Technical Report Writing: Choosing Clear Words and Avoiding Jargon

hello good morning and welcome to online lectures on soft skills in course of our lectures on soft skills we are presently discussing technical reports which are actually a part of business activities in the present day world in the previous lectures we have talked about the

definition of the report the types of report and the various strategies that can help you to write the report while discussing the strategies we also talked about the various methods of data collection which can enable you to collect the data later to be followed by the organization

and evaluation of the material what once you have evaluated the material and you have organized giving your report a tentative shape in the form of its outline now is the time to write the report because we are talking about written reports and not the oral ones

so a written report as you all know has to be written and when you write the report you actually have to think of the style or the language when you talk about this style of the language which we may also call elements of style because the report has to be a written

so when we talk about elements of style our focus primarily will be on the language part now which language should be there while writing a report we have already talked about in various lectures that a technical document will have a different

sort of language which is free from the use of language in general ways but when we are talking about report language our particular focus is on the language that we should adopt while writing a report the question then is is the report writing or the language of report

different from other forms is the language being used in a report different from the language that you use ah in letters of course when you write letters or when you write memos since they are short reports the language used is a little bit different but when you

use a ah language for the report then we have to see take into consideration that it is not only the sentence because a report can continue ah to go for say thirty pages thirty five pages what so ever but while you are going to do that you do not require only sentences

you also require paragraphs you also require ah words but then the question is what sort of words so today we will have to focus more on the writing of the reports and while doing so we should see how we are going to divide are

the language of the report and what are the different strategies will apply while we are writing the report so the first is because you know whether it is a paragraph or it is a sentence every sentence is actually a combination of words so naturally your report also will

have combination of words but the question is if in a letter you are talking about a particular ah say subject or a particular issue but especially in technical reports since it is technical by nature the language has to be technical

now what is the basic difference between the language that is technical and the language that is general since the reader of your report as we have discussed in the previous lecture that your readers may comprise people who are having different backgrounds so when they

are going to read our reports we have to see are their background their knowledge because all of them are not as qualified as the writer of the report or not acquainted with the subject the way you are hence we also have to ah take into consideration the use of words

so our first ah target is to see what sort of words so first is the choice of words and within choice of words you know a words are either content words or they are functional words but in order to ensure the functionality and the specificity of a language in a report

we have to see the sort of words that we use since ah report a a technical report is technical in nature hence there will be so many terms which we may not use in our day to day lives hence will be using some words which are technical there are some words which are ah from a a

different a say a subject on a different issue so when we talk about the choice of words and phrases the first thing is let us take a mantra and the mantra is ah let us try to see how we can avoid the use of cliche now a word can be a cliche a word when when we

are talking about the report you may not only confine yourself only to words but you may also be using phrases and these words and phrases will make sentences and these sentences later will be developed into paragraphs now keeping into consideration your reader

because the reader ah has to read the report up since the main focus of the report is to take action now there are several people involved who have to take action the first is the person i mean the immediate ah boss or your immediate officer or your reporting officer who will

take action later on whether your report is going to solve or a crisis or a problem thats of a different thats a different story but then we have to ensure that the data we have the information we have that information has to be presented and presented in a written

manner so while presenting them in a written manner the way we will be using words because as we have been saying ah that words ah do not have specific meanings it is actually the speakers who has got a meaning the speaker

has got the meaning and depending upon the context the speaker chooses his words so let us see ah what sort of words first is the cliche ah then ah jargons we will we will define all of them then redundancy and then circumlocution now one question that might

be coming in your mind is what actually is a cliche ah but then before going to ah that let us also say that we also in our report we will also come across certain words which ah have to be used but then the audience or the reader they are not familiar with i mean

foreign words and phrases ah then sometimes ah because you at times may have a positive of time so you might be using ah abbreviations but imagine if you use abbreviations your reader also should know are the ah complete words of those abbreviations

so now the suggestion is you should try to restrict yourself more and more ah to creating a sort of wrapper or to creating a sort of familiarity now how this familiarity can ah be created that is through the use of words now suppose there are two people one is an

