This chapter covers some basic guidelines for presenting technical data. Tables, schematic drawings, photographs, and graphs quickly convey technical information and experimental results. A well-prepared table or figure immediately describes the significance of the work and provides a useful tool for the reader. Preparing tables and figures should be treated with the same care as writing a resumé. Technical reports are often the basis of patents, and the use of the standard international system of units (SI) is required for foreign and domestic patent applications. Appendix IV gives the international system of prefixes and units. Use of SI units is recommended, but the author should report in units and symbols most appropriate for the subject and the audience. Common uses of the Greek alphabet are provided in Appendix V. Results can also be reported using multiple units. This chapter also provides guidance for preparing graphs with multiple scales in different units.

Tables

Tables are helpful for presenting and archiving experimental data. Unlike graphs, tables preserve exact numbers for future analysis. Tables should be sequentially numbered (often with Roman numerals) in the order of presentation in the text. Alphanumeric numbering is used in long reports that are broken into sections. Each table should have a simple title at the top. Tables should be incorporated into the body of the text as soon as convenient after they are referred to (they should not be placed in the middle of a paragraph unless the paragraph breaks across pages), or they can be grouped at the end of the report.

At some point in the career of every scientist and engineer, they will be asked to present their findings to an audience of peers or a group of investors. In both cases, the purpose of the presentation is to sell ideas to the audience. Effective presentations maintain the attention of the audience. This chapter provides some basic guidelines for preparing an effective oral presentation.

Assessing the Audience

In planning an oral presentation, it is important to consider the knowledge level of the audience. Usually there is a wide discrepancy between backgrounds of different people. A talk should begin by telling the audience something they already know and then gradually work up to new material. A speaker should not try to impress the audience with his or her knowledge, since that will turn off most listeners. It is better to give a general talk that 95 percent of the audience can understand than an in-depth talk that only one or two people can comprehend. The number of equations in the presentation should be limited. Most audiences cannot digest more than three equations. Trying to cover too much material in the allotted time is a common mistake. A presentation should be pared down to one main theme.

Organization

Presentations must be carefully planned and organized to finish in time so that the audience can ask questions. Using too little time is preferable to using too much time.

Technical papers are a principal means of communicating within the scientific community. They are gener- ally archival in nature and follow prescribed formats dependent on the journal or publisher. Laboratory instructors may require a format similar to a technical journal, and students will find this chapter useful in preparing their technical reports. Corporations and government agencies may have different requirements; these are not addressed here. This chapter describes various formats and describes how the general subsections – abstract, background, experimental procedures, results, discussion, summary, acknowledgments, and references – should be written.

Format

There are various formats that can be used for technical papers. The format should use headings and subheadings that divide the text into convenient portions. Formats are designed for optimum communication to the reader and can provide easily recognizable locations in the text to which the reader can return after interruption. Also, important results can be associated with specific headings, helping the reader find information of interest. Although no set format is best for all technical reports, all formats require concise but complete documentation.

A simple format for a technical paper or report contains the following: title, abstract, introduction, results, discussion, conclusions, acknowledgments, references, and appendices. The title page contains the title of the paper and the authors' names and affiliations. Any figures and tables should be incorporated into the body of the text as soon after they are referred to as is convenient, or they can be collected at the end of the report.

This brief guide was written for science and engineering students and professionals to help them communicate technical information clearly, accurately, and effectively. The focus is on the most common communication forms and the most common issues that arise in classroom and professional practice.

Freshman chemistry or physics will be the introduction to technical report writing for many college students. The format for writing these laboratory reports is most often specified by the instructor. This guide will be useful in developing a good technical writing style and for preparing tables and figures for those reports. Upper-level courses often use the same formatting as is required for submission to technical journals or for technical report writing, which is the focus of this book. Graduate students and professionals encounter many of the same problems in technical communication. Good communication skills are required in all forms of technical writing and presentation. This book is designed to help the reader develop effective communication skills and to be a reference on stylistic and grammar issues. Unlike most texts on writing style, this book also treats oral presentations, graphing, and analysis of data.

