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Craig Cardimon wondered: <<I volunteered to write some technical
reports for one of our company's departments. They basically need to
have material organized and simplified. No big surprise there. Is
there a place I can go for information on technical reports for
beginners?>>
First place to go is the people you're writing for. There is no such
thing as a single definition of a "technical report" -- there are
dozens, and possibly hundreds, of different kinds of manuscripts that
bear this name, all with different purposes and contents. If you
don't know which category of report you're trying to create, how can
you possibly do the job well?
Once you know what the purpose of such a report is, you can grill the
future readers (never rely on only one) to learn what the content
must be to satisfy that purpose -- and all sub-purposes, to coin a
word. <g> It's not really any different from writing software docs:
once you know how people will use the product, you can easily come up
with a strategy that will let you help them do so.
Then, of course, you test your first draft on a representative sample
of your audience. Since these are in-house clients, that's easy.
Pitch this correctly and they'll be very pleased that you're actually
trying to produce something that will make their collective lives
easier. That creates all kinds of future benefits. If you're writing
the reports for in-house, but they'll be read primarily by out-house
staff <g>, get your colleagues to introduce you to a few of those
readers and make sure your efforts meet their needs too.
Not just theory, btw... I've done this many times in the past.
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-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
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