Writing Skills Course - Part 2
Technical notes
February 2010
Contents
Contents
1
Chapter 1
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 2
Chapter 2
Content versus presentation ............................................................................ 2
Chapter 3
Outlining.......................................................................................................... 2
Chapter 4
Styles and Formatting...................................................................................... 3
Chapter 5
Languages and Spelling .................................................................................. 4
Chapter 6
Page setup ........................................................................................................ 4
Chapter 7
Header and Footer ........................................................................................... 4
Chapter 8
Sections and Section Breaks ........................................................................... 5
Chapter 9
Footnote Reference ......................................................................................... 6
Chapter 10 Endnote Reference .......................................................................................... 6
Chapter 11 Bibliographic software for references ............................................................. 6
Chapter 12 Cross-Reference .............................................................................................. 6
Chapter 13 Table of Contents ............................................................................................ 7
Chapter 14 Figures ............................................................................................................. 7
Chapter 15 Equations ......................................................................................................... 8
Chapter 16 Master Documents........................................................................................... 8
Chapter 17 Thesis guidelines ............................................................................................. 8
Chapter 18 Software tools .................................................................................................. 9
Dr Paul J Warren, Senior IT officer, Department of Materials, University of Oxford
Paul J Warren
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Chapter 1 Introduction
This document is intended to give some practical advice for writing documents such as reports,
papers or theses.
This document was originally written using Microsoft Word 2003 as part of Microsoft Office 2003
and running on WindowsXP operating system. Microsoft software is available at low cost from the
Oxford
University
Computing
Services
Shop.
See
the
shop’s
website
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/shop for more details on obtaining the software for installation on your
own computer, or talk to the administrator of the departmental or group computer you intend to use.
The newer version of Microsoft Word in Office 2007 has significantly different interface and the
commands to achieve the effects described below are slightly different however the tips and
suggestions contained within this document are generally applicable (even if you prefer to use
alternative software packages such as WordPerfect, Latex, OpenOffice etc. ).
There are no University regulations concerning the choice of software for preparation of documents
however compatibility is an important issue which should be considered at an early stage in
discussion with your supervisor – who will probably want an electronic copy of your documents at
some stage. Also be aware that some journals and publishers require specific software file-formats.
Also be aware that since 1st October 2007 candidates are required to “submit an electronic copy to
the Oxford Research Archive” in addition to the printed copy for the library. This is a good reason
to spend the time working out how to use the software to full advantage early on, rather than trying
to force the thesis into a manageable format after submission.
Chapter 2 Content versus presentation
.
Careful thought about presentation can significantly enhance the impact/intelligibility of the
content. More importantly, though, poor presentation can significantly diminish the
impact/intelligibility of the content.
Formatting (e.g. font type, font size, line spacing, paragraph spacing, indentation, numbering etc.)
and document layout (e.g. page layout, headings, sections, headers, footers, page numbers, page
breaks, table of contents, index etc…) can be used to clarify the document structure. Formatting and
layout can also be used to emphasise the key points (e.g. bullet-points, italics, bold).
This document uses a wide range of functionality available in Microsoft Word to facilitate the
presentation and structuring of the content of this document, and is intended to be a (rather
complicated) example of how to produce a professional-looking well-formatted document. Not all
documents need all this functionality however large documents in particular may benefit from these
tips and suggestions.
Chapter 3 Outlining
When starting a new document, think about the structure of the document. For example if starting a
journal paper the structure of the document must conform to the Author Guidelines for that
particular journal. A typical structure for a paper could be
Title
Abstract
Introduction
Experimental
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Results
Part 1
Part 2
Discussion
Conclusions
References
Viewing the document in outline view is a useful way of quickly setting-up the overall structure.
View: Outline
When in outline view, type the text for the headings and sub-headings (e.g. as above) and then
allocate each line the appropriate heading level (e.g. Introduction could be Heading1 and Part1
could be Heading2). It is then possible to control which levels to display or to move through the
document structure expanding/contracting particular headings of interest. The outline view is also a
useful tool for navigating around a large existing document, and a useful tool for reorganizing the
structure of an existing document.
Chapter 4 Styles and Formatting
Rather than trying to format paragraphs as you write them, it is better to use clearly defined styles
from the beginning.
