DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE,

BARTON HILL, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 35

Guidelines to Seminar, Industrial Training/Visits and Thesis

Report Writing
9 When in education, you need to convey your work in a succinct and structured
manner to your assessors. This can make a difference to the outcome of your
degree classification.
9 When at work, all engineers need to communicate with others in an
unambiguous manner. This can have a profound effect upon successful
completion of many projects, where teams of engineers are involved.
9 Good report writing can make a difference in your career progression.

The Structure of a Technical Report

9 Title Page
9 Index of Contents
9 Abstract
9 Acknowledgements
9 Nomenclature
9 Introduction
9 Methodology
9 Results and Discussion
9 Conclusion
9 References
9 Appendices

The Title Page

9 Size-A4
9 Soft binding
9 Cover page- WHITE Colour
9 No of Copies-2(two)
9 Font-Times New Roman
9 Format of Cover page & Inside Front page are given in the coming pages
9 Use a title which accurately reflects the contents of the report.
9 State your name and the course name
9 If you wish to use the College Logo, follow the regulations, regarding its
proper use.

TITLE (16 Bold all capitals- Times New Roman)

PROJECT REPORT (12 Regular all capitals)

Submitted by
NAME (14 Bold all capitals)

CLASS & NO
To
The University of Kerala
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree
of
Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering (12 italics)

Department Of Mechanical Engineering (14 Bold, leading capitals)

Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram 35
Month & Year (14 Regular)

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE,
BARTON HILL, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 35
.(14-Bold)

(EMBLEM)

CERTIFICATE (14 Bold)

This is to certify that the report entitled Title (14-Bold), submitted by Name (12
bold), Class& roll no. to the university of Kerala in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical
Engineering (stream)is a bonafide record of the seminar presented by him/her.

PROJECT GUIDE

HEAD OF THE DEPT

The Index of Contents

9 List the contents of the report section or chapter by chapter with page
numbers, wherever you have used a new heading in your text.
9 Make sure that each section, sub-section, etc is numbered in a logical manner:
e.g.
Section 1:

Introduction

1.1- Problem Definition

1.1.1- Unbalanced modes

Acknowledgements
9 In a project report, one should normally acknowledge the help of the project
Guide.
9 In a laboratory report, coursework report, this is not the usual practice.
9 The following , however, usually receive some form of acknowledgement in
any type of technical report:
- Anyone who has provided technical assistance.
- Any person who has helped in information gathering, compilation,
typing or any other form of presentation.

Nomenclature/Glossary of Terms
9 Any technical report uses mathematical symbols. These should be list in
alphabetical order with their meaning.
e.g.

: contact radius

: footprint semi-major axis half-width

9 There are also various abbreviations in technical reports. These should also be
given, in alphabetical order, with their full versions.
e.g.

IMechE : Institution of Mechanical Engineers

RMS

: Root Mean Square

Tips for the presentation of textual information

9 The contents should be subjected to both spell and grammar checks.
9 In a technical report, the text should be written in impersonal third party
format.
9 You should ensure that this does not cause confusion between what is your
achievements and those of others that you have referred to in the text.
9 Referring to the work of others, you must include a reference for the reader.
9 Seminar Title-16 Bold- All capitals- No underlining
9 Main headings-14 Bold- All capitals- No underlining
9 Main headings shall be numbered as 1, 2, 3,etc.
9 Sub headings-12 Bold- Leading capitals-no underlining
9 Sub headings shall be numbered as 1.1, 1.2,..2.1,2.2,..etc.
9 Sub-Sub headings-12 Regular- leading capitals-shall be numbered as .(i),(ii)
9 Figures, sketches, equations & tables shall be serially numbered (eg.1,2,3,.)
9 All figures, sketches, photos and tables shall be titled.
9 Figure no. & title (12 Regular) shall be given below the figure.
9 Table no and title(12 Regular ) shall be given above the table.
9 Figures, tables etc in landscape format shall be put such that they can be
viewed from the right side.
9 Give reference no within square brackets for figures, sketches, photos, tables
etc which are adapted from the references.
9 Text 12 Regular, Times New Roman, double spacing, alignment-justified.
9 Headers or footers shall not be given.
9 Figures, Tables, sketches and equations shall be centre justified. Figures,
Sketches, tables shall be placed immediately after the paragraph in which they
are referred.
9 Use equation editor for equations.
9 Begin each section in a new page.
9 Begin paragraph in the line next to the heading. Leave one line space after
each paragraph. Leave one line space after paragraph and after the next
heading. Do not begin a new section at the end of a page. Minimum two lines
must follow a main heading/Sub heading in a page.
9 Begin all paragraph left justified.

