Helpppp

The overview section

The overview section contains certain classes of information. All but the shortest writing has some overview section, though the overview may take different forms, such as an abstract, introduction, or executive summary. Some of these forms may omit one or more classes of information.

Problem – What is the issue of concern to the organization that this writing is about Significance – How important is the problem

Task/Role – What aspect of the problem is this about, and if a task was given, is it complete? Purpose – What is the purpose of this piece of writing

Actions taken – What was done in response to the task/role

Findings – What were the immediate results (should also respond to the task or role) Implications – What do the findings imply that might not be immediately obvious Recommendations – If appropriate, what does the writer recommend based on the findings

Here is an example of a two-paragraph overview from a lab report. The first paragraph is background or context (mostly) separate from you. The second paragraph is your response.

The Real Blowers, Inc., has received an urgent request from NASA to determine if miniature blowers could be used to cool circuitry on their spacecrafts. Due to the tight time constraints, you have asked us to test and analyze the performance of an existing large prototype blower and scale the results to the needs of NASA. Specifically, you have asked that we determine the dependence of the pressure rise on blower speed and flow rate, determine how the flow rate affects the head coefficient and efficiency, and determine what flow rate would be possible from a blower operating at the same speeds as tested, but with a diameter of 1 inch rather than 5 inches. We have completed these tasks. The purpose of this report is to provide the results, conclusions, and supporting documentation of our tests on your large prototype blower, and to provide the scaled down performance for NASA’s requested miniature blowers.

We have found all of the requested information on the dependency of the pressure rise across the blower on blower speed and flow rate, the effect flow rate has on head coefficient and efficiency, and the maximum flow rate possible through a 1 inch blower of the same configuration as the tested unit. The pressure rise initially increases with increasing flow rate, peaks, and then decreases. Increasing blower rotation speed also results in the pressure rise increasing. The head coefficient initially increases with flow coefficient, reaches a peak, and then decreases. Blower efficiency increases with flow coefficient. The maximum achievable

flow rate in a 1 inch impeller diameter blower is 858 ± 31 cm3/s. A sampling of calculated values can be seen in Table 1 below. [With Table 1 following]