engineer another is a doctor so when they are communicating or when they are going to read each others report will they understand because the doctor will be using his own terminologies the engineer will be using his own terminologies and in an between ah there will be a sort

of impasse or the deadlock of ah the fourth of difficulty hence ah as a report writer since you are going to write the report as a report writer what you need to do is you need to see the level because you cannot understand the level

of all your readers hence there is a third way and the third ways try to make use of those words which are at least familiar now the question is when you talk about words ah let us see what nathaniel hawthorne says about words he says because as as people as

writers a we use words but then sometimes we use difficult words and we use difficult words in a way ah that may impose the understanding of the other person who is going to read them so let us let us ah look at what ah nathaniel hawthorne says words so innocent and powerless

as they are as standing in a dictionary how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them the meaning is crystal clear ah that words they may appear innocent of powerless meaning thereby the user has actually the power to

make a word powerful sometimes the user even even when he does not know because he is not aware of the background of his readers so he uses a word but then that word may pose difficulty now when you are dealing with words there

are certain things that you must keep into consideration please while you are writing the report do not use words which are unusual i will give you several examples of how a word can be unusual i mean the way you are using words when you are writing every now

and then you must imagine that your reader is before you so if you keep into consideration your you readers naturally you will be more ah having a sort of discretion for your reader i mean sort of sympathy for a reader because maybe the reader is not acquainted with that

word so unusual words are chosen just for the air of intellectuality remember there are so many people even even think think of yourself also when you might be writing something you might be thinking it to make it so wordy because you have the impression that if you

write it in a word a manner it will make very appealing no it cannot make an appeal unless and until it is understood so when you are i mean there are many people who are suffering from this ah problem that they try to so they try to impose their knowledge

and they do that by making use of words which are difficult now the question is how to understand the difficulty level we cannot understand the difficulty level hence let us try to be more specific let us try to be ah very cautious while using words use familiar words instead

of words which are difficult when we talk about specific words ah we we will be giving you several several examples say for example if i say the majority were divided in their opinion as regards the new incubation center look at the sentence this

sentence says the majority were divided in their opinion now majority may mean sixty percent seventy percent eighty percent but then as a report writer since you have to ensure clarity since you have to understand ah you have to ensure a sort of understanding

so what you need to do is you need to be more specific and how can you be specific my dear friend you can be specific by saying ah seventy percent sixty percent eighty percent because you know people should not strive and people should not ah keep on getting themselves

troubled by finding out the implication of that word otherwise what will happen people will leave ah that report and they will not read and if they do not read your report naturally your report ah will have no action that is why it is better to say that if we use plain

and familiar word perhaps the task will become easier now i will i will give you several examples and today you have to concentrate more on the slides because we are discussing the problem of language and you know my dear friends it

is language that acts as a weapon whether it is in terms of writing in terms of speaking but then when you are writing a report your main purpose is to ensure understanding hence the need is are to use words which are familiar now let us see this example this has the ramifications

of the experiment done in the laboratory should be corroborated now if i ask you very honestly do you understand the meaning of corroborate i mean you may know it but do all people know no again there is a another word that is ramifications so people often get confused as to what the

writer of this sentence warns now if if such a sentence you come across or you feel like writing better have a second thought decide and then change it and by changing and when you change what do you do you have to make it simple you have to make it effective something

that its simple is effective so revise the sentence and if you revise you will find it will become easier because words may be long and words may be short but when you are writing a report which is of a very technical nature there also you will face the same problem

of putting a word that is difficult so take the care and use a sentence by revising the same sentence you see if i revise the sentence ah i must say the result of the lab experiment should be verified i think even a common person having the basic knowledge

of english will understand it so our focus should be to make our sentences speak not that because everyone doesnt see it every now and then ah with a or a dictionary as i have been saying and and your report cannot be read if it actually does not hence your

clarity if it does not ensure smoothness again you can have a look at the another sentence where you will find that there are some unfamiliar words used see what the sentence says the veracity of scientists claim requires proper validation i mean the true words that have

