iWrite - Introduction Main Content iWrite Search Search For Intro Help Site map Navigation ENGINEERING Getting Started Writing Clearly Lab Book Proposal You are here: Reports Thesis Other Resources SCIENCE ABOUT Sub-navigation Design Reports Writing Engineering Design Reports Design Report Overview Title Page Summary Table of Contents You are here:Introduction Design Operating Principles Design Performance Conclusions and Recommendations Acknowledgements References Appendices Help with Writing Design Reports in Engineering Writing Clearly Field Trip (Mining Eng) Lab Report (Civil Eng) Lab Report (Chemical Eng) Report Criteria (Civil Eng) Group Project Report In this section: Introduction Examples You are here: Home ENGINEERING Reports Design Reports Design Report Overview Introduction Introduction Bookmark Browser Bookmark Mister Wong Webnews Yigg del.icio.us Linkarena Oneview Take a look under these plastic chairs and notice the diagonal bracing - do this right and you use less plastic and everyone can make a dollar. Every time I look at it I remember drawing the lines on the paper. H.L.S. 1998 The introduction provides the reader with a basic understanding of the task (i.e. the client's brief) and the nature of the design problem that was investigated. As you (and your design team) would have been working on the problem for many weeks, you would be very familiar with the problem. However, the reader will not have this knowledge or this experience and so the introduction serves to give the reader some context and background, before you present the detailed design solution and its performance (How well it works/Why it should work). Introductions are usually 1 to 2 pages long and may include references and visuals. Design report introductions usually contain the following stages: Report Purpose (summarise the brief/task) Background (why an important/interesting task/problem) Problem statement (include sub-problems and inherent key challenges) Questions (state key questions that the design team explored - questions arising from the problem statement) Report outline (briefly explain how the report is organised) The order of the above stages can be varied as long as the flow of ideas is logical (i.e. general to specific). For example, some writers put stage 2 first, plus stage 5 may be optional in some assignments. While strongly recommended for clarity, stages 2 (Background) and 4(Questions) are often missing from students' reports and stage 3 (Problem statement) often does not identify key challenges. Examples Funded by: TIES, OLT Developed by: LATTE - Fac. Engineering, the Learning Centre & The University of New South Wales Contact the University | Disclaimer | Privacy | Accessibility | Feedback Unless otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License © 2014 The University of Sydney. Powered by Magnolia - Open-Source Java Content Management