Methods of citation in text

Harvard style:
e.g. The local elastic deformation of the contact can be obtained,
using Hertzian elastostatic contact mechanics (Petrenko, 1920).
9 Single author, published in the same year, and are cited by you, then use the
following forms:
(Dowson, 1985a) and (Dowson, 1985b).
9 If there are more than a single author in the literature that you are citing, you
should use the following form: (Dowson et al, 1985).

Chronological order : that they appear in your text, by a number.

9 e.g.

The flat deformed shape of the contact in the central region was first

hypothesised by Ertel and Grubin [1].

9 If you refer to the same reference again later, the same number is used.
9 Note that a square bracket is used for reference materials. This distinguishes it
from parenthesis, used for equation numbering.
Method of citing use of figures from reference materials
9 When you use figures from other sources than those drawn or plotted by
yourself, you need to acknowledge the source.
9 e.g.
Figure 1: Variation of Cp (after Dixon [6])
Figure 1:Variation of Cp (after Dixon, 1993)

Note: Department of Mechanical engineering, Government Engineering College,

Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram -35, follows Chronological order for citation and
referencing.

1. INTRODUCTION ( for this chapter Follow Funnel Approach)

PROBLEM DEFINITION:
9 what is the subject of your investigation?
9 Why is it important?

BACKGROUND:
9 What has been done so far and by whom
9 What methods have been used?
9 What has been concluded?
AIM AND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
9 Describe them.
METHOD:
9 Describe the method that you are going to use and justify its use.
METHODOLOGY
9 This concerns the details of the method(s) that you have used in your
investigation. It should include:
- The basis of the method: for example the mathematical basis for it,
i.e. the Theory.
- The assumptions made in the Theory.
- Any further assumptions made by you.
- Justification in using the chosen method.
9 If you are reporting an experiment, provide details of the Experimental Setup, the Experimental Procedure, and Method of Data Acquisition and
Processing.
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
In reporting your results, include the following:
- The conditions, e.g. speed, load, temperature, time interval, material
properties, etc.
- Provide visual means wherever possible, e.g. graphs, pictures, etc.
In discussing your results, include the following:
- A critical assessment of their validity (i.e. do they make sense? Has there
been a problem, which may have affected the results?)
- Their degree of conformity with the work of others, referred to by you in
the report.
- Their degree of agreement with the known theories, referred to by you in
your report.
- Your overall findings.

CONCLUSION
9 Validity of your original assumptions or hypotheses.
9 The degree of success of your chosen theory or experimental technique or
both.
9 Achievement of original stated aim and specific objectives.
9 Any modifications or changes that you will make, if you were to carry out the
same investigation again.

REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

9 References are the material that you have quoted in the text.
9 Bibliography are additional material that you have consulted, but have not
referred to in the text, and you deem it useful to bring top the attention of other
users.
9 These appear in separate sections (do not mix them).
9 The way reference material are stated differ according to the type of source.
FORMAT FOR REFERENCES:
Chronological Ordering format.
9 But reference material can be a Journal,book, a conference or symposiums
proceedings.
9 It can also be a report, a website or an MSc dissertation, an MPhil or PhD
thesis, or a Project report.
9 The format of reference varies according to source.
9 When from a journal:
Name of authors, title of paper, name of journal in italic, volume
number (issue number), year of publication, pp. 1st page-last page.
9 When from the proceedings of a conference, symposium, colloquium, forum
or a meeting:
Name of authors, title of paper, Proc. name of conference and
organising body, Venue (e.g. London), month and year, pp. 1st pagelast page.
9 When a book or report:
Name of authors, title of book, name of publisher (in italics), any
edition number, place of publication (e.g. New York), year of
publication.

9 Thesis, dissertations and project reports:

Name of author, title, name of university or institution, year.
9 Finally, some papers appear in edited books:
Name of authors, title of paper, in name of editor (Ed.), name
of book, name of publisher, any edition number, place of
publication, year of publication, pp. 1st page of paper-last page
of paper.
9 For Website, give the full site address: http://www.
APPENDICES
Appendices are used to avoid the inclusion of the following in the main body of
report, thus guarding against breaks in the flow of lines of reasoning, discussion of
results, etc:
- Large tables of results.
- detailed drawings or designs.
- lengthy derivations of formulae.
- charts or other aids to calculation.