been used here are difficult from the common peoples understanding veracity i mean what does this veracity mean so if we simplify it and say instead of veracity we say truth and instead of validation are we say proof the thing things will become easier

so let us say the truth of the scientists claim requires proof and the sentence becomes readable the sentence becomes understandable but then it is not only the question of difficult words but it is actually the question of the user who is going to use it now have a look

at these words if these words are used ah in a report or in a technical document people who are going to take a action and read that they will find it very difficult and soon they will leave it because they they do not have time and in a present day world all of

us are running short of time see the world apogee why cant you change this word apogee and say ah orbit again another word camaraderie i mean why to choose such a difficult word say friendship this member this member this into several parts its better to say cut then

to this member impasse there is an impasse no so if if such a situation is there you have to change those words to the familiar words these words are difficult the last word that i have put here very you know willingly enough because most of the time ah people

may come across using they feel that by using that ah they perhaps so their air of intelligence say they use the word like obtuse and they say they they even frame a sentence like this his obtuse talk lack synergy of thoughts now this is a difficult word let us say dull and

again you are talking about this synergy we can say something we can say unity and if we simply say his dull talk ah lacked interest lacked coherence lacked coordination lacked cooperation friends one word you know may have different meanings would go for those

words which are specific because you know and and how can you make kept ah ah writing specific if you feel that there is a difficult work you know that is why time and i cannot have been saying that when you have written something please revise

and when you revise you feel the need of changing the world how do you change you must know a word which is less difficult a word which is more specific a word which is more general a word which is a synonym so synonym are actually the near meanings and they help next

sometimes you will find again people at times make use of modifiers now what are these modifiers modify you know modify you also know modify i mean modify actually what modified does is modify actually explains so when you are using a sentence ah somewhere the other you

will find ah that whether you want it or not some modifiers have crept in and these modifiers or these adjectives they actually make readers dangle from one word to another word i mean they have to keep moving what is the meaning and you know ah there are certain examples

also given if you concentrate on these slides you will find you you have a have a look at the first sentence then you will yourself feel ah that it could it could have been better if we could have changed this say for example the construction department deserves all bridges

and credits for making such new and novel structure now look at these words there are two words which are nearly you know which are nearly modifiers or adjectives bridges and credits so go for the one word only new and novel

go for one word only i mean your tasks should be to establish the meaning and that is what the readers also want readers want to move forward when they are reading something again another sentence we can take newly recruited junior managers failed to make out sometimes

people also make use of phrases they make use of idiomatic expressions they make use of phrasal verbs and all these are going to pose difficulty because people may know the meaning of make but if you are putting another word with that

it may actually complicate the process make out make up make four i mean all these words have different meanings so instead of saying make out why dont you say you can always say instead of make out mean if we say newly recruited junior managers fail to make out you simply

say newly recruited junior managers could not understand the ceos inaugural speech it becomes easier so on many occasions even people do not know sometimes the modifiers themselves are misplaced say for example if you say speaking before

the large audience my knees began to knock speaking before the large audience my knees begin to knock fine now how can your knees begin to knock so here you have actually given an example of misplaced modifiers you can revise that and you can say speaking before

the large audience i felt my knees or i felt my knees knocking fine so you have to your basic purpose is to make use of words or prefer words which provide meaning it is not only the question of phrases words but at times when when you know let

us go one more step further and say there are people who actually even now even now it is they are making use of cliche you might be thinking what are cliché is it cliche if if we have to define cliche we can say a cliche is actually a word which at a time

might have been very popular but because of its overuse excessive use this has become a cliche it has it has lost its relevance and then many people who are still are using are those cliches i can also provide you a list of cliche where you will find people

are using cliche but then they have to restrict themselves from the use of cliche otherwise are their writing will become very cumbersome it will become very boring here is an example if you say the report discusses third where the problem of air pollution in

india now the one word that you have given their threadbare is a cliche so you have to simplify and say the report discusses the problem of air pollution in india in detail there are you know as as we are progressing so our language is also progressing because

of the new advancements new cliches are also appearing here are some examples of the new cliche say which people at times feel like using for example if they say ah giving a lecture before such a large audience is an uphill task

