coop report preparation guide

CO-OP REPORT PREPARATION GUIDE

August 2012

Version 2.0

Co-op Report Preparation Guide

1. Introduction

Co-operative education (“co-op”) is one of the requirements in obtaining an engineering bachelor’s degree. Co-op is sometimes known as internship or industrial training. The main objective of this program is to provide the students with vast exposure to a real industrial environment. In addition, students should also be able to apply the skills that they have gained throughout their academic years.

The co-op program also serves a purpose of a shared social obligation for both the UCSI and the organizations involved. The students will generally assist the companies in handling any related jobs and tasks assigned to them. In essence, this program will also indirectly enable UCSI in identifying the industries’ current needs, hence improving any weaknesses discovered. Upon completing the co-op program, the students are required to submit a report detailing their experience and summarizing their activities at the organizations.

The submission of your Cooperative Education Report (“Co-op Report”) is one of the last steps in the program leading to the completion of your engineering degree. The report is a professional statement of the results of the student’s internship work. The School of Engineering has established guidelines for uniformity in the format of the manuscript. These guidelines were designed to ensure that all papers were high in quality and consistent in the arrangement of the contents.

The Co-op Report must be a professionally finished work in format, style, spelling and appearance, as the finished document reflects on both the student and the University. The format of the manuscript should be consistent with the guidelines presented herein. Failure to follow these instructions may result in either total rejection of your Co-op Report or complete revision of your report. Co-op Report is a report that you should prepare upon completion of your co-operative studies. The report should highlight the profile of the company that you are attached with and the nature of tasks and jobs assigned to you while you were in the company.

The report should be written individually and submitted to your respective Head of Department (“HOD”) upon completion of your internship. It is not necessary for the student to submit the hardcover of the report, unless it is specifically requested by the HOD. Nevertheless, the students are expected to submit the comb-bind of the report and submit it to school in the stipulated deadline.

Coop Report Preparation Guide Faculty of Engineering, Technology & Built Environment of 14


2. Report Layout

Your report should consist of (a) front matters; (b) content and (c) back matter. The front matters section consists of cover page, table of contents, list of figures and so forth. The content is the chapters, while the back matters section consists of the reference section as well as the appendix.

The overall structure of the report is stated in the following table:

# Item (in order) Description(a) Front cover The front cover of your report should be printed on coloured

paper. Each course has its own colour, and the colours are as follows:

Colour Description DepartmentRed Mechatronics EngineeringOrange Petroleum EngineeringBlue Mechanical Engineering (ME)Yellow Chemical EngineeringGreen Civil EngineeringPurple Electrical and Electronics (EE)Grey Communication and Electronics (CE)

(b)

Title Page This page intends to describe the purpose of the submission of your report. It simple states that the report is submitted as a partial requirement for the completion of your degree.

(c) Approval Page This page describes that the company supervisor has approved the content and materials pertaining to company information that is presented in your report. All reports should be verified first by your company before submitting to the school.

(d)

Declaration In this page, students must declare that their work is original, and where information, diagram or texts other than the students’ own work is included in the report, it should be formally cited.

(e) Acknowledgement This section is entirely optional. In this sections, students could acknowledge, dedicate and thanked their parents, company supervisor along with those who have helped them throughout the coop period.

(f) Executive Summary Normally a technical report contains an Executive Summary, while a scientific report contains an Abstract. As the name suggests, the executive summary should summarize the whole report in less than 400 words.



Keep the summary concise (preferably one page), and write it in one single paragraph. The summary should present the:

purpose of the report scope of the report highlights of the conclusions and recommendations

In writing your summary, use connecting words (conjunctions) such as “and”, “therefore”, “furthermore”, “first” etc.

(g)

Contents The contents lists all main sections in your report and any subsections with headings. Some key points to note:

Ensure that each entry in the table of contents refers to the correct page number.

Connect each entry to its page number with a dotted line.

Align the page numbers on the right side of your page. Note the use of lowercase Roman numerals (ii, iii, iv)

for the table of contents, list of figures and tables, and summary.

(h)

List of Figures / Tables / Equations / Glossary

If you use figures or tables in your report, you must list them in the preliminary pages of your report, immediately after your Table of Contents page.

If you use only tables, you will provide a List of Tables. If you use only figures, your report will have a List of Figures. If you use both figures and tables, you will have a List of Figures and Tables. However, if your report includes ten or more figures and/or tables, you should provide a List of Tables and a separate List of Figures, each on its own page.

Each list identifies its components by number, title, and page number. Do not list any tables or figures that appear in the appendices.

