By: Wilmer Arellano FIU
Spring 2010
Overview
• E-mails
• Introduction to Proposal Style
• General Recommendations
▫ Section Headings
▫ References
• 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.pd
f
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
• When you e-mail me please:
▫ Copy all your team members
▫ Include team ID and course # in the subject
▫ Include all the team names in the signature
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.
General Recommendations
• Start all your sections with an opening
paragraph.
▫ Do not start with a Figure, a Table or a Result
▫ You are not writing for yourself or your instructor
▫ You are writing for somebody you don’t know
• When Possible use bulleted or numbered lists to
highlight different ideas, topics or other Items.
▫ See next examples
Start all your sections with an
opening paragraph. Publix’s Letter
• When you write for yourself
▫ Go to publix.
Start all your sections with an
opening paragraph. Publix’s Letter
• When you write for somebody you know
▫ Go to publix and buy milk, bread, ham and sodas.
Start all your sections with an
opening paragraph. Publix’s Letter
• When you write for somebody you don’t know k
I.
PUBLIX’S LETTER
Dear reader, to make things easier for you I prepared this detailed explanation about what groceries are
needed. We need to buy groceries for two different purposes, for the trip we will start tomorrow and
for mom who will stay home. Please do not go to Win-Dixie that we know has great prices but we want
to take advantage of today’s specials at Publix. In addition to that our friend Joe works there and he will
help you with the brands we like. This is what we require.
A. For mom staying home
Please buy:
1. 1 pack of six Coca Cola 0
2. 1 Sour dough bread
B. For our trip
We require more because as we are a group of 4
Please buy:
1. 3 packs of six Coca Cola 0
2. 1 Loaf of sandwich bread
3. 2 pounds of ham
Finally please our groceries in the porch and mom’s in the kitchen
I.
HEADING
Introductory paragraph:
Explaining what you want to do, methods, data, information sources, etc.
Body:
Providing all the detail, figures, tables, explanations, etc.
Important, any figure, table, etc, must be explained in the text use In Figure 7
rather than the figure bellow.
Concluding paragraph:
Explaining what was learned or obtained and linking to the next Section
General Recommendations
• When Possible use bulleted or numbered lists to
highlight different ideas, topics or other Items.
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
▫
▫
•
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:
[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
▫ 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
•Double click on the
white area of this slide
to open the Word
page that contains the
Title Page.
•Copy the entire Title
Page and paste it into
a new Word 2007
document.
•My example does not
have any formatting.
Please use some
creativity here
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
EEL-4920 – Senior Design I
Spring 2009
GPS Oriented Autonomous Car (GOAC)
Team Number 17
Team Member 1
Team Member 2
Team Member 3
Team Leader 4
Senior Design II Proposal
Submitted to:
Senior Design I Instructor: Professor Wilmer Arellano
Mentor: Dr. John Smith
04/20/2009
Insert a new page
 Copy
and Paste
the outline into
your document
 Delete
information
regarding to
Title page
 Make sure you
have the most
current version

http://web.eng.fiu.edu/~arellano/4010/Lectur
e%20II/Proposal%20Outline.doc
SENIOR II PROPOSAL OUTLINE
Title page and Contents
Title Page
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
I.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
II.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
A. Project Objectives
B. Constraints
III.
ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS.
A. Assumptions
B. Limitations
IV.
NEEDS FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
A. Needs Analysis
B. Feasibility Analysis
V.
RISK ANALYSIS
VI.
OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
VII. INTENDED USER(S) AND INTENDED USE(S)
A. Intended user(s).
B. Intended use(s).
VIII. BACKGROUND
IX.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONSIDERATIONS
X.
STANDARDS CONSIDERATIONS
XI.
HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
XII. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
XIII. SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
XIV. MANUFACTURABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
XV. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND SOCIAL IMPACT
XVI. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
A. Different Solutions
1) Advantages
2) Disadvantages
XVII. END PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AND OTHER DELIVERABLES
A.
End Product Description
B.
Functions
C.
Specifications
D.
Other Deliverables
XVIII. PLAN OF ACTION
A.
Statement of Work (SOW)
B.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
C.
Project Milestones
D.
Gantt Charts
XIX. MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASPECTS
XX. PERSONNEL
XXI. BUDGET
XXII. RESULTS EVALUATION
XXIII. LIFE-LONG LEARNING
XXIV. CONCLUSION
XXV. REFERENCES
XXVI. APPENDICES
A.
Team Contract
B.
Intellectual Property Contract
XXVII. SENIOR DESIGN II - PROCEDURES
 Remove
all
numbering
and
formatting
 Select the
whole outline
and click
Style Normal
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
I.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
II.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
A. Project Objectives
B. Constraints
III.
ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS.
A. Assumptions
B. Limitations
IV.
NEEDS FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
A. Needs Analysis
B. Feasibility Analysis
V.
RISK ANALYSIS
VI.
OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
VII. INTENDED USER(S) AND INTENDED USE(S)
A. Intended user(s).
B. Intended use(s).
VIII. BACKGROUND
IX.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONSIDERATIONS
X.
STANDARDS CONSIDERATIONS
XI.
HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
XII. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
XIII. SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
XIV. MANUFACTURABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
XV. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND SOCIAL IMPACT
XVI. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
A. Different Solutions
1) Advantages
2) Disadvantages
XVII. END PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AND OTHER DELIVERABLES
A.
End Product Description
B.
Functions
C.
Specifications
D.
Other Deliverables
XVIII. PLAN OF ACTION
A.
Statement of Work (SOW)
B.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
C.
Project Milestones
D.
Gantt Charts
XIX. MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASPECTS
XX. PERSONNEL
XXI. BUDGET
XXII. RESULTS EVALUATION
XXIII. LIFE-LONG LEARNING
XXIV. CONCLUSION
XXV. REFERENCES
XXVI. APPENDICES
A.
Team Contract
B.
Intellectual Property Contract
XXVII. SENIOR DESIGN II - PROCEDURES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Project Objectives
Constraints
ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS.
Assumptions
Limitations
NEEDS FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
Needs Analysis
Feasibility Analysis
RISK ANALYSIS
OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
INTENDED USER(S) AND INTENDED USE(S)
Intended user(s).
Intended use(s).
BACKGROUND
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONSIDERATIONS
STANDARDS CONSIDERATIONS
HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
MANUFACTURABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND SOCIAL IMPACT
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Different Solutions
Advantages
Disadvantages
END PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AND OTHER DELIVERABLES
End Product Description
Functions
Specifications
Other Deliverables
PLAN OF ACTION
Statement of Work (SOW)
 Insert
page breaks as the one inserted
before after:
• AKNNOWLEDGEMENT and
• ABSTRACT
• Center them and use Bold Capital Letters
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Executive Summary


Insert a
Page Break
as indicated
in the next
slide, just
Before the
first letter of
each section
starting with
Executive
Summary
This is a
different
type of page
break
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Project Objectives
Constraints
ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS.
Assumptions
Limitations
NEEDS FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS
Needs Analysis
Feasibility Analysis
RISK ANALYSIS
OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
INTENDED USER(S) AND INTENDED USE(S)
Intended user(s).
Intended use(s).
BACKGROUND
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONSIDERATIONS
STANDARDS CONSIDERATIONS
HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
SUSTAINABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
MANUFACTURABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND SOCIAL IMPACT
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Different Solutions
•Click on the pull down arrow of breaks
in the Page Layout menu and select
next page
 Another
Example
 Observe that
Sub Sections
must remain
within their
section
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Project Objectives
Constraints
1
Select Define
New Multilevel
List
•
•
•
•
•
•
Select levels 1 thru 4 and:
Set for all levels :
Number Alignment Left
Aligned at: 0”
Text Indent .25”
Link levels to style
headings 1, 2, 3, 4
respectively
Edit the Headings according to IEEE style
Click the pull down arrow
 Center
Primary
Heading
 Use
Italics for
secondary,
tertiary and
quaternary
headings
 Use
Bold for all
headings
 Use
automatic
color for all
headings
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Apply the new
style to the
executive
summary
1
I.
This is how it
would look like
1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas sed nisi cursus
augue feugiat pulvinar. Nullam eget urna eu lectus iaculis rutrum. Integer et odio. Sed
eros nunc, blandit vitae, imperdiet id, egestas sed, elit. Integer metus enim, mollis non,
fringilla sit amet, porttitor eget, pede. Proin eget lacus quis lectus auctor egestas. Lorem
ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris felis. Suspendisse quis tellus.
Morbi ornare elit quis nisl. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nam aliquam hendrerit
turpis. Aliquam erat volutpat. Integer lacus ligula, tristique quis, sagittis vel, tincidunt ac,
purus. Nulla ut leo et erat tincidunt scelerisque. Vestibulum libero tellus, adipiscing nec,
molestie sit amet, venenatis quis, pede. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit. Nulla consectetur diam ac arcu. Donec eleifend orci in lorem.
