1. By: Wilmer Arellano FIU Fall 2013
Style Guidelines
By: Wilmer Arellano FIU
Fall 2013
Wilmer Arellano

2. Overview E-mails Introduction to Proposal Style
Wilmer Arellano
Overview s
Introduction to Proposal Style
General Recommendations
Section Headings
References
Title Page

3. Wilmer Arellano
References
One of the most impressive sites regarding technical writing.
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:
C.W. POST CAMPUS APA Citation Style. Retrieved January 10, from Long Island University Web site:

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I will use as my broadcast list the one that I get from Panther's Soft.
I might reply to personal accounts if I received s from them but I will not include them in my broadcast list.
Please check that your FIU account is working.
When you me please:
Copy all your team members
Include team ID and course # in the subject
Include all the team names in the signature

5. Introduction to Proposal Style
Wilmer Arellano
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.

6. General Recommendations
Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations
Write on both sides paper (save some trees)
The report pages have to be numbered throughout.

7. General Recommendations
Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations
Use template at:
Proposal Template

8. General Recommendations
Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations
Some of your Proposal Sections are going to remain identical in the Final Report.
Use verb tenses that do not need to be updated
Use the “project is about” rather than “the project will be”. Later you would need to update the last to “the project was about”
Start all your sections with an opening paragraph.
Do not start with a Figure, a Table or a Result

9. General Recommendations
Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations
Do not start with a Figure, a Table or a Result
You are not writing for yourself
You are not writing for your instructor
You are writing for somebody you don’t know

10. General Recommendations
Wilmer Arellano
General Recommendations
When Possible use bulleted or numbered lists to highlight different ideas, topics or other Items.
See next examples

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Publix’s List
When you write for yourself
Go to Publix

12. Publix’s List When you write for somebody you know
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Publix’s List
When you write for somebody you know
Go to Publix and buy milk, bread, ham and sodas

13. Publix’s List When you write for somebody you don’t know
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Publix’s List
When you write for somebody you don’t know

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15. General Section Structure
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16. General Recommendations
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General Recommendations
When Possible use bulleted or numbered lists to highlight different ideas, topics or other Items.

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19. Section Headings (TEXT) A. Secondary Heading
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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

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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)

21. Order of Importance of the Different Elements
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Order of Importance of the Different Elements
Title
Abstract
Conclusions
Introduction
The last three are the last to be written

22. Title The title page contains several main pieces of information
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Title
The title page contains several main pieces of information
Project Title
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. (Your mentor and me)
Course No. and Name
Semester
Date Submitted

23. To download the title page please click here:
Wilmer Arellano
To download the title page please click here:
Title Page

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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.

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ABSTRACT
An ABSTRACT can be the most difficult part of the research report to write because in it you must:
introduce your subject matter,
Why your work is important
tell what (was)/(will be) done,
and present selected/expected 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.

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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

27. References. (Do not keep them manually. Use MS Word Tools)
Wilmer Arellano
References. (Do not keep them manually. Use MS Word Tools)
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.
Try Zotero

28. 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
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29. Follow the format: LastName1, Name1; LastName2, Name2; etc.
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30. Put the cursor where you want to add a citation
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31. (If using the template numbers will appear inside brackets)
This time click the Citation button in the center and then select the citation from the list.
(If using the template numbers will appear inside brackets)
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32. Insert figure and table captions so they will appear automatically in the list of figures
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34. Page Numbers
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
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35. Page Numbers
Go to the first page, click somewhere on it and from the Insert Menu select Page number
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36. This will number all sections of the document
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 all sections of the document
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37. This will give different number format for the chapters
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
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39. Page Numbers Go to the title page and double click on the page number
Follow instructions in the next slides
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40. Double click on the number and then click Different First Page.
Do not exit this menu
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41. In the same menu, select Format Page Numbers
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42. Select lower case roman numbers: This concludes page numbering
i, ii, ii
This concludes page numbering
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43. List of Figures List of Tables
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
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44. You must have a blank page after the Title Page
Insert six line feeds and position the cursor in the first one
From the References Menu select Table of Contents
This will insert your Table of Contents
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45. Position the cursor in the third of the line feeds
In the same page and from the same menu select Insert List of Figures
This will insert your List of Figures
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46. This same exact procedure is used to insert the List of Tables
Select Table from the Pull Down
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47. Click on the References Page and insert the references
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49. This procedure will create an extra heading, delete it
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50. Right click on each table and select Update Field
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
Wilmer Arellano