Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello!
I was asked to prepare a workshop on technical reports. I wondered if you had any ideas or advice. I was thinking of making them work on vocabulary (if you have any documents about cars!), then on grammar, some writing games, but I don't know any and I don't know what are the most frequently used structures in technical reports... Then I wanted to introduce translation to finally have them write reports without the need of their mother tongue. What do you think?
Plume

Hello Plume,

Are you trying to teach them how to write a technical report or how to translate in functionally and gramatically to English? Both are possible.

I have spent a lot of time in helping advanced students "anglicize" their work documents to fit an American environment. Presentations as well as complex reports are good areas of activity.

The problem that I see is that abstract topics such as writing a report are hard to accomplish beyond the basic level without a relevent context. Many instructional series try that but, in my opinion, don't do much beyond the basic format and planning stages. Each company has their style or their template. Applying a real-life model usually has more impact and addresses problems they are likely to have. Most reports use a lot of cut-and-paste anyway.

To that end I have usually asked for a specimen in their native language or an example of a successful report in English.

I just used Google and asked for "technical report format" and got:

http://www.io.com/~hcexres/tcm1603/acch ... hreps.html

Appears to be a good start.

Good writing.

Popster

Thank you Popster!
That's what I asked them, to send me reports in English to prepare that workshop. I'm still waiting!
So I had a look at others from other companies to see the tenses or grammar things that were frequently used. I downloaded a few articles in English from this group's webiste, it's not technical reports but technical descriptions or texts about their way of testing. I'll use them to check if they already know some vocabulary, then we'll study some grammar points and do some writing activities with Business Grammar and Practice. What do you think?
They sent me 2/3 reports, but in French. We can't just translate them, their level is too low. And I don't want to end up translating them for the company! I'm not a translator... And as you said, each company uses its own words.
I hope that willl be ok... I've been teaching for 2 years now but this contract is with my new employer, so there's quite a lot of pressure (not from the employer in fact, from myself )