STYLE MANUAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES

L.F. Lagrange

MANUAL

Style guide for the degree of BSc majoring in Physics and Engineering Subjects

Engineering Sciences
University of the Free State
Bloemfontein
29 March 2021
 TEMPLATE: NAME OF THE REPORT
(ARIAL, 14 CPI, CENTRED, BOLD)

A.N. Other (Student number)

(Arial, 11 cpi, Centred, Bold)

REPORT / ASSIGNMENT
(Arial, 11 cpi, Centred, Capital letters, Choose type of report as well as report number and
insert module code and number)

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the module QALC1513 Academic Literacy, Communication and Language, for the
degree of BSc majoring in Physics and Engineering Subjects
(Arial, 11 cpi, Centred, insert module code and full module name)

Engineering Sciences
University of the Free State
Bloemfontein
Day Month year

(ii)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

(iii)
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................
2. STRUCTURE OF THE DOCUMENT...........................................................................
2.1 Seminar Document Structure...........................................................................
2.1.1 Title page.............................................................................................
2.1.2 Abstract................................................................................................
2.1.3 Table of Contents.................................................................................
2.1.4 Lists of Figures and Tables..................................................................
2.1.5 Glossary of Terms................................................................................
2.1.6 Introduction..........................................................................................
2.1.7 Main body of document........................................................................
2.1.8 Discussion............................................................................................
2.1.9 References...........................................................................................
2.1.10 Appendices..........................................................................................
3. DOCUMENT FORMATTING.......................................................................................
3.1 Fonts................................................................................................................
3.2 Title Page, Numbering, Font Sizes, Justification and Capitalisation.................
3.2.1 Title Page.............................................................................................
3.2.2 Numbering...........................................................................................
3.2.3 First level / main headings....................................................................
3.2.4 Second level sub- headings.................................................................
3.2.5 Third level, and greater, headings........................................................
3.2.6 Tables and figures................................................................................
3.2.7 Equations.............................................................................................
3.2.8 Bulleted Lists........................................................................................
3.3 Page Margins and Page Numbering................................................................
4. REFERENCING..........................................................................................................
4.1 Ethics...............................................................................................................
4.2 Source Material................................................................................................
4.3 Citing References............................................................................................
4.3.1 Referencing in the text.......................................................................
4.3.2 Referencing tables and figures...........................................................

(iv)
 4.4 Reference List................................................................................................
5. ADDITIONAL STYLE CONVENTIONS......................................................................
5.1 Style Conventions for Figures........................................................................
5.2 Style Conventions for Tables.........................................................................
5.3 Style Conventions for Equations....................................................................
5.3.1 Proper use of tense............................................................................
5.3.2 Active vs. passive voice.....................................................................
5.4 General Conventions.....................................................................................
6. REFERENCES..........................................................................................................
APPENDIX A: SAMPLE OF TITLE PAGE.............................................................................

(v)
 LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 2.1 Summary statistics of the MAP obtained from simulations performed
in the Northern Province

23

LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1.1 Summary statistics student enrolments

(vi)
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1. INTRODUCTION

This is the official style manual of Engineering Sciences for student reports, assignments,
seminars, dissertations and theses. It is meant to complement the Dissertation and Thesis
Style Manual of the University of the Free State and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural
Sciences. Acknowledgement is given to the School of Bioresources Engineering and
Environmental Hydrology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, for the core of this style manual.

All students submitting work for examination at Engineering Sciences will be expected to
follow the style conventions laid out in this document.

There are several reasons for adhering to a style convention. Firstly, by standardising the
format of presentation, examiners have a consistent standard to use for the evaluation of
documents submitted for examination. Secondly, it gives the student practice at following
conventions for publishing work. When submitting papers for publication, the specific
journal to which the paper is submitted will expect the author to follow their style
conventions exactly. Finally, presentation is everything. A poorly presented piece of work,
with many errors and inconsistencies, will detract from the quality of the information
presented in the work. This could result in a dissertation or thesis not being accepted,
even though the quality of the work done for the degree is of a suitable level.

This document will present the conventions to be used for structure, layout, format, figures
and tables, equations, and referencing in seminars, dissertations and theses submitted to
Engineering Sciences.

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2. STRUCTURE OF THE DOCUMENT

The structure to follow for seminars, dissertations and theses will be presented in this
chapter. For the dissertations and theses, these do not have to be strictly adhered to, as
the nature of project may require a modified structure of the document. The structure of
the final document should be decided on consultation with the supervisor/lecturer.

An introductory paragraph is required before the start of a next level heading.

