How to prepare a scientific technical report

Rosemary Passos and Gildenir Carolino Santos
(Compilers)
Electronic publication registered in ISBN: 85-86091– (ongoing)

1. Concept of report

“It is the written exposition in which facts verified through research are described or the execution of services or experiences is reported. It is generally accompanied by demonstrative documents, such as tables, graphs, statistics and others.” (UFPR, 1996).

2. Objectives

Generally speaking, we can say that reports are written with the following objectives:

disclose the technical data obtained and analyzed;
register them permanently.

3. Types of reports

Reports can be of the following types:

technical-scientific;
travel;
internship;
visiting;
administrative;
and special purposes.

4. Technical-scientific report

It is the original document through which current information is disseminated, and it is also the permanent record of the information obtained. It is prepared mainly to describe experiences, investigations, processes, methods and analyses.

5. Reporting phase

Generally, the preparation of the report goes through the following phases:

initial plan: determination of the origin, preparation of the report and the program of its development;
collection and organization of material: During the execution of the work, the material necessary for developing the report is collected, organized and stored.
essay: A critical review of the report is recommended, considering the following aspects: writing (content and style), sequence of information, graphic and physical presentation.

6. Structure of the technical-scientific report

Technical-scientific reports consist of the following elements:

Cover

Fake title page

Back of false title page

Erratum

cover sheet

Summary

Subscriber lists

Summary

Text (introduction)

Annex or Appendix

References

Bibliography consulted

6.1.Cover

Must contain the following elements:

Name of the responsible organization, with subordination up to the level of authorship;
Qualification;
Subtitle if any;
Place;
Year of publication, in Arabic numerals.

6.2. False title page

It precedes the cover page. It should contain only the title of the report.

6.3. Back of the false title page

This sheet is used to create a standardized “Catalog card” (ask the Librarian in your area for help in creating it).

6.4. Errata

List of typographical or other errors, with the necessary corrections and indication of the pages and lines in which they appear. It is usually printed on loose or inserted paper, which is attached to the report after printing.

6.5. Title page

It is the main source of identification for the report and must contain the following elements:

name of the responsible organization, with subordination up to the level of authorship;
title;
subtitle, if any;
name of the person responsible for preparing the report;
local;
year of publication in Arabic numerals

6.6. Summary

Named Contents in English, Table of Trades in French, Content In Spanish, it is the list of chapters and sections in the work, in the order in which they appear. It should not be confused with:

Index: detailed list of subjects, personal names, geographical names and others, generally in alphabetical order;
Summary: concise presentation of the text, highlighting the aspects of greatest interest and importance;
Lists: is the enumeration of presentation of data and information (graphs, maps, tables) used in the work.

6.7 Lists of tables, illustrations, abbreviations, acronyms and symbols

Lists of tables and lists of illustrations are lists of tables and illustrations in the order in which they appear in the text.

Lists are presented in a similar way to the summary. When they are not very long, lists can appear sequentially on the same page.

6.8 Summary

Named Summary in French, Abstracts in English, Summary in Spanish, is the concise presentation of the text, highlighting the aspects of greatest importance and interest. It should not be confused with Summary, which is a list of chapters and sections. In the summary, the content is described by headings and subheadings, while in the summary, which is a summary, the content is presented in the form of reduced text.

6.9 Text

Part of the report in which the subject is presented and developed. Depending on its purpose, the report is structured differently. The text of technical-scientific reports contains the following fundamental sections:

introduction: part in which the subject is presented as a whole, without details.
development: most extensive part and aims to communicate the results obtained.
results and conclusions: consist of a synthetic recap of the results obtained, highlighting the scope and consequences of the study.
recommendations: contain the actions to be adopted, the modifications to be made, the additions or deletions of steps in the activities.

6.10 Annex (or Appendix)

This is supplementary material, such as laws, questionnaires, statistics, which is added to a report as clarification or documentation, without constituting an essential part of it. Annexes are numbered with Arabic numerals, followed by the title.

Eg: ANNEX 1 – PHOTOGRAPHS
…… ANNEX 2 – QUESTIONNAIRES

The pagination of the appendices must follow that of the text. They are located at the end of the work.

6.11 Bibliographical references

These are the list of bibliographic sources used by the author. All works cited in the text must appear in the bibliographic references.

The standardization of references is followed according to the NBR-6023/Aug.1989 from ABNT – Brazilian Association of Technical Standards. Some people use American standards APA – American Psychological Association, differing from each other in some aspects of structuring.

6.12. Graphical presentation

Physical and visual organization method of a work, taking into account, among other aspects, structure, formats, use of types and pagination.

6.13. Bold, italic or italic

They are used to:

words and phrases in a foreign language;
book and periodical titles;
expressions of reference such as see, vide;
letters or words that deserve emphasis or emphasis, when it is not possible to give this emphasis through the writing;
names of species in botany, zoology (in this case bold is not used);
chapter titles (in this case italics are not used).

6.14. Report formatting measures

Top margin:………… 2,5 cm
Bottom margin:………….. 2,5 cm
Right margin:…………… 2,5 cm
Left margin:…………3,5 cm
Line spacing:……..1,5 cm
Font………………… Times New Roman or other serif font (1)
Font size:…………12
Paper format:………….A4 (210 X 297 mm)

7. Conclusion

In this work we leave suggestions for procedures in the presentation of technical-scientific works, mainly the Report.

Among the existing published works in the area, the dissemination of this guide or manual is incorporated into the electronic world of the Internet, which allows access to consultation and even printing of copies, helping beginners and veteran researchers to improve the standardization of their reports, approaching the standard format required and applied in the area of Scientific Research Methodology. Otherwise, we find difficulty in the standardized presentation of documents extracted from the Internet that require bibliographic treatment in compliance with pre-established standards, such as those mentioned above. ABNT e WATER.

In order to make things easier, we have made websites available on the Internet that facilitate the organization of bibliographic references together with each type of document indicated in the research. (mainly electronics) and which are not indicated in printed manuals.

Finally, we intend, as far as possible, to make all sources of information available for the preparation of academic work, in electronic format via the Internet.

Sites for Citations and References of Electronic Documents:

Serif – letter that has serif. [sf – small stroke, or sometimes, simple thickening, that finishes, on one or both sides].

References

FRANCE, JL et al. Manual for standardization of technical-scientific publications. 3rd ed. rev. aum. Belo Horizonte: Ed. UFMG, 1996.

SANTOS, Gildenir C., SILVA, Arlete I. Pitarello da. Standard for bibliographic references: basic concepts: (NBR-6023/ABNT-1989). Campinas, SP: UNICAMP-FE, 1995.

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF PARANÁ. Central Library. Rules for submitting papers: theses, dissertations and academic papers. 5th ed. Curitiba: Ed. UFPR, 1996.

Bibliography consulted

MILK, PS The practice of reporting. 3rd ed. rev. Fortaleza : BNB : ETENE, 1990.