dictionary meaning of technical report

Technical Report: What is it & How to Write it? (Steps & Structure Included)

A technical report can either act as a cherry on top of your project or can ruin the entire dough.

Everything depends on how you write and present it.

A technical report is a sole medium through which the audience and readers of your project can understand the entire process of your research or experimentation.

So, you basically have to write a report on how you managed to do that research, steps you followed, events that occurred, etc., taking the reader from the ideation of the process and then to the conclusion or findings.

Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it?

Well hopefully after reading this entire article, it won’t.

However, note that there is no specific standard determined to write a technical report. It depends on the type of project and the preference of your project supervisor.

With that in mind, let’s dig right in!

What is a Technical Report? (Definition)

A technical report is described as a written scientific document that conveys information about technical research in an objective and fact-based manner. This technical report consists of the three key features of a research i.e process, progress, and results associated with it.

Some common areas in which technical reports are used are agriculture, engineering, physical, and biomedical science. So, such complicated information must be conveyed by a report that is easily readable and efficient.

Now, how do we decide on the readability level?

The answer is simple – by knowing our target audience.

A technical report is considered as a product that comes with your research, like a guide for it.

You study the target audience of a product before creating it, right?

Similarly, before writing a technical report, you must keep in mind who your reader is going to be.

Whether it is professors, industry professionals, or even customers looking to buy your project – studying the target audience enables you to start structuring your report. It gives you an idea of the existing knowledge level of the reader and how much information you need to put in the report.

Many people tend to put in fewer efforts in the report than what they did in the actual research..which is only fair.

We mean, you’ve already worked so much, why should you go through the entire process again to create a report?

Well then, let’s move to the second section where we talk about why it is absolutely essential to write a technical report accompanying your project.

Read more:  What is a Progress Report and How to Write One?

Importance of Writing a Technical Report 

1. efficient communication.

Technical reports are used by industries to convey pertinent information to upper management. This information is then used to make crucial decisions that would impact the company in the future.

Examples of such technical reports include proposals, regulations, manuals, procedures, requests, progress reports, emails, and memos.

2. Evidence for your work

Most of the technical work is backed by software.

However, graduation projects are not.

So, if you’re a student, your technical report acts as the sole evidence of your work. It shows the steps you took for the research and glorifies your efforts for a better evaluation.

3. Organizes the data 

A technical report is a concise, factual piece of information that is aligned and designed in a standard manner. It is the one place where all the data of a project is written in a compact manner that is easily understandable by a reader.

4. Tool for evaluation of your work 

Professors and supervisors mainly evaluate your research project based on the technical write-up for it. If your report is accurate, clear, and comprehensible, you will surely bag a good grade.

A technical report to research is like Robin to Batman.

Best results occur when both of them work together.

So, how can you write a technical report that leaves the readers in a ‘wow’ mode? Let’s find out!

How to Write a Technical Report? 

When writing a technical report, there are two approaches you can follow, depending on what suits you the best.

• Top-down approach- In this, you structure the entire report from title to sub-sections and conclusion and then start putting in the matter in the respective chapters. This allows your thought process to have a defined flow and thus helps in time management as well.
• Evolutionary delivery- This approach is suitable if you’re someone who believes in ‘go with the flow’. Here the author writes and decides as and when the work progresses. This gives you a broad thinking horizon. You can even add and edit certain parts when some new idea or inspiration strikes.

A technical report must have a defined structure that is easy to navigate and clearly portrays the objective of the report. Here is a list of pages, set in the order that you should include in your technical report.

Cover page- It is the face of your project. So, it must contain details like title, name of the author, name of the institution with its logo. It should be a simple yet eye-catching page.

Title page- In addition to all the information on the cover page, the title page also informs the reader about the status of the project. For instance, technical report part 1, final report, etc. The name of the mentor or supervisor is also mentioned on this page.

Abstract- Also referred to as the executive summary, this page gives a concise and clear overview of the project. It is written in such a manner that a person only reading the abstract can gain complete information on the project.

Preface – It is an announcement page wherein you specify that you have given due credits to all the sources and that no part of your research is plagiarised. The findings are of your own experimentation and research.

Dedication- This is an optional page when an author wants to dedicate their study to a loved one. It is a small sentence in the middle of a new page. It is mostly used in theses.

Acknowledgment- Here, you acknowledge the people parties, and institutions who helped you in the process or inspired you for the idea of it.

Table of contents – Each chapter and its subchapter is carefully divided into this section for easy navigation in the project. If you have included symbols, then a similar nomenclature page is also made. Similarly, if you’ve used a lot of graphs and tables, you need to create a separate content page for that. Each of these lists begins on a new page.

Introduction- Finally comes the introduction, marking the beginning of your project. On this page, you must clearly specify the context of the report. It includes specifying the purpose, objectives of the project, the questions you have answered in your report, and sometimes an overview of the report is also provided. Note that your conclusion should answer the objective questions.

Central Chapter(s)- Each chapter should be clearly defined with sub and sub-sub sections if needed. Every section should serve a purpose. While writing the central chapter, keep in mind the following factors:

• Clearly define the purpose of each chapter in its introduction.
• Any assumptions you are taking for this study should be mentioned. For instance, if your report is targeting globally or a specific country. There can be many assumptions in a report. Your work can be disregarded if it is not mentioned every time you talk about the topic.
• Results you portray must be verifiable and not based upon your opinion. (Big no to opinions!)
• Each conclusion drawn must be connected to some central chapter.

Conclusion- The purpose of the conclusion is to basically conclude any and everything that you talked about in your project. Mention the findings of each chapter, objectives reached, and the extent to which the given objectives were reached. Discuss the implications of the findings and the significant contribution your research made.

Appendices- They are used for complete sets of data, long mathematical formulas, tables, and figures. Items in the appendices should be mentioned in the order they were used in the project.

References- This is a very crucial part of your report. It cites the sources from which the information has been taken from. This may be figures, statistics, graphs, or word-to-word sentences. The absence of this section can pose a legal threat for you. While writing references, give due credit to the sources and show your support to other people who have studied the same genres.

Bibliography- Many people tend to get confused between references and bibliography. Let us clear it out for you. References are the actual material you take into your research, previously published by someone else. Whereas a bibliography is an account of all the data you read, got inspired from, or gained knowledge from, which is not necessarily a direct part of your research.

Style ( Pointers to remember )

Let’s take a look at the writing style you should follow while writing a technical report:

• Avoid using slang or informal words. For instance, use ‘cannot’ instead of can’t.
• Use a third-person tone and avoid using words like I, Me.
• Each sentence should be grammatically complete with an object and subject.
• Two sentences should not be linked via a comma.
• Avoid the use of passive voice.
• Tenses should be carefully employed. Use present for something that is still viable and past for something no longer applicable.
• Readers should be kept in mind while writing. Avoid giving them instructions. Your work is to make their work of evaluation easier.
• Abbreviations should be avoided and if used, the full form should be mentioned.
• Understand the difference between a numbered and bulleted list. Numbering is used when something is explained sequence-wise. Whereas bullets are used to just list out points in which sequence is not important.
• All the preliminary pages (title, abstract, preface..) should be named in small roman numerals. ( i, ii, iv..)
• All the other pages should be named in Arabic numerals (1,2,3..) thus, your report begins with 1 – on the introduction page.
• Separate long texts into small paragraphs to keep the reader engaged. A paragraph should not be more than 10 lines.
• Do not incorporate too many fonts. Use standard times new roman 12pt for the text. You can use bold for headlines.

Proofreading

If you think your work ends when the report ends, think again. Proofreading the report is a very important step. While proofreading you see your work from a reader’s point of view and you can correct any small mistakes you might have done while typing. Check everything from content to layout, and style of writing.

Presentation

Finally comes the presentation of the report in which you submit it to an evaluator.

• It should be printed single-sided on an A4 size paper. double side printing looks chaotic and messy.
• Margins should be equal throughout the report.

• You can use single staples on the left side for binding or use binders if the report is long.

AND VOILA! You’re done.

…and don’t worry, if the above process seems like too much for you, Bit.ai is here to help.

Read more:  Technical Manual: What, Types & How to Create One? (Steps Included)

Bit.ai : The Ultimate Tool for Writing Technical Reports

What if we tell you that the entire structure of a technical report explained in this article is already done and designed for you!

Yes, you read that right.

With Bit.ai’s 70+ templates , all you have to do is insert your text in a pre-formatted document that has been designed to appeal to the creative nerve of the reader.

You can even add collaborators who can proofread or edit your work in real-time. You can also highlight text, @mention collaborators, and make comments!

Wait, there’s more! When you send your document to the evaluators, you can even trace who read it, how much time they spent on it, and more.

Exciting, isn’t it?

Start making your fabulous technical report with Bit.ai today!

Few technical documents templates you might be interested in:

• Status Report Template
• API Documentation
• Product Requirements Document Template
• Software Design Document Template
• Software Requirements Document Template
• UX Research Template
• Issue Tracker Template
• Release Notes Template
• Statement of Work
• Scope of Work Template

Wrap up(Conclusion)

A well structured and designed report adds credibility to your research work. You can rely on bit.ai for that part.

However, the content is still yours so remember to make it worth it.

After finishing up your report, ask yourself:

Does the abstract summarize the objectives and methods employed in the paper?

Are the objective questions answered in your conclusion?

What are the implications of the findings and how is your work making a change in the way that particular topic is read and conceived?

If you find logical answers to these, then you have done a good job!

Remember, writing isn’t an overnight process. ideas won’t just arrive. Give yourself space and time for inspiration to strike and then write it down. Good writing has no shortcuts, it takes practice.

But at least now that you’ve bit.ai in the back of your pocket, you don’t have to worry about the design and formatting!

Have you written any technical reports before? If yes, what tools did you use? Do let us know by tweeting us @bit_docs.

Further reads:

How To Create An Effective Status Report?

7 Types of Reports Your Business Certainly Needs!

What is Project Status Report Documentation?

Scientific Paper: What is it & How to Write it? (Steps and Format)

  Business Report: What is it & How to Write it? (Steps & Format)

How to Write Project Reports that ‘Wow’ Your Clients? (Template Included)

Business Report: What is it & How to Write it? (Steps & Format)

Internship Cover Letter: How to Write a Perfect one?

Related posts

How to ace the new hire onboarding process, knowledge management: what is it & it’s importance, 9 project documents you must create for your project, happy & collaborative work culture: 10 effective ways to create it, what is self-evaluation & how to write one, diverse workforce: bringing different perspectives together.

About Bit.ai

Bit.ai is the essential next-gen workplace and document collaboration platform. that helps teams share knowledge by connecting any type of digital content. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, anyone can work visually and collaborate in real-time while creating internal notes, team projects, knowledge bases, client-facing content, and more.

The smartest online Google Docs and Word alternative, Bit.ai is used in over 100 countries by professionals everywhere, from IT teams creating internal documentation and knowledge bases, to sales and marketing teams sharing client materials and client portals.

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Technical Reports

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What is a Technical Report?

What is a Technical Report?  

"A technical report is a document written by a researcher detailing the results of a project and submitted to the sponsor of that project." TRs are not peer-reviewed unless they are subsequently published in a peer-review journal.

Characteristics (TRs vary greatly): Technical reports ....

• may contain data, design criteria, procedures, literature reviews, research history, detailed tables, illustrations/images, explanation of approaches that were unsuccessful.
• may be published before the corresponding journal literature; may have more or different details than  its subsequent journal article.
• may contain less  background information since the sponsor already knows it
• classified and export controlled reports
• may contain obscure acronyms and codes as part of identifying information

Disciplines:

• Physical sciences, engineering, agriculture, biomedical sciences, and the social sciences. education etc.

Documents research and development conducted by:

• government agencies (NASA, Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DOE) are top sponsors of research
• commercial companies
• non-profit, non-governmental organizations
• Educational Institutions
• Issued  in print, microform, digital
• Older TRs may have been digitized and are available in fulltext on the Intranet
• Newer TRs should be born digital

Definition used with permission from Georgia Tech. Other sources: Pinelli & Barclay (1994).

• Nation's Report Card: State Reading 2002, Report for Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools. U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences The National Assessment of Educational Progress Reading 2002 The Nation’s
• Study for fabrication, evaluation, and testing of monolayer woven type materials for space suit insulation NASA-CR-166139, ACUREX-TR-79-156. May 1979. Reproduced from the microfiche.
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• Last Updated: Sep 1, 2023 11:06 AM
• URL: https://tamu.libguides.com/TR

Penn State University Libraries

Technical reports, recognizing technical reports, recommendations for finding technical reports, databases with technical reports, other tools for finding technical reports.

• Direct Links to Organizations with Technical Reports
• Techical report collections at Penn State
• How to Write

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Engineering Librarian

Technical reports describe the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research and usually include in-depth experimental details, data, and results. Technical reports are usually produced to report on a specific research need and can serve as a report of accountability to the organization funding the research. They provide access to the information before it is published elsewhere. Technical Reports are usually not peer reviewed.  They need to be evaluated on how the problem, research method, and results are described.  

A technical report citation will include a report number and will probably not have journal name. 

Technical reports can be divided into two general categories:

• Non-Governmental Reports- these are published by companies and engineering societies, such as Lockheed-Martin, AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautical and Astronautics), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), or SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers).
• Governmental Reports- the research conducted in these reports has been sponsored by the United States or an international government body as well as state and local governments.

Some technical reports are cataloged as books, which you can search for in the catalog, while others may be located in databases, or free online. The boxes below list databases and online resources you can use to locate a report. 

If you’re not sure where to start, try to learn more about the report by confirming the full title or learning more about the publication information. 

Confirm the title and locate the report number in NTRL. 

Search Google Scholar, the HathiTrust, or WorldCat. This can verify the accuracy of the citation and determine if the technical report was also published in a journal or conference proceeding or under a different report number. 

Having trouble finding a report through Penn State? If we don’t have access to the report, you can submit an interlibrary loan request and we will get it for you from another library. If you have any questions, you can always contact a librarian! 

• National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) NTRL is the preeminent resource for accessing the latest US government sponsored research, and worldwide scientific, technical, and engineering information. Search by title to determine report number.
• Engineering Village Engineering Village is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering database in the world with over 5,000 engineering journals and conference materials dating from 1884. Has citations to many ASME, ASCE, SAE, and other professional organizations' technical papers. Search by author, title, or report number.
• IEEE Xplore Provides access to articles, papers, reports, and standards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
• ASABE Technical Library Provides access to all of the recent technical documents published by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.
• International Nuclear Information System (INIS) Database Provides access to nuclear science and technology technical reports.
• NASA Technical Reports Server Contains the searchable NACA Technical Reports collection, NASA Technical Reports collection and NIX collection of images, movies, and videos. Includes the full text and bibliographic records of selected unclassified, publicly available NASA-sponsored technical reports. Coverage: NACA reports 1915-1958, NASA reports since 1958.
• OSTI Technical Reports Full-text of Department of Energy (DOE) funded science, technology, and engineering technical reports. OSTI has replaced SciTech Connect as the primary search tool for Department of Energy (DOE) funded science, technology, and engineering research results. It provides access to all the information previously available in SciTech Connect, DOE Information Bridge, and Energy Citations Database.
• ERIC (ProQuest) Provides access to technical reports and other education-related materials. ERIC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
• Transportation Research International Documentation (TRID) TRID is a newly integrated database that combines the records from TRB's Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre's International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to over 900,000 records of transportation research worldwide.
• TRAIL Technical Reports Archive & Image Library Provide access to federal technical reports issued prior to 1975.
• Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) The largest central resource for Department of Defense and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information.
• Correlation Index of Technical Reports (AD-PB Reports) Publication Date: 1958
• Criss-cross directory of NASA "N" numbers and DOD "AD" numbers, 1962-1986

Print indexes to technical reports :

• Government Reports Announcements & Index (1971-1996)
• Government Reports Announcements (1946-1975)
• U.S. Government Research & Development Reports (1965-1971)
• U.S. Government Research Reports (1954-1964)
• Bibliography of Technical Reports (1949-1954)
• Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (1946-1949)
• Next: Direct Links to Organizations with Technical Reports >>
• Last Updated: Oct 5, 2023 2:56 PM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/techreports

Guide to Technical Reports: What it is and How to Write it

Introduction.