2.1 Seminar Document Structure

The seminar document should adhere to the sequence of presentation laid out in the
following sections.

2.1.1 Title page

The title of the seminar should describe, in as few words as possible, the scope of the
material presented in the document. Refer to the seminar template on page (ii) for the
correct layout of the title page.

2.1.2 Abstract

The abstract should not be more than 300 words long. It should provide a brief précis of
what is presented in each of the sections in your document. It should be written in such a
way that the reader feels encouraged to read the rest of your document. A summary of the
most salient points and conclusions should appear in the abstract. Generally, references
are not included in the abstract. Typically an abstract should include:

a. What was studied,

b. How it was studied,
c. What was learned from the study, and
d. What the significance was of what was learnt.

2.1.3 Table of Contents

The Table of Contents (ToC) should exactly match the headings in the text. This means
that the wording, capitalisation and punctuation that appears in the text, should appear in
the same way in the Table of Contents.

The formatting of the headings in the Table of Contents should match the formatting of the
headings in the text. Preferably 11 cpi, Arial should be used in the Table of Contents, with
the heading of the section 12 cpi, Arial, Centred, . First level main headings should be in
capitals, second level headings capitalised, and the following levels in regular text. Leader
lines to the page numbers may be used. The sub-headings at the different levels should
be indented and aligned as shown in the Table of Contents in this document.

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2.1.4 Lists of Figures and Tables

It is common practice to present a List of Figures and a separate List of Tables after the
Table of Contents, and to position it on a new page, using 11 cpi, Arial. The section
headings should be 12 cpi, Arial, Bold, Centred. This list should contain the figure number,
the caption of the figure and the page on which the figure occurs. The List of Figures
should appear in order of figure number. The caption of the figure should be listed using a
hanging indent and the page number should be right aligned (leaders may be used). Refer
to the example:

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Summary statistics of the MAP obtained from simulations performed in
the Northern Province..........................................................................................

Similar to a List of Figures, a List of Tables is included in the document. This appears after
the Table of Contents and List of Figures. The section headings should be 12 cpi, Arial,
Bold, Centred. Refer to the example:

LIST OF TABLES

Figure 2.1 Summary statistics of the MAP obtained from simulations performed in
the Northern Province..........................................................................................

2.1.5 Glossary of Terms

If there are many jargon terms or a long list of abbreviations/symbols used frequently in
the body of the report, it is sometimes useful to include a Glossary of Terms or a List of
Abbreviations/Symbols. This will aid readers who are not familiar with the topic to
understand some of the technical nuances of the subject material. These are optional and
should only be used if it is deemed necessary. If deemed necessary, it appears after the
List of Tables and should be 11 cpi, Arial. The section headings should be 12 cpi, Arial,
Bold, Centred. Refer to the example:

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

ECSA - Engineering Council of South Africa

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2.1.6 Introduction

For a student report the introduction must state the question, followed by a short
description of the approach/method followed to obtain the answer. For EnSci
undergraduate student reports this should follow the Engineering Design Thinking
method.

For a seminar the introduction to the document should give background to the topic under
review and why it is of relevance. It should give a clear description of the subject, the
scope of material reviewed and the purpose of the review.

After the background material to the topic has been presented, the introduction must
contain a clear statement of the objective(s) of the document to enable the reader to
decide if he/she wants to read the entire document. At the end of the introduction a "road
map" should be used to inform the reader of what is contained in the document. This will
aid in letting the reader know the scope of the material and the logical sequence in which
it will be presented.

2.1.7 Main body of document

The main body of the report/seminar should present the material pertinent to the title in a
logical sequence. Each subsequent chapter should build on the material presented in the
previous chapter. The reader should be led through the thought process in a logical
manner.

The document should flow in a smooth manner from one chapter to the next. This can be
achieved by linking the subsections and chapters, helping the reader to understand how
each section fits into the document. An example of a linking sentence is given below:

"Having discussed the importance of the factors that affect x, it is apparent

that y is of significant importance and it will be addressed in the following
chapter/section."

For a seminar, the body of the seminar should not contain any of the author’s own
thoughts on the subject, and these should be contained in the “Discussion and
Conclusions” chapter.

2.1.8 Discussion

The Discussion and Conclusions chapter is where the student demonstrates how he/she
has assimilated the information that he/she has reviewed and draws conclusions from the
material reviewed. The discussion should be more than just a summary of main points
presented and should include some of the student's insight into the subject matter.

