Writing the technology report¶

Imagine you are the manager of your company and two reports land on your desk. Both say "we should install smart sensors on the water network". The first one says it because "it is the future". The second one says it because the company lost a known amount of water last year (link to its annual report), because EMAYA did something similar in Palma (link to the news), and because a sensor of that type costs a given amount (link to the manufacturer). Which one do you believe?

The second one, obviously. Not because it is longer, but because you can check it. That is the whole difference between an opinion and a report. This page is about the craft of the second kind: finding sources, deciding whether to trust them, citing them, and putting four people's work together into one document that reads as if one person wrote it.

Search like a professional¶

A search engine gives you what most people click, not what is most reliable. Search operators are short codes that tell it exactly what you want.

Where to look, depending on the claim:

Most search engines also let you filter by date (in Google: Tools → Any time). Use it: a "latest" article from 2017 is not the latest.

Can I trust this source?¶

A primary source is the original: the company's own report, the law in the BOIB, the manufacturer's spec sheet. A secondary source reports on it: a newspaper article, a blog post.

Primary sources are best for facts; secondary sources help you find them and add context. Before you use any source, apply SIFT, a four-step method proposed by the digital-literacy researcher Mike Caulfield:

Warning signs: no author and no date, a page that sells the product it praises, figures with no origin, a forum or social-media post, and any answer written by an AI chatbot. An AI answer is not a source: it can invent references that look real, and in this course it is not allowed in assessed work unless the teacher authorises it.

Facts and hypotheses¶

Your company will not publish everything you would like to know. That is normal, and the course rule is simple:

A fact is a statement you can support with a source, and you cite it. A hypothesis is a reasoned guess you could not verify, and you label it as such.

A hypothesis is not a weakness. Presenting a guess as a fact is.

Cite it¶

The report uses a simplified APA style (7^th edition), the most common in technical and social-science writing. Each citation has two parts.

In the text, right after the claim: (Author, year). The author can be a company or a public body.

EMAYA expects about 104,000 smart meters installed by 2026 (Mallorcadiario, 2023).

In the list of sources, at the end, in alphabetical order:

n.d. means "no date". If the author and the site name are the same, write it once. Every source in the list must be cited in the text, and every citation in the text must be in the list.

The structure of Deliverable 2¶

The report is built from the work of the last four sessions. Each member owns a section of two or three technologies; the group writes the parts that tie them together. The full brief is on the Deliverable 2 page.

flowchart TB
    I["<b>Introduction</b><br>(group)"] --> A["<b>Section A</b><br>IoT · 5G · digital twins"]
    I --> B["<b>Section B</b><br>big data · AI · AR/VR"]
    I --> C["<b>Section C</b><br>cloud · robotics ·<br>additive manufacturing"]
    I --> D["<b>Section D</b><br>cybersecurity · blockchain"]
    A --> M["<b>Summary matrix</b><br>(group)"]
    B --> M
    C --> M
    D --> M
    M --> N["<b>New market · priorities ·<br>conclusion</b> (group)"]
    N --> S["<b>Sources · group log</b><br>(group)"]

Each technology gets the same technology sheet with seven fields, so that the four sections can be compared:

Writing as a team¶

In class: source audit¶

Individual first, then as a group. Handed in on Classroom (class activity). No AI tools.

Part 1 — Audit three claims of your own section.

Part 2 — Assemble the skeleton. In the group's shared document: put the headings of the report in place, paste each member's sheets in their section, start the summary matrix and the group log, and let the Source checker list the sources that are still missing.

For your project¶

Today you leave the session with Deliverable 2 assembled as a draft and a list of what is missing. The report is due on Monday 21 December 2026 at 23:59, and in the session of that same day each of you will defend your own sections of Deliverable 1 and Deliverable 2 in a short conversation with the teacher.

Key takeaways¶

• Search operators ("...", site:, filetype:, -, OR) take you straight to primary sources.
• A primary source is the original; a secondary source reports on it. Cite the primary one whenever you can.
• SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace to the original. Investigate with lateral reading.
• A fact carries a citation; a hypothesis carries a label. Never present a guess as a fact.
• APA style: (Author, year) in the text, the full reference in the alphabetical list of sources.
• An AI chatbot's answer is not a source, and AI is not allowed in assessed work without the teacher's authorisation.

Quick check¶

Everything is ready: the technologies, their applications and impact, and the craft of the report. The brief, the rubric and the defence are on the last page of the unit: Deliverable 2 · Technology report.