Online Technical Writing:
Planning Reports—Invention



Analyzing Your Report's Audience and Purpose

Audience Analysis and the Invention Stage

Exercises

Model: Example Report Topic Proposal (memo)

This section shows you an important technique for the early stages of your report-writing project: the invention stage, brainstorming what you can say about a reoport topic you have chosen.

Analyzing your report's audience and purpose

Early in your planning for a technical report, you must identify the specific audience that will read your report and the purpose your report will serve. To analyze the report audience, you must consider these questions carefully: If you are not familiar with analyzing report audiences and purposes, return to the section where this is covered. Understanding the audience and purpose of your report becomes very important when you narrow your report subject.

Step 3. Briefly describe your audience, its background, capabilities, and interest in your report. (See the step-by-step method of analyzing audiences.)

Invention stage

Once you've picked a subject for your report, the next step is to list the topics related to it. During this stage, the "invention" or "brainstorming" stage, use the following suggestions to explore your report idea:
GENERATING TOPICS FOR REPORT OUTLINES: A Checklist of Invention Questions Set up a report worksheet to scribble answers to any of the following questions that apply to your report project.
Problems or needs Does your report concern itself with a problem or a need? Solutions and answers Should your report discuss potential solutions or answers to the problems or questions presented in the report? Historical events and natural Does your report concern itself with some historical event phenomena or natural (or mechanical) phenomenon? Causes and effects Should your report discuss the causes, effects, or both related to the phenomenon, historical event, or problem you are discussing? Descriptions Which aspects of your report subject require description? Processes Does your report subject involve processes, procedures, routines, or repetitive events that must be discussed in steps? Classes Can any topic within your report be divided into classes or types? Comparisons to similar or Can similar things in your report be or compared to each other? familiar things Can you compare something complex in your report to something familiar or common? Illustrative examples Will a discussion of examples related to your report subject be effective? Theoretical background Are there unfamiliar terms in your report? Can they be presented (definitions) in a theoretical or background section? If so, list the terms. Applications Can you discuss the applications related to your report subject? Advantages and benefits Should you discuss the advantages or benefits related to your technical report subject? Disadvantages and limitations Are certain disadvantages, problems, limitations, or drawbacks associated with your report subject? Warnings, cautions, and guidelines Does your report need cautionary or guideline statements? Economics or financial considerations Should you discuss cost factors, purchase expenses, maintenance and operation costs, production or output costs, or savings? Importance of the report subject Should you discuss the importance of your subject, why people should concerned about it or interested in it? Historical background and important Is there some important historical background--events and names names--that should be discussed in your report? Future developments Should your report speculate about future developments or possi- bilities related to the report subject? Social, political, legal, or ethical Does your report subject raise certain social or ethical questions, implications as for example, certain medical technologies do? Reasons for or against In your report, should you try to convince readers to take certain actions or think a certain way concerning your report subject? Conclusions Should your report draw certain conclusions about what it discusses? Recommendations Should your report make certain recommendations to its readers? Alternatives or choices Should your report discuss several alternatives or choices related to report subject matter? Criteria Will your report use certain criteria to draw its conclusions or to make its recommendations? Tests and methods used Should you have a section on the tests you perform, the methods or theories you use, or the procedures and equipment you use? Statistical presentations and analyses Should you include sections that summarize and analyze the data you collect in your project? Legal and administrative demands Should your report discuss which agencies to apply to, which forms to fill out, or which steps to take in order to accomplish the purpose of your report? Business or professional contexts Should you describe the specific business or professional situation, for example, a supervisor's orders, that generates the need for your report? (This applies if you invent a report-writing situation also.)

Figure 2. Invention checklist for reports
Here is an excerpt of a brainstorming session in which these questions were used:

                    Comprehensive topic list for a report on wind-powered electrical systems

how does a wind-powered electrical system (WPES) work? what are the steps in its operation?

savings: discuss the amount of money that can be saved using WPES

relationship between average windspeeds and electrical output: what happens when there's no wind,
only very light breezes?  too much wind?

basic parts: rotor, generator, tail assembly, tower

different manufacturers of WPES: how to get a good system and avoid being ripped off

dimensions, materials, construction of common models of WPES; sensitivity to low wind speeds

historical background on WPES: the time when more WPES were being used, just before rural electrifi-
cation in the 1930s; who were the first developers? when has interest in WPES reappeared? why?

two general class of wind machines: lift and drag machines

lightning protection of WPES

aerodynamic principles as they apply to WPES

understanding weather patterns and seasonal and geographical factors affecting wind

principles of electricity: circuits, generators, types of current, meanings of terminology

Federal tax credits and research support in wind systems research and WPES purchase by consumers

Figure 3. Example of a topic list developed with the invention checklist

Step 4. Use any of the invention questions in Figure 2 that apply to your report project, and make a topic list like the one in Figure 3. (If you are not quite ready for this step, go directly to Step 6, and return to this step.)

Exercises

  1. Pick any report topic from the list in Figure 1 or pick a topic of your own, decide on an audience and purpose for a report on that topic, and then use the Checklist of Invention Questions (Figure 2) for brainstorming the topic (jot your ideas on scratch paper).


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