Technical report writing courses from Atherton Training

Technical Report Writing Courses - 1-day in company

Atherton Training Consultants Ltd

TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING COURSES

For up to 12 people at your premises. Companies and organisations only. No public courses.

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 (see the panel to the right for our version). The presenter was for many years a Chartered Engineer (CEng), and is a professional trainer and published writer.

Technical report writing can be difficult - but writing a good technical report can be made easier. Now in its 10th year, this one-day course, run at your premises usually for groups up to 12, will help your delegates to prepare, write and edit good - and more readable - technical reports.

COURSE AIM - Technical Report Writing Courses

To help delegates to write technical reports that are clear, concise and easy for readers to understand and act upon. It covers the principles of preparing, writing and editing technical reports.

Organisational benefits include improved communication through technical reports that are easier to use by both the organisation and its clients. This should help to build reputation and save time and money.

IS THERE A TRACK RECORD?

There is, the course is now in its 10th year. Tony Atherton ran the first of now over 90 technical report writing courses on 23 May 2001. This was for a group of 16 engineers from Qinetiq, the defence research organisation. Since then Tony has presented it, with various modifications, for delegates from a variety of industries including the pharmaceutical, telecommunications, IT, aerospace, petrochemical and construction industries. For example, clients have included: BP, Thales, EON, Northumbrian Water, Scottish Power, Martin Baker Aircraft, Transport for London, RAF/MOD, Doosan Babcock, Sula Systems, Aesica Pharma, Edinburgh Council, ONI, Delta Rail, LifeCycle Pharma, Vectura, Ineos Silicas and many others.

The technical report writing course is suitable for those working in any technical or engineering environment, including IT departments in non-technical organisations. It is designed and presented by a former Chartered Engineer (CEng), a trainer who has over 25 years' experience of running training programmes and who was the Training Manager at NTL, a major telecommunications company, for several years. He is also a published writer with four books and about 90 articles to his name.

COURSE FEES

Please email or phone for a quote as fees may very slightly according to how many delegates you have. 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. 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 - the 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, footnotes, technical data, 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 illustrations, writing captions
  • Punctuation problems - reference list
  • Using readability statistics

Some comments from delegates:

  • Excellent all round - Thanks!
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 training style uses a mixture of talks, discussions, group work and individual work in a mix that is as appropriate as possible to the delegates. The actual course may differ slightly from the fine details above as the training is adjusted to match as accurately as possible the needs of the delegates. Delegates are asked to help one another to achieve their action plans. Full course notes are provided which also serve as reference books for later. The normal maximum number of delegates is 12.

THE TRAINER

Tony Atherton introduced the technical report course in May 2001 in response to a request from Reed Training to provide Technical Report Writing courses for Qinetiq, the defence research organisation. Since then Tony has presented these courses, with various modifications, for delegates from a variety of industries.

As a training consultant and published writer, Tony draws on a career in both the public and private sectors including employment in the Royal Navy, GEC-Marconi, the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the University of Hong Kong. For five years he was the Training Manager at NTL and since 1997 he has been an independent trainer and writer. His engineering background has been critical in ensuring the success of this course. He is also a published writer with four books and around 90 articles to his name.

He has trained thousands of delegates from blue-chip organisations - both independently and on behalf of large training companies including the Institute of Management, Reed Training, Fielden-Cegos and Right-Coutts.

He has also inspected government-funded training on behalf of the Training Standards Council and the Adult Learning Inspectorate.

These technical report writing courses have appealed to scientists, engineers and technologists from Pfizer, BP, Northumbrian Water, E.ON, Scottish Power, Alpharma/Actavis, CCLA, NDS, TGA Building Consultants, Yara Industrial, CAE, Your Communications, Network Appliances, Touchstone, Synthomer, Inenco, Imerys, the RAF/MOD, PTS Consultants, NDS, Doosan Babcock, Intertek, and others. And, of course, the original: Qinetiq.



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'You'll be glad to know that we are still seeing a good payback from the Technical Report writing training you delivered across the business...'

Clients

Client organisations for all subjects include:

Clients on behalf of the Institute of Management, Reed Training, Right-Coutts and Fielden-Cegos include:

CONTACT US:

E-mail direct to Tony Atherton

Phone 07976-390960

Covers: United Kingdom
 

Technical Report Writing Courses: Last updated May 2010