now people will start thinking about uphill task why cant they simply say ah speaking before a large crowd is a challenge so this uphill task can be substituted like that you may often say people at times quoting what is actually writing on the wall regarding

the new policies i mean when they say writing on the wall many people if they simply take it verbatim they will think that is something written on the wall so it is better and and this is an idiomatic expression and this is a sort of cliche it is better to say what

is the prediction about the new policies you see keep yourself in the position of the reader and you will find there have to be much precision and much caution while you are making use of words otherwise at times even with the best intention the report which you have written

will fail to create any impact on the reader and the report may appear to be simply a waste of time and whatever heart you have tried your level best you will feel that your report has got no effect at all here is a list of commonly used a cliche says

ah many people often say will you please repeat again now the question is sometimes or the other sometimes people often say i have seen you moving day in and day out i shall leave no stone unturned to make you understand what soft skills are if i could have simply said

i will try my level best or i will work hard to make you understand what soft skills are sometimes people often say ah the terrorist attacks have become a burning question for the mankind they could have simplified it and said ah terrorist attacks have become

quite common nowadays so instead of making use of cliche it is better to make use of familiar words and fridges sometimes people have a temptation towards foreign words and fridges foreign words and fridges now these foreign words because you know ah most of

us understand the fact that english earlier ah was not as popular as latin and there were many scholars ah who had to read latin first and then english so the impact of latin it is still there on many scholars and at times when they are going

to use something they make use of foreign words and fridges so when you feel that there are uses of foreign words and fridges it is better to stop and change that say for example if you say oh have you got this sub poena have you got this sub poena now this sub poena

is a foreign word which actually means the call or the saman by the court oh your talking about ah that sing oh he is in a avagard fine so you could have said he is a pioneer instead of saying he is an avagard ok have you clarified your tatata

now when you say tatata many people will not understand so it is better to say what about your personal interview have you cleared your personal interview dear friends as a professional when you are using you actually have to be aware of so many technical words and these

technical words are called jargons you have to free yourself from excessive use of jargons that keep coming in our day to day writings and even in our formal writings i have already given you the example of how are two are professionals one from one discipline another from another

discipline when they exchange ah their words of their own profession they come in and between and that creates a lot of impasse or that creates a lot of difficulty let us have a look at so jargon what is a jargon jargon is a language which is too much

off technicality and if the reader is not that technical you will not understand so you have to keep into consideration the readers ah level the readers background let us look at the second example that ah i have provided that can be changed say if i if if somebody

says or somebody writes the [spectru/spectrum] spectrum of infection with a human immunodeficiency virus continues to evolve with the availability of new scientific information will anyone understand what is this human immunodeficiency but then if instead of this you use a word

which is technical but yet familiar if if somebody says hiv everyone will will understand but sometimes you know sometimes even abbreviations are more helpful than their explanations so if if this sentence the spectrum of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus continues

to evolve with the availability of new scientific information if it is changed it will give more clarity as we are learning more each day about the range of infection in people with hiv you see nothing has been done simply some words have been changed but while you

change you are not changing the meaning that you have to keep into consideration again sometimes people use a a pedagogue for a teacher now if they write a sentence when they are writing a report say on teaching in india and they use a sentence like the responsibility

of a person involved in pedagogical pursuits is to impart knowledge to those send to him for instruction the sentence appears not only longer rather the sentence appears to be very cumbersome and it actually imposes the meaning which people do not know

now for ah ah people to understand the meaning they will have to look for a dictionary so it is better to revise the sentence and say a teachers job is to instruct students or to teach students dear friends there are quite a good number of examples which will help

you understand how you can ah ah reduce the difficulty level and once such is redundancy everyone is familiar with the world redundant and but then when they make use of words they do not understand that they are becoming redundant for example have you not heard people saying

oh i mean ah that person though he was giving a law a long lecture but perhaps he lacked basic fundamentals dear friends people may lack in fundamentals so simply saying fundamentals or basic will do there is nothing to be said as basic fundamentals

