Instructor's Page:
​Class Period on Writing Reports
​in Engineering and Science

Class Period

In a laboratory course or design course, you might want to dedicate a class period to writing reports. For an effective class period on this subject, consider the following:

1. Before the class period, have students view preparation films of Writing Engineering Reports. Depending on how much depth you want to achieve, consider the following three options:
   1. ​Organization of Reports (Films 1-2, 12 minutes)
   2. Style (Organization, Illustration, and Language) of Reports (Films 1-6, 25 minutes)
   3. Style and Analysis of Reports (Films 1-10, 45 minutes)
2. In the class period, run a Kahoot that corresponds to the preparation assignment assigned to the students:
   1. Organization of Reports
   2. Style of Reports 
   3. Writing Reports 
3. After class, download the Kahoot report to see how your students fared. As a tip, have students sign in with first name and last initial so that you can find students in your gradebook.

Note that to run a Kahoot, you will need an account. Kahoot offers a free version, but this version allows you to have only 10 students play at one time. However, you can have more students play by grouping them into teams with a shared device. Another possibility is to subscribe to an account. Such accounts are relatively inexpensive.

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Background on Class Period

Our class period on writing reports uses the self-study guide on writing reports to teach students the expectations for writing reports in engineering and science. This guide targets students in technical courses such as engineering design or a science laboratory. For such courses, instructors often have only one class period to devote to the writing of reports. To be efficient, our class period focuses on the major differences between scientific writing (which students have not yet studied) and general writing (which students have studied in English courses). Note that this guide interchangeably uses the terms scientific writing, engineering writing, and technical writing. Although the guide was developed at Penn State and Virginia Tech, students and faculty from all institutions are welcome to use and assign this content.

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Objectives of Class Period

1. Teach students the importance of analyzing audience, purpose, and occasion before writing a report (Films 7, 8, 9)
2. Dispel common misconceptions that students hold about the structure, language, and illustrations of technical reports (Films 1-6)
3. Help students (or student teams) with the process of writing their next engineering or scientific report in an effective way (Film 10)

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References

1. Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 4th ed. (New York: Springer Verlag, 2018).
2. Bernstein, Theodore, The Careful Writer (New York: Free Press, 1995).​​
3. William A. Sabin, The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting, 11th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010).

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Sponsors
     Leonhard Center, College of Engineering, Penn State
​     National Science Foundation, NSF EAGER Award  1752096

​Content Editor
     Michael Alley, Teaching Professor, College of Engineering, Penn State

Film Editors
     Richelle Weiger, College of Engineering, Penn State
     Casey Fenton, College of Engineering, Penn State
​     Elaine Whitmer, College of Engineering, Penn State