Writing a laboratory report for senior electrical engineering courses: Guidelines and recommendations

Improving students' soft skills is considered one of the important pillars of effective learning. Soft skills include various abilities such as communicating effectively using communication and writing skills. This paper focuses on the improvement of writing skills, particularly when writing a persuasive technical mini-project or laboratory report. The report should encompass all the factors that enhance levels of organizing and writing technical reports using the appropriate language and conventions. Improving the writing skills of students, especially electrical engineering students, falls under outcome 'g' of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) student outcomes. Hence, this paper introduces recommendations and guidelines for the structure of mini-projects or laboratory reports for senior (level 4 and level 5) electrical engineering courses. Moreover, it contains a discussion of a case study conducted over eight consecutive terms to assess student performance in three different courses using the suggested structure. In addition, the researcher discusses the results of a student questionnaire exploring students' satisfaction with the proposed report structure.