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No new information (i.e. material not presented in the body of the document) should be
presented in the discussion and as such, references are seldom used in the discussion.
An exception is where the student may choose to refer to a piece of work already
presented in the body of the document. For example, "The method followed by Bloggs
(2003) is of significant importance since …".

2.1.9 References

This is where comprehensive references to all literature cited in the text should be
presented. Refer to the correct format of referencing in Section 4.4 of this document. The
references should be presented in alphabetical order. A hanging indent should be used to
separate the references. No blank line should be left between references. No references
should be placed in the list if they are not used in the document.

2.1.10 Appendices

If it is essential, additional information can be placed into the Appendix section of the
seminar, following the numbering method of Appendix, A, B, C, etc. However, this material
must always be referred to in the text.

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3. DOCUMENT FORMATTING

This section will deal with all the formatting conventions when writing a seminar,
dissertation or thesis.

3.1 Fonts

The typeface that is preferred is 11 cpi Arial, with line spacing of 1.5 and “full” justification.
Be sure to use a True Type Font to ensure transportability of the document from one
computer to another. If a non-standard font is used, formatting errors could occur when
using a different computer or printer.

3.2 Title Page, Numbering, Font Sizes, Justification and Capitalisation

The following sections present the format that should be followed for the various
components of the document.

3.2.1 Title Page

The title of the document must be placed at the top of the title page, 14 cpi, bold,
uppercase.

The name of the author is placed 5 spaces underneath the title, in 11 cpi, lower case,
centred and in bold, followed by the student number. The name should consist of the
initials and surname, where the initials are separated by periods.

The rest of the title page must be in 11 cpi regular, use the template on p (ii) as guide.

3.2.2 Numbering

Headings should be numbered in the following manner:

First level / main heading: 1. INTRODUCTION

Second level sub-heading: 2.1 Factors Affecting Evapotranspiration
Third level sub-heading: 2.1.1 Rainfall

Note:

 A tab stop of 1.27 cm can consistently be used after the numbers.

 Typically one would not go beyond the third level of numbering (i.e. 2.1.1) as this
becomes too cumbersome. Rather group such information using bullets instead of a
fourth level of numbering. An absolute maximum of 4 levels is recommended for
dissertations and theses. Going beyond the third level of headings can make the
document too disaggregated and it affects the flow of the writing.

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 There are no periods after the last number used, except in main headings as
indicated.
 Headings such as ABSTRACT, PREFACE, or TABLE OF CONTENTS are not
numbered.
 In the Appendix, you may specify an Appendix letter (e.g. A) and refer to
subsections of Appendix A using numbering. For example, A.1 would refer to the
first sub-heading of Appendix A.
 Single sub-heading section should be avoided.

3.2.3 First level / main headings

These must be centre aligned, 12 cpi, Arial, bold and all in uppercase letters. A blank line
should be placed between the heading and the paragraph under the heading. Heading
titles are not terminated with a full stop, e.g.:

3.2.4 Second level sub- headings

These headings must be fully justified and be in 11 cpi bold. The first letter of each word is
capitalised. This excludes common words such as for, and, on, with, etc. If the sub-section
title exceeds one line, then a hanging indent should be used.

A tab stop of 1.27 cm may be placed between the last number and the start of the title.
Again there is no full stop at the end of the title. These headings are preceded and
succeeded by a blank line, e.g.:

2.3 Causes of Soil Erosion

3.2.5 Third level, and greater, headings

These headings have full justification and are to be in 11 cpi bold. Only the first letter of
the title is capitalised, unless the title includes proper nouns. A hanging indent must be
used if the title exceeds one line in length. A 1.27 cm tab stop may be used between the
last number and the first letter. Again, there is no full stop at the end of the title, e.g.:

2.1.4 Estimation of reference potential evaporation using the Penman-Monteith

equation

Note: In this document the third level headings have more than just the first word
capitalised as they refer to specific elements such as Table of Contents, and List
of Figures.

3.2.6 Tables and figures

The font to be used for the table and figure captions is 11 cpi regular. If the table or figure
is centre aligned (preferred), then the caption should also be centre aligned with the Table

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or Figure. Otherwise, the caption should have full justification. Table or figure numbering
should contain the number of the chapter and the number of the table or figure in that
chapter. For example, Table 3.1 refers to the first table in Chapter 3 and Figure 5.4 refers
to the fourth figure in Chapter 5. Refer to the section later in this document on the use of
tables and figures. The words Table … or Figure …. in the sentence are capitalised.

