PROYECT ELABORATION FORMAT

English for Engineers level IV, University of Antioquia

General sketch of the project format for the 25% Writing Grade:

TITLE: student(s) name(s), field of engineering, university, date

Index

List of tables and figures

1. INTRODUCTION (One page obligatory with a short history description of your product/process of
interest, ending with the reason and form of improvement to it)

2. GENERAL OBJECTIVE (One)

2.1 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES (Three or more for a period of four months hypothetically)

3. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (What to write about and length will be uploaded on Moodle)

4. DESIGN AND TESTING (What to write about and length will be uploaded on Moodle)

5. MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRY (What to write about and length will be uploaded on
Moodle)

6. SAFETY, MAINTENANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL (What to write about and length will be
uploaded on Moodle)

7. CAREERS AND EMPLOYMENT (What to write about and length will be uploaded on Moodle)

8. INNOVATION AND BUSINESS EVENTS (What to write about and length will be uploaded on
Moodle)

9. CONCLUSIONS and GLOSSARY (All the technical terms plus other several important words used
in your context; more than fifteen)

10. BIBLIO/WEBGRAPHY (Several references, more than ten)

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PROYECT ELABORATION FORMAT
English for Engineers level IV, University of Antioquia

A. Descriptions of the project’s sections:

Title. Comentado [A1]: You must pick a specific product to develop in

your project: not too broad that it cannot be totally covered but
limited enough to give further analysis. See section D.
Table of Content.
Comentado [A2]: NUMBER EACH PAGE OF THIS SECTION WITH
ROMAN LETTERS LIKE THESE i, ii, iii, etc.
List of Tables, Acronyms, List of Figures.

1. Introduction. Comentado [A3]: HERE GOES THE STATE OF THE ART OR

OVERVIEW OF YOUR PROJECT.

2. General Objective.

2.1 Specific Objectives. Comentado [A4]: THESE OBJECTIVES HAVE TO BE REAL,

ACHIEVABLE IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.

Body of the Research. Several chapters describing what you have done, focusing on the novel aspects of your Comentado [A5]: REVIEW THE GUIDES IN THE MOODLE
PLATFORM TO HAVE AN IDEA ABOUT HOW WE WOULD WORK ON
own work. EACH CHAPTER.

3. Chapter 1: Research and development

4. Chapter 2: Design and Testing
5. Chapter 3: Manufacturing and Industry
6. Chapter 4: Maintenance and Quality Control
7. Chapter 5: Careers and employment

8. Innovation and Business events

9. Conclusions and Glossary Comentado [A6]: LIST HERE THE TECHNICAL WORDS AND
MEANINGS OF OTHER WORDS ACCORDING TO YOUR CONTEXT IN
THE PROJECT

Appendix (OPTIONAL) Comentado [A7]: PUT HERE ANYTHING COMPLEMENTARY. EACH

APPENDIX HAS TO BEGIN IN A NEW PAGE: APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B,
etc.

10. Biblio/Webgraphy.1 Comentado [A8]: LIST HERE THE REVISED ARTICLES, BOOKS OR
WEB PAGES THAT SUPPORT YOUR PROJECT.

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Note: these are models for citing different biblio/webgraphy sources:
a) Scientific Articles: Last name, Name’s initials (Year), Title, Journal name, Volumen, Edition number, pages.
Example: cited in a text: “Thimbleby's guidelines (1) suggest that…” then written in the Bibliography: 1.
Thimbleby, H.W. (1983), ``Guidelines for `manipulative' text editing'', Behaviour and Information Technology, 2
ed., pg.127 – 161.
b) Books: Last name, Name’s initials (Year), Title, City, Editorial.

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PROYECT ELABORATION FORMAT
English for Engineers level IV, University of Antioquia

B. Guidelines for standard formal written English

1. Transfer your own experiences of doing the project, and the knowledge you will gain, from your brain
onto paper in a coherent, logical and correct form.

2. Remember that your project is an academic dissertation, not a popular article or commercial proposal.
For example, rather than describing only a series of events and a final product, try to establish criteria, present
arguments, derive principles, pose and answer questions, measure success, analyse alternatives and so on.

3. Strive to be absolutely precise. What you write must not be misinterpreted. Take exceptional care to
choose the right word for the occasion. Do not, for example, write ``optimum'' if you mean ``good'', and so on.