(i) Chapters There should only be four chapters in your report. The chapters are:

Chapter 1 : Introduction Chapter 2 : Company Profile Chapter 3 : Tasks Assigned and Completed Chapter 4 : Conclusion and Recommendations

The page number for the chapter should be written in Arabic numerals, beginning from 1 until 25. The maximum acceptable number of pages or length of chapters is 25. This is to ensure that the students write in concise manners.

(j) References All references should be written according to IEEE style. There



are numerous guides in writing the reference according to the IEEE style on the internet.

(k)

Appendices Where applicable, you may have the appendix section. The appendix serves as an attachment where the students can append either large documents, figures, tables or others which may not fit in the body of the report.

The materials presented in the appendix section must be discussed in the report. Irrelevant materials placed in the appendix section for the purpose of thickening the report should be avoided.

Please note that students are required to obtain permission from the company supervisor prior to attaching sensitive documents in their reports.

3. What should be in the report?

Your report is limited to four chapters so as to avoid verbosity and promoting conciseness. The following are the breakdown and structure of the chapters that should be included in the report:

Chapter 1 : Introductiono The introduction is always the first section in the body of your report. It presents your

work and defines the problem or project. It should supply enough background information to help the reader understand why your report was written and how it relates to similar work.

o Your objectives should be written clearly and concisely. However, the introduction

should deliver a sufficient impact to encourage continued reading.o The introduction section should describe the rationale, objectives, scope and

limitation, significance, and importance of internship or co-op studies.o The structure in preparing Chapter 1 is as follows:

1.0 Rationale In this section, you should describe the rationale behind co-op education. It would be better if you can somehow find the history of co-operative

education. And it would also be better if you can state other universities throughout the world which also adopt the practice of having a co-op during academic studies at tertiary institution.

Abundance of the resources on this subject is available on the internet. But be sure not to plagiarize your work.

1.1 Objectives



State the objective of co-op. Limit your objective to three objectives. Begin your objective with the word “To”.

1.2 Scope and Limitations In this section, you are to tell the scope of your co-op i.e. where are you

doing your co-op? What is the company name? In the limitation section, you should state on where the location of company

and the nature of work. For example, you limit your co-op within the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur.

1.3 Significance State the significance of your co-op. In what way have the co-op benefits

you? What have you gain by doing your co-op? What rewards are offered to you? Personal satisfaction? Or monetary satisfaction?

You must also discuss how co-op is important in complementing the theoretical nature of academic studies. That is, you must also state that co-op is important because it uses and applies the knowledge that you have learnt in your academic studies and put them into practice.

You should also mention how co-op is important in producing a skilled and well-rounded engineers-to-be.

Chapter 2 : Company Profileo This section should describe the company that you are attached with. The information

about the company can be obtained from the website, however, it is to be noted that sensitive and confidential information may not be included in your report. It is your duty to obtain permission and approval from the management of the company prior to inserting the information in the report.

o Organize your Chapter 2 as follows:

2.0 Company Background State the background and brief history of the company. This information can

usually be found on company’s website. State who founded the company and write a brief biographical sketch of the

company’s founder.

2.1 Location of the company State the location and address of the company. Include a map showing the direction of the company (not Google map please,

but a readable map) If the company has a worldwide office, then include them in your report.



2.2 Motto, Vision and Mission If the company that you are attached with has a motto or memorable tagline,

then include that in your report. Include the vision and mission of the company.

2.2 Organization Chart State the organization chart of the company. Your organization chart must portray key individual of the company i.e.

President or Managing Director etc. Usually, this information can be obtained from the Human Resource Department.

2.3 Main Products and Services State the main product of the company. State the services in which the company provides.

Chapter 3 : Tasks Assigned and Completedo This section should describe the nature of job and tasks assigned to you while you are

having your internship in the company.o You may also include the Gantt chart showing your progress and activities done and

completed while you were attached with the company.o You may also include the projects that you were handling in the company in this

section.o The project that you handled during your co-op session may be categorized into a

group, for example ‘administrative work’ or ‘mechanical work’ or electrical work’. In showing the graphical representation of the nature of task assigned to you, you may use a pie-chart, as shown in the figure below.




3.1 Roles and Responsibilities Describe the role and the department that has been assigned to you. For

example, you may be an intern at the company, but what role do you play in the company? What departments are you attached with?

What expectations does the company have on you?

3.2 Tasks Assigned State the nature of tasks assigned – is it more towards electrical or

mechanical or programming? Describe the nature of each task assigned to you: the process involved,

policies, regulations and the procedures. Represent the nature of tasks assigned graphically. You may use either pie-

chart of Gantt chart, showing the progress of your co-op.

3.3 Tasks Completed State significance tasks that you have completed during your time with the

company. For example, what projects have you completed while you were in the company?

You do not have to mention every task that you have completed; however, only mention significant tasks that is of relevant in the report. The remaining of the tasks of which you have completed will be reflected in the logbook.

