Taking care of the figures
Tips for writing an effective technical report

The impact of a figure in a report is very important. The eye is naturally drawn to figures in a report, and the reader will spontaneously want to analyze a figure or illustration, even if it is commented on in the text. To meet your reader's expectations, we therefore recommend :

• insert captions to your figures, to provide a minimum of information and commentary on your figures;

• make your figures easy to read. Make sure your graphics are legible when printed (sufficiently large font size);

• make sure that your figures illustrate exactly what you mean. There's no need to include all the strength test curves for an element if a single, representative one is sufficient to show a trend;

• ensure that your figures remain legible once photocopied. So use colors wisely (in particular, avoid the default colors of Excel graphs, which...