3.2.7 Equations

Equations should be created using a suitable equation editor that is supplied with most
word processing software packages. The font size used in the equations should also be
11 cpi and be in the same text as the rest of the document. Some equation editors use
either plain text or mathematical text for variables (v versus v). The same convention
should be used for all equations, i.e. be consistent. Equations should be numbered using
right alignment with the chapter number and the number of the equation in parentheses,
e.g.:

2
E=mc (3.1)

3.2.8 Bulleted Lists

Lists of more than three items should preferably be placed in a table (Section 3.2.6) or in
bulleted form. Bullets should be indented 0.5 cm from the left margin, with the text
indented an additional 0.5 cm. Bullets should be marked with a small round dot. As an
example:

 this is item one,

 this is item two,
 this is item three, and
 this is item four.

3.3 Page Margins and Page Numbering

The following page margins should be used consistently throughout the document:

Right hand margin: 2.5 cm

Left hand margin: 2.5 cm
Top margin: 2.5 cm
Bottom margin: 2.5 cm

Roman numerals are used for the front pages and integers are used in the body of the
document. There is no page number on the title page. Therefore the Abstract will usually
be page ii. Page 1 starts at the Introduction. From here, the page numbers are placed at
the top-right of the page in the format ‘x of y’, where ‘x’ represents the current page and ‘y’
represents the page count. Follow the example used in this document.

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The next section will deal with referencing in the text and preparation of a reference list.

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4. REFERENCING

This section will detail the correct manner in which referencing is to be done. This style
convention should be followed in both seminars and dissertations or theses.

This section will be applicable to undergraduate students where reports are required with
a literature search, and if required by the module facilitator.

4.1 Ethics

Where any statement of fact is not common knowledge (e.g. water is wet), or is not of the
author's own creation, the information should be credited to the source. Failing to do so is
plagiarism and may result in prosecution or the rejection of the document submitted for
examination.

If a statement is copied verbatim from another source, those words must be enclosed in
double quotation marks (" ") and referenced. All paraphrased material (i.e. quotes that are
altered to better suit the document) should be clearly referenced to the original source.

In addition, any figures, tables, or data that are taken from another source should also be
referenced at the point where the information is given. Students are encouraged to
discuss this matter with a staff member if they are at all unclear as to appropriate
referencing and use of other material.

4.2 Source Material

Typically the information that is sourced for literature reviews should be from peer
reviewed journals, paper, conference proceedings or reports.

With the advent of the Internet, there is a vast amount of information available. However,
this is often from non-peer reviewed sources. These articles tend to be popular press type
articles and are generally not acceptable for a scientific review document. However, a
large number of organisations make their peer reviewed documents available on the
WWW. Examples of these are the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), or the
research departments of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Discretion
should be used when using information that has been obtained from the WWW.

The bulk of the references should be from peer reviewed publications.

4.3 Citing References

The convention for citing literature in the text and in tables and figures follows.

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4.3.1 Referencing in the text

The convention to be used for citing literature will be as follows.

The name of the author(s) will appear in the text followed by the date of the publication.
This information will usually be placed in parentheses. For example, this is a statement of
fact (Soap, 2003). The names and the year of publication are to be separated by a
comma. Where there are two authors, both names are listed separated by 'and', e.g.
(Soap and Bloggs, 2003). Where there are more than two authors only the first author will
be listed followed by 'et al.', e.g. (Soap et al., 2003).

Where a number of consecutive facts are to be credited to the same author(s), the
following convention can be used. This is illustrated in the following example:

"Soap et al. (2002) gave the following discussion of tractive performance in …"

This is more desirable than simply putting the reference in parentheses at the end of the
paragraph. It is also desirable to vary the placement of references in sentences, i.e. place
some at the beginning and some at the end.

Where the original reference cannot be obtained, the reference is referred to in the
following manner: (Smith, 1983; cited by Jones, 2003). Both references must appear in
the reference list. However, it is desirable to obtain the original reference and to make
minimal use of the cited by approach.

Where more than one reference is used to cite information, the references should appear
in chronological order and then in alphabetical order if the years are the same. For
example: (Smith, 1983; Jones, 1999; Thomas, 1999).

4.3.2 Referencing tables and figures

Tables and figures should be referenced using the same convention as referencing in the
text. Tables and figures must be referred to in the text before they appear in the
document and should be referred to as “…shown in Figure 1.2” or “the values are
contained in Table 2.1”. When the source has been modified, the word 'after' is placed
before the author's name. This is to account for any changes that may be made when
reproducing the table from the original. See the example.

