Writing Skills Improvement Guide Dr. Zubair A. Baig Computer Engineering Department KFUPM, Dhahran

Intended Audience All course instructors and students involved in writing any form of report for a given course In particular, Courses where g-W is to be introduced/injected as a program outcome (COE 203, COE 360, COE 390,399) Courses with g-W as a program outcome requiring assessment (COE 351, 400, 485)

Why should you Write? You are assessed for your course work through the report that you write You cannot convey your ideas and findings unless you write You must share and collaborate with others to achieve a high degree of success in your career, and therefore you must write

Very Important High-level Tips Think out loud before you start writing! Try to be as coherent as possible. Be a little patient and don’t rush with submitting jargon – write, re-write, revise, re-write,….. Run through your ideas by scribbling on a piece of paper – then start writing clearly and by following a given report-writing template Run and re-run through your written draft – keep improving! Use simple language and try to be clear in conveying your ideas Ask others to read and critique your work

Checklist before submission of your writing assignment! Run a spell checker to make sure that no spelling mistakes/grammatical errors are present Do not have section titles at the end of a page Do not have a figure on one page, with its caption on the other! Assign meaningful names to your figures and tables Use correct page numbering, figure numbering, table numbering, reference numbering, Section numbering,….. Use consistent font size, and consistent line spacing

Components of a Report Abstract Introduction & Background Technical Content ◦ Statement of Problem ◦ Design of the Solution Experiments and Results (including snapshots of simulations) Conclusions References

The Abstract A brief summary of your solution, approach or design Motivation for this particular solution, approach or design Assume the reader does not have more than 10% knowledge of your idea! Length = words

The Introduction & Background You must identify your approach, design or solution in the Introduction Objectives of your proposed approach Assumptions of your approach Why this approach, design or solution was selected A brief description of other approaches, designs or solutions that are available in the literature – this is the background for your work

Technical Content Present your purpose or application for this project Present your approach, design or solution here Present all problems faced during your project or laboratory work Present how you tackled these problems Show illustrations of your work through figures and tables

Experiments and Simulations How were your experiments or simulations conducted What were the assumptions Description of various scenarios tested

Results and Analysis Enlist all results obtained from your experiments and simulations The results can either be represented in tabular format, or as figures Do an analysis of the results, and explain WHY these were obtained Provide your personal insight into the results

Conclusions Summarizes your approach Provides a brief description of your results and analysis Provides a feel of how well your approach fitted the problem Provides a future direction to extend your work

Appendices Contain information which may be too large to be presented within the report Examples Program or Source code Large tables with results of experiments or simulations

Template for Grading a Report Suggested Grade Distribution (out of 100) Report Quality & Writing Skills Spelling and Grammar3% Punctuation2% Structure and Organization3% Figures and Tables3% Formulae & Equations (Proper Use)2% Proper Use of References2% Proper Use of Appendices (If Applicable) - Technical Content The Abstract2% Problem description and motivation (Introduction) 10% Objectives & Deliverables (Introduction) 8% Project Management Plan (Introduction) 10% Technical Content – Descriptions20% Experiments and Simulations15% Results and Discussion15% Conclusions2% Overall Quality of Engineering Documentation 3%