Transportation ResearchINFORMATION AND SOME POLICIES

INTRODUCTION

For some unknown reason, engineering students seem to hate to write. A writing assignment should be approached just like a “regular” problem: you outline what you need to do (e.g., what is the question); you determine appropriate steps to take to get from, for example, raw data to the final answer that is needed; and you document how you get there. In essence, you can be as analytical about your approach to writing a paper as you can about solving a problem.

The following is a presentation of some information and policies concerning the submission of reports, papers, and other formal submissions (including the now-infamous essay questions) in courses taught by R.W. Lyles. It should not be inferred that this applies to other courses. There are other materials available at the department’s web site:http://www.egr.msu.edu/cee/techcom/

While numerous hints and points are made on style, this presentation is not meant to be a complete style manual. However, an attempt has been made to cover the most important areas and/or those errors which are most commonly made by the unwary student.

OUTLINES

If required, an outline basically represents a contract between the student and the instructor in regard to what the student will be doing and how he/she will do it. Hence, outlines should be reasonably explicit. If it is unacceptable, resubmission will be required.

Typically outlines are not graded. However, if they are due at a certain time/date, lateness will result in the ultimate grade of the final paper being lowered by as much as 1/2 grade (e.g., 4.0?3.5). If an outline is never submitted, the final paper may be downgraded by as much as one whole grade or simply not graded until the outline is turned in. Check the syllabus for the class in question to see current policies.

Even if not required, an outline should be developed and followed—if nothing else, a sparse
outline can be used as the base for the table of contents.

CONTENT AND LENGTH OF SUBMISSIONS

The general purpose of a paper or report is for the author to identify an idea (in a paper) or discuss the results of some analysis (in a report) or some combination of the two. Whatever the topic, it is to be thoroughly and logically developed; clearly presented; and all conclusions clearly stated, supported, and discussed. Open-topic papers must contain original thought or at least a critical evaluation of someone else’s thought. In some instances there are special requirements which must be met—e.g., reporting on the results of an assigned analysis or answering essay questions. In general, if the objectives of the assignment are met and the general guidelines above are followed, the concept of length is irrelevant. This point notwithstanding, a guideline for the number of pages is often provided.

All submissions must “stand alone”—that is, if someone other than the instructor were to read
the submission, he/she would be able to understand what the problem was and why you were writing about it.

FORMAT AND ORGANIZATION

All submissions must be typed (or word-processed) and double-spaced on white paper. Hand-written (or hand-printed) submissions are not acceptable. Margins should be approximately one inch (1”) all around—use either pica or elite type (10 or 12 pitch, respectively). Do not use erasable bond. In special cases, the submission medium can be a diskette—however, the appropriate file must be identified, and it must be done in “Word” and ready to print. Each student should have a dictionary, thesaurus, and style manual and use them. In general, The Chicago Manual of Style is preferred but other widely used manuals are acceptable.

While specific assignments may not require all of the following, typical components of a submission are as follow:

1. The title page shows the title, date, class, and author(s).

2. The table of contents is a guide. On shorter submissions (e.g., essay questions), it may be omitted. The topics that appear in the table of contents are also often encountered in the outline (if required). The latter would have somewhat more detail.

3. The introduction includes general comments on the purpose of the submission and provides a context for the rest of the material. Techniques that were employed, the results of the work and a brief summary of the major conclusions are also sometimes included (in which case the section becomes an introduction and summary).

4. The body of the submission is a step-by-step account of why the work was done, what was done, and what the results are. The material must logically lead to the conclusions. In longer submissions (e.g., term papers), a review of pertinent literature should follow the introduction and summary. Note that the body of the paper is not actually labeled as such. Typically, the body will be divided into several sections with appropriate use of headings and sub-headings (consult a style manual for heading style).

5. Closing out the body of the submission are conclusions, a detailed summary, and discussion of the results (not necessarily in that order). In addition to the results, discussion should also be directed to such issues as, for example, problems that were encountered, improvements that could be made if similar work is done in the future, and what future work might address.

6. References to the work of others must be contained in the submission itself, and the complete citation must be given in the reference list (bibliography). The work of others (not just direct quotes) must always be cited—to use the work (or words) of others as your own is plagiarism and is dealt with severely. References are also addressed in a separate section below.

7. Appendices are not always required but typically contain things like examples of detailed
calculations which, if presented in the text of the submission would detract from the “basic
message.” An example of typical data (or all of them if not extensive) might also appear in the
appendix.

A general guideline for the organization of a submission is to: “tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em; tell ’em; and tell ’em what you told ’em” (author unknown). Further, any submission must be able to “stand alone.” That is, a reader not knowing the assignment should be able to understand what you did, why you did it, and what you found out. (This should sound familiar.)