4. Do not make claims that you cannot support. Your project should clearly separate specification, design,
implementation and testing. For instance: ``the program is wanted to do X; it is designed to do nearly-X; it is
implemented to do most-of-X; the testing showed that it did some-of-X (and here is the evidence of that)''
instead of “The product does ...”

5. Consider illustrations to be next to the text, so they can aid the reader to understand it better. Preferably,
make the text clearer than to add a figure or diagram.

6. Avoid circumlocutions. Prefer short sentences to long sentences, and short words to long words. Avoid
Latin phrases - these are only acceptable if they abbreviate a circumlocutionary English phrase, for example:
“Mutatis mutandis” is permissible in place of ``making the appropriate changes.''

7. Avoid slovenly structure. Take your time; rearrange words or phrases within sentences, sentences within
paragraphs, paragraphs within sections and sections within the whole project until you have got it right. Aim for
a logical progression from beginning to end, with each sentence building on the previous ones.

8. Avoid writing ``... as we shall see in chapter X ...’’ Always write the most important things in the first
sections before its further development.

9. Footnotes are not acceptable - unless they are used for putting a note or an editing observation for a word
or phrase in the text.

10. No spellings errors will be accepted.

11. &: it is not used in replacement of "and" in formal writing.

12. ".": the point is before the ending quotation marks if ending a sentence.

c) Web pages: Last name, Name’s initials, Title of the article, Institution name, [Online]: http://xxx.xx.x , Date of
consultation.
d) Online e-books: Last name, Name’s initials, recovered from http://xxx.xx.x
e) Document in electronic format: Last name, Name’s initials, Title, doi: xx.xxxx
f) Thesis: Last name, Name’s initials (year), Title. [Unedited Magister or Doctorate thesis]. Name of the institution,
localization.

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PROYECT ELABORATION FORMAT
English for Engineers level IV, University of Antioquia

13. e.g.: usually put this before a series of examples or for clarifying a previous idea. Use “For Instance” or
“For example” in replacement.

14. i.e.: it is used more often to widen an idea and also for clarifying a previous one. It means ``in other
words'' or ``that is''.

15. et al.: this means “and others”. This is the animated form of “etc.” and it is used for citations of more
than five authors.

16. do not: the apostrophe or abbreviation (’) (don’t) should not be used in formal writing for personal
pronouns.

C. Main points to consider in the Project

a. Primarily, think about:

Why – How – When – Where? For your R&D project or product idea.

b. Always have in mind three main questions, hypothetically:

- How much does it cost?
- When is it ready?
- How much are the profits?

c. Implement the Necessity Vision for the improvement of your engineering area of interest:
- Changing an old product.
- Innovating.
- Optimizing.
- Reducing Costs.

D. Example of a Product Idea Delimitation2

NOT LIMITED [BROAD TOPIC] Polymers

SLIGHTLY LIMITED Polymers today

MORE LIMITED An Overview of Thermoplastic Polymer Processing

FURTHER LIMITATIONS Manufacturing Process Models for PEEK Based composites

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Note: The goal is to find a further limitation feasible enough to get a real and specific demonstration of the modification,
improvement or change of the product and/or process that you want to impact on at the end of the project but that could
require a little bit more time to reach. Try to think as if it were a thesis focused to the industry, achievable in a short period
of time. If that is not the case for you, be sure that what you want to do or invent is realistic. Again, take into account the
needs of your area of interest.

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PROYECT ELABORATION FORMAT
English for Engineers level IV, University of Antioquia

E. RANK TABLE FOR THE PROJECT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Presentation
Without merit All merit
-Lots of errors -No errors
-Rough draft -Elegant draft
-Hard to read -Easy to read
Title, Objectives, Table of Contents,
Introduction
-Vague -Succinct
-Uninformative -Informative
Problem analysis (e.g. investigation,
requirements, theory)
-Careless -Thorough
-Superficial -Insightful
Design and Implementation (e.g. artefact,
experiment, study)
-Unspecified -Well specified
-Bad-executed -Well-executed
-No Solution -Solution

Manufacturing and Industry

-No argument -Well argued

-No foundation -Meticulous
-Shallow -In-depth
Safety, Maintenance, and Quality Control
-No proper -Appropriate criteria
criteria -Balanced assessment
-Biased
assessment
Careers and Employment, Innovation and
Businesses
Narrow view Broad scope
Conclusions
Unpunctual, no Punctual, Visionary
vision
Review of literature and other resources
Bibliography, Glossary
Insufficient Sufficient

Student’s treatment of ethics

Non-existent Notable