Laboratory and Homework Presentation

LABORATORY AND HOMEWORK PRESENTATION

The following points are guidelines for the preparation of all laboratory and homework assignments. The keys to good presentations are neatness and organization. These guides will assist the student in developing clearly organized materials that meet the standards for the class.

I. General Requirements

1. Homework must be submitted on-schedule.

2. Team projects should have all participating members clearly labeled in the upper right corner.

3. Laboratory and homework computations are to be done on clean, lined paper, preferably Engineering paper. Spiral bound tear-out sheets will not be accepted.

4. Use one side of paper only.

5. Number all pages and staple together; folding at the corner is not satisfactory. Projects not done on the computer should show the page number and sequence in the upper right corner (e.g., 1/3, 2/3 and 3/3)

6. Number computer printout pages consistent with the position in the paper, not just the number from the software package.

II. Problem Sets and Laboratories

A. General

1. Begin each laboratory report with a brief statement of the objective of the laboratory. The objective is a general statement of a problem type or skill to be improved, not a statement of specific tasks.

2. For each problem, state the basic problem and identify the relevant information. If the problem is on a handout sheet you may attach the handout sheet as the first page and briefly identify the major points of the problem statement.

3. List the assumptions .

4. Prepare sketches to aid the solution process. Although not all problems require a sketch, a very high portion of problems are much easier for the analyst and the reviewer to understand when the sketch is included.

5..Briefly explain the major steps in the computation so an unfamiliar reader could easily follow your work. In some cases this may only require two or three words, in other cases longer statements are needed. Don’t assume the reviewer is an instructor who knows the details of the original problem and the expected answer.

A page with a collection of numbers, but no explanation of what the numbers represent will be returned without grading, even if the correct numerical value is buried within the collection of numbers.

6. Indicate the source of special figures or tables used in your solution.

7. Identify clearly the solution and include appropriate units.

8. Provide numerical checks where appropriate to verify correctness of solution

9. Assess the results - are they reasonable?, is the variation in the results within accepted limits?, did equipment or environmental factors adversely affect the reliability?. The type of questions you focus on will be different for different labs. The important element is to be sure you do more than just report a set of numerical values.

B. Figures

1. Figures must be given a descriptive title. Instead of a title such as "Error vs. Distance", a more meaningful title might be "Angular error effects on computed distance for Smith Traverse".

2. Titles should be placed at the bottom of the figure.

3. The axes must be clearly labeled and the scales clearly marked.

4. Orient figures to read from the bottom of the page, or if necessary , the right side.

C. Tables

1. Tables must be given a descriptive title.

2. Titles should be placed at the top of the table.

3. Rows and columns must be clearly labeled.

4. Orient tables to read from the bottom of the page, or if necessary , the right side.

Additional considerations for Laboratory reports:

Laboratory reports should have a cover page. The format of the cover page is not specified, but important considerations are to

·  Include a descriptive title, not just laboratory X

·  Include dates and team members

An introduction section should include a brief overview of the topic and layout the structure of the report. The background section should discuss details that the reader needs to understand the rest of the report.

Present all results in the main body of the report. Appendices are used to present data or details that may not be needed to understand the basic issues. However your reader should be able to easily find the results in the body of the report.

Use headings and sub-headings to guide our reader.

Work to minimize words and inexact expressions (“could be due to the fact that”, “some”, “such”, and “a lot” are among the terms that grind on Dr. Kannel).

Proof-read your work. Spell-checkers can’t detect all the errors in your writing, but they are valuable tools.