Your Company's Name

Address
City, State ZIP

To: Name, Title, Company [if not your company]

From: Your Name, Title
Subject: Concise Description of What's In This Memo
Date: Date of homework submission
Distr: Name, Title of anybody who should also get this memo; separate multiple names
with semi-colons

Foreword
Paragraph here that describes the context and problem you were called on to solve. States also
the tasks you were assigned, the status of these tasks, and the purpose of this document. The
section label “Foreword” should be set to “Heading 1”. All “regular ol' text” should be set as the
“Normal” style for proper formatting.

Summary
Paragraph or two here aimed primarily at whoever this memo is addressed to. States the results
you found; one result per task as stated in the Foreword. States the conclusions you have drawn
from those results. States any recommendations requested by the person in the “To:” field or any
recommendations you feel you are ethically required to make. Foreword and Summary MUST
be complete on page 1. The section label “Summary” should be set to “Heading 1”.
Discussion
Introduction paragraph here that describes the purpose and layout of the following subsections.
This paragraph does not have to be long. Subsections are organized in a logical way and not
chronologically. The section label “Discussion” should be set to “Heading 1”.
Methods
Describe the methods and procedures you used to complete the tasks stated in the Foreword.
This section will likely be split up into additional subsections, probably based on the tasks you
were set. These subsections will vary depending on what it is you were doing. The section label
“Methods” should be set to “Heading 2”.
Subsection Label. This is a subsection of “Methods”. Name it whatever you want and describe
whatever it is that you are describing. The section label here should be formatted as “Heading 3”
in OpenOffice, but unfortunately it's really hard to have a heading setting that works with in-line
section headings. So, just type your section heading as “Normal” and then make it bold. Do not
use more than 3 levels of section labels in a short memo like this. The following section,
“Equations”, is a sample of how you might see information organized into a subsection, but you
will not need to have an actual “Equations” subsection in your memos.
Equations. Equations are a very necessary part of engineering, and reporting them is equally
necessary. For this class, all equations will be centered and numbered on the right hand side.
Equations must be typeset using OpenOffice Math (i.e. they need to look like those below) and
must be introduced in the preceding sentence with all variables defined afterwards. For example,
the equation for the buoyant force, FB , of an object is:

FB = ρ g ∇

where ρ is the density of water, g is gravitational acceleration, and ∇ is the volume of the object.
To create a new equation, go to the “Add-Ins” Tab and click on the little icon that looks like:
∑1 . This will create a blank equation that is numbered on the right-hand side. It will also bring
up the MathType dialog box for you to use to put in your equation. Use the buttons in the dialog
box to find the symbols you need. After you finish putting in your equation, save it and close the
dialog box. Next, go to the “Add-Ins” tab and go to MathType > Format Equation Numbers…
Make sure that only “Equation Number” and “Enclosure” are checked. Equation Number should
be set to “1, 2, 3, …” and Enclosure should be set to “()”. Check the box so that all equation
numbers are updated in the whole document, and click “Okay”. Your equation should now look
similar to Eq. . When defining the variables in text, the variables should be inserted as in-line
equations (click on the icon that looks like: ∑ ). Unfortunately, Word does not handle
variables well in terms of line spacing; any line with a variable in it always ends up with extra
spacing above and below it to handle the formatting. This is not your fault, so don’t worry about
it.
To reference an equation, place the cursor where you want the equation reference to go. Then,
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go to the “Add-Ins” tab, and click on the icon that says “MathType: Insert Equation Reference”.
Then, double-click on the equation number you want to reference. Unfortunately, I cannot seem
to find how to format the equation reference so that the reference contains just the number
instead of the number in parentheses. If you can’t figure out how to get Word to do “Eq. 1”
instead of “Eq. (1)”, don’t worry about it. If you later go back and insert another equation, you
may need to update all your equation numbers and references. Additional resources concerning
writing equations in Microsoft Word are located at CTools > Resources > Microsoft Office.
Results
Put your results here. JUST the results, no commentary on what the results mean. Put the results
down in the same order that they are listed in the Summary, so that it is easy to find them. Again,
you may find it nice to subdivide this section according to the tasks you were set. It is NOT
necessary to always subdivide sections, though. Only subdivide sections if it will help your
reader find information.
Results will often take the form of figures and tables. Figures and tables should be formatted
according to the style sheet laid out in the coursepack. Included in this template are samples of a
figure and table so that you will know how they should be presented in a document.
Figures. To add a figure to your memo, first go to “Insert” Tab > Shapes > Text box. Word does
not automatically group the caption with the picture so we’ll put them in this text box to make
sure they travel together. Draw a large-ish text box in your document. Then, click inside the text
box, go to Insert > Picture and select the image you want to add. DO NOT just copy and paste
the image in; the linking can get messed up. After your image has shown up in the memo, get it
sized the way you want and make sure it is centered on the page. Then, select the figure, go to
“References” Tab > Insert > Caption and type in your caption (make sure to start the caption with
a period followed by two spaces so that the label looks correct). Select “Label” as “Figure” and
“Position” as “Below Selected Item”. Click “Okay” and your caption should appear with the
figure. Select the text box and go to “Page Layout” Tab > Text Wrapping > Top and Bottom.
Then, go to the temporary tab “Text Box Tools” > Format > Shape Outline > No Outline. Now,
place the text box wherever you want so the figure is where you want it. The text box should
now travel with the text as you type, though you may still have to do some fiddling with
placement.
To reference a figure, say Error: Reference source not found, place the cursor where you want
the reference to go and then go to “References” Tab > Cross-reference. For “Type”, select
“Figure”, and then choose the figure you want to reference. Set “Insert Reference to” to “Only
label and number”. Click “Insert”, then click “Close”. Be careful inserting figures before Figure
1; Word can sometimes get confused. If you get stuck, see Dr. Alford.

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 Figure 1. Nice description of this figure and what it means.

Tables. To add a table to your memo, first go to “Insert” Tab > Shapes > Text box. Word does
not automatically group the caption with the table so we’ll put them in this text box to make sure
they travel together. Draw a large-ish text box in your document. Then, click inside the text box,
go to Insert > Table > Select how many columns and rows you want and click. Fill in your data
and then make sure the table is formatted according to the style sheet in the coursepack. The
table should look like Table 1 when you are done. To add a caption, click anywhere inside the
table and go to “References” Tab > Insert Caption and type in your caption (make sure to start
the caption with a period followed by two spaces so that the label looks correct). Select
“Label” as “Table” and “Position” as “Above Selected Item”. Click “Okay” and your caption
should appear with the table. Select the text box and go to “Page Layout” Tab > Text Wrapping
> Top and Bottom. Then, go to the temporary tab “Text Box Tools” > Format > Shape Outline >
No Outline. Now, place the text box wherever you want so the table is where you want it. The
text box should now travel with the text as you type, though you may still have to do some
fiddling with placement.
To reference your tables, follow the procedure outlined for figures, but choose the type to be
“Table” instead.

Table 1. Simplified mass budget for your design.

Category Mass (kg)
Structure 1040.1
Variable Use 310.2
Crew and Effects 540.3
Cargo 220.9
M M
Total Mass ####.#

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Page Breaks and Other Formatting
The real goal of formatting in a memo such as this is to use visual clues to help your reader find
information. You are free to use page breaks, section breaks (to change part of the report to
landscape orientation, for example), and other things to make your memo as easy to read as
possible. For example, there is a page break just before this section so that the label is not
hanging by itself on the previous page. Just be consistent in whatever you do!
Analysis
In this section, describe what your results mean in terms of the client's problems and your own
tasks. Here is where you use your engineering expertise to make sense of the numbers that are in
the Results section. Feel free to subdivide this section as necessary.

Conclusions
Describe your conclusions based on your results and analysis. This is where you can make
commentary on everything you've done. But don't rattle on! Keep it concise.

Recommendations [if requested]

Provide this section only if appropriate (requested by the client or ethically required by you).
Include all recommendations and provide supporting evidence from appropriate sections of this
document.