You want to improve the customers’ experience with your products, but your team is too busy creating and/or updating products to write a report.

Getting them ready for the task is another problem you need to overcome. 

Who wants to write a technical report on the exact process you just conducted? 

Exactly, no one.

Honestly, we get it: you’re supposed to be managing coding geniuses — not writers.

But it's one of those things you need to get it done for sound decision-making and ensuring communication transparency. In many organizations, engineers spend nearly 40 percent of their time writing technical reports.

If you're wondering how to write good technical reports that convey your development process and results in the shortest time possible, we've got you covered. 

Let’s start with the basics.  

What is a technical report?

A technical report is a piece of documentation developed by technical writers and/or the software team outlining the process of:

• The research conducted.
• How it advances.
• The results obtained.

In layman's terms, a technical report is created to accompany a product, like a manual. Along with the research conducted, a technical report also summarizes the conclusion and recommendations of the research.

The idea behind building technical documentation is to create a single source of truth about the product and including any product-related information that may be insightful down the line.

Industries like engineering, IT, medicine and marketing use technical documentation to explain the process of how a product was created. 

Ideally, you should start documenting the process when a product is in development, or already in use. A good technical report has the following elements:

• Functionality.
• Development. 

Gone are the days when technical reports used to be boring yawn-inducing dry text. Today, you can make them interactive and engaging using screenshots, charts, diagrams, tables, and similar visual assets.

💡 ‎Related resource: 5 Software Documentation Challenges & How To Overcome Them

Who is responsible for creating reports?

Anyone with a clear knowledge of the industry and the product can write a technical report by following simple writing rules. 

It's possible your developers will be too busy developing the product to demonstrate the product development process.

Keeping this in mind, you can have them cover the main points and send off the writing part to the writing team. Hiring a technical writer can also be beneficial, who can collaborate with the development and operations team to create the report.

Why is technical documentation crucial for a business?

If you’re wondering about the benefits of writing a report, here are three reasons to convince you why creating and maintaining technical documentation is a worthy cause. 

1. Easy communication of the process

Technical reports give you a more transparent way to communicate the process behind the software development to the upper management or the stakeholders. 

You can also show the technical report to your readers interested in understanding the behind the scenes (BTS) action of product development. Treat this as a chance to show value and the methodology behind the same. 

🎓 ‎ The Ultimate Product Development Checklist

2. Demonstrating the problem & solution

You can use technical documentation tools to create and share assets that make your target audience aware of the problem.

Technical reports can shed more light on the problem they’re facing while simultaneously positioning your product as the best solution for it. 

3. Influence upper management decisions 

Technical reports are also handy for conveying the product's value and functionality to the stakeholders and the upper management, opening up the communication channel between them and other employees. 

You can also use this way to throw light on complex technical nuances and help them understand the jargon better.

Benefits of creating technical reports

The following are some of the biggest benefits of technical documentation:

• Cuts down customer support tickets, enabling users to easily use the product without technical complications. 
• Lets you share detailed knowledge of the product's usability and potential, showing every aspect to the user as clearly as possible.  
• Enables customer success teams to answer user questions promptly and effectively.
• Creates a clear roadmap for future products. 
• Improves efficiency for other employees in the form of technical training.

The 5 types of technical reports

There are not just one but five types of technical reports you can create. These include:

1. Feasibility report 

This report is prepared during the initial stages of software development to determine whether the proposed project will be successful. 

2. Business report

This report outlines the vision, objectives and goals of the business while laying down the steps needed to crush those goals. 

3. Technical specification report

This report specifies the essentials for a product or project and details related to the development and design. 

4. Research report 

This report includes information on the methodology and outcomes based on any experimentation. 

5. Recommendation report

This report contains all the recommendations the DevOps team can use to solve potential technical problems.

The type of technical report you choose depends on certain factors like your goals, the complexity of the product and its requirements. 

What are the key elements of a technical report?

Following technical documentation best practices , you want the presented information to be clear and well-organized. Here are the elements (or sections) a typical technical report should have:

This part is simple and usually contains the names of the authors, your company name, logo and so on. 

Synopses are usually a couple of paragraphs long, but it sets the scene for the readers. It outlines the problem to be solved, the methods used, purpose and concept of the report. 

You can’t just write the title of the project here, and call it a day. This page should also include information about the author, their company position and submission date, among other things. The name and position of the supervisor or mentor is also mentioned here. 

The abstract is a brief summary of the project addressed to the readers. It gives a clear overview of the project and helps readers decide whether they want to read the report. 

The foreword is a page dedicated to acknowledging all the sources used to write this report. It gives assurance that no part of the report is plagiarized and all the necessary sources have been cited and given credit to. 

Acknowledgment 

This page is used for acknowledging people and institutions who helped in completing the report. 

Table of Contents 

Adding a table of contents makes navigating from one section to another easier for readers. It acts as a compass for the structure of the report.

List of illustrations 

This part contains all the graphs, diagrams, images, charts and tables used across the report. Ideally, it should have all the materials supporting the content presented in the report. 

The introduction is a very crucial part of the project that should specify the context of the project, along with its purpose and objective. Things like background information, scope of work and limitations are discussed under this section.

The body of the report is generally divided into sections and subsections that clearly define the purpose of each area, ideas, purpose and central scope of work. 

Conclusion 

The conclusion should have an answer to all the questions and arguments made in the introduction or body of the report. It should answer the objectives of the findings, the results achieved and any further observations made.

This part lists the mathematical formulas and data used in the content, following the same order as they were used in the report.

The page cites the sources from which information was taken. Any quotes, graphs and statistics used in your report need to be credited to the original source. 

A glossary is the index of all the terms and symbols used in the report.

Bibliography 

The bibliography outlines the names of all the books and data you researched to gain knowledge on the subject matter.

How to create your own technical report in 6 simple steps

To create a high-quality technical report, you need to follow these 5 steps. 

Step 1: Research

If you’ve taken part in the product development process, this part comes easily. But if you’ve not participated in the development (or are hiring a writer), you need to learn as much about the product as possible to understand it in and out. 

While doing your research, you need to think from your target users' perspectives. 

• You have to know if they’re tech-savvy or not. Whether they understand industry technicalities and jargon or not?
• What goals do you want to achieve with the report? What do you want the final outcome to look like for your users?
• What do you want to convey using the report and why?
• What problems are you solving with the report, and how are you solving them?

This will help you better understand the audience you’re writing for and create a truly valuable document. 

Step 2: Design

You need to make it simple for users to consume and navigate through the report. 

The structure is a crucial element to help your users get familiar with your product and skim through sections. Some points to keep in mind are:

• Outlining : Create an outline of the technical report before you start writing. This will ensure that the DevOps team and the writer are on the same page.
• Table of contents : Make it easy for your users to skip to any part of the report they want without scrolling through the entire document.
• Easy to read and understand : Make the report easy to read and define all technical terms, if your users aren’t aware of them. Explain everything in detail, adding as many practical examples and case studies as possible. 
• Interactive : Add images, screenshots, or any other visual aids to make the content interactive and engaging.
• Overview : Including a summary of what's going to be discussed in the next sections adds a great touch to the report.
• FAQ section : An underrated part of creating a report is adding a FAQ section at the end that addresses users' objections or queries regarding the product.

Step 3: Write 

Writing content is vital, as it forms the body of the report. Ensure the content quality is strong by using the following tips:

• Create a writing plan. 
• Ensure the sentence structure and wording is clear. 
• Don’t repeat information.
• Explain each and every concept precisely. 
• Maintain consistency in the language used throughout the document
• Understand user requirements and problems, and solve them with your content.
• Avoid using passive voice and informal words. 
• Keep an eye out for grammatical errors.
• Make the presentation of the report clean. 
• Regularly update the report over time.
• Avoid using abbreviations. 

Regardless of whether you hire a writer or write the report yourself, these best practices will help you create a great technical report that provides value to the reader.

Step 4: Format

The next step of writing technical reports is formatting.

You can either use the company style guide provided to you or follow the general rules of report formatting. Here is a quick rundown:

1. Page Numbering (excluding cover page, and back covers).

2. Headers.

• Make it self-explanatory.
• Must be parallel in phrasing.
• Avoid “lone headings.”
• Avoid pronouns .

3. Documentation.

• Cite borrowed information.
• Use in-text citations or a separate page for the same.  

Step 5: Proofread

Don’t finalize the report for publishing before proofreading the entire documentation. 

Our best proofreading advice is to read it aloud after a day or two. If you find any unexplained parts or grammatical mistakes, you can easily fix them and make the necessary changes. You can also consider getting another set of eyes to spot the mistakes you may have missed.

Step 6: Publish

Once your technical report is ready, get it cross-checked by an evaluator. After you get their approval, publish on your website as a gated asset — or print it out as an A4 version for presentation. 

Extra Step: Refreshing

Okay, we added an extra step, but hear us out: your job is not finished after hitting publish. 

Frequent product updates mean you should also refresh the report every now and then to reflect these changes. A good rule of thumb is to refresh any technical documentation every eight to twelve months and update it with the latest information. 

Not only will this eliminate confusion but also ensure your readers get the most value out of the document. 

Making successful technical reports with Scribe

How about developing technical reports faster and without the hassle? 

With Scribe and Scribe’s newest feature, Pages , you can do just that.

Scribe is a leading process documentation tool that does the documenting for you, pat down to capturing and annotating screenshots. Here's one in action.

Pages lets you compile all your guides, instructions and SOPs in a single document, giving you an elaborate and digital technical report you can share with both customers and stakeholders. 

{{banner-default="/banner-ads"}}

Here is a Page showing you how to use Scribe Pages .

Examples of good technical reports

You can use these real-life examples of good technical reports for inspiration and guidance!

• Mediums API Documentation
• Twilio Docs
• The AWS PRD for Container-based Products

Signing off…

Now you know how to write technical documentation , what's next?

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Libraries | Research Guides

Technical reports, technical reports: a definition, search engines & databases, multi-disciplinary technical report repositories, topical technical report repositories.

"A technical report is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research."      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report

Technical reports are produced by corporations, academic institutions, and government agencies at all levels of government, e.g. state, federal, and international.  Technical reports are not included in formal publication and distribution channels and therefore fall into the category of grey literature .

• Science.gov Searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites hosted by U.S. federal government agencies. Not limited to tech reports.
• WorldWideScience.org A global science gateway comprised of national and international scientific databases and portals, providing real-time searching and translation of globally-dispersed multilingual scientific literature.
• Open Grey System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, is your open access to 700.000 bibliographical references. more... less... OpenGrey covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and Humanities.
• National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) This link opens in a new window The National Technical Reports Library provides indexing and access to a collection of more than two million historical and current government technical reports of U.S. government-sponsored research. Full-text available for 700,000 of the 2.2 million items described. Dates covered include 1900-present.
• Argonne National Lab: Scientific Publications While sponsored by the US Dept of Energy, research at Argonne National Laboratory is wide ranging (see Research Index )
• Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC®) has served the information needs of the Defense community for more than 65 years. It provides technical research, development, testing & evaluation information; including but not limited to: journal articles, conference proceedings, test results, theses and dissertations, studies & analyses, and technical reports & memos.
• HathiTrust This repository of books digitized by member libraries includes a large number of technical reports. Search by keywords, specific report title, or identifiers.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) LBNL a multiprogram science lab in the national laboratory system supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Science. It is managed by the University of California and is charged with conducting unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) NIST is one of the nation's oldest physical science laboratories.
• RAND Corporation RAND's research and analysis address issues that impact people around the world including security, health, education, sustainability, growth, and development. Much of this research is carried out on behalf of public and private grantors and clients.
• TRAIL Technical Report Archive & Image Library Identifies, acquires, catalogs, digitizes and provides unrestricted access to U.S. government agency technical reports. TRAIL is a membership organization . more... less... Majority of content is pre-1976, but some reports after that date are included.

Aerospace / Aviation

• Contrails 20th century aerospace research, hosted at the Illinois Institute of Technology
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory Technical Reports Server repository for digital copies of technical publications authored by JPL employees. It includes preprints, meeting papers, conference presentations, some articles, and other publications cleared for external distribution from 1992 to the present.
• NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server The NASA STI Repository (also known as the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)) provides access to NASA metadata records, full-text online documents, images, and videos. The types of information included are conference papers, journal articles, meeting papers, patents, research reports, images, movies, and technical videos – scientific and technical information (STI) created or funded by NASA. Includes NTIS reports.

Computing Research

• Computing Research Repository
• IBM Technical Paper Archive
• Microsoft Research
• INIS International Nuclear Information System One of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory Research Library Primary subject areas covered include chemistry, physics, materials science, biological and environmental sciences, computer science, mathematics, engineering, nuclear technology, and homeland security.
• OSTI.gov The primary search tool for DOE science, technology, and engineering research and development results more... less... over 70 years of research results from DOE and its predecessor agencies. Research results include journal articles/accepted manuscripts and related metadata; technical reports; scientific research datasets and collections; scientific software; patents; conference and workshop papers; books and theses; and multimedia
• OSTI Open Net Provides access to over 495,000 bibliographic references and 147,000 recently declassified documents, including information declassified in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. In addition to these documents, OpenNet references older document collections from several DOE sources.

Environment

• National Service Center for Environmental Publications From the Environmental Protection Agency
• US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Digital Library See in particular the option to search technical reports by the Waterways Experiment Station, Engineering Research and Development Center, and districts .
• National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law (NCSTL) Forensic research at the intersection of science, technology and law.

Transportation

• ROSA-P National Transportation Library Full-text digital publications, datasets, and other resources. Legacy print materials that have been digitized are collected if they have historic, technical, or national significance.
• Last Updated: Jul 13, 2022 11:46 AM
• URL: https://libguides.northwestern.edu/techreports

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Guide to Technical Report Writing

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• Guide to Laboratory Writing

School of Engineering and Informatics (for staff and students)

Table of contents

1 Introduction

2 structure, 3 presentation, 4 planning the report, 5 writing the first draft, 6 revising the first draft, 7 diagrams, graphs, tables and mathematics, 8 the report layout, 10 references to diagrams, graphs, tables and equations, 11 originality and plagiarism, 12 finalising the report and proofreading, 13 the summary, 14 proofreading, 15 word processing / desktop publishing, 16 recommended reading.

A technical report is a formal report designed to convey technical information in a clear and easily accessible format. It is divided into sections which allow different readers to access different levels of information. This guide explains the commonly accepted format for a technical report; explains the purposes of the individual sections; and gives hints on how to go about drafting and refining a report in order to produce an accurate, professional document.

A technical report should contain the following sections;

For technical reports required as part of an assessment, the following presentation guidelines are recommended;

There are some excellent textbooks contain advice about the writing process and how to begin (see Section 16 ). Here is a checklist of the main stages;

• Collect your information. Sources include laboratory handouts and lecture notes, the University Library, the reference books and journals in the Department office. Keep an accurate record of all the published references which you intend to use in your report, by noting down the following information; Journal article: author(s) title of article name of journal (italic or underlined) year of publication volume number (bold) issue number, if provided (in brackets) page numbers Book: author(s) title of book (italic or underlined) edition, if appropriate publisher year of publication N.B. the listing of recommended textbooks in section 2 contains all this information in the correct format.
• Creative phase of planning. Write down topics and ideas from your researched material in random order. Next arrange them into logical groups. Keep note of topics that do not fit into groups in case they come in useful later. Put the groups into a logical sequence which covers the topic of your report.
• Structuring the report. Using your logical sequence of grouped ideas, write out a rough outline of the report with headings and subheadings.

N.B. the listing of recommended textbooks in Section 16 contains all this information in the correct format.

Who is going to read the report? For coursework assignments, the readers might be fellow students and/or faculty markers. In professional contexts, the readers might be managers, clients, project team members. The answer will affect the content and technical level, and is a major consideration in the level of detail required in the introduction.

Begin writing with the main text, not the introduction. Follow your outline in terms of headings and subheadings. Let the ideas flow; do not worry at this stage about style, spelling or word processing. If you get stuck, go back to your outline plan and make more detailed preparatory notes to get the writing flowing again.

Make rough sketches of diagrams or graphs. Keep a numbered list of references as they are included in your writing and put any quoted material inside quotation marks (see Section 11 ).

Write the Conclusion next, followed by the Introduction. Do not write the Summary at this stage.

This is the stage at which your report will start to take shape as a professional, technical document. In revising what you have drafted you must bear in mind the following, important principle;

• the essence of a successful technical report lies in how accurately and concisely it conveys the intended information to the intended readership.

During year 1, term 1 you will be learning how to write formal English for technical communication. This includes examples of the most common pitfalls in the use of English and how to avoid them. Use what you learn and the recommended books to guide you. Most importantly, when you read through what you have written, you must ask yourself these questions;

• Does that sentence/paragraph/section say what I want and mean it to say? If not, write it in a different way.
• Are there any words/sentences/paragraphs which could be removed without affecting the information which I am trying to convey? If so, remove them.

It is often the case that technical information is most concisely and clearly conveyed by means other than words. Imagine how you would describe an electrical circuit layout using words rather than a circuit diagram. Here are some simple guidelines;

The appearance of a report is no less important than its content. An attractive, clearly organised report stands a better chance of being read. Use a standard, 12pt, font, such as Times New Roman, for the main text. Use different font sizes, bold, italic and underline where appropriate but not to excess. Too many changes of type style can look very fussy.

Use heading and sub-headings to break up the text and to guide the reader. They should be based on the logical sequence which you identified at the planning stage but with enough sub-headings to break up the material into manageable chunks. The use of numbering and type size and style can clarify the structure as follows;

• In the main text you must always refer to any diagram, graph or table which you use.
• Label diagrams and graphs as follows; Figure 1.2 Graph of energy output as a function of wave height. In this example, the second diagram in section 1 would be referred to by "...see figure 1.2..."
• Label tables in a similar fashion; Table 3.1 Performance specifications of a range of commercially available GaAsFET devices In this example, the first table in section 3 might be referred to by "...with reference to the performance specifications provided in Table 3.1..."
• Number equations as follows; F(dB) = 10*log 10 (F) (3.6) In this example, the sixth equation in section 3 might be referred to by "...noise figure in decibels as given by eqn (3.6)..."

Whenever you make use of other people's facts or ideas, you must indicate this in the text with a number which refers to an item in the list of references. Any phrases, sentences or paragraphs which are copied unaltered must be enclosed in quotation marks and referenced by a number. Material which is not reproduced unaltered should not be in quotation marks but must still be referenced. It is not sufficient to list the sources of information at the end of the report; you must indicate the sources of information individually within the report using the reference numbering system.

Information that is not referenced is assumed to be either common knowledge or your own work or ideas; if it is not, then it is assumed to be plagiarised i.e. you have knowingly copied someone else's words, facts or ideas without reference, passing them off as your own. This is a serious offence . If the person copied from is a fellow student, then this offence is known as collusion and is equally serious. Examination boards can, and do, impose penalties for these offences ranging from loss of marks to disqualification from the award of a degree

This warning applies equally to information obtained from the Internet. It is very easy for markers to identify words and images that have been copied directly from web sites. If you do this without acknowledging the source of your information and putting the words in quotation marks then your report will be sent to the Investigating Officer and you may be called before a disciplinary panel.

Your report should now be nearly complete with an introduction, main text in sections, conclusions, properly formatted references and bibliography and any appendices. Now you must add the page numbers, contents and title pages and write the summary.

The summary, with the title, should indicate the scope of the report and give the main results and conclusions. It must be intelligible without the rest of the report. Many people may read, and refer to, a report summary but only a few may read the full report, as often happens in a professional organisation.

• Purpose - a short version of the report and a guide to the report.
• Length - short, typically not more than 100-300 words
• Content - provide information, not just a description of the report.

This refers to the checking of every aspect of a piece of written work from the content to the layout and is an absolutely necessary part of the writing process. You should acquire the habit of never sending or submitting any piece of written work, from email to course work, without at least one and preferably several processes of proofreading. In addition, it is not possible for you, as the author of a long piece of writing, to proofread accurately yourself; you are too familiar with what you have written and will not spot all the mistakes.

When you have finished your report, and before you staple it, you must check it very carefully yourself. You should then give it to someone else, e.g. one of your fellow students, to read carefully and check for any errors in content, style, structure and layout. You should record the name of this person in your acknowledgements.

Two useful tips;

• Do not bother with style and formatting of a document until the penultimate or final draft.
• Do not try to get graphics finalised until the text content is complete.
• Davies J.W. Communication Skills - A Guide for Engineering and Applied Science Students (2nd ed., Prentice Hall, 2001)
• van Emden J. Effective communication for Science and Technology (Palgrave 2001)
• van Emden J. A Handbook of Writing for Engineers 2nd ed. (Macmillan 1998)
• van Emden J. and Easteal J. Technical Writing and Speaking, an Introduction (McGraw-Hill 1996)
• Pfeiffer W.S. Pocket Guide to Technical Writing (Prentice Hall 1998)
• Eisenberg A. Effective Technical Communication (McGraw-Hill 1992)

Updated and revised by the Department of Engineering & Design, November 2022

School Office: School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Chichester 1 Room 002, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QJ [email protected] T 01273 (67) 8195 School Office opening hours: School Office open Monday – Friday 09:00-15:00, phone lines open Monday-Friday 09:00-17:00 School Office location [PDF 1.74MB]

Copyright © 2024, University of Sussex

Technical Reports

• Technical Reports Databases
• Definition and Thesauri

What is a Technical Report?

A technical report is a document written by a researcher detailing the results of a project and submitted to the sponsor of that project. Many of Georgia Tech's reports are government sponsored and are on microfiche. DOE, NASA and the Department of Defense are top sponsors.  A number of U.S. Government sponsors now make technical reports available full image via the internet .

Although technical reports are very heterogeneous, they tend to possess the following characteristics:

• technical reports may be published before the corresponding journal literature
• content may be more detailed than the corresponding journal literature, although there may be less background information since the sponsor already knows it
• technical reports are usually not peer reviewed unless the report is separately published as journal literature
• classified and export controlled reports have restricted access.
• obscure acronyms and codes are frequently used
• DTIC Thesaurus
• NASA Thesaurus (both volumes):  Volume 1, Hierarchical Listing With Definitions.   Volume 2, Rotated Term Display
• Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
• Report Series Codes Dictionary. Library Catalog record Z6945.A2 R45 1986

Acknowledgments

The authors of this Guide used material from previous Georgia Tech Library Research Guides.

• << Previous: Technical Reports Databases
• Last Updated: May 22, 2024 9:49 AM
• URL: https://libguides.library.gatech.edu/techreports

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1 The Formal Technical Report

For technical reports, formal and informal, readers are generally most interested in process and results. Clear presentation of results is at least as important as the results themselves; therefore, writing a report is an exercise in effective communication of technical information. Results, such as numerical values, designed systems or graphs by themselves are not very useful. To be meaningful to others, results must be supported by a written explanation describing how results were obtained and what significance they hold, or how a designed system actually functions. Although the person reading the report may have a technical background, the author should assume unfamiliarity with related theory and procedures. The author must consider supplying details that may appear obvious or unnecessary. With practice, the technical report writer learns which details to include.

The formal technical report contains a complete, concise, and well-organized description of the work performed and the results obtained. Any given report may contain all of the sections described in these guidelines or a subset, depending upon the report requirements. These requirements are decided by the author and are based on the audience and expected use of the report. Audience and purpose are important considerations in deciding which sections to include and what content to provide. If the purpose is to chronicle work performed in lab, as is typical for an academic lab report, the audience is typically the professor who assigned the work and the contents usually include detailed lab procedure, clear presentation of results, and conclusions based on the evidence provided. For a technical report, the audience may be colleagues, customers, or decision makers. Knowing the audience and what they are expecting to get out of reading the report is of primary consideration when deciding on sections to include and their contents.

There are certain aspects to all reports that are common regardless of audience and expected usage. Rather than relegate these overarching report-writing considerations to a secondary position, these items are presented before detailing the typical organization and contents for technical reports.

Universal Report-Writing Considerations

The items listed in this section are often overlooked by those new to technical report writing. However, these items set the stage for how a technical report is received which can impact the author, positively or negatively. While in an academic setting, the author’s grade could be impacted.  While in a professional setting, it is the author’s career that could be affected. Effective communication can make the difference in career advancement, effective influence on enacting positive change, and propelling ideas from thought to action. The list that follows should become second nature to the technical report writer.

Details to consider that affect credibility:

• Any information in the report that is directly derived or paraphrased from a source must be cited using the proper notation.
• Any information in the report that is directly quoted or copied from a source must be cited using the proper notation.
• Any reference material derived from the web or Internet must come from documentable and credible sources. To evaluate websites critically, begin by verifying the credibility of the author (e.g. – credentials, agency or professional affiliation). Note that peer reviewed materials are generally more dependable sources of information as compared to open source. Peer review involves a community of qualified experts from within a profession who validate the publication of the author. Open source information may be created by non-qualified individuals or agencies which is often not reviewed and/or validated by experts within the field or profession.
• Wikipedia is NOT a credible reference because the information changes over time and authors are not necessarily people with verifiable expertise or credentials.
• Provide an annotated bibliography of all references. Typically, annotations in technical reports indicate what the source was used for and establish the credibility of the source. This is particularly important for sources with credibility issues. However, an annotation can clarify why a source with questionable credibility was used.
• With the increasing availability of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as provided by ChatGPT, where GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, credibility will likely be challenged more frequently and will be more difficult to establish. Generative AI models may provide invalid responses and a knowledgeable reader will pick up on that quickly.
• Make sure to know the consequences if you violate rules provided by your instructor in an academic setting or by your employer in a workplace setting for presenting work by another or by AI as if it were your own (without citation). Additionally, there may be rules on how much of your work can be AI-generated and what annotation you are required to provide when using generative AI. Know the rules and if you can’t find the rules, ASK.
• See Appendix A for information about citing sources and AI-generated content.

Details to consider that affect the professional tone:

• Passive voice: “The circuit resistance will be measured with a digital multimeter”.
• Active voice: “Measure the circuit resistance with a digital multimeter”.
• Avoid using personal pronouns such as “you”, “we”, “our”, “they”, “us” and “I”. Personal pronouns tend to personalize the technical information that is generally objective rather than subjective in nature. The exception is if the work as a whole is meant to instruct than to inform. For example, technical textbooks whose only purpose is to instruct employ personal pronouns.
• Avoid using “it”. When “it” is used, the writing often leads to a lack of clarity for the reader as to what idea/concept “it” is referring to, thus negatively impacting overall clarity of the writing.
• Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Pay attention to and address spell and grammar check cues from writing software such as Microsoft (MS) Word.  

Details to consider that affect the professional appearance:

• All figures and tables must be neatly presented and should be computer generated. Use a computer software package, such as Paint, Multisim, AutoCAD, or SolidWorks, to draw figures. If inserting a full-page figure, insert it so can be read from the bottom or from the right side of the page . ALL figures and tables must fit within or very close to the page margins.
• Generate ALL equations using an equation editor and provide each equation on its own line. Under normal circumstances, there is no reason to embed an equation within a paragraph.  Depending on presentation and how many equations are involved, number the equations for easy reference.
• Refer to appendix B for information on how to automatically create a Table of Contents and properly number pages.
• If the report includes an abstract, it should be on an unnumbered page after the title page and before the Table of Contents or it can be included on the title page.
• For all hard copy reports, all pages of the report must be 8 ½“ X 11” in size. Any larger pages must be folded so as to fit these dimensions. HOWEVER, in this day and age, an electronic submission is most common. Keep in mind that with an electronic submission, it is easier to provide an appealing look with color since a color printer is not required.

Details to consider that affect readability:

• Every section and sub-section of the report needs to start with an introductory paragraph that provides the context for the section or sub-section.
• Every figure, graph, table, and equation needs to be introduced to the reader prior to being presented to the reader. This introduction provides the context.
• ALWAYS NUMBER AND PROVIDE A TITLE FOR ALL FIGURES .
• Make sure that the verb used can actually operate on the noun. For example, stating “the goal for this report is to observe …” implies that the report can observe when it is likely that the goal of the work reported on is to make certain observations.
• Check for spelling and grammar errors which are often highlighted with cues by the text editing software. Follow capitalization, punctuation, and indentation norms. Remember to capitalize the names of proprietary items such as licensed software.
• Define acronyms and abbreviations prior to using them.

Finally, always consider carefully the context of information provided. Know your audience. Thoughtfully consider if a statement is clearly supported by the information provided without leaving your reader confused. Remember that by the time you are writing a report, you should know the information inside and out, but your audience is reading your report to learn.

Standard Components of a Formal Technical Report

Technical reports should be organized into sections and are typically in the order described in this section. While this is the recommended order, certain reports may lend themselves to either reordering sections and/or excluding sections.

The format for this page may vary, however, the following information is always included: report title, who the report was prepared for, who the report was prepared by, and the date of submission. This is not a numbered page of the report.

