Guidelines for Writing a Technical Report

Subtitle as needed (paper subtitle)

Authors Name/s per 1st Affiliation (Author) Authors Name/s per 2nd Affiliation (Author)
Dept. name of organization (Line 1 of Affiliation - optional) Dept. name of organization (Line 1 of Affiliation - optional)
Name of organization - acronyms acceptable (line 2) Name of organization - acronyms acceptable (line 2)
City, Country (line 3) City, Country (line 3)
[email protected] – optional (line 4) [email protected] – optional (line 4)

Abstract—This electronic document is a “live” template. The III. EASE OF USE

various components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] are
already defined on the style sheet, as illustrated by the portions The template is used to format your paper and style the
given in this document. DO NOT USE SPECIAL text. All margins, column widths, line spaces, and text fonts
CHARACTERS, SYMBOLS, OR MATH IN YOUR TITLE OR are prescribed; please do not alter them. You may note
ABSTRACT. (Abstract) peculiarities. For example, the head margin in this template
measures proportionately more than is customary. This
Index Terms—Component, formatting, style, styling, insert. measurement and others are deliberate, using specifications
(key words) that anticipate your paper as one part of the entire proceedings,
and not as an independent document. Please do not revise any
I. INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1) of the current designations.
All manuscripts must be in English. These guidelines
IV. PREPARE YOUR PAPER BEFORE STYLING
include complete descriptions of the fonts, spacing, and related
information for producing your proceedings manuscripts. Before you begin to format your paper, first write and save
Please follow them and if you have any questions, direct them the content as a separate text file. Keep your text and graphic
to the production editor in charge of your proceedings (see files separate until after the text has been formatted and styled.
author-kit message for contact info). Do not use hard tabs, and limit use of hard returns to only one
This template provides authors with most of the formatting return at the end of a paragraph. Do not add any kind of
specifications needed for preparing electronic versions of their pagination anywhere in the paper. Do not number text heads—
papers. All standard paper components have been specified for the template will do that for you.
three reasons: (1) ease of use when formatting individual Finally, complete content and organizational editing before
papers, (2) automatic compliance to electronic requirements formatting. Please take note of the following items when
that facilitate the concurrent or later production of electronic proofreading spelling and grammar.
products, and (3) conformity of style throughout a conference A. Abbreviations and Acronyms (Heading 2)
proceedings. Margins, column widths, line spacing, and type
styles are built-in; examples of the type styles are provided Define abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are
throughout this document and are identified in italic type, used in the text, even after they have been defined in the
within parentheses, following the example. PLEASE DO NOT abstract. Abbreviations such as IEEE and SI do not have to be
RE-ADJUST THESE MARGINS. Some components, such as defined. Do not use abbreviations in the title or heads unless
multi-leveled equations, graphics, and tables are not they are unavoidable.
prescribed, although the various table text styles are provided. B. Units
The formatter will need to create these components,  Use either SI or CGS as primary units. (SI units are
incorporating the applicable criteria that follow. encouraged.) English units may be used as secondary
II. TYPE STYLE AND FONTS units (in parentheses). An exception would be the use
of English units as identifiers in trade, such as “3.5-
Wherever Times is specified, Times Roman or Times New inch disk drive”.
Roman may be used. If neither is available on your word  Avoid combining SI and CGS units, such as current in
processor, please use the font closest in appearance to Times. amperes and magnetic field in oersteds. This often
Avoid using bit-mapped fonts. True Type 1 or Open Type leads to confusion because equations do not balance
fonts are required. Please embed all fonts, in particular symbol dimensionally. If you must use mixed units, clearly
fonts, as well, for math, etc. state the units for each quantity that you use in an
equation.

