Lessons from Drafts

1. Lessons from Drafts

2. Frame the quotations used in your report. • Original: • “But we have another, equally great responsibility to police ourselves, our students, and other scholars to maintain the trust and honesty upon which sharing work and knowledge depends.” • Use of quotation: • A great point that the author brings up in her article is that “we have . . . [a] responsibility to police ourselves, our students, and other scholars to maintain the trust and honesty upon which sharing work and knowledge depends” (Lanegran 2004).

3. Many of you have significant work to do to make this a professional, useful report, but Final Reports are due by 4:00 p.m., Mon., 4/23. You will get the drafts back by Wed., 4/18. Most important lesson: you can do it!

4. Lessons from drafts: title page Please use this format for title page: Title of report Prepared for: (name) Prepared by: (name) Your affiliation Date Title page is different from cover page.

5. Summary • Give purpose of project and purpose of report – why and for whom??? • Minimize description of methodology. • Include major findings for ALL failures, problems, and preventative measures investigated. • Be as specific as possible. • Justify recommendation (if provided) in terms of specific problem (s) solved.

6. Introduction • Make authorization clear – under whose authority did you conduct the investigation? • If description of methodology is more than about ½ page, consider creating a major section called Methodology and placing it after the Intro. • Subheadings do help. • Make the Overview of Report subsection meaningful. But it can be short.

7. Description and analysis sections • Be sure to fully explain the failures and preventative measures you investigated BEFORE analyzing or evaluating them. • Clearly separate description of failures from your analysis of how the technical and other failures interacted. • Separate description of preventative measures from evaluation of them based on some criteria connected with original problems. Use subheadings or major headings to make the distinction.

8. Customize your headings. • Do not use a major heading called Analysis. That heading is too generic. Analysis of what? • Even Analysis of Findings is too generic for a major heading. • Consider using subheadings in these larger major sections. Be kind to the reader!

9. Introduce all major sections: tell the reader what to expect. Major heading Evaluation of Preventative Measures The technical staff evaluated the following measures on the basis of two criteria: 1) how well they address particular problems with management of such disasters and 2) compatibility with existing infrastructure. • Enhanced training for contractors • New legislation requiring stricter stairwell codes for public buildings • Public education in local evacuation plans This section describes these measures, defines the evaluation criteria, evaluates the measures for local application, and suggests a method for prioritizing them. Enhanced Training for Contractors Blah blah blah Sub- heading

10. Balance and Visualization • Treat your preventative measures or your compared disasters with equal care. Don’t spend 1 page describing one measure or disaster and ¼ page describing another. • If you provide pictures for at least one measure or disaster, provide pictures for all measures. • Pictures really help us visualize and therefore understand what you are describing and evaluating.

11. Conclusions • Start on new page! • Summary of findings and evaluation • Findings for analysis of failure (s) • Findings on preventative measures (and their evaluation, if applicable). • Formatted in point or bullet form, preferably • But remember to introduce the list with text! • Not a recommendation • No new information

12. Recommendations • Not a required section. • Use active voice: • RCQ Engineering Consulting recommends that Senator Hutchinson’s office work with appropriate federal agencies to allocate funds for a public education campaign targeting . . .” • May include implementation information, even if not included previously. • Funding agencies? • Next steps?

13. Graphics • Check labeling and titling requirements (see Graphics slides) • Discuss each one in the text • Be sure you have at least one original graphic. • Cite the source of every “borrowed” graphic underneath the title.

14. Language • Your work is finished – describe what you did in past tense. • Describe your conclusions in present tense. • Describe what your report presents in present tense.

15. Support your arguments with proofs and examples every step of the way! • Read Reference Guide, pp. 28-39. • Avoid making fallacies in your argument, especially these: • Hasty generalization • Circular reasoning • Doubtful cause • Irrelevant proof • False analogy

16. Revising your Report Draft:good adviceSee chapter 6 in Introduction to Engineering Communication.

17. Revising . . Editing . . Proofing • The three stages of rewriting. • Revising: reorganizing, moving text around, reworking paragraphs and sections • Editing: making sentence-level corrections • Proofing: making final corrections for word-choice, punctuation, spacing, format consistency

18. Revising: Start with the big picture (content and organization) • Are my subsections balanced in length? • especially in Analysis and Evaluation sections. • Is Summary complete? • Do section headings make sense for my report? • You might combine technical and additional failures into one section. • You may not have any “Further Investigation” section. In any case, that does not refer to your work! • Use print preview to check paragraph lengths.

19. Editing Strategies • Decide whether you are more successful and comfortable editing online or in hard copy. • Get someone else to read particularly troublesome sections. Focus their attention. • Read out loud. • Follow the style sheet you created! • Use grammar checkers for what they can do. • Use the spell checker but also proofread.

20. Grammar Checkers: do they work? • Theiris a tavern in the town. • Word 6: Consider there or theirs instead of their • Word 98: there • Word 2000:there • Word 2003: Order of words (their is); consider revising. • Word XP: (changed to “there” without even being asked)

21. Another Example • And they’re my true love sits him down. • Word 6: Consider sets instead of sits Don’t start sentence with and. Consider replacing they’re with they are. • Word 98: No suggestions • Word 2000: No suggestions • Word 2003: No suggestions • Word XP: No suggestions

22. Proof Reading with Power • Allow time after editing. • Check whatever comes in pairs (quotation marks, etc.). • Remember that mistakes tend to cluster. • Turn document upside down to check spacing. • Consider reading backwards.

23. Most Important Tip • Allow time in between revising, editing, and proofreading. Take breaks!