CVE 593 Construction Safety Engineering 2007 Semester Term Paper Format
Stephen F. Duffy PhD, PE, F. ASCE
Semester Term Paper Formatting Instructions
Title of Project (18 pt. font, bold)
by
Student Name (16 pt font)
for (12 pt font)
CVE 593 Construction Safety Engineering
Instructor: Stephen F. Duffy PhD, PE, F. ASCE
Spring 2007
1
CVE 593 Construction Safety Engineering 2007 Semester Term Paper Format
Stephen F. Duffy PhD, PE, F. ASCE
ABSTRACT
An abstract is required for this report. The abstract will come after the title page and before the table of contents. The word “abstract” shall be typed in 12 pt font, bold, and left aligned on a line to itself. The body of the abstract shall begin on the next line. The abstract shall be no more than 250 words and shall completely describe your project without having to read the entire document and no smaller than 12 pt font. The essential components to most reports are the problem statement, methodology, and primary findings. Given the word limitation, the student will need to be creative in providing the required information in a concise method. If human subjects were used in data collection, a brief description of their demographics is required. (NOTE: I will count the words in the abstract. For every word you are over you will be docked 2 points from the overall written report grade.) Page numbering for the abstract shall be lower case roman numerals and centered at the bottom of the page.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
1. INTRODUCTION
2. FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS
2.1 Margins, Spacing, Paragraph Appearance, Titles, and Page Numbers
2.2 Section Headings
2.3 Referenced Items Within the Text and Writing Style
2.4 Page Limitations
3. CONTENTS OF THE REPORT
3.1 Table of Contents
3.2 Introduction
3.3 Methods
3.3.1 Participants
3.3.2 Equipment, Apparatus, Questionnaire, or Measurement Instrument
3.3.3 Procedure
3.3.4 Data Analysis
3.4 Results
3.5 Discussion
4. REFERENCES
5. TABLES
6. FIGURES
7. APPENDICES (or just APPENDIX if you have only 1)
Appendices
Appendix A: Project Written Report Evaluation (50% of the final project grade)
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Selected job tasks for investigation based on preliminary exposure and number of persons evaluated
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Total number of WMSD cases resulting in lost workdays reported to the BLS through 1997 (BLS, 1999). *Numbers are in thousands
You most likely want to use the table of contents maker in Word or any other word processing software you are using. There must be leaders between the headings and the page numbers. The Headings shall be aligned as above and the page numbers right justified. Page numbering shall be consecutive to that of the abstract.
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CVE 593 Construction Safety Engineering 2007 Semester Term Paper Format
Stephen F. Duffy PhD, PE, F. ASCE
1. INTRODUCTION
These are the instructions for the written report that will be due for each report due this semester. Please follow these instructions carefully. They will help to provide you with a quality looking paper and ease grading. This document is typed in the style described below.
The purpose of the semester project is to allow students the opportunity to utilize a number of the skills learned in this class and preceding classes in a real-world setting. My expectations are high for the depth, scope, and quality of the report. The depth and scope of the reportwill be addressed through the submission of proposal abstracts.
It is expected that each student group will perform a review of the literature pertaining to their unique project topic. Links to on-line journals can be found on the CSU library web page, e.g., A minimum of 5 references is required. These references must be relevant to the topic and/or provide justification for the importance of the topic and/or provide justification for the proposed solutions.
In addition to a literature review, students are expected to provide detailed descriptions of the methodologies that are at the heart of their report. Some references have collected data from human subjects, others have performed analyses using standardized forms (such as operation process charts, flow charts, etc.). Regardless of the methods used, adequate detail shall be provided such that the reader can easily grasp the concepts by reading the report.
2. FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS
2.1 Margins, Spacing, Paragraph Appearance, Titles, and Page Numbers
All reports shall be written on 8-1/2” by 11” (letter size) pages. Page margins shall be set to:
Top: 1”
Bottom: 1”
Left: 1.25” for binding purposes (all reports shall be bound in some fashion along the left hand side—stapling in the top left hand corner is insufficient)
Right: 1”
Text shall be no smaller than 12 pt font, 1.5 spaced, single-column, and left justified. The only exception to this rule is for tables or figures where it is acceptable to use 10-point font for clarity. Spacing shall be 1.5 throughout the entire document including references and tables.
DO NOT use an indention to begin a paragraph. Instead, separate paragraphs by using a blank line. Page numbers shall appear at the bottom of each page and be centered, with the exception of the title pageThere shall be no page number on the title page. The abstract and table of contents shall be numbered using lower case roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.). Page numbers for the text shall begin at “1” and be numeric for the remainder of the document. Every page, except the title page, shall have a page number on it. A short running title shall be included in the upper right hand corner of the document. The running title can be either the student's name or an abbreviation of the semester project title. Incorrect numbering will result in a deduction of 5 points from the overall written report grade, and missing numbers on pages will result in a deduction of 2 points per page from the overall written report grade.
