GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING A

TECHNICAL REPORT

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

Kadir Has University
February 2025
CMPE356 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROJECT
PROJECT PHASE # REPORT

ABC AUTOMATION SYSTEM

Submitted by:

Project Supervisor:

Project Mentors:

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences

Kadir Has University
Spring 2025
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION  4
2 METHODOLOGY ……………… 5
2.1 Title of Subsection  6
2.2 Title of Next Subsection  11
3 TITLE OF THE NEXT SECTION  12
3.1 Title of Subsection  12
3.1.1 Title of subsubsection  13
3.1.2 Title of next subsubsection  14
3.2 Title of Next Subsection  14
4 TITLE OF ANOTHER SECTION (NOTE THE INDENTATION IN A LONG
SECTION TITLE)  15
4.1 Title of Another Subsection  16
4.2 Title of Next Subsection  18
5 CONCLUSIONS  20
APPENDIX A: TITLE OF THE APPENDIX (NOTE THE INDENTATION IN A
LONG APPENDIX TITLE)  21
APPENDIX B: TITLE OF THE SECOND APPENDIX  24
B.1 Secondary Heading in the Appendix  25
REFERENCES  26
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1 INTRODUCTION

The general rules and guidelines given in this document describe the material to be
prepared and submitted by the project teams to finish each course project conducted in the
PBL course.
To finish a project, each team has to accomplish three tasks: a technical report of the
project, a simulation file or implemented design that presents the work done during the
project, and a presentation with a product demonstration. This document sets the format to be
followed in writing the technical report. It also gives some tips to prepare your presentation.
All PBL courses are conducted in English. Henceforth, all material mentioned above
must be prepared and presented in English. Besides being prepared along the guidelines
described in this document, every report, simulation/implementation, and presentation has to
show correctness and clarity of expression. The responsibility for this clarity rests mainly
upon the students. Nevertheless, the project mentors and the course instructors are expected to
criticize and examine the work submitted and to encourage the students to improve their work
with respect to these qualities.
The next section is devoted to the format of the technical project report. Section 3
describes how to organize your technical report and gives the details for the pages that
precede and follow the main body of the text. Issues related to finishing the report, such as
typesetting and paper quality, are explained in the fourth section. Guidelines for preparing
your presentation can be found in Sections 5 and 6, respectively. Finally, Appendix A
contains examples of various pages that you have to follow strictly in formatting your report.
Note that this booklet itself (except its title page) is formatted as the project reports should be.
Hence, you can use it as a template to write your technical report. Also, you can consult your
project mentors and/or course instructor for any points which are not explained below.
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2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Character Fonts

Throughout the whole technical report, Times or Times New Roman fonts must be
used. Font size must be 12 points in the text. In tables or figures, the font size might be
reduced, if necessary, but they should not be less than 8 points. The footnotes must be typeset
in 10 points. The font sizes of the headings are defined in Section 2.5.

2.2 Spacing and Paragraphs

The line spacing in the text must be 1.5 lines. In any case, the line spacing is multiples
of this spacing. For example, to put an extra space after a section heading, you have to press
<RETURN> twice, which means that the vertical space between a heading and the following
text will be 3 line spacing. Footnotes and extensive quotations are exceptions and must be
typeset in single-line spacing.
Paragraphs must be indented by 1 cm in the first line. No extra space should be put
between two successive paragraphs. Paragraphs that have to be arranged in a list must appear
as a bulleted (•) list or a list enumerated by small-case Roman numbers such as i), ii), iii), etc.
No extra space is needed before and after such lists.

