Write Nicer Reports

1. The simple things
  1. Please don't copy Acknowledgements and stale Thank You templates.
  2. There is nothing more depressing than to read 20 reports in which the Acknowledgements are exactly identical. As if these students could find no time to say Thank you in an original way.
  3. Please acknowledge ...
  4. every one of your sources. Otherwise it is plagiarism. READ plagiarism.org .
  5. every previous report , work you continued - don't claim credit for work you have continued from someone else's work.
  6. please don't take an idea proposed by your Supervisor and describe it as if it was your own. Acknowledge that "This design was proposed by my Supervisor Prof.XYZ in <date> at the beginning of the project".
  7. if you were funded, please give a full acknowledgment at the end of the report that this was a sponsored effort and mention the full details (Project Number, Sponsor Agency etc)
  8. Students of Bharti School / Electrical Engineering/SENSE would say "We thank the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) and the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management / Electrical Engineering / Center for Sensors, Instrumentation and Cyber Physical Systems Engineering (SENSE), IIT Delhi for their support and for providing the facilities for this work."
  9. How long is what ?
  10. When you write something which is over 800-1000 pages long, consider breaking it into Volumes.
  11. When you write a report which has something like 200 pages, you may break it into Parts (In LaTeX, use \part{}).
  12. A Chapter (\chapter{})is justified when it is at least 10 pages long, else use Sections (\section{}).
  13. A Section must be at least three pages long.
  14. Something which is 1 page long inside a Section qualifies for a SubSection (\subsection{})
  15. SubSubSections are about 1/2 page long.
  16. How to look for papers in a particular subject ?
  17. https://www.connectedpapers.com
  18. zbib.org
  19. Guidelines https://web.mit.edu/course/21/21.guide/toc.htm https://www.elsevier.com/connect/11-steps-to-structuring-a-science-paper-editors-will-take-seriously

- 1. Guidelines on Research Highlights
    1. Highlights are a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings and provide readers with a quick textual overview of the article. These three to five bullet points describe the essence of the research (e.g. results or conclusions) and highlight what is distinctive about it.
    2. Highlights will be displayed in online search result lists, the contents list and in the online article, but will not (yet) appear in the article PDF file or print.
    3. How to put research highlights - https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/highlights
    4. This is the sort of the brief "abstract-like-section" you should start your Research plan with.
  2. Guidelines on good spacing

- - 1. For a detailed guideline on spacing, see http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/5511/good-practice-on-spacing )
      1. Full sentences end in full stops but part-sentences do not. If you write a sentence as part of a numbered list or a bulleted list DO NOT put a full stop at the end of the sentence.
      2. After a sentence ends, put a full stop and a space.
      3. Most of these spacing guidelines are way too sophisticated for a normal BTech / MTech thesis. But if you are a PhD student or if you are writing a scientific paper, please follow them.

- 1. Guidelines on good abbreviations

- - 1. (Suggested by Shridhar Kandlagunta, 7 May 2016)
      1. http://www.ift.org/knowledge-center/read-ift-publications/journal-of-food-science/authors-corner/useful-abbreviations-and-nomenclature.aspx

- 1. Guidelines on Figures and Tables

- - 1. See how to produce better-looking Tables here - https://people.inf.ethz.ch/markusp/teaching/guides/guide-tables.pdf
    2. Every Figure or Table or Equation MUST be numbered.
    3. Every Figure or Table must have a Caption. The caption must be a full qualified sentence. For example, a caption like "ADC" is wrong, it should be "A typical block schematic of a Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) for flash conversion".
    4. Oh, yes, always include a List of Tables or List of Figures at the beginning of your report.
    5. Where should you put the Figure or the table ?
    6. On the first page of the Chapter, put the figure or table at the bottom of the page using \begin{figure}[bthp]. On all OTHER pages of the Chapter, the natural placement of the Fig or Table is either (be consistent) at the bottom (or the top) of the page.
    7. What should be the size of the figure ?
    8. Again, be very consistent. Figures should be only of three heights - 1/4 , 1/2 or 1 page high. Do not change aspect ratios. The font used inside the figure should be the same as the font used in the surrounding paragraph text.

- 1. Never have a bullet list starting RIGHT after a Section Heading. Please add one of two glue sentences after the section heading about the bullet list which follows.

WRONG

3.1 Introduction

RIGHT

3.1 Introduction

In this section, I will summarize the achievements of this project so far in a glue sentence:

I did this
and that
and also this

This was done
and that
and also this

1. How to write what ? Guidelines on writing various types of documents
2. References ?
  1. The correct way to write references is described in detail in http://www.nhh.no/en/library/writing-references.aspx
  2. Please write them in IEEE format.
  3. If you find it too tough, then locate the reference on scopus.com, then save as >> BibTex format. That will give you the IEEE format in Latex if you set your \bibliography{IEEE}
  4. Or go to scholar.google.com and find the paper if you can. Export it as a citation in BibTex format.
3. Checklist on your report [2]
4. (I suggest you take a printout of the following list, and staple it as the first page of the paper you are writing, Check off things as you get them done.)

- 1. Checklist for Writing Scientific Papers
  2. For this course, your best guide for style is a well written scientific paper and the preceding guide. For advanced questions refer to the CBE Style Manual.
  3. Title:
    1. __ Includes scientific name of species studied
    2. __ Includes factors manipulated
    3. __ Includes parameters measured
  4. Introduction:

- - 1. __ Demonstrates familiarity with the pertinent literature and how it relates to the current study.
    2. __ States the problem under investigation either in the form of a question or hypothesis.
    3. __ Predicts the outcome of the experiment.

- 1. Methods:

- - 1. __ States purpose of experiment.
    2. __ Outlines the experimental design and gives rationale for treatments.
    3. __ Clarifies controls if appropriate.
    4. __ Provides sufficient detail so the experiment can be replicated by a knowledgeable person.
    5. __ States types of data collected and any exceptions.
    6. __ Mentions types of statistical test done.

- 1. Results:

- - 1. __ Represent data either in tabular or graphic form
      1. __ Graphs & illustrations = Figures
      2. __ Tables = Tables
    2. __ Text:

- - - 1. __ Puts the data in context and summarize trends and relationships.
      2. __ Reports qualitative observations.
      3. __ Does not repeat all the information in a table/graph.
      4. __ Compares experimental data to the controls.
      5. __ Supports statements parenthetically with statistical results if appropriate.
      6. __ Compares groups by looking at differences between them or calculating % difference.

- 1. Discussion:

- - 1. __ Relates results to original predictions.
    2. __ Points out discrepancies.
      1. __Suggests reasons for discrepancies - this is an opportunity for creative thinking and is what makes science exciting. Why? is a question you should often find yourself asking and trying to answer.
      2. __ Suggests alternate hypotheses to explain results.
      3. __ Uses literature to explain results.
      4. __ Considers experimental design or error that might have resulted in unexpected results.
    3. __ Explains how the results fit into the current body of knowledge (literature).
    4. __ Suggests future studies

- 1. Acknowledgments:

- - 1. __ Clearly credits the contributions of others

- 1. References:

- - 1. __ Correct format (in IEEE format by default)
    2. __ All cited

1. Read more on writing nice reports

- 1. http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/handouts/
  2. http://biology.kenyon.edu/courses/biol09/framepapers.htm
  3. https://www.oacommunity.org/resources

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