Clark Land ResourcesStaff MeetingApril 25, 2016

Reports and Proposals Cover Letters

Executive Summaries

Project Understandings

Resumes (project style)

Project Descriptions

Presentations

Not used for data analysis or scientific findings

What’s important to the audience? Technical, Management, Lawyers, Procurement

Engineer vs. Right of Way vs. Board, etc.

Relevancy to the reader?Facility Types

Pipeline vs. electrical line vs. highway or street

Location

Buzz words (services, funding, regulations, etc.)

John Smith, licensed Real Estate Agent, has 5 years of experience providing right of way services, including easement research and interpretation, for water pipeline projects inSan Diego County.

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How to start - What’s the issue? The Topic Sentence and usually the first sentence.

What happened or why are we writing this?

Call to ActionWhat needs to happen

What could happen if not done

Solution or options for solution

Supporting facts follow to support the solution

Can you pick out the elements used here?Big Sky Water District’s population has grown over 300% in the past 5 years requiring the need additional water facilities to meet demand. By the end of 2017, acquisition of 20 miles of 50-foot right of way is needed to meet the aggressive construction schedule. Clark Land Resources provided acquisition for 95 properties on the recent fast-track 22-mile Big Pipe project with the same staff proposed for Big Sky’s project.

Big Sky Water District’s population has grown over 300% in the past 5 years requiring the need additional water facilities to meet demand. By the end of 2017, acquisition of 20 miles of 50-foot right of way is needed to meet the aggressive construction schedule. Clark Land Resources’ (CLR) provided acquisition for 95 properties on the recent fast-track 22-mile Big Pipe project with the same staff proposed for Big Sky’s project. This same staff will provide the insight and lessons learned to meet Big Sky’s project deadlines.

Section 1.1 Historical Overview

The 1600 pipeline (P1600) is a 16” diameter gas pipe that was installed in 1949 and has served as a major source of gas conveyance to the San Diego County region. The pipeline begins from the San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E’s) Rainbow Metering Station at the most northern point and traverses south through unincorporated areas of San Diego County, the Cities of Escondido and San Diego, and ending in the Kearney Mesa area. Due to a need to meet future demand, SDG&E is studying the feasibility of adding or replacing the 16” diameter pipeline with a 36” diameter pipeline, which includes acquisition of a 50’ easement for the entire pipeline. Confidential information – not for distribution

Section 1.2 Project Summary

This project includes reviewing three options for the P1600 as follows:

1. Determine the feasibility of replacing the existing 16” pipeline with a 36” pipeline within the existing easement.

2. Determine the feasibility of acquiring a 50’ wide easement adjacent to the existing 16” alignment, and install the new 36” pipeline within the new adjacent easement.

3. Determine the feasibility of installing the new 36” pipeline in a new alternate alignment with a new 50’ wide easement.

Confidential information – not for distribution

What does audience need to know?

Why do they need to know it?

What facts support your statements?

Segue/transition to next paragraph or summarize facts and the outcome

Review and re-organize paragraphs as needed

Have someone else review it, always.

Section 1.2.1 Using the Existing 16” Easement (Option 1)

Section 1.2.2 Acquiring an Adjacent Easement to Existing Alignment (Option 2)

Section 1.2.3 Proposed Alternate Alignment (Option 3)

Section 1.3 Scope of this Report

Section 1.4 Assumptions

The above sections were followed with sections that showed what we did for each option, how we did it and why. We provided the results in tables as far as costs for each analysis. We supported our statements with graphics and matrices.

TO BE or NOT TO BEBeware: could, can, will, was, would, shall, should, is, were, etc.

TO BE (passive): The reader will fall asleep if the writing is boring when the passive voice is used in the text.

NOT TO BE (active): The reader fell asleep reading the boring text.

Long sentences lose the reader’s attention and/or causes them to work harder atunderstanding the text.

Oppositely, too short of sentences confuse the reader

Defrag your writing – Use full sentences Fragment: Worked on 50 miles of transmission line

Full Sentence: In 2016, for Watt Gas & Electric in Timbuktu, John provided acquisition services for a 50-mile, 600kv electrical transmission project.