The authors' intention is to give the reader the basics of technical communication in the first chapter and then to treat in detail the various forms of technical communication. The structure of the book is as follows:

1. Chapter 1 provides a general discussion of technical communication.

2. Chapter 2 covers writing technical reports and archival papers.

3. Chapter 3 discusses writing letter reports, which are common in industry.

4. Chapter 4 gives general guidelines for oral presentations.

5. […]

This book has one purpose: to help you understand four of the most influential equations in all of science. If you need a testament to the power of Maxwell's Equations, look around you – radio, television, radar, wireless Internet access, and Bluetooth technology are a few examples of contemporary technology rooted in electromagnetic field theory. Little wonder that the readers of Physics World selected Maxwell's Equations as “the most important equations of all time.”

How is this book different from the dozens of other texts on electricity and magnetism? Most importantly, the focus is exclusively on Maxwell's Equations, which means you won't have to wade through hundreds of pages of related topics to get to the essential concepts. This leaves room for in-depth explanations of the most relevant features, such as the difference between charge-based and induced electric fields, the physical meaning of divergence and curl, and the usefulness of both the integral and differential forms of each equation.

You'll also find the presentation to be very different from that of other books. Each chapter begins with an “expanded view” of one of Maxwell's Equations, in which the meaning of each term is clearly called out. If you've already studied Maxwell's Equations and you're just looking for a quick review, these expanded views may be all you need. But if you're a bit unclear on any aspect of Maxwell's Equations, you'll find a detailed explanation of every symbol (including the mathematical operators) in the sections following each expanded view.

Maxwell's Equations as presented in Chapters 1–4 apply to electric and magnetic fields in matter as well as in free space. However, when you're dealing with fields inside matter, remember the following points:

• The enclosed charge in the integral form of Gauss's law for electric fields (and current density in the differential form) includes ALL charge – bound as well as free.

• The enclosed current in the integral form of the Ampere–Maxwell law (and volume current density in the differential form) includes ALL currents – bound and polarization as well as free.

Since the bound charge may be difficult to determine, in this Appendix you'll find versions of the differential and integral forms of Gauss's law for electric fields that depend only on the free charge. Likewise, you'll find versions of the differential and integral form of the Ampere–Maxwell law that depend only on the free current.

What about Gauss's law for magnetic fields and Faraday's law? Since those laws don't directly involve electric charge or current, there's no need to derive more “matter friendly” versions of them.

Classroom lecturing is a relatively easy task because there are usually several chances to get things right and perhaps more importantly because the audience is very much dependent on the lecturer. Non-academic lectures, especially business lectures and talks, tend to be bimodal. Some are filled with useless acronyms and facts, without any point or focus. Others have such a high threshold for success that even seasoned academic lecturers would find success elusive. In this chapter, we will take a closer look at some of the key issues and common mistakes that are made when presenting in business and professional settings.

THE BUSINESS PRESENTATION

Business presentations share many elements with a typical academic lecture, including the need for clarity, audience understanding, as well as maintaining control over the presentation. Business presentations, however, because of the dynamic and broad nature of the audience, require a more thorough background and have to be more to the point than a regular academic lecture. Furthermore, due to the fact that business presentations are often given to colleagues or bosses (versus lecturing to students who, even if they hate the lecture, must understand the contents in order to prepare for the exam), there are pressures present which would normally not exist in the academic world.

No matter how effective the lecturer or the lecture, nothing can replace the experience and knowledge gained when an audience member obtains first-hand knowledge through practical experiments and labs. This obviously applies to multi-lecture courses, but can even involve simple in-class experiments conducted during the lecture. No matter how and where these labs/experiments are conducted, they are a unique and essential tool in the teaching process. In this chapter we will take a closer look at how labs should be successfully organized, calibrated to the lecture, and evaluated.

THE POINT OF LABS AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE

The clarity and focus that has been repeated throughout this book for lecturers is equally important for labs. The point of labs is to take a somewhat complex concept or idea, simplify it in a way that can be touched and felt, and to allow the students to understand the basis for the idea through hands-on experience.

Occasionally, understanding comes from initial success. However, more often, true and deep understanding comes only after repeated failures. You can be told many times that an electronic device may act a certain way, and you can certainly learn a few things from setting up that circuit in the proper way. However, it is all the circuit forms that are non-functional and all the ways in which common mistakes could be made that will truly have an impact on what you will remember and what you understand.