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  Do not mix complete spellings and abbreviations of  Be aware of the different meanings of the homophones
units: “Wb/m2” or “webers per square meter”, not “affect” and “effect”, “complement” and
“webers/m2”. Spell out units when they appear in text: “compliment”, “discreet” and “discrete”, “principal”
“. . . a few henries”, not “. . . a few H”. and “principle”.
 Use a zero before decimal points: “0.25”, not “.25”.  Do not confuse “imply” and “infer”.
Use “cm3”, not “cc”. (bullet list)  The prefix “non” is not a word; it should be joined to
the word it modifies, usually without a hyphen.
C. Equations
 There is no period after the “et” in the Latin
The equations are an exception to the prescribed abbreviation “et al.”.
specifications of this template. You will need to determine  The abbreviation “i.e.” means “that is”, and the
whether or not your equation should be typed using either the abbreviation “e.g.” means “for example”.
Times New Roman or the Symbol font (please no other font). An excellent style manual for science writers is given by
To create multileveled equations, it may be necessary to treat Young [7].
the equation as a graphic and insert it into the text after your
paper is styled. V. USING THE TEMPLATE
Number equations consecutively. Equation numbers, After the text edit has been completed, the paper is ready
within parentheses, are to position flush right, as in Eq. 1, for the template. Duplicate the template file by using the Save
using a right tab stop. To make your equations more compact, As command, and use the naming convention prescribed by
you may use the solidus ( / ), the exp function, or appropriate your conference for the name of your paper. In this newly
exponents. Italicize Roman symbols for quantities and created file, highlight all of the contents and import your
variables, but not Greek symbols. Use a long dash rather than a prepared text file. You are now ready to style your paper; use
hyphen for a minus sign. Punctuate equations with commas or the scroll down window on the left of the MS Word
periods when they are part of a sentence, as in Formatting toolbar.
  A. Authors and Affiliations
The template is designed so that author affiliations are not
Note that the equation is centered using a center tab stop. repeated each time for multiple authors of the same affiliation.
Be sure that the symbols in your equation have been defined Please keep your affiliations as succinct as possible (for
before or immediately following the equation. Use “Eq. 1” or example, do not differentiate among departments of the same
“Equation 1”, not “(1)”, especially at the beginning of a organization). This template was designed for two affiliations.
sentence: “Equation 1 is . . .” 1) For Author/s of Only One Affiliation (Heading 3): To
D. Some Common Mistakes change the default, adjust the template as follows.
 The word “data” is plural, not singular. a) Selection (Heading 4): Highlight all author and
 The subscript for the permeability of vacuum 0, and affiliation lines.
other common scientific constants, is zero with b) Change Number of Columns: Select Format >
subscript formatting, not a lowercase letter “o”. Columns >Presets > One Column.
 In American English, commas, semi-/colons, periods, c) Deletion: Delete the author and affiliation lines for the
question and exclamation marks are located within second affiliation.
quotation marks only when a complete thought or
2) For Authors of More than Two Affiliations: To change
name is cited, such as a title or full quotation. When
the default, adjust the template as follows.
quotation marks are used, instead of a bold or italic
typeface, to highlight a word or phrase, punctuation a) Selection: Highlight all author and affiliation lines.
should appear outside of the quotation marks. A b) Change Number of Columns: Select Format >
parenthetical phrase or statement at the end of a Columns > Presets > One Column.
sentence is punctuated outside of the closing
c) Highlight Author and Affiliation Lines of Affiliation 1
parenthesis (like this). (A parenthetical sentence is
and Copy this Selection.
punctuated within the parentheses.)
 A graph within a graph is an “inset”, not an “insert”. d) Formatting: Insert one hard return immediately after
The word alternatively is preferred to the word the last character of the last affiliation line. Then paste down
“alternately” (unless you really mean something that the copy of affiliation 1. Repeat as necessary for each
alternates). additional affiliation.
 Do not use the word “essentially” to mean e) Reassign Number of Columns: Place your cursor to the
“approximately” or “effectively”. right of the last character of the last affiliation line of an even
 In your paper title, if the words “that uses” can numbered affiliation (e.g., if there are five affiliations, place
accurately replace the word “using”, capitalize the “u”; your cursor at end of fourth affiliation). Drag the cursor up to
if not, keep using lower-cased. highlight all of the above author and affiliation lines. Go to

