off knowing the one true right way of doing things—there is no magic report template out there that will always work. Instead, the focus is on offering students a series of approaches they can use to map out their situations and do research accordingly.

About the Contributors

Adam Rex Pope , University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Contribute to this Page

6.2 Performing Research

In order to write effective technical documents, technical writers need to do their research . Even if the subject matter is familiar, getting the facts straight ahead of time is essential for a successful project, assignment, or document.

There are a number of ways technical writers conduct research, such as the following

• Online  – When a person is writing up a user manual, they might be able to find the necessary information online to complete their assignment.
• On-the-job  – Many technical writers are already experts in their field, so they can rely on personal experience to create their documents.
• Interviews  – In some cases, a technical writer may have to set up an interview with another professional to get the necessary details for the end result.
• Libraries and other research facilities  – And there’s always the library for additional assignment-related information.

Effective Research Processes

Simply going to an information source, extracting it, and then putting it into your draft is not enough. While this might work for everyday writing, technical writing is meant to be used actively, so its content needs to be accurate.

• Know the goal – Understanding the goal or purpose of the user document will guide the research process and allow the technical writer to find appropriate facts to use.
• Check and double check – It never hurts to check the facts and then to check them again to ensure they are accurate.
• Find multiple sources – Whenever possible, find multiple sources for the material and cite them in the technical writing document.
• Talk with experts in the field – Another way to verify information, talking with experts in the field can yield better information from their experience.

Technical Writing Research Methods

Research is not just the collection of facts for a technical writing document; it is a process in which information is uncovered and expressed in a meaningful way to the audience. Before you begin documenting your deliverables, you need to gather all the required information. You need to conduct different research methods to do this. Here are a few methods of conducting research in technical documentation:

Primary Research – Conduct primary research either using the source documents or interacting with the subject matter experts. These methods are called primary methods as you get first-hand information from the two most reliable sources – specifications documents and the subject matter experts.

Gathering Information from Sources – Begin reading and gathering all the available information on your topic from websites, library databases, as well as print media. However, you’ll likely encounter information irrelevant to your topic and audience, so you need to analyze the impact your sources will likely have on your audience.

Collecting Information from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) – Interacting with subject matter experts can help you answer research questions and provide accurate information for your report. Subject matter experts (SMEs), such as engineers and developers, are often able to provide all the information you need to answer all your questions.

Secondary Research – Use additional methods that help you in gathering the information through logical methods, apart from the direct methods specified earlier. The different methods of conducting secondary research are as follows:

Preparing an Outline – Start framing the outline on the basis of the available information. Thus, you can identify the gaps and you can perform additional tasks to fill such gaps. An outline makes the writing process more efficient and focused. It presents the material in a logical form and shows the connections of ideas in your writing. Alongside constructing an ordered overview of your writing, it also defines boundaries and groups. See a sample outline here .

Information Mapping – Use this research-based, tested, and proven methodology to develop documentation. It is a tool that helps you develop documentation, which is organized and presented in a manner that is clear and usable to the reader. Information mapping helps in making documents consistent and easy to understand.

*TIP : Strong research blends primary and secondary research.

Watch the following video, “ Research in Technical Writing, ” by William Smith:

Getting Started with Research

Research is about questions. In the beginning the questions are focused on helping you determine a topic and types of information and sources; later in the research process, the questions are focused on expanding and supporting your ideas and claims as well as helping you stay focused on the specific rhetorical situation of your project.

Questions to help you get started

• What is my timeline for the project? You will likely want to set personal deadlines in addition to your actual deadline (from your instructor or employer).
• What do I want to know or learn about? This helps you determine scope or the limits of your research.
• What do I already know about this topic?
• What biases might I have about this topic? How might I combat these biases?

Questions to determine methodology

• Where might I find useful, reliable information about this topic? For academic research, you will generally focus on library, technical, scientific, and governmental resources. It is fine if you are not quite sure exactly where you should look; your instructor should be able to help you determine some places that would be appropriate.
• Will I need to perform primary research, secondary research, or both?

Next you will develop a research question . By this point you should have a general idea of your topic and some general ideas of where you might begin your research. Once you have developed your research question(s), you are ready to begin searching for answers.

Where to look

In the 21st century, we generally turn to the internet when we have a question. For technical, scientific, and academic research, we can still turn to the internet, but where we visit changes. We will discuss a few different places where you can perform research including Google, Google Scholar, and college libraries.

Google & Google Scholar : The default research site for most students tends to be Google. Google can be a great starting place for a variety of research. You can use Google to find news articles and other popular sources, such as magazine articles and blog posts. You can use Google to discover keywords, alternative terms, and relevant professional businesses and organizations. The most important thing to remember about using Google is that search results are organized by popularity, not by accuracy . Further, because Google customizes search results based on a user’s search history, searches performed by different people or on different browsers may provide different results.

For many technical, scientific, and scholarly topics, Google will not provide access to the appropriate and necessary types of sources and information. Google Scholar, however, searches only academic and scientific journals, books, patents, and governmental and legal documents. This means the results will be more technical and scholarly and therefore more appropriate for much of the research you will be expected to perform as a student. Though Google Scholar will show academic and technical results, that does not mean that you will have access to the full-text documents. Many of the sources that appear on Google Scholar are from databases, publishers, or libraries, which means that they are often behind paywalls or password-protected. In many cases, this means you will have to turn to a university or other library for access.

University/College Libraries: Library resources, such as databases, peer-reviewed journals, and books, are generally the best bet for accurate and more technical information. A Google search might yield millions and millions of results and a Google Scholar search may yield tens or hundreds of thousands of results, but a library search will generally yield fewer but more relevant results.

Overall, library resources are more tightly controlled and vetted. Anyone can create a blog or website and post information, regardless of the accuracy or usefulness of the information. Library resources, in contrast, have generally gone through rigorous processes and revisions before publication. For example, academic and scientific journals have a review system in place—whether a peer-review process or an editorial board—both feature panels of people with expertise in the areas under consideration. Publishers for books also feature editorial boards who determine the usefulness and accuracy of information. Of course, this does not mean that every peer-reviewed journal article or book is 100% accurate and useful all of the time. Biases still exist, and many commonly accepted facts change over time with more research and analysis. Overall the process for these types of publications require that multiple people read and comment on the work, providing some checks and balances that are not present for general internet sources.

*At the bottom of this page you will find links to LBCC’s Library research databases.

Keyword searches

Once you decide on a general topic, you will need to determine keywords that you can use to search different resources.

It is important to have a wide range of keywords because not all terms will result in the same information. Developing a list of keywords can be aided by a quick Google search. A Google search may reveal more official language or terminology, broader or narrower terms and concepts, or related terms and concepts. You can use a couple different strategies to help narrow your search. Using quotation marks around two or more words means the search results will contain those words only in that specific order. For example, a search for “ illegal aliens ” would only provide results where these words appear in that exact order, with no other words between them. A search for illegal aliens without the quotation marks will show information on illegal aliens, too, but it will also show any sources that have the words illegal and alien anywhere in the text.

Now that you’ve chosen a topic, developed a research question, and gathered relevant resources, it’s time to put your research to use. The next section, “ Using Your Research ,” will help you do just that.

Additional Resources

• Academic Search Premiere
• Ebook Central
• Opposing Viewpoints
• “ What Is Research: Definition, Methods, Types & Examples ,” an article from QuestionPro.com

Technical Writing at LBCC Copyright © 2020 by Will Fleming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.