When describing the tasks that you have completed, include the following: Description of the task that you have completed. Relevant pictures showing the project that you have successfully

completed. Relevant diagrams. For example, the wiring diagram, or the

mechanical design of the project and so on and so forth.

Chapter 4 : Conclusion and Future Recommendationo Conclusions and recommendations are very important to your report, and these

sections sometimes cause confusion. A simple rule is to place any statements that you can derive from the main body’s investigation in the conclusions section of your report.

o Include in the recommendations any comments that you feel might assist in future

activities. These future activities are probably not your responsibility and you should attempt to give the reader the benefit of your experience from working on the problem.

o Just like the summary, conclusions should be brief (preferably one page), but

complete and understandable. You may use lists, but easy-to-read sentences are best. Each paragraph should deal with only one aspect of the study.



o Conclusions may only be drawn if they are supported fully by the analyses described

in the body of your report. Three or more conclusions are expected. In this section, you should conclude your report by stating the knowledge or skills gained during your attachment with the company.

o Try to write your conclusions in positive manner so as to avoid harsh language.

o Recommendations should be organized in the same manner as conclusions and

should follow them on a separate page. Recommendations are essentially speculative, but they should follow logically from your conclusions.

o Recommendations should be specific, measurable, and attainable. Two or more

recommendations are expected.o You should also include further suggestion and recommendation to the company that

you were attached with.o You may also include suggestion to the university in regards to co-op.


4.1 Conclusion Conclude your report by stating your major accomplishments.

4.2 Recommendations State several recommendations that could be made to various parties

4.2.1 Recommendation for the Company State your recommendations to the company. For example, you may wish to

recommend the company to increase the co-op allowance for the next candidate.

Or you may wish to recommend the company to give you extra personal training during your co-op.

Please write your recommendation in the most diplomatic manner. Do not use abusive language in recommending a suggestion.

4.2.2 Recommendation for the University Suggest to the university on how it can improve the co-op education. For example, you may wish to suggest that certain subjects be taught at

second year rather than in third year and vice versa. Your recommendation must be relevant to the university’s policy.

4.2.3 Recommendation for Future Candidate Suggest the qualities that the future candidate may need if they were to go for

their co-op education. Suggest the qualities and skills that the future candidate may need if future

candidate wish to undergo his or her co-op education at the company that you are attached with.



Referenceso The reference section serves as the purpose of acknowledging and crediting the

source of information obtained from books, websites, journals and so forth.o Students are expected to adhere to the IEEE way of

Appendiceso Appendices may be included if necessary and relevant to the point of discussion.

However, it is to be noted that should the students wish to include sensitive and confidential information such technical drawing of a product, quotation of materials or other information that is deemed to be confidential; then the students are required to obtain prior permission and approval from the management of the company that the student is attached with.

o Not all reports have or need an appendix. Appendices can be considered stand-alone

documents, and thus could have their own table of contents. The appendix should contain any information that substantiates the report, but that is not required for a comprehensive understanding of your work. The appendix may contain bulky data such as lengthy tables, computer printouts, descriptions of processes or operations, analytical procedures, or maps. Assign consecutive letters or numbers along with names to each, for example: "Appendix A -- Detailed Street Calculations," "Appendix B -- Bearing Plate Calculations," or "Appendix 1 -- Site Maps."



4. Formatting

The following formatting should be used when writing your report:

4.1 Font type

Students are advised to use professional fonts for their report. To make it standard for the whole school, all students are to use the font “Times New Roman” for the body of the report. The main heading will be “Arial Rounded MT Bold”.

4.2 Font size

The size of the font should be reasonable so that your report can be read easily. Typically, for your report, the size of the heading should be 13 and the size of your text should be 12.

4.3 Justification and Hypenation

The text in your report should be aligned so as to improve the appearance and legibility of the text. Justify your text.

4.4 Pagination

All pages should be numbered, with the exception of the front cover. Use lowercase Roman numerals for pages other than the chapters and use Arabic numerals (e.g. 1, 2, …) for pages that are in the chapter.

The page numbers that are displayed must be aligned to the left at the bottom of each page, within the bottom margin. It is to be noted that no words, punctuation, or diacritics of any kind accompany the page number. Your page number should be “4”, not “-4-” or “4.” or “Page 4”.

The body of the report should be less than twenty-five (25) pages, excluding front and back matters. The restriction on length should not be thought to minimize the importance of the report; rather it is to encourage conciseness of expression and selective presentation of results.

4.5 Line Spacing

Line spacing is essential in making the text in your report to be readable as well as legible. In your report, use double spacing throughout except in footnotes, indented quotations set off from the text, bibliography entries of more than one line, and materials such as captions or tables and appendices of data.