Format: Styles and Formatting
Home: Styles
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Since there are so many options for creating your own formatting it may be useful to look at an
existing document which you like the format and look at the formatting to see how it has been
achieved.
Format: Reveal Formatting
Home: Styles (show styles window)
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
For example, I have modified the ‘Heading1’ style which
controls the format of the section headings by basing it
upon the default ‘Normal’ style but changing to the
following settings: font size 14pt, paragraph spacing 12pt
before and 6pt after, font bold, keep lines together, keep
with next paragraph, don’t hyphenate words at end of lines,
bordered by single line below, numbering as per outline
numbering, automatically update. In addition I have
modified the normal style to have justified lines.
Inexperienced authors tend to control the look of a
document on an as-needs-must basis and the resulting
document does often look acceptable. However producing
the document has required many more formatting
decisions, it is difficult to subsequently modify the overall
layout or formatting and it is difficult to ensure consistency
of formatting (especially if the document may have
multiple authors, such as a co-author or secretary). Here
are some particularly common examples of poor practice
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which should be avoided by the use of styles

Avoid using multiple spaces and/or tabs to indent paragraphs or to align columns of text

Avoid mixing too many fonts within one document

Avoid using empty lines as space fillers, or to control page roll-overs
Chapter 5 Languages and Spelling
The default setting on most installations of Microsoft Word is to use English (U.S.). It is
recommended that the default language should be changed to use English (U.K.).
Tools: Language: Set Language…
(Word2003)
Start:All Programs: Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office 2007
Language Settings
(Word2007)
The language settings control the automatic selection of dictionaries for checking spelling and
grammar. There are significant differences between English (U.K.) and English (U.S.), which many
people find irritating. It is worth running spell checking continuously while you type. You can
enable continuous checking of spelling and grammar via Set Language or you can run a spell-check
manually via the Spelling and Grammar or Proofing.
Tools: Spelling and Grammar…
MicrosoftOfficeButton: WordOptions: Proofing
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
If working on a large document it is also worthwhile creating and updating your own custom
dictionary in order to teach your computer that specific scientific words you use frequently are
acceptable. e.g. microstructure, nanomaterials etc.
Chapter 6 Page setup
This page is A4 size (UK uses A4 whereas USA uses Letter, so this setting often needs changing).
The default margins in this version of Microsoft Word are 2.5cm top 2.54cm bottom 3.2cm left
3.2cm right. These setting leave quite a lot of blank space and can be reduced for single page
documents, such as this page, which has margins set to 1.5cm top 1.5cm bottom, 1.5cm left 1.5cm
right. Note that some printers have smaller printable areas than others, therefore reducing margins
less than 1.5cm can cause problems and should be considered carefully if the document is intended
for electronic distribution and various printers.
File: Pagesetup
PageLayout
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
If the document is to be bound into a booklet, then the binding needs extra space called the gutter
margin. This document will be printed double sided and bound so the gutter has been set to 0.5cm
with mirroring. This means that the document automatically tracks whether the page is a lefthanded page or a right handed page.
Chapter 7 Header and Footer
The header and footer at top and bottom of the page respectively should contain useful information
about the document. In this document the header gives the name of the author and the name of the
document, whereas the footer gives the last print date and the number of the page relative to the
whole document. Autotext inserts can be easily configured to your own preference. The format of
the page numbering can be modified if necessary (e.g. add chapter numbering to a thesis).
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View: Header and Footer
Insert: AutoText
Insert: Page Numbers
(Word2003)
(Word2003)
(Word2003)
Insert: Header&Footer
(Word2007)
Documents with different left-hand and right-hand pages like in a book can have different headers
and footers on left-handed and right-handed pages. Similarly the header and footer of the first page
can be different. This behaviour depends upon the page set-up layout.
File: Pagesetup
PageLayout
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Chapter 8 Sections and Section Breaks
Further flexibility of page layout settings such as headers and footers is available by dividing the
document into sections.
However as a note of caution, different headers and footers can become confusing when the
document is not long enough to have a left-handed and a right-handed page for each section of the
document, since it is only possible to view the header and footer of a page that exists. A simple
workaround for setting-up headers and footers in a document with multiple sections is to insert
some temporary page-breaks.