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Format > Columns and select “2 Columns”. If you have an
odd number of affiliations, the final affiliation will be centered
on the page; all previous will be in two columns. TABLE I. TABLE TYPE STYLES
Table
B. Identify the Headings Table Column Head
Head
Headings, or heads, are organizational devices that guide Table column subhead Subhead Subhead
the reader through your paper. There are two types: component copy More table copya
heads and text heads.
a. Sample of a table footnote. (table footnote)
Component heads identify the different components of
your paper and are not topically subordinate to each other.
We suggest that you use a text box to insert a
Examples include Acknowledgments and References and, for
graphic (ideally 300 dpi, with all fonts embedded)
these, the correct style to use is “Heading 5”. Use “figure
because, in an MSW document, this method is
caption” for your Figure captions, and “table head” for your
somewhat more stable than directly inserting a
table title. Run-in heads, such as “Abstract”, will require you
picture.
to apply a style (in this case, italic) in addition to the style
To have non-visible rules on Example of a
provided by the drop down menu to differentiate the head from
figure caption. (figure caption) your frame, use the
the text.
MSWord pull-down menu, select Format >
Text heads organize the topics on a relational, hierarchical
Borders and Shading > Select ”None”.
basis. For example, the paper title is the primary text head
because all subsequent material relates and elaborates on this
one topic. If there are two or more sub-topics, the next level Fig. 1. Example of a figure caption. (figure caption)
head (uppercase Roman numerals) should be used and,
conversely, if there are not at least two sub-topics, then no VI. COPYRIGHT FORMS
subheads should be introduced. Styles named “Heading 1”,
“Heading 2”, “Heading 3”, and “Heading 4” are prescribed. You must submit the IEEE Electronic Copyright Form
(ECF) as described in your author-kit message. THIS FORM
C. Figures and Tables MUST BE SUBMITTED IN ORDER TO PUBLISH YOUR
Place figures and tables at the top and bottom of columns. PAPER.
Avoid placing them in the middle of columns. Large figures
and tables may span across both columns. Figure captions ACKNOWLEDGMENT
should be below the figures; table captions should appear The preferred spelling of the word “acknowledgment” in
above the tables. Insert figures and tables after they are cited in America is without an “e” after the “g”. Avoid the stilted
the text. Use the abbreviation “Fig. 1” in the text, and “Figure expression, “One of us (R. B. G.) thanks . . .” Instead, try
1” at the beginning of a sentence. “R. B. G. thanks”. Put applicable sponsor acknowledgments
Use 8 point Times New Roman for figure labels. Use here; DO NOT place them on the first page of your paper or as
words rather than symbols or abbreviations when writing a footnote.
figure-axis labels to avoid confusing the reader. As an
example, write the quantity “Magnetization”, or REFERENCES
“Magnetization, M”, not just “M”. List and number all bibliographical references in 9-point
If including units in the label, present them within Times, single-spaced, at the end of your paper. When
parentheses. Do not label axes only with units. In the example, referenced in the text, enclose the citation number in square
write “Magnetization (A/m)” or “Magnetization {A[m(1)]}”, brackets, for example: [1]. Where appropriate, include the
not just “A/m”. Do not label axes with a ratio of quantities and name(s) of editors of referenced books. The template will
units. For example, write “Temperature (K)”, not number citations consecutively within brackets [1]. The
“Temperature/K”. sentence punctuation follows the bracket [2]. Refer simply to
the reference number, as in “[3]”—do not use “Ref. [3]” or
D. Footnotes “reference [3]”. Do not use reference citations as nouns of a
Use footnotes sparingly (or not at all) and place them at the sentence (e.g., not: “as the writer explains in [1]”).
bottom of the column on the page on which they are Unless there are six authors or more give all authors’
referenced. Use Times 8-point type, single-spaced. names and do not use “et al.”. Papers that have not been
To help your readers, avoid using footnotes altogether and published, even if they have been submitted for publication,
include necessary peripheral observations in the text (within should be cited as “unpublished” [4]. Papers that have been
parentheses, if you prefer, as in this sentence). accepted for publication should be cited as “in press” [5].
Number footnotes separately from reference numbers, and Capitalize only the first word in a paper title, except for proper
in superscripts. Do not put footnotes in the reference list. Use nouns and element symbols.
letters for table footnotes. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is the prescribed
format for listing references.

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 For papers published in translation journals, please give the [3] I. S. Jacobs and C. P. Bean, “Fine particles, thin films and
English citation first, followed by the original foreign-language exchange anisotropy,” in Magnetism, vol. III, G. T. Rado and H.
citation [6]. Suhl, Eds. New York: Academic, 1963, pp. 271–350.
[4] K. Elissa, “Title of paper if known,” unpublished.
[1] G. Eason, B. Noble, and I. N. Sneddon, “On certain integrals of [5] R. Nicole, “Title of paper with only first word capitalized,” J.
Lipschitz-Hankel type involving products of Bessel functions,” Name Stand. Abbrev., in press.
Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, vol. A247, pp. 529–551, April [6] Y. Yorozu, M. Hirano, K. Oka, and Y. Tagawa, “Electron
1955. (references) spectroscopy studies on magneto-optical media and plastic
[2] J. Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd substrate interface,” IEEE Transl. J. Magn. Japan, vol. 2, pp.
ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68–73. 740–741, August 1987 [Digests 9th Annual Conf. Magnetics
Japan, p. 301, 1982].
[7] M. Young, The Technical Writer's Handbook. Mill Valley, CA:
University Science, 1989.

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