The submission should always be bound in some way. The easiest way is to use staples (a three-hole binder would be another). An unacceptable way is to use plastic “clip” binders. (This is the kind where the edge is basically a plastic clip.) Papers that are not bound appropriately will be returned. (This could result in a late penalty if the paper was turned in at the last minute.) Make sure that the binding is not done in such a way as to hinder reading the report.

To get a reasonably good idea of the way papers are organized and written, look at some examples. In transportation, the series of publications by the Transportation Research Board contains numerous examples of good papers—read them for style hints as well as content.

SOME HINTS ON WRITING STYLE

Humor is a wonderful thing. However, the reports and submissions for classes are to be taken seriously and written that way. You can still be clever, but don’t trivialize your presentations or the assignment.

Don’t write in the first person. In general, you should not use statements such as: “I found the literature to be sparse on the subject.” Rather, it should be: “The literature on the subject is sparse.” (Other people may like first person more than I do—listen to them in their classes!)

Check your spelling. Don’t trust the “automatic” spelling-check programs to pick up all of your errors—they will miss, at least, some of the jargon of the discipline. If your spelling and/or grammar is (are) bad enough to detract from the message that you are trying to convey, your submission will be downgraded.

Current favorites on the all-time incorrectly spelled list include: it’s (“it’s” is only used as a contraction, i.e., it is; “it’s” is never a possessive, the correct possessive form is its); and seperate instead of separate (there’s “a rat” in separate). Verbification (probably not a word) of nouns and some adjectives is another poor idea.

CITATIONS, REFERENCES, AND OTHER “STUFF”

(Don’t ever end a page with a section heading with no material following it like I just did here. In addition, “OTHER STUFF” is probably too informal a heading for a technical document.)

There are several style manuals available which set forth an acceptable set of rules. Several good style manuals are indicated in the list at the end of this document. It is suggested that each student should own, at least, a good dictionary and a good style manual. (Most of the material about referencing is based on a work by Hiser (undated).)

CITATIONS

In the course of your discourse you may find a need for a direct quotation of an author or some reference to his/her ideas or concepts. Some examples follow. These examples, by the way, are not exhaustive—for a definitive overview consult one of the style manuals listed later.

An example of a direct quote, and some discussion:

As one Canadian political scientist observed, “Metropolitan development followed familiar
North American lines. There was a steady exodus of business firms and middle-class
persons from the central city to the suburbs and a steady migration of lower income
families from elsewhere in the nation and other countries” (Kaplan 1967, 47).

The “footnote” is not numbered; rather, the citation immediately follows the quotation and is placed in parentheses. The information within the parentheses is the author’s name, the date of the publication, and the page number of the quotation. This information “tells” the reader to look at the references at the conclusion of the paper for a full citation. The references are listed in alphabetical order by first author. The use of the date will also serve to differentiate between works by the same author. If there are two or more references to the same author(s) in the same year, differentiate by lower case letters—e.g., (Kaplan 1967a, 47).

There are variations on the “style” of the reference. For example, (Kaplan, 1967a: 47) and (Kaplan 1967a:47). If the reference is to a work by more than three authors use (Kaplan et al. 1967a, 47) or a variation. Whichever style you choose, be consistent throughout your paper. Another method is to refer to references with a number, e.g., (17), where the references are numbered at the end of the paper.

Note that if you were preparing your paper for submission to a journal, adherence to a certain style may be mandated. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) used to follow the example above while the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) used the “numbering” system—more recently, they have both switched to different systems (go figure).

If the quotation is “lengthy” (say 8-10 typed lines), the quotation is indented, single-spaced
with no quotation marks.
Examples of citing an author’s ideas or concepts, and discussion:

Smallwood (1966) characterizes Canadian local politics as “feedback” rather than the
“game” politics which dominates American cities.

On the other hand, the Canadian government has all but ignored cities in comparison to the
massive assistance to urban areas from Washington (Simmons and Simmons 1969, 13;
Smith 1973).

Note that in the first example there is no use of a direct quote of Smallwood’s, but his idea is noted. Because his name is used in the narrative, the citation only contains the year of the publication.

In the second example, citations are made of the works of three other authors: the first citation was from a 1969 work by Simmons and Simmons which appeared on a specific page; the second by Smith which was from a work where the idea was a recurrent theme in the work in general. Note the use of the semi-colon to separate the two citations within the parentheses.

REFERENCES

This is an example from a reference list that appeared in a TRB Transportation Research Record. Note the style used for references from books, articles in journals, and so forth. [Notes like this are not actually part of the citation.]