4.6 Style of Writing

Person

The report should be written in the third person point of view rather than the first or second person. Avoid using the phrase “I” or “you” in your report. The following table provides an example:

Correct IncorrectThe reader will observe that … I found that…Figure 3 shows that … You will note that …

Shortened Expression

Contractions such as “didn’t” and “wasn’t” are considered as informal English while complete constructions are characteristics of formal English. Therefore, try to avoid contractions whenever possible.

Furthermore, clipped words such as “gym”, “exams”, “lab” and so forth are highly discouraged in writing a co-op report.

Capitalization

The rule of thumb is to capitalize the first word in the title and proper nouns.

Numbers

When numbers are used, they normally appear in Arabic numerals. As a general rule of thumb, consider the following guidelines:

o Numbers below ten are written in words.

o Number ten and above appear as Arabic numerals.

o Fractions or decimal values are written as numerals.

o Numbers which begin a sentence must be spelled out when use in the text.

4.7 Finishing

All reports that are submitted to the departments need to be fully bound by using a comb-bound. The students must also attach a plastic cover on both sides of the report. The report must be bound by using the prescribed colours – in accordance with your department – for ease of identification.



4.8 Referencing

Students are to use the IEEE style of referencing in the co-op report. Below are some guidelines on preparing a reference according to IEEE format:

Books

FormatAuthor(s), Book title. Location: Publishing company, year, pp.

Example1. W.K. Chen, Linear Networks and Systems. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993, pp. 123-

35.2. B. Klaus and P. Horn, Robot Vision. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.

Journals

FormatAuthors(s), “Article title,” Journal title, vol., pp, date.

Examples1. G. Pevere. “Infrared Nation.” The International Journal of Infrared Design. vol. 33,

pp. 56-99, Jan. 1979.2. F. Aronowitz. “Theory of traveling-wave optical maser,” Phys. Rev., vol. 134, pp.

A635–A646, Dec. 8, 1965

Website

FormatAuthor(s). “Title.” Internet: complete URL, date updated. [date accessed]

Examples1. M. Duncan. “Engineering Concepts on Ice. Internet: www.iceengg.edu/staff.html, Oct.

25, 2000 [Nov. 29, 2003].2. S. L. Talleen. “The Intranet Architecture: Managing information in the new 3. paradigm.” Internet: http://www.amdahl.com/doc/products/bsg/intra/infra/html [April

1996]

For further information on IEEE referencing styles, please browse the following links: http://www.ieee.org/documents/stylemanual.pdf http://www.ijssst.info/info/IEEE-Citation-StyleGuide.pdf


http://www.ijssst.info/info/IEEE-Citation-StyleGuide.pdf

http://www.ieee.org/documents/stylemanual.pdf

http://www.amdahl.com/doc/products/bsg/intra/infra/html


5. Using Units, Abbreviations, Number and Symbols

5.1 Units1. All units must be expressed in SI systems.2. The number and the unit must be separated by a space. For example, we write 4 cm, not 4cm.3. The unit is to be written after a number, and it should be abbreviated.4. There is no period after a unit except if it ends the sentence.5. The units are never written in plural form. For example, we write 4 cm, not 4 cms.

5.2 Abbreviations1. In a graph or table, use abbreviations where possible. For example, write January as Jan.2. Abbreviated names are separated by a space. For instance, we write Graham Edward Fuller as

G.E. Fuller not G.E.Fuller.3. Abbreviations other than names are written in capital letters and not separated by periods. For

example, we abbreviate United Nations as UN, not U.N.

5.2 Numbers1. Usually, we write percentage in words. For example, we normally write 15 percent. However,

where needed, we can also use the percent symbol %. However, the use of the percent symbol must be consistent in your writings.

2. A zero must preceded before a decimal point. For example, we write 0.1 but not .1.3. A four digit numbers are written close to one another and not separated by a space. For

instance, the correct form is 9999 not 9 999. However, numbers that are more than four digits are separated by a space. For example, we write ten thousand as 10 000, not 10000.

4. A date is written without a comma and we usually write it as 15 February 1987.5. The range of year is written in the following manner: 1891–1920.

5.3 Chemical Units1. Follow the IUPAC for writing chemical symbols.2. The names of chemical elements are usually spelt out in full. For example, we say hydrogen

gas, not H2 gas.3. Chemical bonds can be written by using a dash. For example, CH3-CO-CI.4. Ionic elements or compounds can be written as Cu2+ not Cu++.

5.4 Engineering Symbols1. SI units are highly encouraged to be used, however, other units are also allowed. The key is

to be consistent in using your units throughout your report.2. All equations must be numbered, and the numbering follows the chapter number.3. Use lowercase letter for common words, but use uppercase latter for specific names. For

instance, we write Ohm’s law but not Ohm’s Law.


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