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CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT Writing Up Project Reports



CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 
Writing Up Project Reports

1.   The report must be written in English, using simple words, but no abbreviations, such  as  “it’s”,  “he’d”  instead  of  “it  is”  “he  would”  or  “he  had”.  Use  double  line spacing, and short sentences. The important thing in technical report writing is that  it  should  be  easily  understood.  Technical  reports  are  generally  written  in the passive voice. All figures and tables must have an explanatory title, and must be numbered in the same order as they are referred to in the text.
2.  The report should consist of the following parts:
a)  Title page: This should  contain  a  suitable  title  for  your report,  such  as “Summer training report on the construction of Guzelyurt Dam”, followed by your name, surname, student no., department, university, and at the bottom of the page, the month and year of completion of the report.
b)  Abstract: This should summarize, in about 200-300 words, the contents of the report, and enable the reader to decide whether the report is within his or her field of interest. The abstract cannot be considered as a part of the main report, in the sense that you cannot skip items just because you have mentioned them in the abstract. No references are generally given in the abstract.
c)  Acknowledgements: This is a sign of courtesy to acknowledge the help received  from  any  person(s)  or  organization(s)  during  the  course  of  your work.
d)  Table  of  Contents:   This   should   list   the   main   sections   and   the subsections of the report, together with the pages on which they start.
e)  The main body of the report: This should consist of the following.
(i)       An introduction: In the particular case of summer training reports (STR),  this  should  give  information  about  where  you  did  the training, the general type of work on which you were engaged, short information  about  the  firm  or  other  organization  where  you  have done the summer training. etc.
  (ii)      Logical sections on what you want to present: In the special case of the STR start by the type of work on which you have been mostly engaged;  do  not  include  text  book  information,  unless  absolutely necessary,  and  if  you  want  to  give  such  information  refer  to  it briefly,   giving   references   where   the   reader   can   find   more information about the subject.
(iii)     Conclusions: This should summarize the outcome of your work, and may include suggestions.  
(iv)     Appendices: Any subsidiary material such as the details of certain topics should be placed in an appendix (or appendices).
(v)      Notation: All abbreviations and symbols must be defined where they first  appear  in  the  text,  and  these  definitions  must  be  listed separately  for  Abbreviations  and  Symbols  (in  alphabetical  order firstly of Latin, then of Greek symbols), at the end of the report.
(vi)     References:  Mode  of  quoting  and  listing  references  should  be standardized as follows.
*** In the text:
Give the author’s (or authors’) surname(s) (adding “et al.” After the first  name,  if  there  are  more  than  two  authors),  and  the  year  of publication  as,  e.g.,  “Smith  (1992)  has  solved  the  problem…“or” results in higher strength (Marsland et al., 1988).” If you have not seen a particular reference (e.g. Casagrande, 1936) yourself, state, e.g.,  “…  proposed  by  Casagrande  (1936)  (quoted  by  Bishop,  1971),“and do not include Casagrande (1936) in your list of references.
*** In the list of references: 
Arranged  in  alphabetical  order  of  authors  surnames.Follow  these examples quoted from a conference, a journal, and a book:
Kristianovic,  S.A.  &  Zheltov,  Y.P.  (1955)  Formation  of  vertical
fractures  by  means  of  highly-viscous  liquid.  Proc.  4th Wld  Petrol Cong., RomL-,2,579-586.
 Skempton,  A.W.  (1954).  The  pore  pressure  coefficients  A  and  B. Geotechnique. 4, NO.4, 143-147.
 Terzaghi, K. (1943). Theoretical soil mechanics. Pp.8-24, New York:Wiley. September 1994.

About Author:

I am Thomas Britto here to share my experiences in the civil engineering field to all my readers.Today many students are struggling to buy books at high prices. So I decided to start a blog and share my experience and knowledge with all my readers.


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