2.2 Section Headings
Major headings shall be numbered numerically, left justified, bold, and in all caps (e.g. 1. INTRODUCTION, 2. METHODS, etc.). Secondary headings shall be numbered numerically within that section, left justified, title case, and underlined (e.g. 2.1 Participants, 2.2 Equipment, etc.). Other minor headings shall be numbered numerically within that subsection, left justified, title case, and italicized (e.g. 2.1.1 Gender Distribution, 2.1.2 Age Distribution, etc.).
2.3 Referenced Items Within the Text and Writing Style
Referenced works in the document shall follow the styles below:
The reported number of carpal tunnel syndromes cases in 1999 was greater than 27,000 (Duffy et al., 2001).
OR
Duffy et al. (2001) reported that over 27,000 new carpal tunnel syndrome cases were reported in 1999.
Never write in the first person. Always use third person. For example, “Participants were asked to write the words they could remember.” OR “After a brief time interval, participants were asked to report which words were remembered and how many were remembered.” If this was written in first person (which is INCORRECT), it would read: “We were asked to write the words we could remember.” OR “After a brief time interval, we were asked to report…”.
2.4 Page Limitations
The entire report shall be no more than 15 pages including references, tables, and figures. Not included in the page count are the title page, abstract, table of contents, and any appendices (such as raw data or data analysis tables—ANOVA, etc.). Appendices do not have to be included, but they may be useful in clearing up inconsistencies in the report. If you wish to include raw data, copies of questionnaires, or supplementary figures/tables, provide them in an appendix. (NOTE: this guide is a total of 8 pages long. You will have only 7 more pages to present all of the relevant findings!!)
3. CONTENTS OF THE REPORT
A good example of what will be looked for is the journal articles that you will use in the literature review. Basically, what is expected is a small report that serves as a case study (a small study exploring a topic). Use your identified references as a guide in phrasing and contents.
3.1 Table of Contents
Each project report shall include a table of contents. The table of contents shall be justified in all directions (i.e., the section numbers shall line up on the left and the page numbers shall line up on the right). For each subheading, be sure to indent (once for second order headings, twice for third order headings, etc.). If you include tables and figures within the text(not the appendix), then a List of Tables and List of Figures must be provided. These can be on the same page as the Table of contents or on separate pages. An example is provided at the beginning of this document. The table of contents and lists of tables and figures MUST use leaders (periods separated by spaces) to the appropriate page number.
3.2 Introduction
The introduction discusses the issue and shall be used to convince the reader that this report is important, relevant, and interesting, and that they shall take the time to read it. It is critical to provide an objective or purpose statement near the conclusion of the introduction. This will tell the reader exactly what the authors were studying. You are required to perform a review of the relevant literature for the research topic. A minimum of 5 references shall appear in this section. If you foresee that you will not have 5 references, come and speak to me early so we can decide if this requirement can be waived or so I can direct you to other sources.
3.3 Methods
A large portion of the grade will be based on the clarity and quality of the information provided in this section. The METHODS section contains all critical features of the study or activity. This is the section that, in the real world, other researchers will follow to replicate the study. The METHODS section typically has subheadings (Participants, Equipment, Procedures, Data Analysis, …), but use subheadings that adequately describe your methods. Here are some examples of subheadings and the material covered in that sub-section (though it is not exhaustive).
3.3.1 Participants
This section shall discuss the number of participants in the study (do not call them “subjects”). In addition, any other characteristics relevant to the study shall be included. For example, it might be important at some point to describe the mean age of your participants. When means are reported, standard deviations must also be reported. An example would be:
The mean age of participants in this study was 23.2 years (SD = 2.99).
OR
Seventy-two participants were included in this study. Thirty-six were males (M = 34.56, SD = 7.32) and 36 were females (M = 38.91, SD = 1.8).
OR
The study included 36 participants ranging in age from 21 – 86. (Ranges are O.K. to use sometimes).
3.3.2 Equipment, Apparatus, Questionnaire, or Measurement Instrument
In this section, describe all tools, equipment, tasks, questionnaires, demographic documents, etc. that were used to collect data (how they were applied, how they are scored, ranges in scores, etc.). Provide sufficient detail that any reader could use the tools, etc. without training or viewing a copy of the instrument. If a questionnaire or other paper-based tool is used, be sure to include a copy in the appendix and reference it in the text. For example, “A demographic questionnaire was used to collected individual participant anthropometrics (Appendix A).”.
3.3.3 Procedure
This section is basically a recipe. It is a step-by-step explanation of what was done in the exploration. Everything shall be described in the order in which it occurred.
3.3.4 Data Analysis
In this section, state what statistical procedures were used to analyze the data(even if they are only descriptive statistics or simple comparisons) and identify the statistical software package used. For example, “Studentized t-tests were used to test for differences between mean muscle activity across experimental conditions using SAS statistical software”, “Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviations, frequencies) were computed for each independent variable considered using Excel”, etc.
