Technical Writing Progress Report

One common technical writing document is a progress report. This widely used business communication tool helps supervisors/bosses stay informed about the work employees are performing. Progress reports also provide a written record of an employee’s performance which can be used for personnel reviews. Since progress reports are commonplace in many work environments, I’d like you to give you some practice doing this kind of writing.

You need to do two main things when writing a progress report: provide accurate information and also project an image of competence. Your boss needs to know the work you’ve done and whether you’ve encountered any problems, especially if the project is behind schedule. At the same time, however, writing a progress report that makes you look incompetent or inefficient can do long term damage to your position at a company. So, as usual, the tone you use to write a progress report must be chosen carefully.

Task Overview

Prepare a progress report that describes how your Technical Writing Project is developing. The audience for this progress report should be a supervisor or boss, so you’ll want to discuss your work in a positive way. On the other hand, you need to be accurate, so you should discuss any problems/complications you are having in achieving your planned goals for the project. The key is to show why your project is moving forward successfully even though you may not be able to accomplish everything you hoped to do.

Maintain a positive, friendly tone as you write your progress report. Remember, bosses want to know that your project is basically going well even if there are problems.

If you are working on a team project, write one progress report together as a team.

Progress Report Format

As you write, use the standard progress report format on the next page. Type your information in place of the italicized sections on the progress report.

Progress Report Completion

When you are done writing your progress report, send it on email to Dr. Pagnucci as a Microsoft Word attachment. For your email, use the “to:” and “subject:” lines noted below:

To:

Subject: 322 Technical Writing Progress Report
Technical Writing Progress Report

To: Dr. Pagnucci

From:Your Name

Date: Current Date

Subject: Current Status of Project Insert Project Title

Report Background

Briefly explain why you are writing this progress report. If you’ve written earlier progress reports, you would give a quick explanation of where things were with the project when you sent the last report.

  • Project Overview

Remind your boss of what your project was about since the boss may have forgotten (bosses tend to be forgetful and easily distracted, after all). Briefly discuss the focus of your project and its intended audience.

  • Potential Benefits of Project

Briefly summarize the main benefits of this project for its intended audience.

  • Project Goals

Briefly discuss your original goals for the project. Then explain any changes you have made to these goals and why.

Project Work Completed

Outline specific accomplishments on the project. Give dates completed if possible. Remember that your final project will need to include the following:

  • Project Cover Page or Web Front/Splash/Home Page (what you see first, including the Project Title)
  • Table of Contents/Menu
  • Project Introduction (explains the purpose of the project and what audience the project is intended for; might be on the first page of a web site)
  • Project Document Body (10-20 pages of document content with some substantive writing; the heart of the project)
  • Technical Writing Project Style Sheet (outlining basic project design decisions)
  • Project Delivery Letter (used for delivering your project; will be explained later in the semester)
  • Project Evaluation Form (used as one means of evaluating your project; will be explained later in the semester)

Project Work in Progress

  • Outline work you still need to do for the project. Give likely dates for completing this work if possible.

Project Issues/Concerns/Complications

Discuss any problems, difficulties you are having with the project and how you are attempting to address these issues.

Overall Summary of Project Status

Give an overall picture of the project. This project summary should be stated in a way that provides a positive impression of your efforts. Your summary should say something positive about achieving some, if not all, of the basic goals for the project.