Lesson Six
Organizing Information; Writing a Progress Report
Dr. Nancy Hoagland

Lecture Notes

Introduction

In Lesson Four, you will consider three new topics as they relate to the class project:

• patterns of organization used in technical report writing
• the purpose and structure of a progress report
• the use of UMUC online databases.

The chapters on patterns of organization should help you think about how you will organize various sections of your analytical report once you have completed the class project. The information on writing a progress report is intended to prepare you for Assignment 3: Progress Report, which is due in two weeks on December 19 . The final section should help you use the UMUC online databases to do secondary research for your class project.

REMINDER: Assignment 2: Planning Proposal for the Class Project is due this week. See the Syllabus, Course Projects for details.

Chapter 8 Organizing Your Information

Markel presents eight basic patterns of organizing information in a technical report: chronological, spatial, general to specific, more important to less importance, comparison and contrast, classification or partition, problem-methods-solution, and cause and effect. Here are some important points about each type.

Chronological - Used to describe events in the order of occurrence. Used for accident reports, background information, and instructions.

Spatial - Used to describe objects and physical sites according to physical location or arrangement. Used to describe the scene of an accident report, or the physical site of a proposed building. Calls for the use of graphics.

General to specific - Use to give a general understanding of a subject before providing specific details. An example is an executive summary of the important points of a report, which is placed before the body of the report.

More important to less important - Used to give the most important information or the bottom line first before giving details. An example is an introduction to the body of a report that states the conclusion and main recommendations up front before presenting details later on in the body.

Comparison and contrast - Used to describe and evaluates two or more options, as in a feasibility report that is concerned with choosing the best option among those available. You must be careful to establish criteria for comparison, evaluate each item according to the established criteria, and organize the results by the whole-by-whole pattern or the part-by-part pattern.

Classification or partition - Classification puts things into categories such as classifying students as full time and part time. This pattern is often used in a technical report to organize and report responses to a survey or to identify the kinds of clients who use a service. Partition breaks a whole into its parts. This pattern is often used to list the features of a product or the parts of a mechanism.

Problem-methods-solution - Markel points out that this pattern reflects the logic used in most project reports. In your proposal, you identified the problem you wanted to solve, described the methods you planned to used, and identified the benefits and results you hope to achieve. In the analytical report, you will introduce and describe the problem upon which your project is based, described the methods you use to solve the problem, report on the results of your research, draw conclusions based on the research, and make recommendations to achieve a solution of the problem.

Cause and effect - Used to analyze the causes of an event or analyze the effects of an event. For this type of pattern, you must carefully present the reasoning behind your argument and must avoid overstating your case or committing errors in logic.

Another excellent source of information is the Engineering Communication Centre at the University of Toronto, which has a Web page devoted to the use of Rhetorical Patterns in Technical Writing.

Chapter 18 Writing Informal Reports, "Writing Progress and Status Reports"

Markel defines a report as a "statement--oral or written--that helps listeners or readers understand, analyze, or take action on some situation, idea, or action" (463). He classifies reports as formal and informal. An informal report may take the form of "a memo, routine form, e-mail, or letter" (463). Two of the common kinds of informal reports are progress reports and status reports. A progress report provides information about an ongoing project and a status report provides a snapshot in time of the state of a department or organization.

A progress report is an undated version of the original proposal that communicates the current status of a project that has been started but not yet completed. According to Markel, the typical progress report contains the following sections: an introduction; work already accomplished; future work and problems of the project; and a conclusion, which evaluates the progress of the project.

The form of the progress report will depend on the audience for your report. If the audience is an internal one, the most common form is the memo or sometimes e-mail or a completed form used by your organization. If the audience is an external one, the preferred form is a letter. You can address your progress report to me in the form of a memo, or you can address your progress report to an audience who will receive your analytical report.

If you look at the Assignment Sheet for Assignment 3: Progress Report, you will see that the structure outlined in the Assignment Sheet (and the Evaluation Sheet for Assignment 3: Progress Report) specifies that your progress report of your class project contain the following sections:

• Introduction (including audience, scope, and purpose of the report)
• Work Completed
• Work in Progress
• Work Remaining
• Appraisal.

I suggest that you use this model for completing Assignment 3. This assignment is due on December 19 .

UMUC Online Databases

Finally in this lesson, you learn how to use the electronic resources of the UMUC Library for research for your class project. UMUC provides access to both electronic databases with access to the full text of articles and to e-journals which exist only in electronic format.

To get started, please to the UMUC Library Web site for a Finding Articles: Using Library Databases. This page includes the following topics:

Overview: What's in a library database? Where should I start? How do I search a library database? How can I improve my search?

How do I search many databases at once? How do I evaluate and cite what I find? How can I locate a print journal in a library? Where can I get more help?

At this point, I would like to tell you about two other very helpful UMUC Library Resources that will be useful in completing the class project and making a good grade on your analytical report.

See Search by Subject for an excellent entry point to the UMUC electronic databases classified by subject area. I think this could be easier to use than the guide described above. These databases should help you find the latest and most reliable information on your topic.

See the UMUC Library Lessonl entitled Citation Explained Tutorial for an excellent lesson on knowing when and how to cite the use of research sources using APA style. NOTE: You may use either APA or MLA style for writing assignments in this course.

REMINDER: Assignment 3: Progress Report is due on December 19 . For more information, see the Assignment Sheet for Assignment 3: Progress Report and the Evaluation Sheet for Assignment 3: Progress Report.

For additional information on conducting a research project, see Module 2: Planning and Executing a Project.

 

Material for this course was originally written and developed by Michelle Didier, Edward Harris, James Gillin, Pat Kirby, Marj Crane,Danielle Bujosa, Andrew Joyce, Ed Brandmark, Traicy Garey, and Sharon Biederman.

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