This second edition has been revised and updated.


Not intended to be read from cover to cover, this book was
designed instead to be a quick and useful reference for students,
young engineers, and experienced professionals alike.
It provides guidelines, advice, and technical information for
preparing formal documents-covering a range of report formats
(e.g. assessment, laboratory and progress reports).
This concise, no-nonsense guide provides alphabetically ordered
and cross- referenced topics, which make it easy to find answers
to questions related to writing a technical report or thesis.
Topics include: the format and content of reports and theses;
copyright and plagiarism; print and Internet reference citation
abbreviations; units and conversion factors; significant figures;
mathematical notation and equations; writing styles and conventions;
frequently confused words; grammatical errors and punctuation.
It also provides commonsense advice on issues such as
how to get started and how to keep your reader's attention.