Patrick Almeida CIVE2260 Submission#1 XXXXXXXXXX02/02/22
The material I have picked for my project is wood, I want to test the wood reaction when exposed to water for long periods of time and how that affect the wood integrity and shape. The reason for this project is to test wood for wood floors, building structures like (cabins, houses, and sheds) once the test is done, I can take notes on how each wood reacted to water and how long it took that reaction to take place, by doing that I will be able to see how far has the integrity of the wood drop in comparison with the other test sample. Once all that is considered, I can finally tell what sample is best for the different types of construction. Comment by Sangster, John: What kinds of wood? Comment by Sangster, John: What kinds of tests do you plan to do? Comment by Sangster, John: When do houses experience water damage? What will it gain you to know more about how wood flooring responds to being exposed to water? Comment by Sangster, John: Are you expecting the wood to warp or expand? What kinds of reactions are you looking to record? Are you thinking that the strength of the wood will be diminished for compression, tension, bending, twisting?
· Length - The required length for this submission is between 300 and 500 words, and you are far less than that.
· Plan to test - It is unclear what you plan to test for.
· Shortcomings of the material - You have not implied how water will negatively impact wood used for flooring.
· Hypothesis – You are lacking a hypothesis. You should say something to the effect of: “It is expected that exposure of wood to water for long periods of time will cause warping and will reduce the strength of the wood in compression.” Or something like that. Your hypothesis needs to predict the outcomes of the testing.
· Writing quality – You are writing in the first-person (using I and my statements) which is discouraged for the proposal and should not be used for the following sections of the paper. Moreover, your proposal is way too short and lacking in significant details.
CIVE 2260 and 2261
Communications Project
Information and Guidelines
Revised 2022
Prepared by D. Dulaski, D. Saulnier, C. Shillaber, A. Myers, K. Schulte-Grahame, S. Cranford
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering, Northeastern University
i
Project Component of
CIVE 2260: Materials for the Built Environment
and
CIVE 2261: Material Characterization Laboratory
Copyright © 2019 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
For edits, questions, comments, contact:
Dan Dulaski
Associate Teaching Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Northeastern University
400 Snell Engineering
360 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02115
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Acknowledgements:
J. Hajjar
CEE Industrial Advisory Board
ii
Preface
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four
questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image
or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?”
― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language (1947)
How does an engineer communicate?
One may say that an engineer can communicate with equations, calculations, design drawings and
specifications, but that is when engineers exchange ideas with other engineers who speak the same
technical language. Engineers must also express technical ideas to the non-engineers, which requires a
fundamental oral and written communication skills. This is particularly important for Civil and
Environmental Engineers, who commonly act as technical liaisons to the public, presenting and
describing publicly funded infrastructure projects to municipalities and communities.
Communication skills are a vital component of this, recognized by academia and industry alike. It is one
of eleven key outcomes required by an undergraduate engineering program in the ABET Engineering
Criteria. Ineffective and poor written communication in engineering workplaces were found to lead to
misinterpretation, inefficiency and time wastage, thereby adversely affecting problem resolution. Indeed,
communication skills are a valuable career enhancer. Communication skills are an essential component
in the education of engineering students to prepare them for their future careers.
During periodic discussion between the Department and the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), it was
suggested that many of our students who go out on co-op work could be better prepared for the
communication and writing tasks of the profession. Our students were not bad writers per se, but there
was room for improvement with a focus on technical writing as opposed to literary aims. As a direct result
of these discussions, the Communications Program was born.
The Communications Program is a multi-year initiative and commitment by the Department to integrate
communication education (particularly writing and oral presentation skills) to the engineering cu
iculum.
This includes projects at the freshman level, a research report at the sophomore level, and written reports
and presentations at the senior capstone level. Here, a Communication Project is introduced into CIVE
2260 and 2261, which offers:
(a) a wide variety of potential projects, and
(b) access and integration of an experimental laboratory component.
This project presented a nice opportunity to introduce a hands-on approach to scientific research,
experimentation, and an associated report.
This project manual is intended to outline the requirements of the Communications Project, and to
provide some information and guidelines to the logistics of the project throughout the semester. Details
neglected herein will be presented either in class or in the laboratory via lecture, or are assumed to have
een part of your education prior to a
ival at Northeastern University. Note also that the details listed
herein may not encompass the full requirements of the project, and are subject to revision at the behest
of the instructor or professor.
Finally, have fun!
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents iii
Table of Contents - Figures iv
Table of Contents - Tables v
Part 1: Research Paper Overview 1
Preamble 1
Outline 1
Part 2: Required Sections and Submissions 2
Proposal 2
Abstract 3
Introduction 3
Literature Review 4
Plagiarism 5
Experimental Design 6
Methods and Theory 7
Analysis and Results 8
Conclusions and Recommendations 8
Submissions Summary 9
Submissions 9
Part 3: General Approaches to Effective Writing 11
General Tips 11
Content 13
Part 4: Formatting 16
Basic Page Format 16
Data, Figures and Tables 16
Table of Contents 18
Significant Figures 18
References 19
Part 5: Journal Articles 22
iv
Table of Contents - Figures
Figure XXXXXXXXXXDescription XXXXXXXXXXPage
1 Figures with Legend Outside of Data Area (left) and Embedded in Data Area (right) 18
v
Table of Contents - Tables
Table XXXXXXXXXXDescription XXXXXXXXXXPage
1 Research Paper Recommended Order and Section Lengths 9
2 Research Paper Submissions 10
3 Cylinder Lengths Before and After Testing 17
Communication Project Information & Guidelines
1
Part 1: Research Paper Overview
Preamble
The primary goal of the research paper is an objective and scientific evaluation of the properties
and/or performance of a material. Over the semester, you will select a material (any material! be
creative!) for which you perform several tests. It is your responsibility to research the material’s
characteristics, design an experiment for testing the material, test the material, and report on the
material’s properties.
Summary: pick a material, research the material, test the material, report your findings.
The paper will consist of six submittals: a proposal, four draft sections and a final paper. Each
submittal will be reviewed and graded by a professional grader. Submitting partial draft sections
will improve the final product, and will ensure that your approach is sound and the paper
equirements are fulfilled. When writing, make sure that each section is long enough to cover the
topic and meets the required word count. Note that figures and tables do not count towards the
equired word count.
Please note that the topics described in each section below are ideas to motivate your creativity
and thought process. Most, if not all, should be included in your write-up. Moreover, there may
e others that should be included – be sure to include whatever is necessary to convey your ideas.
Outline
There are many ways to structure a technical report, but scientific papers generally follow a
conventional format that includes a title, an abstract, references and the components of the
IMRAD structure: Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion.
While all scientific research reports somewhat share this common organizational setup, there are
multiple variations. The common structure of the report is to ensure ease of reading, and
essentially follows the research process (literature review, followed by experimental design and
testing, then analysis). You are basically telling a story of your experimental investigation. The
discrete sections of a report also force the researcher to carefully distinguish the various aspects
of the experiment.
To guide you through the writing process and help with grading, we provide a standard outline
that must be followed for this project. This outline is a variation of the IMRAD structure. The
project consists of an initial proposal to be approved by the professor, and a main report. The
sections of the main report are as follows:
1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Literature Review
4. Methods and Theory
5. Experimental Design
6. Analysis and Results
7. Conclusions and Recommendations
We proceed to look at each section in more detail.
Communication Project Information and Guidelines
Page 2