By: Wilmer Arellano FIU Fall 2013 Wilmer Arellano
Overview s Introduction to Proposal Style General Recommendations ▫Section Headings ▫References Title Page Wilmer Arellano
References One of the most impressive sites regarding technical writing. ▫ I encourage you to visit this Website. Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) IEEE (2006) TRANSACTIONS, JOURNALS, AND LETTERS, Information for Authors. Retrieved January 10, 2008 from IEEE Web site: ▫ C.W. POST CAMPUS APA Citation Style. Retrieved January 10, 2008 from Long Island University Web site: ▫ Wilmer Arellano
s I will use as my broadcast list the one that I get from Panther's Soft. ▫I might reply to personal accounts if I received s from them but I will not include them in my broadcast list. ▫Please check that your FIU account is working. When you me please: ▫Copy all your team members ▫Include team ID and course # in the subject ▫Include all the team names in the signature Wilmer Arellano
Introduction to Report Style Technical reports are used to communicate the results of: ▫research, ▫field work, ▫proposals and other activities. Often, a report is the only concrete evidence of your work. The quality of the project may be judged directly by the quality of the writing. Most technical reports contain the same major sections, although the names of the sections vary widely, and sometimes it is appropriate to omit sections or add others. Always check for specific requirements and guidelines before beginning to write your research report. Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations 1.Write on both sides paper (save some trees) 2.The report pages have to be numbered throughout. Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations Use template at: _usletter_format_nov12mod.doc Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations Some of your Proposal Sections are going to remain identical in the Final Report. ▫Use verb tenses that do not need to be updated Use the “project is about” rather than “the project will be”. Later you would need to update the last to “the project was about” Start all your sections with an opening paragraph. ▫Do not start with a Figure, a Table or a Result Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations Do not start with a Figure, a Table or a Result You are not writing for yourself You are not writing for your instructor You are writing for somebody you don’t know Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations When Possible use bulleted or numbered lists to highlight different ideas, topics or other Items. ▫See next examples Wilmer Arellano
Publix’s List When you write for yourself ▫Go to Publix Wilmer Arellano
Publix’s List When you write for somebody you know ▫Go to Publix and buy milk, bread, ham and sodas Wilmer Arellano
Publix’s List When you write for somebody you don’t know Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations When Possible use bulleted or numbered lists to highlight different ideas, topics or other Items. Wilmer Arellano
Section Headings Primary section headings within papers are enumerated by Roman numerals and are centered above the text. For the purpose of typing the manuscript only, primary headings should be capital letters. Sample: I. PRIMARY HEADING (TEXT) Secondary section headings are enumerated by capital letters followed by periods (“A.”, “B.”, etc.) and are flush left above their sections. The first letter of each word is capitalized. In print the headings will be in italics. Sample: A. Secondary Heading (TEXT) Wilmer Arellano
Section Headings Tertiary section headings are enumerated by Arabic numerals followed by a parenthesis. They are indented, run into the text in their sections, and are followed by a colon. The first letter of each important word is capitalized. Sample: 1) Tertiary Heading: (TEXT) Quaternary section headings are rarely necessary but are perfectly acceptable if required. They are identical to tertiary headings except that lowercase letters are used as labels and only the first letter of the heading is capitalized. Sample: a) Quaternary Heading: (TEXT) Wilmer Arellano
Order of Importance of the Different Elements Title Abstract Conclusions Introduction The last three are the last to be written Wilmer Arellano
Title The title page contains several main pieces of information 1.Project Title 2.Team Number 3.Student team member names and their Panther ID 4.University and Department. 5.The name of the person for whom the report has been prepared. 6.Course No. and Name 7.Semester 8.Date Submitted Wilmer Arellano
Double click on the white area of this slide to open the Word page that contains the Title Page. Copy the entire Title Page and paste it into a new Word 2007 document. My example does not have any formatting. Please use some creativity here Wilmer Arellano
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT If a client, organization, or individual has contributed or will contribute significantly in a form of technical advice, equipment, financial aid, etc, an acknowledgement of that contribution should be included in the corresponding section. Wilmer Arellano
ABSTRACT An ABSTRACT can be the most difficult part of the research report to write because in it you must: ▫introduce your subject matter, ▫Why your work is important ▫tell what (was)/(will be) done, ▫and present selected/expected results, ▫all in one short (about 50 to 250 words) paragraph. The most common type of ABSTRACT is the informative abstract. A good way to develop an informative abstract is to devote a sentence or two to each of the major parts of the report. Wilmer Arellano
References. (Do not keep them manually. Use MS Word Tools) It is important to include a References section at the end of a report in which you list your other sources. Informal or short reports may not have a references section or only a short one while more formal reports will likely have reference sections, sometimes very lengthy ones. Try Zotero Wilmer Arellano
Click on the pull down arrow of the citation button. Insert new Citation Source so that a reference that you enter here will appear automatically in the table of references Wilmer Arellano
Follow the format: LastName1, Name1; LastName2, Name2; etc. Wilmer Arellano
Put the cursor where you want to add a citation Wilmer Arellano
This time click the Citation button in the center and then select the citation from the list. Wilmer Arellano
Insert figure and table captions so they will appear automatically in the list of figures Wilmer Arellano
Word 2007 handles page numbers independently for the different “Document Sections” According to the way the page breaks were inserted, each chapter is a MS Word Section Wilmer Arellano
Go to the first page, click somewhere on it and from the Insert Menu select Page number Wilmer Arellano
Go to the first page, click somewhere on it and from the Insert Menu select Page number (Make sure to use the pull down arrow) This will number all sections of the document Wilmer Arellano
Now click just before the first letter of each chapter and from the insert menu select Format Page Numbers This will give different number format for the chapters Wilmer Arellano
Go to the title page and double click on the page number Follow instructions in the next slides Wilmer Arellano
Double click on the number and then click Different First Page. Do not exit this menu Wilmer Arellano
In the same menu, select Format Page Numbers Wilmer Arellano
Select lower case roman numbers: i, ii, ii This concludes page numbering Wilmer Arellano
Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables Wilmer Arellano
You must have a blank page after the Title Page Insert six line feeds and position the cursor in the first one From the References Menu select Table of Contents This will insert your Table of Contents Wilmer Arellano
Position the cursor in the third of the line feeds In the same page and from the same menu select Insert List of Figures This will insert your List of Figures Wilmer Arellano
This same exact procedure is used to insert the List of Tables Select Table from the Pull Down Wilmer Arellano
Click on the References Page and insert the references Wilmer Arellano
This procedure will create an extra heading, delete it Wilmer Arellano
The table of Contents, The List of Figures, List of Tables and the References must be updated manually when you change your document Right click on each table and select Update Field Later select Update Entire Table if you are offered the option Wilmer Arellano