Guidelines for the first technical report assignment
Approximately 5-10 pages (not counting title page, acknowledgments, and table of contents)
For this assignment, investigate and write a report about a technical question, problem, innovation, or opportunity.
To a great degree, the subject of your report will be up to you. It could be something connected with your academic or career plans or experience, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be.
The main thing is that it should be something that you will be motivated to work on and learn more about.
As we have discussed, a good technical report should be as clear and efficient as possible, but it should also be substantive. While the length of your report should be dictated by functional considerations, somewhere between five and ten pages (not counting title page, etc.) seems like a reasonable scale.
What counts as a technical question?
Citations
Since this is an academic paper, your report should include citations and references appropriate to the field that you are working in. If you are unsure of what citation style to use, you may use APA or MLA as a default.
With that in mind, here are some of the things that go into an effective technical report:
Provides a clear and practical assessment of the problem, challenge, or opportunity at hand.
Provides solid evidence in support of that assessment, and presents that evidence effectively and responsibly. (Things to avoid here might include using evidence that is irrelevant, inaccurate, fraudulent, or misrepresented.)
Provides an effective and responsible analysis of the evidence presented in the report, demonstrating how that evidence supports the report’s principal conclusions and recommendations.
