Print12.5 Preparing the Technical Review
Milestone 4 of the project preparation process is the Technical Review. This task involves first of all the evaluation of the technology status – where it is with respect to technical performance, how far it is from meeting market and society requirements. This stage of your project will probably involve the reading of some research papers and other documents explaining the technical background and performance criteria. At this stage, you should present your findings about the technology readiness level (TRL – see methodology in Lesson 2). Learning details about the technological process, materials used, efficiency will also become useful in subsequent environmental and economic assessment.
This review can be as deep and as broad as you deem appropriate for your case study. Use this assignment as an opportunity to educate yourself as much as possible on your chosen subject!
Things to include in the Technical Review:
- Technical principles (how this approach or technology works)
- Schematics and images as appropriate
- Any relevant scientific information
- Technology readiness (TRL) and cases of success or failure trials
- History of development and prospects for the future
- References
While you are welcome to use any literature and online sources to collect information, the review should be your original writing. And do not forget to cite your sources. The prepared review will further serve as your resource to pull information from for your final technology assessment. However, you do not want to include the entire Technical Review as a chapter to your assessment report because it would be excessive is probably overwhelming to the general reader. This work is a big step in your education about the chosen technology topic, but you will need to be selective when you communicate technical information to the public. In the final proposal you can omit the information that is too specialized for being used in project justification.
Check this out: APA Citation Style
This website provides thorough guidance and examples on how to cite your sources in technical papers: APA Citation Guide
Technical Review is a very appropriate place to practice your citation skills because you are mainly reviewing published information from a broad variety of sources - articles, press releases, websites, books, technical sheets. Please pay special attention to citing Web sources, and what information to include, since, understandably, you will do most of your research online!
When you find information you want to include in your review, you generally have two options: (i) quote and cite and (ii) rephrase and cite. If you are copying and pasting external text as is, you have to put quote marks (and a reference) - otherwise it may be considered plagiarized. But a better way is to first understand the information and deliver it in your own words, which will give you an opportunity to be more concise, clearer and closer to your perception of the topic. Do still provide a reference and acknowledge the source of your learning.