An abstract is a concise description of the report including its purpose and most important results . An abstract should not be longer than half a page, single-spaced, and must not contain figures or make reference to them. Technical authors are generally so focused on results that they neglect to clearly state the purpose for the work. That purpose is derived from the objectives or goals, most commonly provided by the person who assigned the work. In stating the purpose, it is critical to include key words that would be used in a database search since searches of abstracts are commonly used by professionals to find information they need to do their jobs and make important decisions. Results are summarized in the abstract but how much quantitative information is provided varies with report audience and purpose. It is common to include maximum percent error found in the experimental results as compared to theory. Do not use any specific technical jargon, abbreviations, or acronyms. This is not a numbered page of the report.

Table of Contents

Include all the report sections and appendices. Typically, sub-sections are also listed. This is not a numbered page of the report.

The Table of Contents is easy to include if you properly use the power of the software used to generate the report. The Table of Contents can be automatically generated and updated if the author uses built in report headings provided in the styles menu. It is worth the time and effort to learn these tools since their application are ultimately time-savers for report writers. Directions are provided in Appendix B on creating a Table of Contents in MS Word using section headings.

Introduction

The length of the Introduction depends on the purpose but the author should strive for brevity, clarity, and interest. Provide the objective(s) of the work, a brief description of the problem, and how it is to be attacked. Provide the reader with an overview of why the work was performed, how the work was performed, and the most interesting results. This can usually be accomplished with ease if the work has clearly stated objectives.

Additionally, the introduction of a technical report concludes with a description of the sections that follow the Introduction. This is done to help the reader get some more detailed information about what might be found in each of the report sections included in the body of the report (this does not include appendices). This can feel awkward but providing that information is the accepted standard practice across industries.

Be careful not to use specific technical jargon or abbreviations such as using the term “oscope” instead of “oscilloscope”. Also, make sure to define any acronyms or abbreviations prior to using them. For example, in a surveying lab report a student might want to refer to the electronic distance measuring (EDM) device. The first time the device is referred to, spell out what the acronym stands for before using the acronym, as demonstrated in the previous sentence. Apply this practice throughout wherever an acronym or abbreviation is used but not yet defined within the report.

Background Theory

The purpose of this section is to include, if necessary, a discussion of relevant background theory. Include theory needed to understand subsequent sections that either the reading audience does not already comprehend or is tied to the purpose for the work and report. For example, a report on resistor-capacitor electric circuits that includes measurement of phase shift would likely include a theoretical description of phase shift. In deciding what should or should not be included as background theory, consider presenting any material specific to the work being reported on that you had to learn prior to performing the work including theoretical equations used to calculate theoretical values that are compared to measured values. This section may be divided into subsections if appropriate. Keep the discussion brief without compromising on content relevant to understanding and refer the reader to and cite outside sources of information where appropriate.

The purpose of this section is to provide detailed development of any design included in the report. Do not provide a design section if there is no design aspect to the work. Be sure to introduce and describe the design work within the context of the problem statement using sentences; a series of equations without description and context is insufficient. Use citations if you wish to refer the reader to reference material. Divide this section into subsections where appropriate. For example, a project may consist of designing several circuits that are subsequently interconnected; you may choose to treat each circuit design in its own subsection. The process followed to develop the design should be presented as generally as possible then applied using specific numbers for the work performed. Ultimately, the section must provide the actual design tested and include a clear presentation of how that design was developed.

Theoretical Analysis

Although a theoretical analysis might be part of a design, the author needs to decide if that analysis should be included as part of the design section or a separate section. Typically, any theoretical work performed to develop the design would be included in the design section but any theoretical analysis performed on the design would be included in a separate section. Do not provide a theoretical analysis section if the theoretical work is all described as part of background theory and design sections. However, in most cases, a theoretical analysis section is included to provide important details of all analyses performed. Be brief. It is not necessary to show every step; sentences can be used to describe the intermediate steps. Furthermore, if there are many steps, the reader should be directed to an appendix for complete details. Make sure to perform the analysis with the specific numbers for the work performed leading to the theoretical values reported on and compared to experimental values in the results section of the report. Worth repeating: perform the analyses resulting in the numbers that are included as the theoretical values in the results section of the report. Upon reading the results section, the reader should be familiar with the theoretical values presented there because the reader already saw them in this section.

This section varies depending on requirements of the one who assigned the work and the audience. At a minimum, the author discusses the procedure by describing the method used to test a theory, verify a design or conduct a process. Presentation of the procedure may vary significantly for different fields and different audiences, however, for all fields, the author should BE BRIEF and get to the point . Like with any written work, if it is unnecessarily wordy, the reader becomes bored and the author no longer has an audience. Also, the procedure section should never include specific measurements/results, discussion of results, or explanation of possible error sources. Make sure all diagrams provided are numbered, titled, and clearly labeled.

Depending on the situation, there are two likely types of procedure sections. In one case, a detailed procedure may have already been supplied or perhaps it is not desirable to provide a detailed description due to proprietary work. In another case, it might be the author’s job to develop and provide all the detail so work can be duplicated. The latter is more common in academic lab settings. Writing guidelines for these possible procedure sections are provided below.

Procedure Type 1

Use this procedure type if you have been supplied with a detailed procedure describing the steps required to complete the work or detailed procedure is not to be supplied to potential readers (procedure may be proprietary). Briefly describe the method employed to complete the work. This is meant to be a brief procedural description capturing the intention of the work, not the details. The reader may be referred to the appendix for detailed procedure steps. The following list provides considerations for this type of procedure section.

• Example: For measurements made over a range of input settings, provide the actual range without including the details of the specific input settings or order data was taken (unless order affects results).
• If required by the person who assigned the work, include the detailed procedure in the appendix.
• MUST provide detailed diagram(s) of all applicable experimental set-ups (i.e. circuit diagram) that include specific information about the set-up, such as resistor values.
• Provide diagrams and/or pictures that will further assist the reader in understanding the procedural description.
• Provide a details of any work performed for which prescribed steps were not provided and that the author deems necessary for the reader’s comprehension.
• To test the theory of superposition, the circuit shown in Figure 1 is employed. The circuit is constructed on the lab bench and using MultismTM, a circuit simulation software. In both settings, a multimeter is used to measure the output voltage, as shown in Figure 1, for the following three cases: (1) Source 1 on and Source 2 off, (2) Source 1 off and Source 2 on, and (3) both sources on. These measurements are compared to the output voltage derived using theory as described earlier. Refer to the appendix for further detail or procedure.
• In order to test the theory of superposition, first each team member must calculate the output voltage for the circuit shown in Figure 1 for the following three cases: (1) Source 1 on and Source 2 off, (2) Source 1 off and Source 2 on, and (3) both sources on. Then one team member is assigned to build the circuit on the lab bench while the other team member constructs the circuit in Multisim. Once constructed, turn Source 1 on and Source 2 off then connect the positive lead of the meter to the positive end of the output voltage and the negative lead of the meter to the negative end of the output voltage. Record the meter reading. Next turn on Source 2 and turn off Source 1. Again, measure the output voltage using the meter ….

Procedure Type 2

Use this procedure type if you have not been supplied with a detailed description of the steps required to complete the work and/or you were required to develop and report procedure. The reader should be able to repeat the work based on the content supplied in this section.

• Equipment use
• Equipment maintenance
• Define terms specific to the technology
• Measurement techniques and/or calibration
• The description should be sufficiently clear so that the reader could duplicate the work. Do not assume that the reader has prior knowledge or access to prior reports, textbooks, or handouts.
• If part of the procedure was successfully described in a previous report, either repeat the procedure or include that report in the appendix and refer the reader to it.
• Where appropriate, provide additional diagrams and/or pictures to assist the reader in understanding the procedure.

Results and Discussion

Present the results of the work performed, within the context of the problem statement, using neatly organized and completely labeled tables and/or graphs whenever possible. When comparative data is available, present the data in a way that facilitates the comparison. For example, if theoretical and experimental values are available, present the values alongside one another accompanied by percent error. If it would help the reader understand the results, include a few sample calculations but put lengthy calculations in an appendix.

ALWAYS accompany results with a meaningful discussion. The discussion explains what the results mean and points out trends. In some cases, the results speak mostly for themselves and the discussion may be brief, i.e., “Table 2 shows that the designed variable modulus counter works as expected” along with a sentence or two stating how a variable modulus counter works and referring to parts of the table that verify/justify the statement. In other cases, the meaning of the results may not be as clear requiring more detailed discussion. In most cases, the results include data from more than one source to be compared to establish validity. Meaningful discussion immediately follows presentation of results and include:

• commenting on percent difference making sure it is clear to the reader which values are being compared and establishing comparative size of the difference in relation to expectations (negligible, small, large),
• cause for the difference (error sources are discussed further in the next paragraph), and
• how the results inform the reader as framed by the work’s objectives.

All three of the points are important to a meaningful discussion but the third one is most often overlooked. Discussion related to (3) may provide a statement about the theory used to predict the measured data. That statement often includes the theoretical assumptions made to predict the results and what the measured results indicate about the applicability of those theoretical assumptions to the experimental setting.

ALWAYS discuss the possible significant sources of error and how accurate the results need to be in order to be meaningful. Do not include a discussion of possible sources of error that would not add significantly to the observed error. What counts as significant depends on the situation. For example, if the components used have a tolerance of 5% and the accuracy of the equipment is within 0.5% of the measured value, then the equipment does not add significant error. However, if the components used have only a 1% tolerance then equipment with 0.5% accuracy is problematic. In general, it is impossible to obtain error-free results, therefore when there is 0% error there is still cause for discussion to comment on the situation that may result in error-free results or meaningful justification for expectation of error-free results. Expecting some error is not an excuse for lack of attention to detail when conducting procedures that minimize the error. Errors are different from mistakes. It is unacceptable to report mistakes. If a mistake was made, the work must be repeated until acceptable tolerances are achieved before submitting a report. Please find more on discussing percent error or percent difference in Appendix C.

When working in industry, it is imperative to know required level of accuracy for results. Your supervisor or client will expect results within specifications. If that means repetitive measurements to check for accuracy within tolerance, then do it. If it means performing a detailed analysis prior to making measurements, then do it. In an academic setting, the result of laziness or lack of effort may only be a bad grade. In a workplace, you may get fired!

Other information pertaining to writing Results and Discussion section can be found in Appendix C. This information includes

• How to calculate percent difference/error.
• Typical magnitudes of percent error for courses where circuits are constructed.
• What to consider writing about based on questions posed by the person assigning you to write the report.
• Guidelines for graphs provided in a report.

In this final section of the body of the report, the author should briefly bring everything together. It is similar to the abstract except that now specific results are concluded upon in a quantitative way. Therefore, the conclusion should be a concise description of the report including its purpose and most important results providing specific quantitative information. The conclusion should not contain figures or refer to them. As with the abstract, the reader should be able to read this section on its own which means that there should be no specific technical jargon, abbreviations, or acronyms used.

Anywhere within your writing that you have either copied or paraphrased another source, you must cite that source. This entails two steps. One is to provide a parenthetical citation at the location in the report where the material that is not your own resides and the other is to provide the complete bibliographic information in a References page following the Conclusion section of the report. If an annotated bibliography is required, include an annotation for ALL sources describing what the source was used for within the report and establishes the source’s credibility.

Using the APA style, the parenthetical citation at the location in the document where the copied or paraphrased material exists includes: author, publication date, and page number(s). For sources with no author, the name of the reference material is used. All this information is included within parentheses thus being referred to as a “parenthetical citation”.

The full bibliographic information for all reference material cited within your writing is collected on the References page. In technical papers, the referenced sources are usually listed in the order they are referred to in the body of the report and, in fact, many published engineering papers will simply number the references and then use that number in square brackets to replace the parenthetical citation within the body of the report. Those new to this form of technical writing, often ask about how and where to list references used but not explicitly cited in the body of the report. However, if the reference is important enough to list, that generally means that there is an appropriate place to cite it in the body of the report, perhaps in the introduction or background theory. In Appendix A you can find further information about creating citations using citation generators available on the internet that will create a properly formatted citation for you when provided with the relevant information. Although citation generators are readily available, the one I recommend is from Calvin College called KnightCite due to the minimum sponsored advertisements and can be found at http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/ .

The References section begins on a new page; not on the same page with the conclusion. Refer to Appendix A for detailed information on preparing the References section. Also, there is a wealth of information about citation styles, including lengthy guides and short handouts, at https://sunydutchess.libguides.com/citations .

One final note on references and providing bibliographic information concerns use of sources that may appear to be questionable. There is no doubt that information from a wiki is questionable since, by definition, it can be changed by users including unqualified users. Although most wikis are reviewed and erroneous or misleading information corrected, at any given time there could be erroneous and misleading information. However, depending on report content, internet sources, including .com sites that have industry bias and .org sites that have policy bias, may have valuable information. Even .edu sites can be problematic if site is by an individual rather than an educational group within the institution since the former is likely not to have any editors and the latter is likely to be monitored and curated by the group. In order to establish credibility or usefulness of a source, especially a questionable one, provide an annotation to the bibliographic information that provides further information as to why the source was included and perspective on its application to the work reported. Information about annotated bibliographies is provided in Appendix A.

This section may not always be present. Materials included in an appendix may include lab sheets, parts list, diagrams, extensive calculations, error analyses, and lengthy computer programs.  Introduce numbered or lettered appendices rather than putting different items in one appendix.

Technical Report Writing Guidelines Copyright © by Leah M. Akins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Public prosecutors submitted a technical report yesterday claiming that the redeveloped 79,000-seat stadium was not suitable to host games and events despite a two-year rebuilding programme.

Building or structural survey: technical report on any structural defects and other faults.

All teams must have a car (constructed and running), a design drawing, and a technical report .

A full technical report of the expert system, and a book further detailing its development and testing have also been published.

The release of raw data and the publication of technical report and data handbook only took place in spring 2002.

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What Are Business and Technical Reports?

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• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose . Although summaries  of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents.

In "Contemporary Business Reports," Kuiper and Clippinger define business reports as "organized, objective presentations of observations, experiences, or facts used in the decision-making process."

Sharma and Mohan, in their book "Business Correspondence and Report Writing," define a technical report as "a written statement of the facts of a situation, project, process or test; how these facts were ascertained; their significance; the conclusions that have been drawn from them; and [in some cases] the recommendations that are being made."

Types of reports include memos , minutes, lab reports, book reports , progress reports, justification reports, compliance reports, annual reports, and policies and procedures.

Purpose of Business and Technical Reports

In "Business Communication: A Framework for Success," H. Dan O'Hair, James S. O'Rourke, and Mary John O'Hair, explain the four primary purposes of business reports.

"Reports can fulfill four different, and sometimes related, functions. They can be used as controls to ensure that all departments are functioning properly, to give information, to provide an analysis, and to persuade others to act."

Characteristics of Effective Reports

In "Contemporary Business Reports," Shirley Kuiper and Dorinda Clippinger provide insight into effective business communications.

"Effective reports are understood by the reader as the writer intended, and they influence the reader to act as the writer desired. The writer's objectives are most likely to be achieved if they correspond with the needs and objectives of the reader. An effective report is empathetic, accurate, complete, concise , and clear . Above all, an effective report presents information ethically."