are you going to return again sir by giving such a long lecture no i will return but i will not return again sir when you repeat again i will repeat but i will not repeat again i mean these are some of are the examples of how people you know when they are writing

they actually tend to make use of redundant expressions and that actually make their reports witty and people fail to understand how some action can be taken you might have heard many people saying is it the final result i mean a result is final

why there is no semi final result except in a t twenty or say in football matches and all but then when you say result result itself is final a great majority of people you have heard people saying a great majority of people ah they do not understand the true facts dear

friends facts are facts they cannot be false so why do use why are we going to make use of such expressions which are going to be redundant so avoid the use of redundancy even you must also avoid making use of unfamiliar words

here is a list where you will find on the ah left hand ah you will find words which are unfamiliar but if you substitute them you will find that ah you can have the familiar familiarity i mean in order to ensure a familiarity all you need to do is you need to choose a

a simple word that speaks again sometimes people take resort to circumlocutions i mean circumlocutions are roundabout expressions i mean something that you want to say but you have not been ah able to say so for that you make use of circumstances i mean nothing

is clear you actually create your sentence in such a manner that it becomes a very difficult ah let us take an example we are cognizant that you are experiencing difficulties during this period of reorganization of your central office why should you say ah cognizant it

is better to say you know fine or we know there is nothing like ah using the word cognizance or something like that obtains as i said you may go for abbreviations but remember your audience must understand ah the full form of the abbreviations otherwise if you are

using with some purpose and your reader has derived the different purpose then it will become difficult for example nowadays you know many answers they have a habit of shortening the words in a say instead of saying instituted they

will say insti instead of saying ah instead of are saying ah polymers there will say poly class i am going to the poly class they i mean i have heard a number of students using audie for ah auditorium even even people know have the habit of but sometimes if you say

i am going i am going to be in the audie now people may think perhaps your going to be in a naughty car isnt it so it is better to say or it is better to write i am going to the auditorium oh what an enthu oh this prof he actually makes a lot of fuss

so people sometimes may feel that you are simply either you are trying to be very smart or sometimes people also use abbreviations which they understand but remember there are some abbreviations abbreviations which have become very familiar there is no use but then

abbreviations which have not become familiar if you are going to use them that will create difficulty say for example if you say atr if somebody says fig people will start thinking what is this fig unless and until they know that it is faculty initiation grant or cvr

if people do not understand that it is cockpit voice recorder so my advice to all of you is that use words use abbreviations but please see that while you are making use of that you should also have some consideration for your readers if your readers are having

the same background as you there is no problem but readers are varied and reports are written on a demand and when reports are written on demand you do not understand who your readers are so it is always better to follow the medium path and the medium path is to use maximum

number of words that are familiar and not use words which are unfamiliar for example here you can see ah the words like corroborate why dont you use proof instead of corroborate antiquated you are talking about something old fine annihilation better say destruction

instead of saying annihilation conflagration better to say fire than conflagration ramification say result dont say ramification in visas think all these i mean there are certain ways by which you can make your task easier but remember you can see here i am i am showing

you a clip where you can find ah the way the words have been used it may create a sort of difficulty he says he is sorry and we will try to be more sensitive i mean instead of using sensitive because when we use the word sensitive the meaning is somehow different

so sometimes people understand people think of using the word sensible and use sensitive you but he wants to change the subject because he is not comfortable with confrontation now see how this has been used now if you also come across such a sort of exchange such a

sort of writing you will also feel awkward because reports are written for a specific purpose and the purpose is to bring a solution to a problem can there be solution if we do not understand if the doctor is not able to to diagnose the disease can he provide a remedy

can he provide a relief so dear friends our real aim should be to understand the fact that our readers are also human being and we need to use the language that is understandable and not a language that is going to block our minds and block

our thoughts i hope you have started thinking you have started recreating the idea that when you write a report you will be more cautious you will be more careful because in the next talk we shall give focus now we have talked about words in the next lecture well be talking

about ah say sentence structure will be talking about readability will also be talking about how at times you can use passive at times you can use active but till that time have a rest enjoy before i deliver the next lecture thank you very much