Style Guidelines

By: Wilmer Arellano FIU Fall 2008

Overview

E-mails Introduction to Proposal Style General Recommendations

Section HeadingsReferences

Title Page

References

One of the most impressive sites regarding technical writing. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/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:http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs/pubs/transactions/auinfo03.pdfC.W. POST CAMPUS APA Citation Style. Retrieved January 10, 2008 from Long Island University Web site:http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm

E-mails I will use as my broadcast e-mail list the one that

I get from Panther's Soft. I might reply to personal e-mail accounts if I received

e-mails from them but I will not include them in my broadcast list.

Please check that your FIU e-mail account is working. When you e-mail me please:

Copy all your team members Include team ID in your subject Include all the team names in the signature

Official Notifications

I will consider you informed of a particular topic when: I post it in the Website orWhen I e-mail your FIU account orWhen I announce it in class

Introduction to Proposal 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.

General Recommendations

1. A 12-point Times New Roman font and single line spacing should be used for the text.

2. Headings can be done in bold or using a larger font.

3. 1” page margins have to be used.4. The report pages have to be numbered

throughout. In order to save paper when doing corrections, number each section pages with Section letter + page number starting with 1. i.e. I-29 would indicate page 29 of section I

General Recommendations

Start all your sections with an opening paragraph.Do not start with a Figure, a Table or a Result

When Possible use bulleted or numbered lists to highlight different ideas, topics or other Items.See next example

IV. MULTI DISCIPLINARY ASPECTS Our team consists of four members, Mary Smith, Peter Scott, John Martinez and Alex Miller. Since the autonomous landing RC airplane consists of hardware, software and aeronautic implementations it is necessary to form a team with multidisciplinary areas of engineering. Mary is majoring in Computer Engineering with a strong background in computer science and math. Mary has a great interest in aviation and holds a commercial pilot’s license. In obtaining a CPL she studied various subject areas such as aerodynamics, radio aids, instruments, navigation, meteorology and flight planning which will contribute to our proposed project. Peter is majoring in Electrical Engineering he has held many leadership positions on campus and is founder of a fraternity at University Park.. His Interests include financial algorithms, robotics, Linux hacking, and RC devices. John is majoring in Computer Engineering with strong leadership skills along with good technical skills developed by extensive experience in areas such as CAD, project management, database applications. He is an electronics and gadget enthusiast. In addition, experience in other disciplines such as civil engineering adds a valuable perspective to the projects the group will undertake. Alex is majoring in Computer Engineering with a great deal of experience with networking gained while working at a law firm for 5 years. He was responsible for setting up the network and maintaining it if any problems aroused.

IV. MULTI DISCIPLINARY ASPECTS Our team consists of four members, Mary Smith, Peter Scott, John Martinez and Alex Miller. Since the autonomous landing RC airplane consists of hardware, software and aeronautic implementations it is necessary to form a team with multidisciplinary areas of engineering.

Mary is majoring in Computer Engineering with a strong background in computer science and math. Mary has a great interest in aviation and holds a commercial pilot’s license. In obtaining a CPL she studied various subject areas such as aerodynamics, radio aids, instruments, navigation, meteorology and flight planning which will contribute to our proposed project.

Peter is majoring in Electrical Engineering he has held many leadership positions on campus and is founder of a fraternity at University Park.. His Interests include financial algorithms, robotics, Linux hacking, and RC devices.

John is majoring in Computer Engineering with strong leadership skills along with good technical skills developed by extensive experience in areas such as CAD, project management, database applications. He is an electronics and gadget enthusiast. In addition, experience in other disciplines such as civil engineering adds a valuable perspective to the projects the group will undertake.

Alex is majoring in Computer Engineering with a great deal of experience with networking gained while working at a law firm for 5 years. He was responsible for setting up the network and maintaining it if any problems aroused.

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)

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)

References

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.

References Books: Author. (year, month day). Title. (edition) [Type of medium]. volume (issue). Available: site/path/file

Example: [1] J. Jones. (1991, May 10). Networks. (2nd ed.) [Online]. Available: http://www.atm.com

Journals: Author. (year, month). Title. Journal. [Type of medium]. volume (issue), pages. Available: site/path/file Example: [2] R. J. Vidmar. (1992, Aug.). On the use of atmospheric plasmas as electromagnetic reflectors. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. [Online].

21(3), pp. 876–880. Available: http://www.halcyon.com/pub/journals/21ps03-vidmar Papers Presented at Conferences: Author. (year, month). Title. Presented at Conference title. [Type of

Medium]. Available: site/path/file Example:

[3] PROCESS Corp., MA. Intranets: Internet technologies deployed behind the firewall for corporate productivity. Presented at INET96 Annu. Meeting. [Online]. Available: http://home.process.com/Intranets/wp2.htp

Website Lynch, T. (1996). DS9 trials and tribble-ations review. Retrieved October 8, 1997, from Psi Phi: Bradley's Science

Fiction Club Web site: http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/503r.html Article from an Internet Database Mershon, D. H. (1998, November-December). Star trek on the brain: Alien minds, human minds. American

Scientist, 86, 585. Retrieved July 29, 1999, from Expanded Academic ASAP database

Last two examples from: http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm

References Reports and Handbooks: Author. (year, month). Title. Company.

City, State or Country. [Type of Medium]. Available: site/path/file Example: [4] S. L. Talleen. (1996, Apr.). The Intranet Architecture: Managing

information in the new paradigm. Amdahl Corp., CA. [Online]. Available: http://www.amdahl.com/doc/products/bsg/intra/infra/html

Computer Programs and Electronic Documents: ISO recommends that capitalization follow the accepted practice for the language or script in which the information is given. Example: [5] A. Harriman. (1993, June). Compendium of genealogical software.

Humanist. [Online]. Available e-mail: HUMANIST@NYVM Message: get GENEALOGY REPORT

References

This Link may be helpful to write your references

http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm

Title

The title page contains several main pieces of information

1. Design Project Title (Could have Acronyms or Code Words but in that case a brief description is required)

2. Team Number3. Student team member names and their Panther ID4. University and Department.5. Type of Report

a) Senior I Proposalb) Senior II Final Report

Title

The title page contains several main pieces of information

1. The name of the person for whom the report has been prepared.

a) Senior I Instructor and Mentorb) Senior II Mentor

2. Course No. and Name3. Semester4. Date Submitted

Title Selection Styles1. Include the name of the problem, hypothesis, or theory

that was tested or is discussed. Example: Auto adjusting target scope

2. Include the name of the phenomenon or subject investigated.

Example: Motion Tracking / Object Recognition3. Name the method used to investigate a phenomenon or

method developed for application. Example: High- Speed Image Processing Using SKIPSM

4. Provide a brief description of the results obtained. Example: A New Paradigm In Secure Real-World Online Transactions The Drimolen Skull: The Most Complete Australopithecine Cranium and

Mandible to Date

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.

ABSTRACT An ABSTRACT can be the most difficult part of the

research report to write because in it you must: introduce your subject matter, tell what was done, and present selected 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.

Executive Summary An Executive Summary is an accurate representation of the

contents of a document in an abbreviated form. Executive Summaries are summaries provided for readers who do

not have time to read the entire document. The Executive Summary must be a self standing document,

sufficient in content to ensure that the reader can completely understand the contents of the Project.

To make reading easy use Bold Face or lists to indicate sections. You don’t need to write about all sections, just mention the most relevant

Follow this link for Executive Summary Format

Review Introduction General Recommendations

Section Headings References

Title Page

&QuestionsAnswers