slide 1 fyp – elec4840/elec4840a/elec4840b brendan mcgrath coordinator report writing skills...
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Slide 1FYP – ELEC4840/ELEC4840A/ELEC4840BBrendan McGrathCoordinator
Report Writing Skills
School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
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Slide 2
Overview
• Introduction – Technical Writing
• Thesis Requirements
• Thesis Structure
• Writing Style
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Slide 3
Technical Writing
• Communication - the most important engineering skill
What’s the point of having an idea if you can’t tell anyone!
• Written communication is particularly challenging. It is a skill that must be developed and practiced.
• The act of writing helps you learn!
About the problem
And also how to write technical documents
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Slide 4
Technical Writing
• To write a technical document, you must:
Know the purpose of your document
Know your audience
• This defines your document structure and style:
E.g. Software documentation for a PC user, verses a code cutter
E.g. Academic research paper, verses technical specification
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Slide 5
Thesis Requirements
• The thesis will be a new style of document to you:
A research/development/scientific report
Unlike under-graduate assignments
No clear-cut, pre-defined answer
• The audience may know very little about your problem. They are experts, and will know the broad literature
• This leads to a distinct thesis style
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Slide 6
Thesis Requirements
• In general a thesis addresses four key considerations:
The problem that must be addressed - “What I did!”
The context and relevance of the problem - “Why I did it!”
The results/analysis/development - “What I found!”
The conclusions and relationship to context - “So what!”
• Interim reports will also include:
Long and Short term goals – “How and when I will do it!”
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Slide 7
Thesis Requirements
• The thesis must CLEARLY identify your contributions
The thesis must contain sufficient detail to allow the reader to fully understand what you have done
The reader should be able to replicate your results
But! If you use results, figures, software, hardware from a 3rd party, this must be clearly identified
Plagiarism and academic conduct will be discussed separately
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Slide 8
Thesis Structure - Preamble
• The necessary preamble information
Title Page
Table of Contents
Identification of your original contribution
Acknowledgements (if required)
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Slide 9
Thesis Structure – The Abstract
• Abstract – A concise summary of the project.
Not more than one page
A self contained document – could be published in its own right
It should convey:
o The problem
o The solution
o Closure and extensions - “What it means, and what’s next.”
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Slide 10
Thesis Structure – Introduction
• Introduction – The context of the project
What is the topic, and why is it important?
State the problem, as simply as possible
Take a broad – high level view of the problem
How does the problem relate to the broader discipline?
• Assume the reader is not familiar with the field
Recall – examiners know Maxwell’s equations, but what’s CDMA?
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Slide 11
Thesis Structure – Literature Review
• The purpose of a literature review is to position your work in context with the broader discipline
• Key questions include:
Where did your problem come from?
What approaches are currently used to address it?
Why do they fall short?
Who is interested in a resolution to the problem?
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Slide 12
Thesis Structure – Literature Review
Where do the techniques you use come from?
How do these techniques work?
What are their limitations?
• The literature review should not be a list of papers with a comment on each
• Group the references and extract the key concepts in context to your problem
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Slide 13
Thesis Structure – The Body
• The Body of the thesis (i.e. the central chapters) present your major contributions
• The exact structure can vary greatly – depends on content
• Generic Scientific Format:
Materials and Methods (Often just methods/algorithms)
Theory (Often incorporate in the above)
Results and Discussion
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Slide 14
Thesis Structure – The Conclusion
• This chapter should :
Summarise the problem and its relevance
State the approach used to address the problem
Present the conclusions of the work
Show the limitations to the completed work
Illustrate avenues for improvement and extension
• It should relate back to the Introductory chapter
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Slide 15
Thesis Structure
Introduction
Literature Review
1st Contribution Chapter
Last Contribution Chapter
Conclusion
Thesis Body
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Slide 16
Appendices
• A thesis in general will be highly detailed
• However - excessive detail obscures the work
• Appendices should be used to show:
A complete mathematical development
Software listings
Circuit and system schematics (CAD)
• Thesis Body refers to the Appendices
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Slide 17
Writing Style
• For technical writing – STYLE counts
• Technical readers expect a certain structure
• This helps to focus purely on content
• Technical readers notice the English only when it’s bad
• Key style points follow
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Slide 18
Writing Style – The Topic Sentence
• Paragraphs – One idea only
• The topic sentence :
The 1st sentence of any paragraph
It should flag the key idea of the paragraph
Helps avoids waffle – gets to the point quickly
It greatly assists the reader
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Slide 19
Writing Style – The Topic Sentence
• Good Example - The AGE newspaper, May 1st 2006 :
“Women in stressful jobs who become pregnant should virtually halve their time at work right from the start of their pregnancy.”
• Bad Example – “Lonely Planet Guide – Korea” :
“Despite rapid economic development and modernisation in recent years, Korea is still Confucian.”
[Paragraph’s actual topic – Gender roles and female employment in Korea]
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Slide 20
Writing Style – Chapter Entry
• There should be one to two introductory paragraphs to each chapter
• They state the
Purpose of the chapter
Structure of the chapter
Central themes of the chapter
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Slide 21
Writing Style – Chapter Exit
• The exit paragraphs provide the summary/conclusion
• The Summary should:
State the major conclusions from the chapter
Relate these conclusions back to the introductory remarks and the central themes of the chapter
State the relevance of these conclusions
Show how this leads into the next chapter
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Slide 22
Resources and Tips
• Project Web site has a list of resources:
• http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/eecs/fyweb/4thyearprojects/index.html
• Read Theses (Masters, PhD’s, FYP)
Take a Meta position – Look at the writing style, not content
If the thesis reads well – WHY?
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Slide 23
Figures and Diagrams
• Figures and Diagrams are key to a thesis
• Use appropriate drawing packages:
VISIO, AutoCAD, CORREL, CANVAS
• Minimum font in figures = 9pt