2.3 Page Margins

The page margins must be set to the following values:

 Left margin: 3 cm from the edge of the paper
 Right margin: 2 cm from the edge of the paper
 Top margin: 3 cm from the edge of the paper
 Bottom margin: 2 cm from the edge of the paper
Note that all figures, drawings, tables, etc., must obey these margins as well as the text.
Folded pages in a report can be accepted only if there is absolutely no way of reproducing the
presented material in normal page size.
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2.4 Pagination

All pages except the title page must bear a number. The title page is counted as Page 1,
but the number is not printed. The following pages will be numbered starting from Page 2.
Only one side of the paper can be used.
The page numbers must be typeset in Arabic numbers on the upper right corner of the
page, 2 cm from the top of the page and 2 cm from the right edge of the page. All pages,
including those where there are only figures or tables, should be paginated. The only
exemption is a page where a table or figure is placed in landscape format, since it would not
fit in there in portrait format. In such a case, the page will still have a number. Nevertheless, it
need not be typeset.
No punctuation characters such as dash or period should appear in the page number.
Also, note that the use of suffixes like 25a and 25b is not allowed. The pages preceding the
main body of the report are and must be enumerated as follows:

Title page 1 (number does not appear)

Table of Contents 2 (or as necessary)

2.5 Sectional Headings

The main body of the report has to be organized into three levels of sectional units.
Hierarchically, we shall call them sections, subsections, and subsubsections. All headings
must be in boldface letters. The sectional unit numbers do not have any period or punctuation
after the section number, but there must be two spaces between the number and the title. For
example, use “1 Introduction” instead of “1. Introduction” or “1.1 Preliminaries” instead of
“1.1. Preliminaries”. Also, any punctuation at the end of a heading must be omitted unless the
heading itself is a full, proper sentence.

2.5.1 Section Headings

The section headings must be typeset with all letters in capitals and as follows:
 The font size must be 14 points.
 They must be centered in the line, and they must start a new page.
 They must be enumerated as 1, 2, etc.
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 There must be an extra line between the heading and the preceding text as well as the
heading and the following text or subsection heading.

2.5.2 Subsection Headings

Subsection (secondary) headings must be typeset with the initial letter of each word in
capitals and as follows:
 The font size must be 12 points, and they must be typeset in boldface.
 They should neither be centered nor indented. They do not need to start in a new page;
however, widow headings should be prevented.
 They must be enumerated as 1.1, 1.2, etc.; that is, their number should include the
number of the section to which they belong, preceding the subsection number and
separated by a period from it.
 There must be an extra line between the heading and the preceding text as well as the
heading and the following text or subsubsection heading.

2.5.3 Subsubsection Headings

Subsubsection (tertiary) headings must be typeset with only the first letter in capital and
as follows:
 The font size must be 12 points.
 They should neither be centered nor indented. They do not need to start in a new page,
either.
 They must be enumerated as 1.1.1, 1.1.2, etc.
 There must be an extra line between the heading and the preceding text. But there
should not be an extra line before the following text.

2.6 Footnotes

Footnotes must be used sparingly, in fact, only if absolutely necessary. Footnotes

references in the text should be given in Arabic numbers typeset as superscripts. The
footnotes must be numbered sequentially on the page and the entire report. Footnotes must be
written in 10 points and single-spaced. They must be placed at the bottom of the page where
they are cited and under a left-justified line of length 5 cm.

2.7 Referencing
 8

It is of utmost importance that the students refer the reader to the proper sources in the
written or virtual literature to clearly distinguish between their accomplishments and
information or findings obtained from other people’s work so as to prevent any suspicion of
plagiarism. The citations in the text must be given in numbered format using the number of
the reference. The reference number must be put into square brackets (e.g. [1]), and it must
indicate the order of the first appearance in the text. More than one reference can be cited at
the same location using several reference numbers or a range of them within the same square
brackets, such as [2–4 , 5, 6–9].
The reference numbers can be used in a sentence, or they may be appended to the
sentence. For example: “In [8], it is shown that ” or “It can be shown that  holds [10].”
The reference list at the end of the report should include all and only the references cited
in the text in the same order. See Appendix A for an example listing of references.