3.4 Results
This section varies based on the complexity of the research topic. The RESULTS section shall, for the most part, consist of paragraphs that provide numerical or statistical data. Tables and/or figures can be included, but they shall be used to convey useful information not easily conveyed in paragraph form. (If tables and figures are used, describe the main findings included in them. Presentation of a set of tables for the RESULTS section is not sufficient. An example is provided below.)
The number of work related musculoskeletal disorders resulting in lost workdays peaked in 1994 and has declined slightly in recent years (Figure 1). However, the percentage of these disorders to total injuries and illness reported has increased in recent years from 64% in 1995 to 67% in 1999 (BLS, 2001).
Figure 1. Total number of WMSD cases resulting in lost workdays reported to the BLS through 1997 (BLS, 1999). *Numbers are in thousands
It may be helpful to divide the results sections into subsections if a large number of results are to be presented. The results section is where the findings are presented. NO INTERPRETATION for why the findings are such as they are should appear here. Interpretation will be presented in the final section of the report.
3.5 Discussion
In this section, reiterate the objectives of the report or study, then interpret the findings. Incorporate information from the literature review (do the findings support or contradict what has previously been found?), lectures, class discussions, or other sources and compare the results. Are they the same or different? If they differ, provide some hypotheses as to why differences were noted. State the major limitations of the study. A number of these will be related to the experimental design (the second topic of the semester), but others may exist. Always end the Discussion with two or three sentences that communicate the real-world implications of the study. What do the results mean? It is also important to answer the “So what” or “Who cares” question in this section.
4. REFERENCES
Use the following ASME format:
Janosik, L.A.; and Duffy, Stephen F., 1998, “A Viscoplastic Constitutive Theory for Monolithic Ceramics—I,” Journal of Engineering for gas Turbines and Power, Vol. 120, No. 1, pp. 155-161.
5. TABLES
This is not a separate section in your report. Details on the correct format are provided in this section. All tables shall be have a number (e.g., Table 1), include a descriptive title (e.g. Results of stepwise logistic regression procedure for predicting CTS), and be left justified. Tables shall have no lines except for a top, bottom, and bottom of the headings. If needed, reduce the font size of a table to 10 pt. See below for an example.
Table 1: Selected job tasks for investigation based on preliminary exposure and number of persons evaluated
Job Task / Exposure Classification / No. OperatorsHorizontal Fish Loaders / High Repetition / 11
Skinners / Low Repetition / 11
Vertical Fish Loaders / High Repetition / 11
Trimmers / High Repetition / 10
Strip Cutters / High Repetition / 10
Tables shall appear in the document as close to their reference in the text as possible, typically immediately following that paragraph. Never have a table on two pages. If the table will not fit on the page directly below the paragraph it is mentioned, insert text from the next paragraph to move the table to the next page.
6. FIGURES
Again, information provided in this section is only for formatting purposes. All the requirements for tables applies to figures (referencing them in the paragraph preceding them, having the entire figure on a page—not split between two pages, etc.) All figures shall have a number (e.g., Figure 1), include a descriptive title (e.g. Total number of WMSD cases resulting in lost workdays for 1999), and be centered under the figure. Figures shall have no borders except a line above the title. See below for an example.
Figure 2. Excursion values as a result of complex wrist posture.
7. APPENDICES (or just APPENDIX if you have only 1)
The word “APPENDICES” or “APPENDIX” shall be centered in the middle of a blank page. If more than one appendix is used, then list the appendices with a title on the page described in the previous sentence (see the next pages for an example). The first page of each new appendix shall have the appendix number or letter and title underlined, in bold and all caps, centered above the text. Each page of the appendices shall be numbered like the rest of the document.
Appendices
Appendix A: Project Written Report Evaluation Form
Appendix B: (if used)
Appendix C: (if used)
Appendix A: Project Written Report Evaluation (50% of the final project grade)
Abstract (10%)Summary of the research project (objectives, methodology, and major findings)
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PoorExcellent
Introduction (15%)Purpose Statement – Describes the objectives and goals of the project
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PoorExcellent
Literature Review
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PoorExcellent
Significance of the proposed work – Verbal description of the need for this type of study
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PoorExcellent
Methodology (20%)Discussion of the procedures used in the study
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PoorExcellent
Clarity of the concepts
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PoorExcellent
Results (20%)Quality of the tables, figures, etc.
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PoorExcellent
Quality of the calculations
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PoorExcellent
Clarity of the concepts
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PoorExcellent
Quality of the designs
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PoorExcellent
Conclusions (15%)Discussion of the major findings of the project
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PoorExcellent
Discussion of the limitations of the project
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PoorExcellent
Integration of the literature with current findings
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PoorExcellent
Overall Report (20%)Appearance
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PoorExcellent
Uniformity
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PoorExcellent
Organization
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PoorExcellent
Professionalism/Quality
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PoorExcellent
Comments:
Overall Percent
Number of words over in abstract (2 pts/word):
Pages numbered wrong (if yes, 5 pts):
Number of pages missing page numbers (2 pts/pg):
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