Guidelines for Writing a Technical Report

Subtitle as needed (paper subtitle)

Authors Name/s per 1st Affiliation (Author) Authors Name/s per 2nd Affiliation (Author)
Dept. name of organization (Line 1 of Affiliation - optional) Dept. name of organization (Line 1 of Affiliation - optional)
Name of organization - acronyms acceptable (line 2) Name of organization - acronyms acceptable (line 2)
City, Country (line 3) City, Country (line 3)
[email protected] – optional (line 4) [email protected] – optional (line 4)

Villanueva, F.B. (2014)

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 Abstract—This electronic document is a “live” template. The pagination anywhere in the paper. Do not number text heads—
various components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] are the template will do that for you.
already defined on the style sheet, as illustrated by the portions Finally, complete content and organizational editing before
given in this document. DO NOT USE SPECIAL
formatting. Please take note of the following items when
CHARACTERS, SYMBOLS, OR MATH IN YOUR TITLE OR
ABSTRACT. (Abstract) proofreading spelling and grammar.
A. Abbreviations and Acronyms (Heading 2)
Index Terms—Component, formatting, style, styling, insert.
(key words) Define abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are
used in the text, even after they have been defined in the
I. INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1) abstract. Abbreviations such as IEEE and SI do not have to be
defined. Do not use abbreviations in the title or heads unless
All manuscripts must be in English. These guidelines they are unavoidable.
include complete descriptions of the fonts, spacing, and related
information for producing your proceedings manuscripts. B. Units
Please follow them and if you have any questions, direct them  Use either SI or CGS as primary units. (SI units are
to the production editor in charge of your proceedings (see encouraged.) English units may be used as secondary
author-kit message for contact info). units (in parentheses). An exception would be the use
This template provides authors with most of the formatting of English units as identifiers in trade, such as “3.5-
specifications needed for preparing electronic versions of their inch disk drive”.
papers. All standard paper components have been specified for  Avoid combining SI and CGS units, such as current in
three reasons: (1) ease of use when formatting individual amperes and magnetic field in oersteds. This often
papers, (2) automatic compliance to electronic requirements leads to confusion because equations do not balance
that facilitate the concurrent or later production of electronic dimensionally. If you must use mixed units, clearly
products, and (3) conformity of style throughout a conference state the units for each quantity that you use in an
proceedings. Margins, column widths, line spacing, and type equation.
styles are built-in; examples of the type styles are provided  Do not mix complete spellings and abbreviations of
throughout this document and are identified in italic type, units: “Wb/m2” or “webers per square meter”, not
within parentheses, following the example. PLEASE DO NOT “webers/m2”. Spell out units when they appear in text:
RE-ADJUST THESE MARGINS. Some components, such as “. . . a few henries”, not “. . . a few H”.
multi-leveled equations, graphics, and tables are not  Use a zero before decimal points: “0.25”, not “.25”.
prescribed, although the various table text styles are provided. Use “cm3”, not “cc”. (bullet list)
The formatter will need to create these components,
incorporating the applicable criteria that follow. C. Equations
The equations are an exception to the prescribed
II. TYPE STYLE AND FONTS specifications of this template. You will need to determine
Wherever Times is specified, Times Roman or Times New whether or not your equation should be typed using either the
Roman may be used. If neither is available on your word Times New Roman or the Symbol font (please no other font).
processor, please use the font closest in appearance to Times. To create multileveled equations, it may be necessary to treat
Avoid using bit-mapped fonts. True Type 1 or Open Type fonts the equation as a graphic and insert it into the text after your
are required. Please embed all fonts, in particular symbol fonts, paper is styled.
as well, for math, etc. Number equations consecutively. Equation numbers, within
parentheses, are to position flush right, as in Eq. 1, using a
III. EASE OF USE right tab stop. To make your equations more compact, you may
The template is used to format your paper and style the use the solidus ( / ), the exp function, or appropriate exponents.
text. All margins, column widths, line spaces, and text fonts Italicize Roman symbols for quantities and variables, but not
are prescribed; please do not alter them. You may note Greek symbols. Use a long dash rather than a hyphen for a
peculiarities. For example, the head margin in this template minus sign. Punctuate equations with commas or periods when
measures proportionately more than is customary. This they are part of a sentence, as in
measurement and others are deliberate, using specifications
that anticipate your paper as one part of the entire proceedings,  
and not as an independent document. Please do not revise any
of the current designations. Note that the equation is centered using a center tab stop.