Insert: Break
Insert: Pages: Page Break
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Figure 2 Example dialog box for inserting a caption
Figure 1
endnote
Example dialog box for inserting an
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Chapter 9 Footnote Reference
The bottom of this page shows two footnotes, which are referenced with symbolic† and numeric1
markers respectively.
Insert: Reference: Footnote
References: Footnotes: Insert Footnote
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Chapter 10 Endnote Reference
The last page of this document shows some example reference styles which are commonly found in
Journals and theses. The style of the reference varies according to whether the article is a journal
paper [1], a proceedings paper [2], or a book [3]. Note that it was necessary to change the default
style for ‘Endnote Reference’ and ‘Endnote Text’ in order to achieve the effect requested by the
journal (e.g. Acta Materialia or a typical thesis). Endnote references automatically update when
another reference is inserted (e.g. before [2]). This is a major effort-saver when writing a thesis! A
typical thesis contains >200 references spread over 150 pages of text (and figures) so adding a new
reference (e.g. before [2]) causes major effort if you are maintaining the numbering system
manually.
Insert: Reference: Footnote
(Select Endnote)
References: Footnotes: Insert Endnote
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
In addition to referring to other published literature it is usually necessary to refer to tables and
figures in the same document. Again when preparing a thesis which may contain more than 100
figures it is preferable to set the caption numbering to be controlled automatically.
Insert: Reference: Caption
References: Captions: Insert Caption
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Chapter 11 Bibliographic software for references
Several different software packages exist which enable automatic formatting of references and
importing of references from other databases e.g. Microsoft Endnote which is free from OUCS shop
under the Microsoft site licensing scheme. [NOTE: http://www.endnote.com provides a patch
necessary if working with XPservicepack2] After the software has been installed there is an extra
item on the Tools menu called EndNote.
Tools: EndNote
Add-Ins: Menu Commands: Endnote
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
All the main on-line bibliographic search tools allow outputting of data in a format compatible for
reading into a local copy of Endnote. This is a very powerful method of managing your references
and is very worthwhile for formatting references when writing papers and theses. OUCS run
courses on how to use Endnote effectively.
Chapter 12 Cross-Reference
When referring to an journal paper for a second time (e.g.[1]) as opposed to a new paper (e.g. [4]),
rather than making a duplicate reference you should make a cross-reference to the existing endnote
so that if the numbering changes (due to inserting another reference/endnote) then the crossreference numbering updates automatically.
†
Example footnote with symbolic reference marker (often used by journal papers to list author contact details)
1
Example footnote with numeric reference marker
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Insert: Reference: Cross-reference
References: Captions: Cross-reference
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(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Similarly cross-references can be used to refer to figure and table captions e.g. Figure 1 shows the
insert endnote dialog box whereas Figure 2 shows the insert caption dialog box.
Chapter 13 Table of Contents
A thesis requires a table of contents. It is a major undertaking to generate a table of contents
manually (and especially to update it each time the page numbering changes!). Microsoft Word can
be configured to generate a Table of Contents automatically if styles have been used to identify the
appropriate chapter headings and and sub-headings.
Insert: Reference: Index&Tables
References: Index
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
The table of contents does not detect changes. In order to update the table of contents, first select
the existing table of contents and then either click F9 or insert the table again.
For a thesis it may be useful to insert a table of figure captions and a table of table captions also as
shown on the front page of this document.
Chapter 14 Figures
There are many ways to insert figures into a document. Word knows about two types of graphic
items – pictures and drawings. Pictures are fixed images usually produced by another program and
inserted into the document, whereas drawings are creatable and modifiable in Word.
Figure 3 shows the default menu layout for Word2003 used to create this document.
The image in Figure 3 was a screen capture created using a simple freeware package called
MWSnap3 downloaded from the www.tucows.com software repository. After capturing the image
into the program MWSnap3, I copied and pasted the image directly into this document.
