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.