2.8 Equations, Formulae, and Such

Relatively longer mathematical expressions and any mathematical object that is referred
to in the following text must be typeset in a displayed format. That is, it must be typeset on a
separate line and centered. There must be an extra line between such objects and the
preceding and following text.
All such displayed formulae must be identified by an Arabic number in parentheses,
such as (2.1), (2.2), (2.3), etc., within each section in order of their appearance. The number
must be placed as justified on the right margin. Here is an example:

y (t )=β e αT u p (t ) (1.1)

Such displayed material can be referred to in the text by using the number in
parentheses. Use only the number without using an expression such as “Equation” or “Eqn.”
preceding the number, that is, prefer “From (1.1), it follows that ” instead of “From
Equation (1.1), it follows that ”. The only exception is where the number should start a
sentence. For “Eqn. (1.1) can be rewritten as ” is preferred instead of “(1.1) can be
rewritten as ”
 9

Mathematical formulae must be typeset according to a consistent math-style throughout

the whole report. The standard style for mathematical expressions in scientific publications
makes use of an italic typeface for variables in Latin characters and a non-italic typeface for
mathematical signs (+, −, parentheses, etc.). Bold characters are usually reserved for vectors
and matrices. In any case, the style used for in-text formulae should be the same as that
displayed.

2.9 Tables and Figures

Tables and figures must be enumerated in the same way as the displayed equations within
each section, such as “Table 2.1” or “Figure 3.4”. Note that in referring to or enumerating a
table or figure we capitalize only the initial ‘T’ or ‘F’. Tables and figures and their captions
must be placed as centered as shown in the examples on Page 19. The captions should be
written as normal text. That is only the first letter of the caption must be in capitals. Like the
sectional headings, no period should be at the end of a caption unless the caption is a full
sentence. Note that figure captions are below the figures, and table captions are above the
tables.
Tables and figures should be placed into the text body at the nearest appropriate place
after where they are mentioned in the text for the first time, and they should be numbered in
the order they are mentioned in the text as shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3 A linear time-invariant circuit

Note that all items, such as graphs, photographs, illustrations, etc., must be considered
figures (or tables, whichever is appropriate). If really necessary (maybe in computer
engineering projects), you can use one more (but only one) separate category, such as
 10

“Algorithm” or “Programme,” which must be enumerated and treated in the same way as
figures and tables are done as shown in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Average detection delay and mean times between false alarms in detecting a change
in the dynamics of a third-order system
No Input White Input Optimal off-line Input

( =100) ( =130) ( =150)

ADD 863 700 547
MTBFA 18860 17655 21866

For illustrations that may not be reproduced and, therefore, taken from other sources,
references must be given in the caption, and written permissions from the copyright owner
must be appended to the report.
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3 MAIN FINDINGS

3.1 Title Page

The title page must include the title of the project, the full names of team members (i.e.,
authors) with their departments, the project mentor(s), and the year and term when the
technical report is submitted. An example of the title page can be found on Page 16. Follow
this example carefully as to form and spacing.

3.2 Table of Contents

Every report must have a table of contents before the main text. All numbered sectional
units must be included in the table of contents, as well as the unnumbered units, such as
references, etc. The format of the table-of-contents page is shown in the example on Page 15.
The style and formatting of this example must be strictly followed. Note that the “TABLE OF
CONTENTS” is not listed in the table of contents.

3.3 Main Text

The main text should follow the table contents page(s). The sectional structure of the
report may vary according to the subject of the project and methods used. Nevertheless, it is
natural to start the report with a section called “Introduction” where the motivation for the
problem tackled in the project and the background literature are given. Also, a report is
expected the have “Conclusions” section at the end that explains to what extent the aim of the
project is accomplished, the conclusions to be drawn from the work done, ideas about
possible future work.
It is strongly suggested that the students discuss the outline and organization of the
report with their project supervisors before writing up it. Also, they are expected to prepare a
draft well in advance of the submission so that it can be read and corrected before the final
copy is produced. Further, they should take advantage of spell- and grammar-checking
facilities in modern word processing tools.
 12

3.4 Appendices

After the main body of the text there may be a last section that contains data, derivations
or explanations which might be too bulky to be put into the main text. Examples of such
material can be data sheets, questionnaire samples, screenshots, relatively complex charts,
illustrations, maps, software listings etc.
The appendices must be numbered separately in capital letters such as A, B, etc. Since
each appendix is considered as a section, the numbering of subsectional units, figures,
equations, etc. must be; accordingly, for example, “Subsection A.1”, “Table “A.4”, “Figure
A.5” or “Equation (B.2)”. Each Appendix must have a title just as the sections in the main
text. The heading should start with the word “appendix” such as “APPENDIX A: ”.

