Style Guidelines
By: Wilmer Arellano FIU
Fall 2007
Overview
E-mails
 Introduction to Proposal Style
 General Recommendations
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 Section
Headings
 References
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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.pdf
C.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 or
 When I e-mail your FIU account or
 When 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.
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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.
2.
3.
4.
A 12-point Times New Roman font and single
line spacing should be used for the text.
Headings can be done in bold or using a larger
font.
The report pages have to be numbered
throughout. 1” page margins have to be used.
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)
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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.
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References
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Books: Author. (year, month day). Title. (edition) [Type of medium]. volume (issue). Available: site/path/file
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Journals: Author. (year, month). Title. Journal. [Type of medium]. volume (issue), pages. Available: site/path/file
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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:
[1] J. Jones. (1991, May 10). Networks. (2nd ed.) [Online]. Available: http://www.atm.com
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
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
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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
Title

The title page contains several main
pieces of information
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Design Project Title (Could have Acronyms or Code Words but in that
case a brief description is required)
Team Number
Student team member names and their Panther ID
University and Department.
The name of the person for whom the report has been prepared.
Course No. and Name
Semester
Date Submitted
Title Selection Styles
1.
Include the name of the problem, hypothesis, or theory
that was tested or is discussed.

2.
Include the name of the phenomenon or subject
investigated.

3.
Example: Motion Tracking / Object Recognition
Name the method used to investigate a phenomenon
or method developed for application.

4.
Example: Auto adjusting target scope
Example: High- Speed Image Processing Using SKIPSM
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:
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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
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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
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Introduction
General Recommendations
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Section Headings
References
Title Page
&
Questions
Answers