Classification Of The Written Reports Used In Experimental Engineering

Laboratory instructors strive continuously to improve the writing of undergraduate lab reports, and success requires a communal effort by several instructors and many students. To allow coordinated instruction, the faculty must define the learning objectives and agree on a common instructional strategy. Students can then be guided in a consistent fashion toward proficient technical writing. This guidance should include a manual incorporating a uniform writing standard that represents industrial and academic practice. Instruction can then refer to a single consensus standard. Consistent grading and feedback based on this standard can then reinforce the instruction. However, the instruction cannot be planned, nor the writing standard be developed without a practical objective. The practical objective is the kind of technical writing and production quality that fits the needs of the curriculum and professional practice and that can be expected from undergraduates. The objective is defined in terms of representative report types and the corresponding contents, formats, and production qualities. Without such a common and well defined objective, successive instructors will waste time and frustrate the students by presenting and requiring report types and production qualities that differ only marginally from the consensus standards while generating continual confusion.