Be sure that the symbols in your equation have been defined
IV. PREPARE YOUR PAPER BEFORE STYLING before or immediately following the equation. Use “Eq. 1” or
Before you begin to format your paper, first write and save “Equation 1”, not “(1)”, especially at the beginning of a
the content as a separate text file. Keep your text and graphic sentence: “Equation 1 is . . .”
files separate until after the text has been formatted and styled.
Do not use hard tabs, and limit use of hard returns to only one D. Some Common Mistakes
return at the end of a paragraph. Do not add any kind of  The word “data” is plural, not singular.
  The subscript for the permeability of vacuum 0, and b) Change Number of Columns: Select Format >
other common scientific constants, is zero with Columns >Presets > One Column.
subscript formatting, not a lowercase letter “o”. c) Deletion: Delete the author and affiliation lines for the
 In American English, commas, semi-/colons, periods, second affiliation.
question and exclamation marks are located within 2) For Authors of More than Two Affiliations: To change
quotation marks only when a complete thought or the default, adjust the template as follows.
name is cited, such as a title or full quotation. When
quotation marks are used, instead of a bold or italic a) Selection: Highlight all author and affiliation lines.
typeface, to highlight a word or phrase, punctuation b) Change Number of Columns: Select Format >
should appear outside of the quotation marks. A Columns > Presets > One Column.
parenthetical phrase or statement at the end of a c) Highlight Author and Affiliation Lines of Affiliation 1
sentence is punctuated outside of the closing and Copy this Selection.
parenthesis (like this). (A parenthetical sentence is
punctuated within the parentheses.) d) Formatting: Insert one hard return immediately after
 A graph within a graph is an “inset”, not an “insert”. the last character of the last affiliation line. Then paste down
The word alternatively is preferred to the word the copy of affiliation 1. Repeat as necessary for each
“alternately” (unless you really mean something that additional affiliation.
alternates). e) Reassign Number of Columns: Place your cursor to the
 Do not use the word “essentially” to mean right of the last character of the last affiliation line of an even
“approximately” or “effectively”. numbered affiliation (e.g., if there are five affiliations, place
 In your paper title, if the words “that uses” can your cursor at end of fourth affiliation). Drag the cursor up to
accurately replace the word “using”, capitalize the “u”; highlight all of the above author and affiliation lines. Go to
if not, keep using lower-cased. Format > Columns and select “2 Columns”. If you have an
 Be aware of the different meanings of the homophones odd number of affiliations, the final affiliation will be centered
“affect” and “effect”, “complement” and on the page; all previous will be in two columns.
“compliment”, “discreet” and “discrete”, “principal” B. Identify the Headings
and “principle”.
Headings, or heads, are organizational devices that guide
 Do not confuse “imply” and “infer”.
the reader through your paper. There are two types: component
 The prefix “non” is not a word; it should be joined to
heads and text heads.
the word it modifies, usually without a hyphen.
Component heads identify the different components of
 There is no period after the “et” in the Latin your paper and are not topically subordinate to each other.
abbreviation “et al.”. Examples include Acknowledgments and References and, for
 The abbreviation “i.e.” means “that is”, and the these, the correct style to use is “Heading 5”. Use “figure
abbreviation “e.g.” means “for example”. caption” for your Figure captions, and “table head” for your
An excellent style manual for science writers is given by table title. Run-in heads, such as “Abstract”, will require you
Young [7]. to apply a style (in this case, italic) in addition to the style
provided by the drop down menu to differentiate the head from
V. USING THE TEMPLATE
the text.
After the text edit has been completed, the paper is ready Text heads organize the topics on a relational, hierarchical
for the template. Duplicate the template file by using the Save basis. For example, the paper title is the primary text head
As command, and use the naming convention prescribed by because all subsequent material relates and elaborates on this
your conference for the name of your paper. In this newly one topic. If there are two or more sub-topics, the next level
created file, highlight all of the contents and import your head (uppercase Roman numerals) should be used and,
prepared text file. You are now ready to style your paper; use conversely, if there are not at least two sub-topics, then no
the scroll down window on the left of the MS Word Formatting subheads should be introduced. Styles named “Heading 1”,
toolbar. “Heading 2”, “Heading 3”, and “Heading 4” are prescribed.