3.5 References List

At the end of the report, the references cited in the text must be listed. The way to
number and cite a reference within the text is described above in Section 2.7. The reference
list must include all and only the references cited in the order they are numbered. An example
of such a list is on Page 20. Note that the example list includes many reference types such as
books, journal articles, chapters in an edited book, theses, conference proceedings, web pages,
etc. Study and follow these examples carefully as to the font styles and information ordering.
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4 DISCUSSION

The pdf format of the technical report and all additional documents must be uploaded to
the Learn system together with the presentation file and the simulation file before the due
date.
The reports must be computer typeset. Professional typesetting programs such as LaTeX are
strongly recommended. Reports written in Microsoft Word are also acceptable.
 14

5 CONCLUSION

The projects must be presented at the scheduled date and time in front of the intructors
and the mentors of the Course. The schedule and place of presentations will be announced by
each instructor who is responsible for the project. All team members are encouraged to take
part in presenting the project material. Whether they do or not, in any case, they must be
present at the presentation.
PowerPoint presentations are preferred. Consult the course instructor and make the
necessary arrangements if you will need extra equipment for your presentation such as video-
player, whiteboard, etc.
The duration of each presentation will be announced at the beginning of the project.
Each project team is responsible for the presentation of their material. This time also covers
answering possible questions that the audience might raise to the team and a demonstration of
the product obtained as a result of the project. It is therefore important that the timing of all
these activities is planned by the presenters so as to complete all of them in a given period of
time. Prepare all setup necessary for the demonstration well in advance of your presentation
and check thrice that everything works well. Note that the timing will be even tighter if the
demonstration involves equipment that cannot be brought into the presentation hall and the
audience has to go to a laboratory or somewhere else to see it.
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APPENDIX A: EXAMPLE PAGES

This appendix shows the format of the title page, table of contents, figures, tables, and
list of references in examples. Study and follow them carefully to generate these pages in your
report.
Note that this booklet (except its own title page) has been typeset in the format required
for the project reports. So, you can take this booklet as an example as far as the page setup,
font style, size, etc., are concerned. You can also consult your project mentor or course
instructor for questions you might have.
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REFERENCES

[1] Maiers, J. and Y. S. Sherif, “Application of Fuzzy Set Theory”, IEEE Transactions on
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC-15, 41–48, 1985.
[2] Doebelin, E., Control System Principles and Design, John Wiley, New York, 1985.
[3] Banerjee, P. K. and R. Butterfield (editors), Development of Boundary Element
Methods — I, Applied Science Publishers, London, 1980.
[4] Efstathiou, J., “Rule-based Process Control Using Fuzzy Logic”, in E. Sanchez and L.
A. Zadeh (eds.), Approximate Reasoning in Intelligent Systems, pp. 145–158, Pergamon
Press, Oxford, 1987.
[5] Taşoğlu, T., Application of Neural Networks to Digital Computer Control of Nuclear
Reactors, M.S. Thesis, Boğaziçi University, 1991.
[6] Liu, W. K., Development of Finite Element Procedures for Fluid-Structure Interaction,
Ph.D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology, 1981.
[7] Akın, H. L. and T. Taşoğlu, “Nuclear Reactor Control Using Back Propagation Neural
Networks”, Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Computer and
Information Sciences, Antalya, 30 October–2 November 1991, pp. 889– 905, Elsevier,
Amsterdam, 1991.
[8] Webb, A. R., D. Lowe, and M. D. Bedworth, A Comparison of Nonlinear Optimization
Strategies for Feedforward Adaptive Layered Networks, RSRE Memorandum No. 4157,
RSRE Malvern, 1988.
[9] Miller, D., -Prolog: An Introduction to the Language and Its Logic, http://www.cis.
upenn.edu/dale/lProlog/index.html, 1996.
[10] http://webprs.khas.edu.tr/~ogrenci.