How to Write a Good Technical Paper

Abstract

The ability to communicate is a critical skill that not only affects our success as professionals, but also determines how effectively lessons from the laboratory and field are transferred into general practice. As members of ACI's Publications Committee, and as authors ourselves, we offer some guidelines on one form of communication: writing technical papers. You can apply the principles we discuss to formal technical reports, reports to clients, conference papers, and journal articles. Publishing organizations prescribe the exact details of form and format. Because a technical paper should reconstruct the process of the investigation, the generic outline of a paper closely resembles the steps of the scientific method: 1. Identification of the problem or question to be investigated; 2. Evaluation of previous work in the field; 3. Formulation of the hypothesis or definition of the key aspects of the investigation; 4. Design of experiments, observations, or both; 5. Gathering of data; 6. Evaluation of data; and 7. Presentation of conclusions.