A. Authors and Affiliations C. Figures and Tables
The template is designed so that author affiliations are not Place figures and tables at the top and bottom of columns.
repeated each time for multiple authors of the same affiliation. Avoid placing them in the middle of columns. Large figures
Please keep your affiliations as succinct as possible (for and tables may span across both columns. Figure captions
example, do not differentiate among departments of the same should be below the figures; table captions should appear
organization). This template was designed for two affiliations. above the tables. Insert figures and tables after they are cited in
1) For Author/s of Only One Affiliation (Heading 3): To the text. Use the abbreviation “Fig. 1” in the text, and “Figure
change the default, adjust the template as follows. 1” at the beginning of a sentence.
a) Selection (Heading 4): Highlight all author and Use 8 point Times New Roman for figure labels. Use
affiliation lines. words rather than symbols or abbreviations when writing
figure-axis labels to avoid confusing the reader. As an
example, write the quantity “Magnetization”, or ACKNOWLEDGMENT
“Magnetization, M”, not just “M”. The preferred spelling of the word “acknowledgment” in
If including units in the label, present them within America is without an “e” after the “g”. Avoid the stilted
parentheses. Do not label axes only with units. In the example, expression, “One of us (R. B. G.) thanks . . .” Instead, try
write “Magnetization (A/m)” or “Magnetization {A[m(1)]}”, “R. B. G. thanks”. Put applicable sponsor acknowledgments
not just “A/m”. Do not label axes with a ratio of quantities and here; DO NOT place them on the first page of your paper or as
units. For example, write “Temperature (K)”, not a footnote.
“Temperature/K”.
REFERENCES
D. Footnotes
Use footnotes sparingly (or not at all) and place them at the List and number all bibliographical references in 9-point
bottom of the column on the page on which they are Times, single-spaced, at the end of your paper. When
referenced. Use Times 8-point type, single-spaced. referenced in the text, enclose the citation number in square
brackets, for example: [1]. Where appropriate, include the
To help your readers, avoid using footnotes altogether and
name(s) of editors of referenced books. The template will
include necessary peripheral observations in the text (within
number citations consecutively within brackets [1]. The
parentheses, if you prefer, as in this sentence).
sentence punctuation follows the bracket [2]. Refer simply to
Number footnotes separately from reference numbers, and
the reference number, as in “[3]”—do not use “Ref. [3]” or
in superscripts. Do not put footnotes in the reference list. Use
“reference [3]”. Do not use reference citations as nouns of a
letters for table footnotes.
sentence (e.g., not: “as the writer explains in [1]”).
Unless there are six authors or more give all authors’ names
and do not use “et al.”. Papers that have not been published,
even if they have been submitted for publication, should be
TABLE I. TABLE TYPE STYLES
cited as “unpublished” [4]. Papers that have been accepted for
Table publication should be cited as “in press” [5]. Capitalize only
Table Column Head
Head
the first word in a paper title, except for proper nouns and
Table column subhead Subhead Subhead
element symbols.
a
copy More table copy The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is the prescribed
a. Sample of a table footnote. (table footnote) format for listing references.
For papers published in translation journals, please give the
We suggest that you use a text box to insert a English citation first, followed by the original foreign-language
graphic (ideally 300 dpi, with all fonts embedded) citation [6].
because, in an MSW document, this method is
somewhat more stable than directly inserting a [1] G. Eason, B. Noble, and I. N. Sneddon, “On certain integrals of
picture. Lipschitz-Hankel type involving products of Bessel functions,”
To have non-visible rules on Example of a Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, vol. A247, pp. 529–551, April
figure caption. (figure caption) your frame, use the 1955. (references)
MSWord pull-down menu, select Format > [2] J. Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd
Borders and Shading > Select ”None”. ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68–73.
[3] I. S. Jacobs and C. P. Bean, “Fine particles, thin films and
exchange anisotropy,” in Magnetism, vol. III, G. T. Rado and H.
Fig. 1. Example of a figure caption. (figure caption) Suhl, Eds. New York: Academic, 1963, pp. 271–350.
[4] K. Elissa, “Title of paper if known,” unpublished.
VI. COPYRIGHT FORMS [5] R. Nicole, “Title of paper with only first word capitalized,” J.
Name Stand. Abbrev., in press.
You must submit the IEEE Electronic Copyright Form
(ECF) as described in your author-kit message. THIS FORM [6] Y. Yorozu, M. Hirano, K. Oka, and Y. Tagawa, “Electron
spectroscopy studies on magneto-optical media and plastic
MUST BE SUBMITTED IN ORDER TO PUBLISH YOUR
substrate interface,” IEEE Transl. J. Magn. Japan, vol. 2, pp.
PAPER. 740–741, August 1987 [Digests 9th Annual Conf. Magnetics
Japan, p. 301, 1982].
[7] M. Young, The Technical Writer's Handbook. Mill Valley, CA:
University Science, 1989.