Connecting With Your Audience

Warren Buffet, in the Foreword to " A Plain English Handbook ", shares his advice on how to best communicate in business reports.

"One unoriginal but useful tip: Write with a specific person in mind. When writing Berkshire Hathaway's annual report, I pretend that I'm talking to my sisters. I have no trouble picturing them: though highly intelligent they are not experts in accounting or finance. They will understand plain English , but jargon may puzzle them. My goal is simply to give them the information I would wish them to supply me if our positions were reversed. To succeed, I don't need to be Shakespeare; I must, though, have a sincere desire to inform."

Business Reports Can Be Long or Short

As described by John M. Lannon in "Technical Communication," along with the length of reports, the purpose and scope of reports differ.

"In the professional world, decision-makers rely on two broad types of reports: Some reports focus primarily on information ('what we're doing now,' 'what we did last month,' 'what our customer survey found,' 'what went on at the department meeting'). But beyond merely providing information, many reports also include analysis ('what this information means for us,' 'what courses of action should be considered,' 'what we recommend, and why')."

"For every long (formal) report, countless short (informal) reports lead to informed decisions on matters as diverse as the most comfortable office chairs to buy to the best recruit to hire for management training. Unlike long reports, most short reports require no extended planning, are quickly prepared, contain little or no background information, and have no front or end matter (title page, table of contents, glossary, etc). But despite their conciseness , short reports do provide the information and analysis that readers need."

• Kuiper, Shirley, and Dorinda A. Clippinger. Contemporary Business Reports. 5th ed., South-Western, Cengage Learning, 2013.
• Lannon, John M., and Laura J. Gurak. Technical Communication. 14th ed., Pearson, January 14, 2017.
• A Plain English Handbook - How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents. Office of Investor Education and Assistance., Aug. 1998, b-ok.cc/book/2657251/448dd1.
• O'Hair, Dan, et al. Business Communication: a Framework for Success. South-Western College Publishing, 2000.
• Sharma, R. C., and Krishna Mohan. Business Correspondence and Report Writing: a Practical Approach to Business & Technical Communication . Tata McGraw-Hill, 2017.
• Examples of Great Introductory Paragraphs
• Graphics in Business Writing, Technical Communication
• Definition and Examples of Plain English
• Best Practices for Business Writing
• Technical Writing
• How to Write a Business Report for English Learners
• How to Use English Grammar for Writing Instructions
• What Is Proposal Writing?
• Business Writing: Claim Letters
• Effective Bad-News Messages in Business Writing
• What Is Expository Writing?
• Business Writing Resources
• Understanding General-to-Specific Order in Composition
• What Is a Primary Source?
• Word Choice in English Composition and Literature
• How to Write an Abstract

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2.2: Types of Technical Reports

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• Tiffani Reardon, Tammy Powell, Jonathan Arnett, Monique Logan, & Cassie Race
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Learning Objective

Upon completion of this chapter, readers will be able to:

• Identify common types of technical documents.
• Summarize the purposes and formats of common types of technical documents.

Types of Technical Documents

For the final report in some technical-writing courses, you can write one of (or even a combination of) several different types of reports. If there is some other type of report that you know about and want to write, get with your instructor to discuss it.

This chapter briefly defines these different report types; some are covered in full detail elsewhere in this book; the rest are described here. But to get everything in one place, all the reports are briefly defined here, with cross-references to where their presentations occur:

Standard operating policies and procedures

These are the operating documents for organizations; they contain rules and regulations on how the organization and its members are expected to perform. Policies and procedures are like instructions, but they go much further. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are more for procedures in which a process is performed--for example, taking a dental impression.

Recommendation, feasibility, evaluation reports

This group of similar reports does things like compare several options against a set of requirements and recommend one; considers an idea (plan, project) in terms of its "feasibility," for example, some combination of its technical, economical, social practicality or possibility; passes judgement on the worth or value of a thing by comparing it to a set of requirements, or criteria.

Technical background reports

This type is the hardest one to define but the one that most people write. It focuses on a technical topic, provides background on that topic for a specific set of readers who have specific needs for it. This report does not supply instructions, nor does it supply recommendations in any systematic way, nor does it report new and original data.

Technical guides and handbooks

Closely related to technical report but differing somewhat in purpose and audience are technical guides and handbooks.

Primary research reports

This type presents findings and interpretation from laboratory or field research.

Business plans

This type is a proposal to start a new business.

Technical specifications

This type presents descriptive and operational details on a new or updated product.

Technical Background Reports

The technical background report is hard to define—it's not a lot of things, but it's hard to say what it is. It doesn't provide step-by-step directions on how to do something in the way that instructions do. It does not formally provide recommendations in the way that feasibility reports do. It does not report data from original research and draw conclusions in the way that primary research reports do.

So what does the technical background report do? It provides information on a technical topic but in such a way that is adapted for a particular audience that has specific needs for that information. Imagine a topic like this: renal disease and therapy. A technical background report on this topic would not dump out a ten-ton textbook containing everything you could possibly say about it. It would select information about the topic suited to a specific group of readers who had specific needs and uses for the information. Imagine the audience was a group of engineers bidding on a contract to do part of the work for a dialysis clinic. Yes, they need to know about renal disease and its therapy, but only to the extent that it has to do with their areas of expertise. Such a background report might also include some basic discussion of renal disease and its treatment, but no more than what the engineers need to do their work and to interact with representatives of the clinic.

One of the reports is an exploration of global warming, or the greenhouse effect, as it is called in the report. Notice that it discusses causes, then explores the effects, then discusses what can be done about it.

Typical contents and organization of technical background reports. Unlike most of the other reports discussed in this course guide, the technical background report does not have a common set of contents. Because it focuses on a specific technical topic for specific audiences who have specific needs or uses for the information, it grabs at whatever type of contents it needs to get the job done. You use a lot of intuition to plan this type of report. For example, with the report on renal disease and treatment, you'd probably want to discuss what renal disease is, what causes it, how it is treated, and what kinds of technologies are involved in the treatment. If you don't fully trust your intuition, use a checklist like the following:

• Definitions —Define the potentially unfamiliar terms associated with the topic. Write extended definitions if there are key terms or if they are particularly difficult to explain.
• Causes —Explain what causes are related to the topic. For example, with the renal disease topic, what causes the disease?
• Effects —Explain what are the consequences, results, or effects associated with the topic. With the renal disease topic, what happens to people with the disease; what effects do the various treatments have?
• Types —Discuss the different types or categories associated with the topic. For example, are there different types of renal disease; are there different categories of treatment?
• Historical background —Discuss relevant history related to the topic. Discuss people, events, and past theories related to the topic.
• Processes —Discuss mechanical, natural, human-controlled processes related to the topic. Explain step by step how the process occurs. For example, what are the phases of the renal disease cycle; what typically happens to a person with a specific form of the disease?
• Descriptions —Provide information on the physical details of things related to the topic. Provide information about size, shape, color, weight, and so on. For the engineering-oriented report, this would mean size, power requirements, and other such details about the treatment technologies.
• Comparisons —Compare the topic, or some aspect of it, to something similar or something familiar. With the renal disease example, you could compare renal disease to some other disease; the treatment to some other treatment; the functions of the kidney to something familiar (an analogy); or even the treatment to something familiar, for example, the filter system for a swimming pool.
• Applications —Explore how some aspect of your topic can be used or applied. If it's some new technology, what are its applications? Advantages and disadvantages—Discuss the advantages or disadvantages of one or more aspects of your topic. In the renal disease topic, for example, what are the advantages of one treatment over another?
• Economic considerations —Discuss the costs of one or more aspects associated with your topic. How much does treatment for renal disease cost? How much does the equipment and personnel cost?
• Social, political, legal, ethical implications —Explore the implications or impact of your topic or some aspect of it in relation to social, political, legal, or ethical concerns. The renal disease example doesn't lend itself much to this area, but imagine the possibilities with a topic like cryogenics—suspended animation of human beings. Often, new technologies have profound impact in these areas.
• Problems, questions —What problems or questions are there associated with your report topic or some aspect of it?
• Solutions, answers —What solutions or answers can you offer on those problems or questions raised by your topic or some aspect of it?

We could add many other categories to a checklist like this, but maybe this is enough to get you started planning the contents of your technical background report. And remember that each of these checklist items may represent a full section in the report—not a sentence or two.

As for the organization of these parts of the report, again, your intuitions are in order. Some subtopics logically come before others.

Typical format of technical background reports. Remember that in most technical-writing courses, you are expected to use a format like this exactly and precisely—unless you work out some other arrangements with your instructor.

Technical Guides and Handbooks

There's a distinction to be made between reports, on the one hand, and guides and handbooks, on the other. However, it's difficult to distinguish between the two latter types. A report, as the preceding section explains, is simply a collection of information on a topic—its background. For example, your boss might call you in and bark out this order: "Jones, our architectural firm needs to catch up with this green roof thing. See if you can pull some basic information together for me. How about in two weeks?"

A guide or handbook, on the other hand, has a somewhat different purpose. A guide would "guide" its readers in determining the feasibility of a green roof, planning, and constructing one. A handbook might contain little or no guidance but have lots of reference information about green roofs: associations supporting them, case studies, specifications, vendors, government ordinances, and so on.

But, frankly, the distinction between these two is difficult. And, in terms of format, style, and structure, there is very little difference. The abstract and executive summary have no logical place in a guide or handbook. If you are taking a technical writing course, check with your instructor about whether you still should include an abstract or executive summary.

Primary Research Reports

Primary research report is our name for that kind of report that presents original research data—no matter whether that data was generated in a laboratory or out in the "field." A secondary research report then would be a report (such as the technical background report) that presents information gained largely from printed or online information sources or from other sources such as interviews or direct observation.

You're probably already familiar with this type of report as the "lab report." The contents and organization of this type of report have a basic logic: you present your data and conclusions, but also present information on how you went about the experiment or survey. In other words, you enable the reader to replicate (the fancy scientific word for repeat) your experiment, or at least, visualize quite specifically how you went about it.

One of the examples is an experiment to see whether production of rainbow trout can be increased by varying water temperature. While there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the typical sections in primary research reports and the sections you see in the actual rainbow trout report, you'll find that most of the functions are carried out. Instead of a full paragraph, sometimes all that is needed is a single sentence. And sometimes certain functions are combined into a single sentence.

Contents of primary research reports. To enable readers to replicate your experiment or survey, you provide information like the following (each normally in its own section):

• Introduction —The introduction to the primary research report needs to do what any good introduction to a report needs to do—get readers ready to read the report. It may provide some background, but not more than a paragraph. Common elements, such as background, can be handled in the introduction. If they require a lot of discussion, however, they may need their own sections.
• Problem, background —One of the first things to do, either in the introduction, or in a separate section of its own, is to discuss the situation that has led to the research work. For example, you may have noticed something that contradicts a commonly accepted theory; you may have noticed some phenomenon that has not been studied, and so on. Explain this somewhere toward the beginning of a primary research report.
• Purpose, objectives, scope —Also toward the beginning of this type of report discuss what you intended to do in the research project—what were your objectives? Also, explain the scope of your work—what were you not trying to do?
• Review of literature —After you've established the basis for the project, summarize the literature relevant to it— for example, books, journal articles, and encyclopedias. If you are doing a study on speech recognition software, what articles have already been written on that subject? What do they have to say about the merits of this kind of software? All you do is summarize this literature briefly and enable readers to go have a look at it by providing the full bibliographic citation at the end of your report. In the context of this type of report, the review of literature shows where the gaps or contradictions are in the existing literature.
• Materials, equipment, facilities —Remember that one of your goals in writing this type of report is to enable the reader to replicate the experiment or survey you performed. Key to this is the discussion of the equipment and facilities you used in your research. Describe things in detail, providing brand names, model numbers, sizes, and other such specifications.
• Theory, methods, procedures —To enable readers to replicate your project, you must also explain the procedures or methods you used. This discussion can be step by step: "first, I did this, then I did that...." Theory and method refer more to the intellectual or conceptual framework of your project. These explain why you used the procedures that you used.
• Results, findings, data —Critical to any primary research report is the data that you collect. You present it in tables, charts, and graphs. These can go in the body of your report, or in appendixes if they are so big that they interrupt the flow of your discussion. Of course, some results or findings may not be presentable as tables, charts, or graphs. In these cases, you just discuss it in paragraphs. In any case, you do not add interpretation to this presentation of data. You merely present the data, without trying to explain it.
• Discussion, conclusions, recommendations —In primary research reports, you interpret or discuss your findings in a section separate from the one where you present the data. Now's the time to explain your data, to interpret it. This section, or area of the report, is also the place to make recommendations or state ideas for further research.
• Bibliography —The ideal of the primary research report is build upon or add to the knowledge in a particular area. It's the vehicle by which our knowledge advances for a specific topic. Your primary research report rests on top of all the work done by other researchers on the same topic. For that reason, you must list the sources of information you used or consulted in your project. This list occurs at the end of the report.

As for the organization of a primary research report, the typical contents just listed are arranged in an actual primary research report in just about the same order they were just discussed. Loosely, it is a chronological order. First, you discuss set-up issues such as the problem and objectives, then you discuss the procedures, then the data resulting from those procedures, then your conclusions based upon that data.

Typical format of primary research reports. In most technical-writing courses, you should use a format like the one shown in the chapter on report format. (The format you see in the example starting on page is for journal articles). In a primary research report for a technical-writing course, however, you should probably use the format in which you have a transmittal letter, title page, table of contents, list of figures, and abstracts.

Technical Specifications

Specifications are descriptions of products or product requirements. They can provide details for the design, manufacture, testing, installation, and use of a product. You typically see specifications in the documentation that comes in the package with certain kinds of products, for example, CD players or computers. These describe the key technical characteristics of the item. But specifications are also written as a way of "specifying" the construction and operational characteristics of a thing. They are then used by people who actually construct the thing or go out and attempt to purchase it. When you write specifications, accuracy, precision of detail, and clarity are critical. Poorly written specifications can cause a range of problems and lead to lawsuits.

• Outline and two-column style used to present information in specifications. Graphics, tables, and lists are heavily used, but some details can only be provided through sentences and paragraphs. For these reasons then, specifications have a particular style, format, and organization:
• Make every effort to find out what the specific requirements are for format, style, contents, and organization. If they are not documented, collect a big pile specifications written by or for your company, and study them for characteristics like those described in the following.
• Use two-column lists or tables to lists specific details. If the purpose is to indicate details such as dimensions, materials, weight, tolerances, and frequencies, regular paragraph-style writing may be unnecessary.
• For sentence-style presentation, use an outline style similar to the one shown in the illustration above. Make sure that each specification receives its own number–letter designation. In sentence-style specifications, make sure each specific requirement has its own separate sentence.
• Use the decimal numbering system for each individual specification. This facilitates cross-referencing.

Graphics and tables used to present information in specifications.

