Revising Communications Documents to Create the Final Report

The phased design and communication process in bioengineering design has enabled you to build a collection of documents that can be compiled and revised to create your final report. This accelerator describes a process for turning these documents into your final report. You will follow four steps:

• Identify the documents from which you will pull information
• Update the documents to reflect your final decisions and results
• Transform the separate components into a single, fluid document
• Prepare report for submission

Step 1: Identify the documents from which you will pull information

The table below lists in the left column typical report sections. The right column lists the bioengineering design communication documents that contain information relevant to these sections.

References, of course, will support all of the writing in your report. Instructions on preparing references for the final report can be found in the Engineering and Communication Cycle 1 page .

Step 2: Update the documents to reflect your final decisions and results

Review every document referred to in the table above and make updates to ensure they contain the latest information, results, and thinking relevant to your project. If—as has been suggested throughout the course—you have been revising these documents during each phase, updates should be minimal.

Step 3: Transform the separate components into a single, fluid document

The following process will help you reorganize and restructure your separate documents into a single document. Two accelerators may also help you as you edit your document: Design Context Review Accelerator #6: Leading with assertions and Design Context Review Accelerator #7: Poor and high quality arguments.

• Cut and paste the various separate documents into a single file.
• Print out the file and read it over. Look for and mark the following:
• Repetitive content (e.g., explanatory content described in multiple places)
• Assumptions and other content that you will need to introduce or explain elsewhere in the document
• Inconsistent vocabulary (perhaps early in the project you referred to a component by one name, but referred to it differently when you started collecting results)
• Return to the marked text and delete, rewrite, or move text around to resolve the issues you marked.
• Read through the document again, this time checking for transitions between the originally separate sections. Look for information that seems to “fit” together and begin to consider how the report subdivides. You may find, for instance, that the design criteria information is brief enough that it can be discussed within the introduction, or used to introduce the process you followed in establishing your design strategy. Try to let the nature of your project, rather than a particular, preestablished format, dictate the organization.
• Identify descriptive headings and subheadings for report sections. Try to avoid broad, generic headings like “Background” or “Methods.” Introductory material could be titled, for instance, “Exploiting new paradigms in fracture fixation” and could include subheads such as “Fracture fixation: Current theories and tools,” “A new approach to therapy,” and “Automating the Tailor Spatial Frame.”
• Organize sections and paragraphs to provide context for points you plan to make. Each section should begin with an overview paragraph that forecasts the content to be found in that section and indicates the role that section plays within the larger report. Subsequent paragraphs or subsections should, similarly, use forecasting sentences to guide readers through the content.

Ex. Good forecasting sentence: Our design work in the second phase of the project had two objectives: 1) Improve and evaluate the first generation prototype and 2) Fabricate a second-generation prototype. [Subsequent sentences summarize the broad aims of these objectives. Subsections or paragraphs would then provide more details on the first and second objectives in turn.]

Step 4: Prepare report for submission

To prepare your report for submission, do the following:

• Ensure that your references are accurate. For more information on preparing your references in the final report, consult the Engineering and Communication Cycle 1 page.
• Determine which, if any, section of your binder you will use as appendices in your report and reference them properly.
• Develop your table of contents and cover sheet (see Engineering and Communication Cycle 4 page )