A. Project Objectives
Aliquam scelerisque. Sed ornare eros eget nisi. Etiam enim nulla, rutrum eu,
adipiscing in, faucibus luctus, urna. Mauris vulputate elementum pede. Vivamus purus
nulla, eleifend quis, ultrices sed, varius sit amet, nibh. Praesent elementum fringilla
sem. Nulla vitae justo eget massa tempor hendrerit. Curabitur vestibulum. In aliquam
consectetur urna. Praesent odio felis, porttitor ac, posuere ac, lacinia vitae, lectus. Nulla
facilisi. Sed aliquet tincidunt magna. Donec scelerisque dolor.
B. Constraints
Suspendisse libero nunc, elementum sit amet, volutpat a, lacinia non, justo.
Suspendisse leo. Vestibulum sodales velit ac elit fringilla scelerisque. Integer ultricies
facilisis lectus. Phasellus vitae ligula. Morbi erat. Morbi nec tellus eu lorem vehicula
dictum. Etiam et tellus aliquet enim tincidunt tempus. Nullam viverra, purus consectetur
euismod egestas, massa ante tincidunt neque, et elementum pede lectus nec leo. Ut
sollicitudin consequat neque.
•Click on the pull down arrow of the
citation button.
•Insert new Citation Source so that a
reference that you enter here will appear
automatically in the table of references
•Follow the format:
•LastName1, Name1; LastName2, Name2; etc.
VIII.
BACKGROUND
In this section we will review three different projects that curabitur sit aenean. Dui massa quam,
torquent lacus dolor lacus malesuada lacinia aliquam, arcu magna augue amet, vestibulum morbi urna
aliquam non montes mi, commodo a amet. Sapien ut quisque elit sed est aliquam, eu maecenas dictumst
ligula dolor, at integer morbi, praesent odit molestie morbi elementum nulla. Placerat lorem tincidunt
tortor arcu. Tempor in a ad nulla egestas, in felis aliquet magna eleifend semper suscipit, in ac,
maecenas rutrum a viverra. Massa sed id velit risus, nobis convallis dictum mauris, aenean ut, auctor sed
fusce wisi ut.
A.
Autonomous Airplane
This project was accomplished by John Smith and Alfred White at ABC University in 2001 [1].
Integer suspendisse et diam sed feugiat erat, integer integer id mi viverra nibh ipsum, posuere justo
volutpat posuere pellentesque. Fusce quam, blandit orci dapibus ipsum massa, in dis. Dignissim iaculis
sed nulla auctor. Eget eleifend sit phasellus, sed lorem a aliquet eu venenatis nibh, euismod massa class
quam pharetra amet nostra. In general it is not necessary to mention the authors of a reference but
in this case they are relevant to the context.
•Put the cursor where you want to add a
reference
•This time click the Citation button in the
center and then select the citation from the
list.
•Insert figure and table captions so they will
appear automatically in the list of figures
Insert figure citations to the
figures, just as we did before
 In
the same form you should introduce
caption for tables.
 Make sure that you select Table from the
pull down menu
 Word
2007 handles page numbers
independently for the different
“Document Sections”
 According to the way the page breaks
were inserted, each chapter is a MS Word
Section
 Go
to the first page, click somewhere on
it and from the Insert Menu select Page
number
 Go
to the first page, click somewhere on it and
from the Insert Menu select Page number
(Make sure to use the pull down arrow)
 This will number both sections of the document
 Now
click just before the first letter of
each chapter and from the insert menu
select Format Page Numbers
 This will give different number format for
the chapters
 Go
to the title page and double click on
the page number
 Follow instructions in the next slides
Double
click on the number and
then click Different First Page.
Do not exit this menu
 In
the same menu, select Format Page
Numbers
 Select
lower case roman numbers:
• i, ii, ii
 This
concludes this step
List of Figures
List of Tables
 For
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and the
ABSTRACT to appear in the table of
contents, they need to be “styled” as
Titles
 Base
the style
on Heading 1
 Under
Format
select
“Numbering”
 Under
Numbering
select “None”
 Under
Format
select
“Borders”
 Under
Borders
select “None”




You must have a blank page after the Title Page
Insert six line feeds and position the cursor in the first
one
From the Reference Menu select Table of Contents
This will insert your Table of Contents
 Position
the cursor in the third of the line
feeds
 In the same page and from the same
menu select Insert Table of Figures
 This will insert your Table of Figures
 This
same exact procedure is used to
insert the List of Tables
 Select Table from the Pull Down
 Click
on the References Page and insert
the references
 This
procedure will create an extra
heading, delete it
 The
table of Contents, The List of Figures,
List of Tables and the References must be
updated manually when you change your
document
 Right click on each table and select
Update Field
 Later select Update Entire Table if you
are offered the option