• Use either the open (performance) style or the closed restrictive style, depending on the requirements of the job. In the open or performance style, you can specify what the product or component should do, that is, its performance capabilities. In the closed style, you specify exactly what it should be or consist of.
• Cross-reference existing specifications whenever possible. Various goverment agencies as well as trade and professional associations publish specifications standards. You can refer to these standards rather than include the actual specifications details
• Use specific, concrete language that identifies as precisely as possible what the product or component should be or do. Avoid words that are ambiguous—words that can be interpreted in more than one way. Use technical jargon the way it is used in the trade or profession.
• Test your specifications by putting yourself in the role of a bumbling contractor—or even an unscrupulous one. What are the ways a careless or incompetent individual could misread your specifications? Could someone willfully misread your specifications in order to cut cost, time, and thus quality? Obviously, no set of specifications can ultimately be "foolproof" or "shark-proof," but you must try to make them as clear and unambiguous as possible
• For specifications to be used in design, manufacturing, construction, or procurement, use "shall" to indicate requirements. In specifications writing, "shall" is understood as indicating a requirement. (See the outline-style specifications in the first illustration on specifications for examples of this style of writing.) Provide numerical specifications in both words and symbols: for example, "the distance between the two components shall be three centimeters (3 cm)."
• Writing style in specifications can be very terse: incomplete sentences are acceptable as well as the omission of functions words such as articles and conjunctions that are understood.
• Exercise great caution with pronouns and relational or qualifying phrases. Make sure there is no doubt about what words such as "it," "they," "which," and "that" refer to. Watch out for sentences containing a list of two or more items followed by some descriptive phrase—does the descriptive phrase refer to all the list items or just one? In cases like these, you may have to take a wordier approach for the sake of clarity.
• Use words and phrasing that have become standard in similar specifications over the years. Past usage has proven them reliable. Avoid words and phrases that are known not to hold up in lawsuits.
• Make sure your specifications are complete—put yourself in the place of those who need your specifications; make sure you cover everything they will need.

Contents and Organization of Specifications. Organization is critical in specifications—readers need to be able to find one or a collection of specific details. To facilitate the process of locating individual specifications, use headings, lists, tables, and identifying numbers as discussed previously. But a certain organization of the actual contents is also standard:

• General description—Describe the product, component, or program first in general terms—administrative details about its cost, start and completion dates, overall description of the project, scope of the specifications (what you are not covering), anything that is of a general nature and does not fit in the part-by-part descriptions in the following.
• Part-by-part description—In the main body, present specifications part by part, element by element, trade by trade —whatever is the logical, natural, or conventional way of doing it.
• General-to-specific order—Wherever applicable, arrange specifications from general to specific.

Graphics in specifications. In specifications, use graphics wherever they enable you to convey information more effectively. For example, in the specifications for a cleanroom for production of integrated circuits, drawings, diagrams, and schematics convey some of the information much more succinctly and effectively than sentences and paragraphs.

Literature Reviews

A literature review summarizes what is known about a specific research topic, narrates the milestones of the research history, indicates where current knowledge conflicts, and discusses areas where there are still unknowns.

A literature review can be a standalone document or a component of a primary research report (as discussed previously). Research journals often contain articles whose sole purpose is to provide a literature review. As a component of a research report, a literature review can be as long as a whole chapter in book, only a paragraph in a research article, or as short as a few sentences in an introduction. In all cases, the function of the literature review is the same: to summarize the history and current state of research on a topic.

As you know from the preceding section, a primary research report (such as those in engineering research journals) focuses on a question: for example, the effect of weightlessness on growing vegetables. The literature-review section of that report would summarize what is known about this topic, indicate where current knowledge conflicts, and discuss areas where there are still unknowns.

A well-constructed literature review tells a story. It narrates the key events in the research on a particular question or in a particular area:

• Who were the first modern researchers on this topic? What were their findings, conclusions, and theories? What questions or contradictions could they not resolve?
• What did researchers following them discover? Did their work confirm, contradict, or overturn the work of their predecessors? Were they able to resolve questions their predecessors could not?

You narrate this series of research events in a literature review. You can consider this research as similar to the thesis– antithesis–synthesis process. You start out with a thesis, then along comes an antithesis to contradict it, and eventually some resolution of this contradiction called a synthesis is achieved, which is actually a step forward in the knowledge about that topic. But now the synthesis becomes a thesis, and the process starts all over again.

Hilton Obenzinger of Stanford University in "How to Research, Write, and Survive a Literature Review?" calls this type of literature review a "road map." He identifies several other types, most importantly those that review the methodology of the research as well as or instead the the research findings. Obenzinger emphasizes that the literature review is not just a passive summary of research on a topic but an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of that research—an effort to see where that research is "incomplete, methodologically flawed, one-sided, or biased." In any case, as the following examples show, a literature review is a discussion of a body of research literature not an annotated bibliography. Notice in the following examples that literature reviews use standard bracketed IEEE textual citation style and end with a bibliography (called "References").

Consider the following excerpt, which shows the beginning of the review of literature, found in "Face Recognition: A Literature Review:"

Face recognition, in additional to having numerous practical applications such as bankcard identification, access control, mug shots searching, security monitoring, and surveillance system, is a fundamental human behavior that is essential for effective communications and interactions among people. A formal method of classifying faces was first proposed in [1]. The author proposed collecting facial profiles as curves, finding their norm, and then classifying other profiles by their deviations from the norm. This classification is multi-modal, i.e., resulting in a vector of independent measures that could be compared with other vectors in a database.

As you can see, the first paragraph establishes the topic and its importance; the second paragraph goes back to the beginning of modern research that provided a foundation for computer-based face recognition. This literature review moves on to the current status of research in this field:

Progress has advanced to the point that face recognition systems are being demonstrated in real-world settings [2]. The rapid development of face recognition is due to a combination of factors: active development of algorithms, the availability of a large databases of facial images, and a method for evaluating the performance of face recognition algorithms.

Notice how this next excerpt describes an important advance in the research on this topic, but then points out its deficiencies:

The literature review of face-recognition research examines many different methods used in computer-based face recognition. For each, it summarizes the method, the results, and the strengths and weaknesses of that method. This example is not so much the thesis-antithesis-synthesis pattern mentioned above but rather a collection of efforts all striving toward a common goal, increased accuracy of computer-based face recognition. Here's how the summary of that process ends in this literature review:

In [83], a combined classifier system consisting of an ensemble of neural networks is based on varying the parameters related to the design and training of classifiers. The boosted algorithm is used to make perturbation of the training set employing MLP as base classifier. The final result is combined by using simple majority vote rule. This system achieved 99.5% on Yale face database and 100% on ORL face database. To the best of our knowledge, these results are the best in the literatures.

A. S. Tolba, A.H. El-Baz, and A.A. El-Harby, "Face Recognition: A Literature Review." International Journal of Signal Processing, vol. 2, no. 2, 2005

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Chapter 4: Writing Definitions, Descriptions, and Instructions

Bay College

Learning Objectives

Definitions, Descriptions, & Instructions [26]

An important part of technical and report writing is the use of definitions, descriptions, and instructions.

Definitions.  We grow up reading these from the time we are in elementary school.  They are one of the more common patterns of organization used. I see them in my son’s middle school math textbooks to define various terms or his social studies book explaining that “caste” is a social ranking.  My daughter is exposed to them in elementary school when her handouts comes home defining what a number line is. Definitions can be simple short insertions in a sentence to clarify a term or they can be an entire document known as an extended definition. The good news is that you have already been exposed to them from the time you were very little..

Descriptions. These are similar to a definition but can be longer, more detailed, and have a visual representation to further explain a concept.  More than likely, you have read these as well. Descriptions explain objects, mechanisms, and processes – and they do so in a way that whatever is being described is easily understood.  If a description of the greenhouse effect was created for specialists in the field, it might be more complex.  If this same idea was written for a general audience, the language would be “dumbed down” or simplified.

Instructions.  I was redoing my daughter’s room and putting up a cherry tree decal on her wall.  I opened the package and pulled out a sheet with several “stickers” labeled with numbers; It was sort of like a tree puzzle I had to put together. I looked for directions to make it easier; however, none were to be found except for a small picture on the package of the pieces put together and the correlating numbers next to the pieces.  The problem was that the picture was so tiny that the numbers didn’t fit.  In fact, I have a “spatial reasoning deficit” of some sort and could not follow the directions even after taping the picture to the wall next to where I wanted to place the cherry tree decal.  Frustrated, I threw the directions out and made up the tree myself. Needless to say, I will be more careful when purchasing a similar product and will avoid doing so from the same company who made the cherry tree decal. I’m sure you have had similar experiences with following directions.  Directions should use visuals to help the reader understand what is expected, be written clearly while using transitions to move the reader from one step to the next, and should include troubleshooting tips (ideas for how to fix common problems that may occur).

Technical Definitions [27]

A technical definition helps a reader understand items such as an object or process. It can be short and embedded in a document, or it can be its own document. The purpose of a definition is to provide clarity to the reader. The extent of the definition depends on your audience’s background knowledge in regards to what you are writing about. For example, it could be a parenthetical definition that follows a potentially unknown term, a full sentence used after a term to further define it, or it may be an extended definition, or larger definition. In fact, a writer may use many methods within the definition to help the reader better understand it.  Some methods that can be used include graphics, examples, comparisons, and contrasts.

Technical Descriptions [28]

The biggest hurdle you may face in writing a description is remembering what the term means as it is used in this context. We all use the word description loosely to refer to practically any discussion or explanation. But in this context, it means the detailed discussion of the physical aspects of a thing. That means discussing things like color, shape, size, weight, height, width, thickness, texture, density, contents, materials of construction, and so on.

For example, this sentence is not really description in our sense of the word: A computer diskette is a device used for storing electronic data.

It explains the function or purpose but provides little or no physical detail. It is a definition. However, this sentence is very definitely description: The common computer diskette is 3.5 inches by 3.5 inches and approximately 1/8 inch thick.

Be sure to check out the example descriptions available with this chapter.

Contexts for Description

As mentioned earlier, descriptions are common element in technical writing—just not quite in the same way that instructions are. Descriptions appear more often as a sentence or two here, a paragraph there, or a whole section elsewhere. Certain kinds of technical writing feature description:

• Accident reports requiring plenty of description.
• Product specifications—documents that describe design and feature of a new or changed product—have plenty of description.
• Instructions often require description to enable readers to visualize what they are doing and what they are working with.

Contents and Organization of Descriptions

The following is a review of the sections you’ll commonly find in descriptions. As you read, check out the example descriptions.

Introduction. Plan the introduction to your description carefully. Make sure it does all of the following things (but not necessarily in this order) that apply to your particular description:

• Indicate the specific object about to be described.
• Indicate what the audience needs in terms of knowledge and background to understand the description.
• Provide a general description of the object.
• Include an overview of the contents of the description.

Background. If the thing you are describing is not likely to be familiar to most of your readers, consider adding some background before you plunge into the actual description. If you are about to describe an SGO/3 density gauge to non-specialists, you’d better first discuss what in the world the thing is, what it does and on what part of the planet it is used.

Visual. The easiest way for an individual to understand something is to see it.  Visuals help with this. In addition, the parts of the object or process are often labeled so that the reader can further understand how each part works in conjunction with the entire item.

Discussion of the parts or characteristics. The main part of your description is the discussion of each part or characteristic. You must divide the thing you are describing into parts, or characteristics, or both. Parts are easy: for example, a wooden pencil has lead, a wooden barrel, an eraser, and a metal clip. Characteristics are describable aspects of a thing but are not parts: for example, the pencil has a certain weight, length, width, and so on. If you were a budding real-estate tycoon and had to describe a vacant lot for company files, you’d probably describe it by its characteristics: its location, square footage, terrain, vegetation, access to utilities, and so on. (Check out the description of the primitive stone scraper in the examples; part of it is arranged by characteristics and part by parts!)  If this section follows a visual, it is often organized to match the visual. For example, it might list the parts in clockwise order or from top to bottom of how they are labeled on the visual.  In addition, the descriptors labeled on the visual match what is listed in this section exactly. Consistency is key.

Once you’ve divided the thing you are describing into parts, characteristics, or both, your next job is to describe each one. For mechanical things, it works well to start by defining the part, by explaining its function. After that, you describe the part from general to specific, using any of the sources of description that are appropriate.

Notice that in description, you can mix other kinds of writing. You’ll find yourself explaining functions, defining terms, discussing a bit of process as you describe. That’s not a problem as long as the primary focus and the majority of the content is truly description.

Discussion of the related operation or process.  At some point in a description, often at the end, it is useful to summarize the operation or process associated with the object you’re describing. For example, if you’ve just described a mechanical pencil, you could briefly explain how it is used. If you’ve just described a snowflake, you could discuss the process by which it formed.

Sources of Description

When you write a description, you need to think about the kinds of descriptive detail you can provide. Sometimes, descriptions are rather weak in this area. Use the following list to plan your description or to review a description you have written. Think of the categories of descriptive detail you could provide, or use the following list to identify categories you have not used:

Figure 12. Schematic view of descriptions. Remember that this is just a typical or common model for the contents and organization—many others are possible.

Miscellaneous Concerns

In descriptions, you’ll probably find yourself puzzling over how to handle numbers, abbreviations, and symbols:

Numbers. Remember that technical writing breaks some of those rules you worked so hard to learn in past writing classes. In the technical writing context, we are often vitally concerned about numbers and want them to stand out. This means that you should use numerals in running text when the number indicates an exact, measured, or measurable amount or when it represents a critical value. For example, in these sentences, it seems to matter that the numbers are exact:

The cup is 3 inches in diameter. Use 4 tacks to fasten the poster to the wall.

However, this does not mean using numerals for indifferent values. For example, in this sentence, there is nothing heart-stopping about how many sections the report has:

The report contains four major sections.

See the section on numbers vs. words  for further details.

Anatomy of a descriptive paragraph.  Typically, it starts with some statement about the purpose or function of the part, with the descriptive detail following. Descriptive detail draws upon the “sources” of description—such things as color, shape, width, and height.

Abbreviations. In technical writing, we expect to see abbreviations. Use them in your description freely. Remember the rule on punctuating abbreviations—punctuate them only if they spell a word (for example, “in.”). Remember too that abbreviations do not go up against the number they are used with (for example, make that “8 mm tape” or “8-mm tape” but not “8mm tape”).

Symbols.  The most common problem with symbols in instructions and descriptions has to do with inches and feet. If you’re writing instructions for a carpenter’s dream project where there are feet and inches all over the place, use the symbols ” (inches) and ‘ (feet). However, if you cite inch and foot measurements only a few times, use the word or abbreviation instead.

Graphics and Format in Descriptions

In most descriptions, you’ll need at least one illustration of the thing you are describing, with labels pointing to the parts. See the section on graphics for more on creating graphics, formatting them, and incorporating them into your descriptions.

Headings. In descriptions, you’ll want to use headings and subheadings to mark off the discussion of the individual parts or characteristics. Remember that, ideally, you want to describe each part in a separate paragraph or section—and flag that discussion with a heading.  

If you have a background section, use a heading for it too. See the section on headings for the specific requirements.

Lists. Lists are not nearly so important in descriptions as they are in instructions. However, if you itemize parts or subparts or list specifications, these are good situations for lists. See the section on lists  for the specific requirements.

Special notices. In descriptions, there is nothing like the important role for special notices as there is in instructions. After all, if it really is a description, readers should not be trying to follow any procedure, and therefore should not be running any risks of damaging equipment, wasting supplies, screwing up the procedure, or injuring themselves or others. However, you may find the note special notice to be useful to emphasize important points or exceptions. See the section on special notices  for complete discussion of the proper use of these special notices as well as their format and placement within instructions.

Instructions

Go to the following website and read it in its entirety for information on writing instructions:

Creating Rhetorically Effective Instruction Manuals [29]

Common Components of Instructions [30]

Keep it simple but clearly identify the task that will be performed.  Use a “how to” or gerund (ing verb) when crafting it.  Make sure the title adequately reflects the product and process users will be working on. It should be simple and clear.

Introduction

The goal of the introduction is to give general information about the process. What is it? Why should it be done? It is an overview of the process and why it is important. Often times, the writer lists the benefits of completing the process so that the reader feels good about the task he or she is about to complete.

Tools & Materials

List the items necessary to complete the task so that the reader can gather and organize them before starting the process.  Consider using a bulleted list or some other formatting tool so that it is easy for the reader to skim through.

Your reader will need visuals to refer to and act as a guide through the process. Remember to label the visuals as Figure 1, Figure 2, and so on, and then title each visual so the reader knows what he/she is looking at. Often times, the visual is referred to within the step-by-step part of the instructions.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Use a numbered list of step-by-step instructions for completing the process. Consider transitional words to keep the reader on track. Examples of transitions include: first, next, then, and finally. Also, write in clear and complete sentences throughout this section. In addition, refer to the visuals in this section. For example, a writer might include a phrase such as: “See Figure 3.” This will help the reader see the relationship between the steps and the visual.

Another reminder is to avoid the word “you” as you write; use the imperative mood. For example, instead of writing “You then push the blue button” write “Next, push the blue button.”

One last reminder is to explain to the reader why to do or not do something that may have negative consequences. This will help the reader have a positive experience completing the process.

Troubleshooting

A troubleshooting section helps the reader solve common problems.  It is when someone tells the user to do something and adds, “If that doesn’t work, try this…” Sometimes, telling the reader what not to do is just as important as stating what to do. If you have several troubleshooting tips, organize this section so the reader can easily find the particular difficulty he or she needs solving at the moment. Therefore, make this section reader friendly and skimmable.

End the instructions with positive comments about the product and/or the process the user just completed.  Sometimes there is a phone number for a Help Line if further assistance is needed. The benefits can also be restated but in different words but make sure not to use the exact words from the introduction. Readers don’t like to read the same exact words/phrases/sentences in the conclusion as they did in the introduction because it feels like the writer was too lazy to actually work on the document.

Just because this is listed last in this section it doesn’t mean it is any less important than the other parts of the document or that it actually goes last in the document.  In fact, the writer has to decide where in the document to put the warnings. They should be dispersed throughout. Also, remember legal and ethical obligations. It is the writer’s job to protect the reader from harm or damage. This being said, any set of instructions needs a careful balance of warnings strategically placed throughout the document. If the writer overuses them, there is a risk of scaring the user or making it so that the reader doesn’t want to carry out the process being described in the instructions. If the writer under-uses warnings, there is a risk of someone getting injured.

In addition, don’t create instructions where the user has already completed the process and injured him/herself before the warning comes. If someone is injured as the results of hidden or omitted warnings, it is the responsibility of the technical writer whose job it is to keep the reader safe.

In fact, there are standard precautionary statements that are color-coded and used for danger, warnings, cautions, and notes or notices. Click on the following link and carefully review them: Precautionary Statements . Do NOT skip looking over this link! You will be expected to incorporate information from in it into the instructions you will create for the course.

[26] Definitions, Descriptions, & Instructions CC-BY Amber Kinonen

[27] Technical Definitions CC-BY Amber Kinonen

[28] Technical Description: What Does it Look Like? CC-BY David McMurrey , edited by Amber Kinonen , edits included in italics

[29] Creating Rhetorically Effective Instruction Manuals CC-BY-NC-ND Madelyn Tucker Pawlowski and Antonnet Johnson

[30] Common Components of Instructions CC-BY Amber Kinonen

[31]   Audience Analysis in Form Reports  CC-BY-NC-ND Angela Eward Mangione and Katherine McGee

Chapter 4: Writing Definitions, Descriptions, and Instructions Copyright © by Bay College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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DOE Announces National Definition of a Zero Emissions Building

• by Industry Announcement
• June 6, 2024

New Definition Will Help Nation Achieve Administration’s Clean Energy and Climate Goals While Lowering Energy Costs, Cutting Air Pollution, and Creating Good-Paying Jobs 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a National Definition of a Zero Emissions Building to advance public and private sector efforts to decarbonize the buildings sector, which is responsible for more than one-third of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The definition is intended to provide industry guidance to support new and existing commercial and residential buildings to move towards zero emissions across the entire sector and help the nation achieve President Biden’s ambitious climate goals, while cutting home and business energy costs. A standardized definition for zero emissions buildings will help advance next-generation clean energy solutions, drive innovation, and tackle the climate crisis, while supporting workforce development. 

“The National Definition of a Zero Emissions Building will support the sector as it advances innovative solutions essential to creating resilient communities and high-quality jobs,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “With today’s announcement, DOE is helping bring clarity to our public and private sector partners to support decarbonization efforts and drive investment—paving the way for the cutting-edge clean energy technologies we need to make America’s buildings more comfortable and affordable.” 

There are nearly 130 million existing buildings in the United States, which collectively cost over $400 billion a year to heat, cool, light, and power, with 40 million new homes and 60 billion square feet of commercial floorspace expected to be constructed between now and 2050. One in four American households—and 50% of low-income households—struggle to pay their energy bills. Establishing a consistent definition for a zero-emissions building will accelerate climate progress, while lowering home and business energy bills. Additionally, the zero emissions definition provides market certainty and clarity to scale zero emissions new construction and retrofits.  

Earlier this year, DOE laid out a  blueprint to reduce U.S. building emissions 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050. Major technical advances in energy efficiency, heat pumps, and clean energy mean that new and existing buildings can help the nation achieve zero emissions, while ensuring domestic manufacturing of the technologies and low embodied carbon materials needed for these next-generation buildings. Additionally, the buildings sector can plug into a grid that is rapidly becoming cleaner and help to improve climate resiliency. Buildings can be constructed and retrofitted to use a fraction of the energy they once used. 

National Definition of a Zero Emissions Building: Part 1 Operational Emissions from Energy Use Part 1 of the Definition sets criteria for determining that a building generates zero emissions from energy use in building operations. By the definition, at a minimum, a zero emissions building must be energy efficient, free of onsite emissions from energy use, and powered solely from clean energy. Future parts of this definition may address emissions from embodied carbon (producing, transporting, installing, and disposing of building materials) and additional considerations. 

In developing Part 1 of the Definition, DOE published a request for information (RFI) that solicited input from members of the public, in response to which industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders provided feedback. Implementation guidance included with the Definition provides additional information on these criteria. The Definition is not a regulatory standard or a certification. It is guidance that public and private entities may adopt to determine whether a building has zero emissions from operational energy use.  The definition is not a substitute for the green building and energy efficiency standards and certifications that public and private parties have developed. 

Additionally, alongside today’s announcement: 

• Eight major green building certification programs in the U.S. announced that they will embed or align or exceed the zero emissions definition within their certification. Many certifications go even further to demonstrate climate leadership by exceeding the criteria of the definition.
• In December 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14057 on Federal Sustainability and issued his Federal Sustainability Plan , which calls on agencies to achieve a federal net-zero emissions building portfolio by 2045. As part of today’s effort, the Federal Government will use the National Definition in leasing net-zero emissions buildings, which will become the standard for Federal leases beginning in 2030.  

Today’s announcement builds on Biden-Harris Administration actions to cut energy costs, create good-paying jobs, and bolster energy efficiency:

• Through the Better Climate Challenge , many of the largest real estate portfolio owners in the US have committed to reduce portfolio-wide greenhouse gas emissions (scope 1 and 2) by at least 50% within 10 years.
• DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Homes program and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR NextGen™ can be used as steppingstones to show progress to zero emissions.
• At COP28 in Dubai, the U.S. joined with UN’s Buildings Breakthrough. The National Definition for a Zero Emissions Building aligns with the UN’s Buildings Breakthrough, which endorses the statement, “Near-zero emission and resilient buildings are the new normal by 2030.”  

Other complementary efforts include DOE’s Affordable Home Energy Shot ™ and the Clean Energy for New Federal Buildings and Major Renovations of Federal Buildings Rule . 

Through the Affordable Home Energy Shot, DOE aims to reduce the upfront cost of upgrading a home by at least 50% while reducing energy bills by 20% within a decade. Providing affordable, scalable solutions that can upgrade buildings of all types is essential to achieving this goal. This initiative will help address the persistent burdens faced by low-income households and communities of color. 

Through the Clean Energy for Federal Buildings and Major Renovations of Federal Buildings Rule, federal buildings will reduce pollution, improve air quality, create good-paying jobs, and take advantage of cost savings from using more energy-efficient equipment. These measures will help advance the adoption of cleaner, more efficient technologies critical to achieving President Biden’s Federal Sustainability Plan goal of net-zero emissions from all federal buildings by 2045. 

The full National Definition of a Zero Emissions Building Part 1 is available in National Definition of a Zero Emissions Building Part 1: Operational Emissions from Energy Use (Version 1) . 

City of Moab Earns International Dark Sky Community Designation

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New Words Drop! Get The First Look At Our Fall 2023 Collection Of Dictionary Additions

Pop culture & slang, modern problems, artificial intelligence, science & tech, health & wellness, identity & relationships, for word lovers, climate & extreme weather.

• Useful 'Un-' Words

Even More Words

Information pollution, jawn, decision fatigue, jolabokaflod, grandfamily, NIL, algo, amalgagender. Unbox the new terms and meanings just added to Dictionary.com.

by Nick Norlen, Senior Editor, and Grant Barrett, Head of Lexicography

Our fall new words drop is here! 

The words don’t stop coming, so we’re updating the dictionary more frequently than ever. And not just with any words: this update includes an incredibly useful concentration of terms for naming the complexities of modern life. 

They represent the always-evolving nature of English and our lexicographers’ neverending efforts to document it. This update captures: 

• Complicated technical jargon that artificial intelligence has catapulted into our awareness ( GPT , LLM )
• Intriguing loanwords from languages around the world ( jolabokaflod , kakeibo )
• Fun insta-adds to your vocabulary for things you didn’t know there were words for ( information pollution , decision fatigue , shower orange )
• And a ton of other lexical jawns! 

On with the unboxing!

What’s Inside

We’ll break down the words that are new to the dictionary, newly added, or newly revised (such as the AI sense of hallucinate ). Keep in mind that words that are new to the dictionary are not always new to the language (or even remotely recent), but their growth and change is just as interesting.

We can’t endorse any words, but we can document their use in the real world. We are descriptive—we describe language as it is really used (not just how we or others may wish it would be used).

Learn more about how new words get added to Dictionary.com—and how the dictionary works.

Here’s the breakdown for this release:

Of course, some of the terms in the list below have more than one definition. We’ll highlight just the meanings most relevant to this release.

noun. Informal. Chiefly Philadelphia. something or someone for which the speaker does not know or does not need a specific name.

Example: Can you hand me that jawn right there? 

📝 Philadelphians know that their favorite regional catchall term isn’t new—the first records of its use come from the early 2000s, when it started to be popularized in the Black community. Its addition reflects an increasing awareness of the term outside the region. Its ultimate origin is uncertain, but it may be a local Philadelphia variant of joint , which is used in a similar way in the New York City metropolitan area. 

noun. a celebrity with a parent who is also famous, especially one whose industry connections are perceived as essential to their success.

abbreviation. name, image, likeness : aspects of a collegiate athlete’s identity for which they may earn money from a third party, as for advertising sponsorship or merchandise sales, although they are prohibited from being paid directly by colleges and universities for their participation in intercollegiate sports.

noun. Informal. a day not easily distinguished from other days, or the phenomenon of days running together.

📝 Made-up day names are meant to capture the sameyness vibe of busy lives and work. Similar terms include Whoseday and Whensday . 

shower orange

noun. an orange that is peeled and eaten under a steamy shower, the purported benefit being that the steam enhances the orange’s citrusy fragrance and creates a soothing experience for the person who is showering.

📝 The phenomenon and the name for it were popularized by a viral social media trend. Keep an eye out for similar practices, including shower beer and shower wine . 

Godwin’s Law

noun. an adage of internet culture stating that as any discussion or debate grows longer, there is a proportionate increase in the probability that someone will invoke a comparison to Hitler or the Nazi party.

📝 Named after U.S. lawyer and author Mike Godwin (born 1956), who formulated the adage in 1991. 

noun. an adage of internet culture stating that unless some tone indicator is used, it is impossible to tell the difference between an extreme view being sincerely espoused and an extreme view being satirized.

📝 Named after Nathan Poe, who posted about the concept on an internet forum in 2005. But the concept predates Poe’s post. 

noun. a story in a role-playing game, spread out over multiple play sessions, that usually keeps the same plot, setting, or main characters.

📝 This is just one example of a word that’s obviously not new but for which our lexicographers have added a more recent sense.

As new phenomena proliferate in our complex modern world, new terms emerge to capture their specificity—a process shaped and accelerated by online culture and digital discourse. This is especially the case for behaviors considered toxic or harmful; those wishing to shine a spotlight on such practices often do so most effectively by giving them a specific name. 

information pollution

noun. the introduction of falsehood, irrelevance, bias, and sensationalism into a source of information, resulting in a dilution or outright suppression of essential facts.

📝 There are many sources of information pollution, and a newly prominent one is AI. See the relevant AI sense of hallucinate below. 

greenwashing

noun. an instance or practice of promoting or affiliating a brand, campaign, mission, etc., with environmentalism as a ploy to divert attention from policies and activities that are in fact anti-environmentalist.

📝 The ending -washing in greenwashing and sportswashing below comes from the verb whitewash . 

sportswashing

noun. an instance or practice of rehabilitating the bad reputation of a person, company, nation, etc., or mitigating negative press coverage with a sports event, or an appeal to unify and reconcile groups in conflict by celebrating fans’ shared love of a game.

crypto-fascism

noun. secret support for fascism.

📝 Note that crypto- is used here as a combining form meaning “hidden” or “secret,” not as a reference to cryptocurrency (which is now often referred to as crypto for short).

noun. criminal behavior in which a perpetrator illicitly obtains sexually compromising material, such as images, and then threatens to publish it or harm the victim in other ways unless further material or a sum of money is surrendered.

📝 A blend of sex and extortion . 

noun. Informal. a theft committed by a perpetrator who waits at a bank, near an ATM, or outside an expensive store, watches for customers who might be carrying a large amount of cash or goods, and then follows them to steal the money or goods from the customer or from their car.

📝 The word jugging is modeled on mugging . The word jug can be a slang term for a bank. 

hostile architecture

noun. design elements of public buildings and spaces that are intended to stop unwanted behavior such as loitering or sleeping in public by making such behavior difficult and uncomfortable.

prison industrial complex

noun. the network of government agencies and private industry that foster, benefit from, and contribute to mass incarceration, the imprisonment of large numbers of people.