InconsistencyAcronyms –

PE, P.E., Prof. Engr., Professional Engineer

City of San Diego Public Works Dept., City, SD, SDPW, PW Dept.

Realtor, REA, Licensed Real Estate Agent

Dash, En Dash and Em Dash (Google it)Dash - for lists, next item

En Dash ‒ numbering, lists

Em Dash ― emphasis, when a comma has already been used in a sentence

Commas vs. semi-colons, vs. colons (Google it)Typically:

Commas – separates multiple items in a sentence

Semi-colons – to separate phrases that have commas already or further explain a point ( in other words, additionally, etc.)

Colons – a following list

Footers vs. Footnotes

One space after a period, not two. This was changed over a decade ago.

Failing to Spell Check your document ruins your credibility with the reader

Back-checking documents with highlighterSpell check won’t catch a lot of things, so check your work:

Manger vs. manager

Public vs. you know what

Checking for inconsistencies

CLR has established font type and size; colors; margins; headers and footers; and typical acronyms.

Use the color palette given in the template or master (letterhead, reports, etc.)

Don’t use unusual fonts

givencolorsUse

templatethein

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Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4

Series 1

Series 2

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Chart Title

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Resumes due by May 5, 2016

Your resume will be sent to you with example of opening paragraphs and project paragraphs

Have someone else read it before you turn it in

Use an active voice

Tell the audience the issues, the action needed and the solution or potential solution

Use facts to support your statements

Make it relevant to the reader

Reorganize as needed for smooth flow from Point A to Point Z

Always have someone else review your work

More tips and tricks

These work in Word and most other Microsoft Office products

These tips will help speed up word processing and makes it easy for others to work in your documents as well.

Similar to our Excel training, there are videos available from Microsoft to help you with these processes.

Send your tips to Sue and we will review for sharing on the CLR Chronicle site.

Click on PASTE (upper left under FILE) then on PASTE SPECIAL

Choose what type of paste you want such as keeping the original formatting or using the format in the document you are pasting to.

For graphics, experiment with different types. Usually pasting a .jpg, .gif or .wmf (Word Metafile) are the best options.

After pasting a graphic, right click on it and select the appropriate wrap and setting for the graphic so that it doesn’t bounce all over the place.

Do not use the space key/bar to make tabs. The spacing will not remain the same when another user opens the document.

Go to Tabs in the HELP section of Word and learn the different types and how to use them such as for leader tabs.

Use/insert TABLES when you need to make something line up in columns or rows. Much easier to change and keep aligned.

Use TABLES for listing a lot of data

When pasting data from Excel into a Table, you will need to experiment using PASTE SPECIAL to paste correctly into the table.

Use the NUMBERING menu to set up an outline. It will number automatically for you.

Keep it simple.

1. Complete the Table of Contents last.

2. Make sure your numbering is exactly the same as listed in your Table of Contents.

3. Number all Figures, Tables and Exhibits

Headers do not go on the first page of a sectionGo to Page Layout to state a different first page so that the header does not show up.

In most cases, CLR logo goes on bottom left

Number all pages in a footer on first page and it will continue on the rest of the pages

Every Word document has style codes. PowerPoint has master slides with formatted fonts, colors, etc.

Style codes apply the same formatting each time to a particular part of a document such as headers, footers, section numbers, headings and subheadings.

Learn how to use style codes to speed up the formatting of your documents.

Do not change style codes in master documents or templates.

Text Boxes contain elements separate from the Body Text such as a Call Out or photo with caption or a graphic.

Body Text has the ability to WRAP behind, in front, around, or to one side of the Text Box.

Text Boxes can be moved anywhere in a document.

Use text boxes to highlight an important point.

Note that file sizes get larger and larger with the amount of graphics added.

Files that get too large, cannot be emailed.

Photos need resizing for most documents.

Learn how to resize all photos in a document, at one time, under Settings (Word and PowerPoint).

Encrypting helps other users read your document if they don’t have the same fonts or same version of Microsoft Office.

Encrypting locks the info in your document for the most part.

Send Adobe .pdf documents with security features enabled if document should not be changed by end user(s).