Scientific Report Writing Course

When you have completed this course you will be able to define the key concepts associated with Scientific Report Writing and you will be able to: Identify the main obstacles to effective communication within Scientific Report Writing and how to avoid these; Understand the nature of a Scientific Report, practice your writing skills and receive feedback on these; Learn to write from the perspective of the writer and the reader.

Upon completion of this course, the participants should:

• Identify the intended audience for the communication
• Formulate appropriate report structures in accordance with best practice and criteria
• Understand and implement the correct use of data and statistics as justification of discussion and /or premises
• Understand and effectively use correct scientific method in writing of a report
• Avoid all the pitfalls of ineffective empirical justification for findings (e.g. bias, replication and syllogism)
• Construct the most effective premises for the main assertion
• Construct effective executive summaries
• Conclude and recommend effectively
• Write succinct, well – structured introductions
• Develop foci, titles and abstracts for scientific reports
• Apply the best formats and practices for a professional presentation
• Check reliability and credibility of data used by making an evaluative judgment after comparing ideas presented in a text with external criteria from other written or oral sources and own experience and knowledge
• Use textual features and conventions specific to business texts for effective writing.
• Relating the purpose, content, form, frequency and recipients of a range of scientific reports to the information needs of a selected business
• Identifying information sources and organisational procedures for obtaining and distributing information relevant to a selected business function.
• Compiling scientific reports related to a selected business function, ensuring content and format are appropriate to information requirements and that reporting deadlines are met
• Liaising with relevant parties and verifying that reported information is in accordance with requirements and purpose of the report.
• Present a written text for a particular function in a business environment

Scientific reports require a thorough understanding of communication skills:

• Detailing barriers to good communication
• understanding the fundamentals of good sentence and paragraph construction
• Providing appropriate reporting formats

Understand processes and techniques for Scientific Report Writing

• Stages of report production
• Use techniques to build an effective process that results in professional Reports
• Recognise the benefits of having an effective Report Writing process in the Organization

The value of formatting scientific reports appropriately:

• Table of contents
• Structuring the report
• Reference materials that form part of the knowledge bank of the organization
• Documentary evidence of investigation or validation of products and processes

Scientific Report Writing should have:

• A sound methodology
• Reliable Data collection and Analysis
• A sound understanding of quantitative and qualitative research
• Analysis and weighting of data

Apply total quality principles to writing Reports

• Quality is conformance to requirements
• Common errors to avoid – Summarising data in tables
• Using a checklist so as to – ‘do it right first time’

Information Mapping

• Information mapping is designed to allow the information to be presented in its most useful format
• Analysis - Key areas – purpose, audience needs, information types
• Organization - To create an overall structure based on results of the analysis
• Presentation - To format the information to make it accessible to the intended audience; this involves some translation

There are five levels of report writing processes

• Level 4: Managed and sustainable
  A robust process is in place and managed
• Level 3: Organized and repeatable
  A sound process is in place and is being refined – training is on-going
• Level 2: Rudimentary
  A process is taking place but not always enforced
• Level 1: Ad hoc
  Little or no coordination of report writing
• Level 0: Oblivious
  Reports are written by whoever has time

Evaluation reports

• Translation leads to:
• Increased knowledge
• Increased understanding
• Increased usefulness

• Communication principles
• Scientific report Writing
• Writing Style- Concise Sentences
• Writing good paragraphs
• Report Formatting
• Scientific Report Writing Process
• Data collection and analysis
• Quantitative or Qualitative research methods
• Analyse and weight data
• Findings and recommendations
• Importance of graphics
• Presentation of research conclusions
• Determining the report format
• Checklist for editing reports
• Evaluation of Reports