📝 Relatedly, this update also includes the newly added words decarcerate and decarceration , both used in the context of efforts to reduce the number of people in prison. 

crony capitalism

noun. an economic system in which success in business is obtained through relationships to people in political power rather than through competition.

📝 The word crony means a close friend, but it is often used negatively, especially in the context of business and politics. 

noun. pharmaceutical companies considered collectively, especially with reference to their political and commercial influence.

📝 The construction used to create this phrase, in which the word Big is paired with a specific industry (such as in similar phrases like Big Oil ), usually carries a negative connotation.

This year marked a tipping point for mainstream awareness of AI, what it’s capable of, and terms related to how it works (and, in some cases, how it doesn’t). 

generative AI

noun. Computers. artificial intelligence that is designed to process prompts from users and respond with text, images, audio, or other output that is modeled on a training data set.

noun. a computer program designed to respond with conversational or informational replies to verbal or written messages from users.

abbreviation. Computers, Digital Technology. generative pre-trained transformer : a type of machine learning algorithm that uses deep learning and a large database of training text in order to generate new text in response to a user’s prompt.

Illustration: Iván Bravo. Hallucinate . 2023.

Hallucinate.

verb. Computers, Digital Technology. (of a machine learning program) to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as if true and factual.

📝 Be prepared to start hearing and reading about this with increasing frequency—including in discussions of how AI researchers still don’t fully understand how it happens. 

abbreviation. Computers. large language model : a type of machine learning algorithm trained on extremely large data sets of existing language and designed to generate new, naturalistic responses to prompts.

noun. strategic biological experimentation, especially upon oneself, using technology, drugs, hormones, diet, etc., with the goal of enhancing or augmenting performance, health, mood, or the like.

noun. Computers. Informal. algorithm. 

noun. Computers. unwanted software that is preinstalled on a newly bought device, especially when it negatively impacts the device’s performance. 

noun. a digital bank, typically without a charter, that operates only online or on mobile platforms, providing some traditional banking services, such as checking and savings accounts, at low or no cost to customers.

verb. to make less good, efficient, fast, functional, etc., especially in the context of computers or information technology.

📝 The opposite of optimize .

Illustration: Iván Bravo. Decision Fatigue . 2023.

Decision fatigue.

noun. Psychology. Psychiatry. mental and emotional exhaustion resulting from excessive or relentless decision-making, especially the cumulative effect of small decisions that one makes throughout each day.

doctor shop

verb. to obtain prescriptions for a controlled substance from more than one healthcare practitioner at a time.

noun. a short nap, usually 15-30 minutes, taken immediately after drinking a cup of coffee, the claimed benefit being that the energizing effect of caffeine may be bolstered by a sleeping body’s drop in adenosine levels.

noun. the difference between the amount of sleep a person needs and the actual amount of time spent sleeping, when the amount needed exceeds the time slept.

stress eating

noun. emotional eating, especially in response to stress, tension, or anxiety.

intermittent fasting

noun. a pattern of eating that involves regular short periods of fasting, such as by limiting food intake to a certain period of the day or to fewer meals on certain days of the week.

Illustration: Iván Bravo. Grandfamily . 2023.

Grandfamily.

noun. a family in which one or more children live with and are raised by their grandparent or grandparents.

noun. Sociology. the labor involved in maintaining and enhancing family ties, including organizing social occasions, remembering birthdays, sending gifts, etc.

diverse-owned

adjective. (of a business) owned by someone who is part of a group historically underrepresented in entrepreneurship, such as women, ethnic or racial minorities, LGBTQ+ people, etc.

noun. a hairstyle originating among Black people, in which the hair is parted into small squares or other shapes over the scalp and the hair from each section is woven into a braid.

abbreviation. noun. child of deaf adult / adults: a hearing person with a deaf parent or parents.

verb. to marry a person of the same gender.

amalgagender

adjective. noting or relating to a person whose gender identity is linked to or impacted by the fact that they are intersex .

adjective. (of a transgender person) living as a cisgender member of one’s identified gender, without revealing that one is transgender.

adjective. noting or relating to a person who is sexually attracted to people of various genders, but not necessarily to people of all genders.

polyromantic

adjective. noting or relating to a person who is romantically attracted to people of various genders, but not necessarily to people of all genders.

adjective. noting or relating to a person who primarily feels sexual attraction to and desire for themselves, as opposed to other people.

autoromantic

adjective. noting or relating to a person who primarily feels romantic attraction to and desire for themselves, as opposed to other people.

📖 A Dictionary-Wide Change

In this most recent update, our lexicographers made dictionary-wide changes to remove binary-gendered phrases like his or her and he or she , which had appeared in hundreds of entries. In many cases, such phrases were replaced with their , they , or similar words. In other cases, entries were simply rewritten to avoid using a pronoun at all.

Here are two examples of the types of changes we made. One involves changing the phrase his or her to their . The other involves removing irrelevant pronouns altogether. 

folk singer

Old definition: a singer who specializes in folk songs, usually providing his or her own accompaniment on a guitar.

New revised definition (changing his or her to their ): a singer who specializes in folk songs, usually providing their own accompaniment on a guitar.

Old definition: a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking.

New revised definition (removing the pronouns altogether): a person who voluntarily offers to perform a service or undertaking.

Why We Made This Change

This change was made for two reasons: inclusivity and usage. On the inclusivity side, his or her does not include people who use other pronouns. In terms of usage, they is simply much more common as a generic pronoun than he or she , including in spoken and all but the most formal types of written English. In fact, this has been the case for decades (even though people rarely notice it in speech). By making this change, we have made our entries more similar to how people actually speak and write, hopefully making the entries more natural-sounding—and thus more accessible to readers.

— Lexicographer K. E. Callaway

noun. Literary. a person who never laughs; a humorless person (often used attributively).

noun. the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles. 

📝 Sonder was coined in 2012 by U.S. writer John Koenig in his blog The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows ; perhaps partly based on French sonder “to probe, plumb.”

mountweazel

noun. a decoy entry in a reference work, such as a dictionary or encyclopedia, secretly planted among the genuine entries to catch other publishers in the act of copying content.

📝 Yes, we’ve got some. No, we’re not going to tell you what they are. 

paraprosdokian

noun. a sentence or expression in which the second part provides an unexpected resolution or contrast to the first part, as in I’d like to see you again, but I’ve lost my glasses .

📝 Other classic examples include If I could just say a few words… I’d be a better public speaker and Take my wife—please .

noun. an ironic rhetorical device, in which one feigns indifference, or makes a pretense of refusing something one desires.

Example: Clarence stating that he couldn’t possibly accept such a generous gift is an example of accismus, for he has repeatedly shown the audience his weakness for luxury.

The English language is famously spongey, absorbing terms from wherever it can. Here are some of the notable terms from our most recent update that English has borrowed directly from other languages. 

jolabokaflod

noun. an Icelandic tradition in which books are given as Christmas presents and opened on December 24, after which the evening is spent reading the books: from a practice begun in 1944, when paper goods were among the most available items in postwar Iceland.

📝 The name of this charming tradition, pronounced [ yoh-l uh – boh -k uh -flawd ], comes from the  Icelandic word Jólabókaflóðið that literally translates to “(the) Christmas book flood.” (The first part of the word, J ó l , is equivalent to the word Yule .)

noun. Japanese. a system of maintaining one’s household budget based on a simple financial philosophy of spending and saving that is both mindful and purposeful.

📝 Kakeibo comes from a Japanese term that literally translates to “household account book.” It was coined by Japan’s first woman journalist, Motoko Hani (1873–1957), who published the plan in a magazine in 1904. 

noun. Korean traditional dress, usually consisting of loose, tied garments such as wrapped shirts and robes, long full skirts, and trousers gathered at the ankles.

climate criminal

noun. a person, business, country, or other entity whose actions or activities are considered particularly destructive to the environment.

eco-hazardous

adjective. bad or dangerous for the environment.

📝 The opposite of eco-friendly . 

climate refugee

noun. a person who has had to flee their home due to the negative effects of climate change.

atmospheric river

noun. Meteorology. a long, narrow corridor in the atmosphere that transports massive amounts of concentrated water vapor from the tropics: often responsible for extratropical cyclones and other extreme weather events, but also for commonly weaker systems of rain that replenish water supplies. Abbreviation: AR.

Useful “Un-” Words

adjective. (especially of an aircraft, ship, or spacecraft) without the physical presence of a person or people in control.

📝 Useful as un-gendered alternative to unmanned . The opposite, crewed , is also a word. 

verb (used with object). to remove (something seen) from one’s memory or conscious awareness; to forget or ignore images or the like.

📝 Commonly used in the negative, as in That’s something you can’t unsee . 

verb. to delete (a digital message such as an email or text) from the devices of the sender and receiver.

unfalsifiable

adjective. not able to be proven false, and therefore not scientific.

noun. the centering of present-day attitudes, values, and concepts in the interpretation of historical events.

work to rule

noun. the act of working only according to the strictest interpretation of written requirements and regulations, as a job action or protest.

chain migration

noun. a form of family immigration where one person is granted legal residency or citizenship to a country, and then petitions to bring their immediate or extended family into the country.

gastrodiplomacy

noun. the strategic promotion of a nation’s cuisine to build diplomatic connections and favorable public relations for that nation, such as by funding grants to open restaurants, create food-oriented workshops, publish cookbooks, etc.

verb. British. to wipe mucus from (the nose), especially with the finger or thumb.

📝 It’s not pretty, but it sure is an efficient way to refer to this action.

Review our other recent additions and updates:

Winter 2023 update, fall 2022 update, spring 2022 update, summer 2021 update.

Commonly Confused

Trending Words

[ duhm -b uh l-dawr ]

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How is a mass shooting defined in the U.S.?

There is no exact  definition of what a mass shooting is , but the Congressional Research Service defines it as multiple, firearm, homicide incidents, involving 4 or more victims at one or more locations close to one another. 

The FBI has a similar definition. Most mass shooting statistics do not include ones undertaken by foreign terrorists. 

The term "mass killings" has a similar definition.

Akron shooting: At least 1 dead, 26 wounded at Kelly and 8th avenues incident

How many mass shootings have there been in 2024?

According to  the Gun Violence Archive , there have been more than 180 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, as defined by a minimum of four victims either shot or killed, not including the shooter. That's a lower level year-to-date than some recent years.

Why is there sometimes confusion of what is and isn't a mass shooting?

In 2021, a  USA Today opinion piece wrote that the confusion in reporting on mass shootings  could stem from the inconsistency of the definition. 

For example,  Gun Violence Archive  began tracking mass shootings differently than the FBI and Congressional Research Service. GVA started classifying a mass shooting as a shooting with four or more victims, but not necessarily killed. 

This can sometimes lead to conflicting reports on the number of mass shootings.  

Contributing: USA TODAY

What is an addict? Hunter Biden is fighting what that means as gun trial looms

• Biden contends the definition was 'addict' wasn't explained to him when he bought the gun in 2018 and he had just completed a stint in rehab.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers are sparring with prosecutors in his federal gun case over the definition of drug "addict," as they prepare for trial to begin June 3 .

The president’s son is charged with lying on a federal form and to a gun dealer about whether he was addicted to drugs when he bought a pistol in 2018. He has acknowledged his years-long substance use in a book and interviews .

But in court filings this week, Biden’s lawyers suggested he might deny being an "addict" at the time of the purchase because he had just completed a stint in rehabilitation.

“The terms ‘user or ‘addict’ are not defined on the form and were not explained to him,” defense lawyer Abbe Lowell wrote in a filing Thursday. “Someone, like Mr. Biden who had just completed an 11-day rehabilitation program and lived with a sober companion after that, could surely believe he was not a present tense user or addict.”

Prosecutors contend Biden was an addict when buying, possessing gun

Prosecutors disagreed.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Justice Department special counsel David Weiss’s team argued in a filing Monday that Biden lied on a federal form for a background check “by falsely stating he was not an unlawful user of a controlled substance or an addict.”

The indictment  charges Biden with knowingly deceiving a firearms dealer by buying a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver on Oct. 12, 2018 and possessing it until Oct. 23, 2018. He is charged with falsely filling out a federal form denying he was an unlawful user to any narcotics. And he is charged with knowingly possessing the revolver despite the restrictions against substance users owning firearms.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, although Biden is likely to get a shorter sentence if convicted.

Trial on gun charges follows collapse of plea agreement

Weiss secured the indictment after a plea agreement fell apart in July that would have potentially kept Biden out of a jail. Judge Maryellen Noreika refused to accept the deal because of disputes between prosecutors and defense lawyers over whether it protected Biden from potential future charges. Congressional Republicans blasted the plea agreement as too lenient.

The plea bargain would have allowed Biden to enter a pretrial program for a gun charge that could have been dismissed if he complied.

The agreement would also have allowed him to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018. Instead, he faces a trial Sept. 5 on six federal tax charges in California.

Biden has lost appeals to dismiss both cases so prosecutors and defense lawyers continue to jockey over what evidence will be allowed at trial on gun charges.

Noreika set a pretrial conference for noon Friday.

Definition of 'addict' could be key at trial

The dispute over the definition of an addict could be a key part of the trial.

The form Biden filled out to buy the gun asked: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Biden put an X in the “no” box.

In outlining their case, prosecutors offered quotes from Biden’s book, “Beautiful Things,” where he describes “nearly four years of active addiction” and “a half dozen rehab attempts.”

“I was a crack addict and that was that,” Biden wrote in his book. “I was doing nothing but drinking and drugging.”

Prosecutors intend to show videos and pictures from Biden’s laptop of him smoking crack or of crack or drug paraphernalia straddling the key period around the gun purchase in October 2018. In court filings, two pictures from April 27 and 28, 2018, show white material in plastic bags and a frame from a video shows Biden holding something Dec. 22, 2018.

Six videos and pictures from Biden’s laptop of him smoking crack or of crack or drug paraphernalia were submitted as exhibits. In court filings, two pictures from April 27 and 28, 2018, show white material in plastic bags and a frame from a video shows Biden holding something Dec. 22, 2018.

Prosecutors argued the judge should instruct jurors about the definition of the terms “unlawful user of a controlled substance” and “drug addict.” Prosecutors suggested using a definition from Treasury Department regulations upheld by the 8 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The term ‘drug addict’ means any individual who habitually uses any controlled substance so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare, or who is so far addicted to the use of a controlled substance as to have lost the power of self-control with reference to his addiction,” the regulation states.

But Biden’s lawyers argued against the Treasury definition because he interpreted the question on the form as asking if he were an addict at the time he bought the gun.

A 3 rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in a gun possession case required a defendant “to have engaged in regular use” of narcotics that was “contemporaneous with possession of the firearm.” The appeals court overturned a conviction in the case where a defendant had used marijuana six hours before he was found in possession of a gun.

“There is no more reason to prohibit gun possession by people who are not intoxicated, simply because they may get intoxicated when they are not physically possessing a gun,” Lowell wrote. “A gun owner who leaves their guns behind when they head to the bar for a drink or locks their gun in a lockbox or safe while using marijuana (or taking a legally prescribed Oxycontin) is being responsible and should not be treated like a felon.”