RESEARCH DISSERTATION THE STRUCTURE AND LAYOUT Dr. DEEPAK T. J. SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

RESEARCH DISSERTATIONRESEARCH DISSERTATION

THE STRUCTURE AND LAYOUTTHE STRUCTURE AND LAYOUT

Dr. DEEPAK T. J.Dr. DEEPAK T. J.

SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERINGSCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

The Detailed Layout of the Report

The detailed layout of your research report will vary dependent on the nature of your individual project but most or all of the following might be included before the beginning of the main text:

a) Title Page

b) Abstract or synopsis (including Keywords)

c) Acknowledgements

d) Table of Contents

e) List of figures

f) List of symbols

g) Glossary of terms


Having established the context, the main text follows. This will typically include most or all of the following:

a) Introduction

b) Literature review

c) Research methodology

d) Analysis of data

e) Discussion

f) Conclusions

g) Recommendations for further work

h) References


There will also be relevant information which it is not appropriate to include in the main body of the report. This will be included at the end in the;

a) Appendices

This gives a total of seventeen different possible sections that will need to be developed and put

together to construct the final report….

The Title Page

The title page should contain the following information:

a) The title of the research project

b) The author’s full name (qualifications if desired)

c) UEL Student number

d) Programme of study – BEng(Honours) in Civil Engineering

e) Submission month and academic year (April 2011)

The Abstract

• An abstract is an overall summary of the project from the initial aim to the final conclusion. The abstract will not exceed one page in length.

• Although this comes at the start of the report, it is likely to be the last section to actually be written as it cannot be constructed properly to summarise the report until the whole report has been completed.

Keywords

• Put keywords that describe the work at the bottom of the page after the Abstract

• The keywords that are used will depend on the specific project.

• The choice of keywords will be important; you will have experienced this during your own literature review!!!!

The purpose of the Abstract and Keywords is for researchers to be able to find out if the report is of interest to them

without having to read all of it

Acknowledgements

• Acknowledge any persons, companies or agencies etc. that have given help towards the research project

Table of Contents

• The table of contents is a list of the numbers of chapters, sections and sub-sections used in the report together with their titles and the page on which they start.

• It is possible to generate a Table of Contents automatically using Word

• However you generate the Table of Contents, you need to make sure that it is updated every time that you make changes

List of Figures

Often certain figures in a report will be particularly useful and readers may want to turn directly to these. This will only be possible if:

a) Each figure has a clear title saying what it represents

b) Each Figure has a unique number

c) A list of figures is presented showing the figure number, its title and the page number where it can be found

List of Symbols

• When equations are presented in a report, the same symbol should be used for a given physical quantity throughout the report

• The List of Symbols shows all of the symbols you have used in the report and indicates what each of these mean; For example:

Undrained cohesion is sometimes given the symbol Su and sometimes the symbol Cu

List of Symbols

• If your report refers to undrained cohesion, you should pick one of these symbols (it doesn’t really matter which), list this in the List of Symbols and then use the same symbol throughout the report.

Glossary of Terms

• The purpose of this section is to provide a list of any unusual technical terms used in the report together with an explanation of what they mean.

• For example, if you wrote a report about ground improvement, terms which might be listed here could include:

Bedding plane - a surface parallel to the surface of deposition.

Dip direction - direction of the horizontal trace of the line of dip, measured in bearing as indicated by an angle.

The main body of the text will then comprise…..

Introduction

The introduction should be a chapter that includes:

a) A description of the aim of the research

b) The what, why, when, who & how the research was carried out

c) A brief description of the format of the report

The purpose of the introduction is to set out the structure of the report – to say what you are going to say

Introduction

It is possible to write an initial draft of the Introduction quite early on in the process of writing up, but this will then need to be updated as the rest of the report is written up

In particular, the structure of the report will be expected to change as writing up proceeds, as will the need to allow for cross-referencing between chapters.

Literature Review

• It should be a chapter written in sections the first of which should be an introduction to the literature review.

• It must be fully referenced and often can effectively stand alone from the rest of the report.

Research Methodology

• this section should describes in detail how you intend to collect the data and also gives some indication of what you intend to do in terms of analysing the data, although it will not include any actual data analysis

Research Methodology

• This chapter will describe all of the methods employed in the laboratory or practical investigation. It will include sections describing test apparatus, test methods, treatment of materials and computer software and hardware used.

• The first section will be an introduction to the chapter. There should be photographs in this section to illustrate tests, materials, equipment etc. as appropriate.

Analysis of the Data

• This chapter should be broken down into sections the first of which will be an introduction.

• The sections will include the data recorded during the laboratory or practical investigation, if this has not been presented elsewhere (see above), the analysis of the data and the results obtained.

• It is likely that this section will contain tables and graphs.

Comparison and Discussions

• The discussion is a major chapter of the report is likely to comprise a significant proportion of the whole report (in the order of maybe 20 or 30 pages in a 100 – 120 page final year project).

• This chapter will start with an introductory section and every aspect of the research should be discussed including:

a) Whether the aims were achieved

b) Suitability of methods used

c) Problems encountered

d) The results obtained

Comparison and Discussions

e) Repeatability of results

f) A discussion of errors

g) Comparison of results obtained in this research with the results of others as found during the literature review

It is particularly important to compare your results with:– Other people’s findings– Your own expectations and/or predictions

Conclusions

• The purpose of this Chapter is to summarise your findings.