Edit: Paste
Home: Paste
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Alternatively I could have saved the image from MWSnap3 to disk and then inserted the image
from file to achieve the same effect. One advantage of saving to disk then inserting from file is the
ability to select the file format, which in this case was a choice of bitmap, jpeg, gif, png or tiff. The
choice affects the file size, resolution, color etc. Tiff is large but maintains resolution, jpeg is
smaller due to compression and for graduated colour, gif is for blocks of colour (i.e. not photos)
Insert: Picture from file
Insert: Illustrations: Picture
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(Word2003)
(Word2007)
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100
80
A
%X
60
B
%Y
40
%Z
20
1%
0
C
A
B
C
Figure 5 show a simple Chart
Figure 4 shows a simple Microsoft Word drawing
Figure 4 was created by inserting a new drawing and using the built-in drawing editor and the
drawing toolbar functions to create a simple figure.
Insert: Picture New Drawing
(Word2003)
Insert: Illustrations: Shapes: NewDrawingCanvass (Word2007)
Figure 5 was created by inserting a new chart and using the built-in chart editor. In reality it is more
likely that such a figure would be inserted from a proper Excel spreadsheet.
Insert: Picture Chart
Insert: Illustrations: Chart
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
Chapter 15 Equations
Equations can be inserted using the Microsoft Equation editor which is part of Office2003. Please
note that the equation editor is not installed by default, and when doing an installation of Microsoft
Office you should check that it is selected for installation. If you need to install it at a later date goto
ControlPanel:Add/RemovePrograms and update Microsoft Office.
T
Equation 1
H  H 0   C P dT
T0
Insert:Object:MicrosoftEquation
Insert:Symbols: Equation
(Word2003)
(Word2007)
This equation editor can achieve most effects however authors who use equations regularly tend to
prefer more powerful software such MathType. MathType is however no-longer site-licensed from
OUCS.
Chapter 16 Master Documents
A thesis is so large that it is usually prepared as smaller sub-documents which eventually need to be
joined together to make the complete thesis. The master document function in Microsoft Word is
intended for exactly this purpose. It also facilitates keeping the styles and formatting consistent
throughout the thesis. This functionality is available when working in outline view.
Chapter 17 Thesis guidelines
The Graduate studies office has guidelines concerning the preparation of theses, as described in
document GSO.21, available on the http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/gso website. Some key comments
concerning formatting are reproduced below.
GSO.21 Item 1
The thesis must be typed or printed on one side of the paper only, with a margin of 3 to 3.5 cm on
the left-hand side of each page. Theses in typescript should present the main text in double spacing
with quotations and footnotes in single spacing
Dr Paul J Warren, Senior IT officer, Department of Materials, University of Oxford
Paul J Warren
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Footnotes should normally be placed at the bottom of each page. Where they are given at the end of
each chapter or at the end of the thesis, two separate booklets of footnotes should also be presented,
for the convenience of the examiners.
The pages of the thesis must be numbered.
GSO21 Item 6 xvii b
Theses submitted by candidates in Metallurgy or Materials Science shall not exceed 25,000 words
for the M.Sc. and 40,000 words for the D.Phil., A4 size, double-spaced, but there is no limit on
references, diagrams, tables, photographs, computer programmes, etc.
Chapter 18 Software tools
What software do other people use in this department?
Word processing : Microsoft Word, Corel Wordperfect, SciWord
Equations : Mathtype, Microsoft Equation editor
Bibliography : Endnote, Procite, Reference manager
Graphing : Excel, Origin, Sigmaplot, Matlab
Images : Photoshop, PaintshopPro, Corel, GIMP, DigitalMicrograph
Mathematics : Mathematica, Matlab
PDF creation : PDF Creator Pro, Acrobat Standard, CutePDF, PDF995
Check what software is available at the OUCS shop http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/shop but make sure
you check the licensing terms and conditions for the different costs for using it on your personal PC
as opposed to using it on a department PC.
Check the department website http://www.materials.ox.ac.uk/it/itsoftware.html for notes on
obtaining specialist software (e.g. mathematica, matlab).
Use the internet to download freeware.
References
[1] Flores KM, Dauskardt RH. Scripta mater 1999;41:937
[2] Quinones SA, Rivas JM, Murr LE. Metallography of hypervelocity impact crater formation in aluminium and
copper, In: Shehata MT, Leduce TR, Lemay I, Louthan MR, editors. Microstructural Science, vol. 22. Materials Park
(OH): ASM International, 1995. p.3.
[3] Khachaturyan AG. Theory of structural transformation in solids, New York: Wiley, 1983.
[4] Smith GDW. Acta mater 2002;45:102
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