A.J. Neveu. Quick Response Procedures to Forecast Rural Traffic. In Transportation
Research Record 944, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., June 1982. [a
journal article—the “In” should be dropped]

AASHTO. A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, 1984. [a book–note
that it could be argued that the publisher, also AASHTO, should also be shown here along
with the city of publication; also the acronym should have been spelled out]

M.D. Meyer and E.J. Miller. Urban Transportation Planning: A Decision-Oriented
Approach. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1984. [another book]

PurdueUniversityComputerCenter (PUCC). DRRSQU (Program for CP-Statistic–All
Possible Regression): Statistical Program. Statistical Library, PUCC, PurdueUniversity,
West Lafayette, Indiana. [a report or book]

J.D. Fricker and S.K. Saha. Traffic Volume Forecasting Methods for Rural State Highways.
Final Report, Joint Highway Research Project, PurdueUniversity, May 1987. [a report]

Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Procedures Manual for Forecasting
Traffic on the Rural Trunk Highway System. Traffic Forecasting Unit, Program Management
Division, MnDOT, April 1985. [a report by MnDOT—note how the acronym is spelled out the
first time]

F.T. Morf and V.F. Houska. Traffic Growth Pattern in Rural Areas. Highway Research
Bulletin 194, January 1958, pp. 33-41. [actually, another journal article—this one is
actually incomplete—the publisher probably should have been shown also as it is not well-
known]

OTHER “STUFF”

The use of headings and subheadings (mentioned earlier) is a good way to separate different parts of your presentation. The use of such techniques helps to keep you on track (an entry in your outline usually represents a separate section in your paper) and lets the reader know when you are changing from one part of your paper to another (for example, from the analysis techniques to the results). The headings must be consistent—I have tried to be consistent with the headings here: major section headings are noted with upper-case, centered titles (I have also added emphasis through the wonders of the modern word-processing system) and a new major section heading is always at the top of a new page (like the chapters in a book); major subheadings are upper-case, flush-left, and emphasized; further sub-divisions are upper-case, flush-left, emphasized, and underlined; and last (here) is first letter upper-case and then the rest lower-case, flush-left, underlined. There are many acceptable variations on this. The federal government, for example, used to require a numbering system that started with 1.0 for chapter 1 and then added additional decimals and digits for further sub-divisions so that the lowest sub-division would look something like this: 1.1.3.6 (or section or chapter 1, sub-section 1, sub-sub-section 3, and sub-sub-sub-section 6).

Never continue figures and tables over a page-break (i.e., start a table half-way down one page and continue it on the next). Each should always be in “one piece.” If a figure or table takes up more than about 1/2 of a page, put it on a separate page. If the figure or table is on a separate page, it should follow on the page immediately after the first reference to it in the narrative. Consult a style manual for more detail on constructing and using figures and tables.

The first use of an abbreviation or an acronym should be preceded by a fully-spelled-out statement. For example: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsors a great deal of research in highway safety. Later references to that agency should be to the FHWA.

Don’t go overboard in trying to sound sophisticated or intellectual. You shouldn’t “dumb down” written material but neither should you artificially try to make your material sound more complex than it is. Be careful with word selection!

REFERENCES FOR STYLE AND WRITING TECHNIQUE

There are numerous references for writing and those listed below are only a sample. If you are writing for submission to a specific journal, make sure that you have a copy of the style that is required for it. Such information is available from, for example, the professional societies or groups that publish the journals. The Institute of Transportation Engineer’s statement on style is very brief while the ASCE’s is about forty pages.

A dictionary. There are many dictionaries available ranging from the pocket variety to multi-volume sets. Dictionaries are typically purchased for you as a high-school graduation present by your uncle/aunt and never opened again. The latter is the mistake—open it, read it (the really small words are always useful in Scrabble games), and use it. If you have no uncles or aunts or if, by oversight, they failed to buy you a dictionary, go out and buy yourself one.

A style manual. There are also lots of style manuals around and there are several good ones. Two of the best are (note that the ones cited are old editions—there are newer ones around):

Editorial Staff of the University of Chicago Press 1982. The Chicago Manual of Style. 13th ed.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (I’m sure that there is a more recent edition.)

Turabian, Kate L. 1973. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
4th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

A style manual will provide hours of reading enjoyment, is useful as a doorstop, and will provide a source for everything from how to lay out tables in a report to how to do referencing.

A thesaurus. Oftentimes you will find yourself repeating a word over and over again—this is a hint that you need a synonym—look in the thesaurus, “… a dictionary of synonyms …,” for a suitable alternative and/or to generally introduce variety into your writing. (Word processors now come equipped with such a feature—whattadeal.)

Some other reference material.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 1971. Writing Abstracts, Z-39.14-1971.
New York: ANSI.

ANSI 1974. Guidelines for Format and Production of Scientific and Technical Reports,
Z39.18-1974. New York: ANSI.

Department of Defense/Engineers Joint Council 1967. Thesaurus of Engineering and
Scientific Terms.New York: Engineers Joint Council.

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) 1975. Standards for the Preparation and
Publication of DOT Scientific and Technical Reports. Report No. DOT-TST-75-97.
Washington: USDOT.

Olsen, Leslie A. and Thomas N. Huckin 1983. Principles of Communication for Science
and Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Huckin, Thomas N. and Leslie A. Olsen 1983. English for Science and Technology: A
Handbook for Nonnative Speakers. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.