• The Conclusions Chapter will generally be short and no new information will be included here.

• The reason that there will be no new information here is that the purpose of the conclusions Chapter is to draw together all the information and findings from the whole of the report. It is not the intention to start looking at new data.

Conclusions

• The conclusions Chapter is likely to comprise an introduction followed by a series short paragraphs (or bullet points) summarising the main conclusions of the research.

• In reaching your conclusions you should look at the– aim(s) of the research project (what you set

out to do) and – the discussion chapter (what you actually

found).

Recommendations for further work

Based on the experience gained in carrying out this research, you should make suggestions as to how you or others might continue with the work to take it further and / or recommendations on changes that could be made if the work were to be repeated.

Recommendations for further work

The recommendations that you make should typically include things such as:

a) Things that could be done to build on (or check) your results

b) What could be done next (that is, what you would like to do next if you had more time)

c) Things that other workers might do differently if they tried to repeat your work (that is, what you would have done differently if you were starting the project again; ways to improve your research methodology)

Appendices

• Where possible you should put items in the relevant sections of the main body of the report as this makes it easier to read.

• This is particularly true of photographs, tables and graphs.

• Where a figure is referred to in the text more than once, put it in the section where it is first referred to. Later references can direct the reader back to the page. (This is where page numbering is extremely helpful!)

Appendices

• Reserve the Appendix for items that really do not fit in any section of the main report such as:– Large volumes of data which may have been

analysed in your report (e.g. Forms providing the responses to a survey you have drawn up)

– Lengthy computer programme listings or large folded drawings

– Detailed readings from laboratory tests where there are a large volume of these

Appendices

One general rule is that the main body of the text should include only data that has been analysed (i.e. in the form of graphs or tables) unless there is a good reason to include the raw data.

Where a number of similar tests have been carried out or a lot of data has been analysed in a similar way, it may be useful to include details from one test or analysis in the text to illustrate the general procedure whilst putting the rest of the test results or analyses in the appendices.

The Layout of the Report………

Fonts, Formatting and Paragraphs

• There are many possibilities and variations for the layout of a report and you must decide the detail of how best to present your work.

• The important thing is that the ”look” remains constant throughout the whole report. This is the idea used in industry of a “corporate style”.

• It is very important to follow a standard so that your report looks consistent – especially given that parts of it may have been written at different times, maybe even several months apart.

Fonts, Formatting and Paragraphs

There are certain “prescribed” requirements – this mean things that you MUST do in accordance with

UEL practice……

UEL “Prescribed” Requirements

• The paper must be white and A4 size. Portrait except where landscape figures are included, these should have their bottom to the right hand side of the page.

• Margins must be 40mm left (binding margin) other three margins must be 20mm.

• One and a half line spacing and Arial font is to be used throughout.

• The main body of the text is to be in 12-point size with left and right margins justified


• Chapter Titles can be in 16-point size and are to be centred and all titles should be in capital letters

• Subheadings are to be 14-point size and left justified

• Captions for a figure are to be 12-point sized and centred below the figure

• Footnotes are to be 10-point sized and single spaced


• Pages must be numbered starting with page 1 as the first page of the main text (chapter 1.0 Introduction). The position of the page numbers must be at the bottom of each page in the centre 20mm up from the bottom edge of the paper.

• The main text must be justified to both margins


• Equations and formula must be centred across the page and be written in Microsoft WORD equation editor. Equations must be numbered. The equation numbers must be aligned to the right

• Chapters must be sequentially numbered

i. 1 2 3 or

ii. 1.0 2.0 3.0


• Sections of chapters must be sequentially numbered – 1.1 1.2 1.3 (where the first number

relates to the chapter)• Sub sections should be sequentially numbered

– 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 (again the first number relates to the chapter)

• All work must be referenced.

Some Suggestions on Layout

• All figures and tables should be centred across the page and have a figure number and title written below them (and a reference if appropriate).

• The first digit of the figure number must be the chapter number; the second can start from 1 in each chapter or number sequentially through the whole report.

• Tables should be numbered separately from other figures.


• All graphs, photographs, diagrams, etc can either be labelled as figures as above or a separate list can be used for each type of figure.

- Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2 etc. • Tables must have a separate numbering system

from all other figures.

- Table 1.1 Table 1.2 etc. • Electronically paste all figures into WORD.

There is now no need to glue photographs etc onto the pages


• Do not leave widows and orphans – the first or last line of a section or paragraph at the bottom or top of a page.

Proof Reading, Spell Checking and Grammar

• You MUST proof read all reports that you write• This means that you must read through it after it

is completed to check for any errors (spelling mistakes, numbering of figures or even poorly expressed meanings)

• It is often a good idea to get someone else to read it, particularly if your first language is not English, when it is a very good idea to find a native English speaker to read the report for you.


• If you ask someone to read your report and they say they cannot understand it, there is a good chance that this might be YOUR fault – go back, re-read it and amend it as necessary.

• All reputable word processors these days have a spell check facility. It is inexcusable not to use this.

• When you carry out your spell check, you MUST make sure that the language is set to UK English NOT US English (or YOUR English)


• Grammar checkers can be useful to some extent but are not as accurate as spell checkers and should subsequently not be considered fully reliable……

Documents

RESEARCH DISSERTATION THE STRUCTURE AND LAYOUT Dr. DEEPAK T. J. SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING