Technical reports have various designs depending on the industry, profession, or organization. This chapter shows you one important genre, the formal report.   Organizations very often have their own “stylesheets” on which all organizational document designs are based, so always check that report design conforms to your discourse community and your audience.

Technical reports have specifications as do any other kind of project. Specifications for reports involve layout, organization and content, format of headings and lists, the design of the graphics, and so on. The advantage of a genre with a required structure and format is that the designed is familiar—you know what to look for and where to look for it. Reports are usually read in a hurry—readers looking for information and arguments relating to their professional interests.

When you look at the components of a formal report, you’ll notice how repetitive some components are. This duplication has to do with how a professional audience reads reports. They don’t read straight through, like you’d read a novel.  Readers may start with the executive summary, perhaps check the table of contents for the sections they are especially interested in. Your challenge is to design reports so that these readers encounter your key arguments and information.

Be sure and see the example reports.

The standard components of the typical technical report are discussed in this chapter. The following sections guide you through each of these components, pointing out the key features.  Keep in mind that companies, agencies, professions, and other organizations may vary in their specific requirements, and you’ll need to adapt your practice to those.