Table 2.1 Site details of the Umdlovu catchment (after Smith et al., 2002)

Sub-catchment Area Land use

[km2]
A1 5.63 Sugar cane
A2 7.25 Grazing

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4.4 Reference List

The purpose of producing a reference list is to enable the reader of the document to
obtain a copy of the material cited. For this reason, sufficient details must be supplied so
that the reader can easily find the reference. In order to ensure that enough information is
provided in the reference list, the style conventions detailed in the following sections must
be followed exactly. It is important that the convention be used consistently throughout the
reference list.

The reference list should be in alphabetical order. The authors name is presented first and
then followed by the initials, followed by the year.

Where the same author(s) has more than one publication, these should be listed
chronologically. Where the same author(s) has more than one publication in the same
year, these are differentiated by adding a lowercase letter to the year. For example:
Smith, J. S. 1999a and Smith, J. S. 1999b. The letter must also be included when citing
the reference in the text.

The formats for the different types of references will be presented next under bulleted
headings. The punctuation and special formatting requirements must be followed as
shown in each of the format definitions. A hanging indent should be used in order to
differentiate references without having to leave a line open between references.

 Book:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of book]. [Publisher's name], [City of publisher],

[Country of Publisher].

Example:

Allen, JS. 1988. The Complete Dictionary of Abbreviations. MacMillan & Sons, Inc.,
New York, USA.
Cool, JC, Schiff, FJ, and Viersma, TJ. 1991. Regeltechniek (Control Engineering).
Delta Press, Overburg, Germany.

 Part of a book:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of chapter/paper in book]. In: ed. [Surname], [Initials],
[Title of book], [Chapter], [Pages]. [Publisher's name], [City of Publisher],
[Country of publisher].

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Example:

Overstreet, HA. 1925. The psychology of effective writing. In: ed. Pierre, WH, Effective
Report Writing: Principles and Practices, Ch. 3, 87-109. Graphic Publishing
Co., Chicago, USA.

 Bulletin:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of bulletin]. [Bulletin number]. [Publisher's name],

[City of Publisher], [Country of publisher].

Example:

James, D. 1980. United States fruit and vegetable harvest predictions - 1990. USDA-
1007. GPO, Washington, USA.

 Computer documentation and programs:

Note: The year of publication and trademark symbol (™) are unnecessary.

[Title of program or documentation] [Version/Release number], [Chapter/pages].

[Publisher's name], [City of Publisher], [Country of publisher].

Example:

Lotus 1-2-3 Rel. 2, Ch. 6. Cambridge, USA: Lotus Development Corp. SAS User's
Guide: Statistics Ver. 5, pp. 60-70. SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, USA.

 Dissertation or Thesis:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of dissertation or thesis]. Unpublished [Type of

thesis], [Name of School/Department], [Name of Institution], [City of Institution],
[Country of Institution].

Example:

Ascough, GW. 2001. Procedures for estimating irrigation water requirements from
crop water requirements. Unpublished MScEng Dissertation, School of
Bioresources Engineering and Environmental Hydrology, University of Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, RSA.

 Government documentation:

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[Title of Act]. [Year]. [Name of source document] No. [Act number] of [Year], [Number
reference for Act]. [City of publication], [Country of publication].

Example:

National Water Act. 1998. RSA Government Gazette No. 36 of 1998: 26 August 1998,
No. 19182. Cape Town, RSA.

 Patent:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of patent]. [Country of patent] Patent No. [Number of
patent] (In [Language of patent if not in English]).

Example:

Boulart, J. 1983. Process for protecting a fluid product and installations for the
realisation of that process. French Patent No. 2513087 (In French).

 Personal communication:

Note: In the text, cite the reference in the usual manner and include the complete
reference in the reference list.

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. Personal communication, [Name of institution/company/

private enterprise], [City], [Country], [Date].

Example:

Soap, JS. 2003. Personal communication. Department of Reference Citing, Pretoria,

RSA, 14 October 2003.

 Conference proceedings:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of paper]. In: eds. [Surname], [Initials], [Title of
conference proceedings], [Pages]. [Name of publisher], [City of publisher],
[Country of publisher].

Example:

Miller, FR and Creelman, RA. 1980. Sorghum -- A new fuel. In: eds. Londen, HD and
Wilkinson, W, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Corn and Sorghum Industry
Research Conference, 219-232. American Seed Trade Association,
Washington, USA.

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 Standards:

[Title of book in which Standard appears], [Edition (if applicable)]. [Year]. [Number of
Standard]. [Title of standard]. [Name of publisher], [City of publisher], [Country
of publisher].

Examples:

Agricultural Engineers Yearbook of Standards. 1983. S358.1. Moisture measurement

-- Grain and seeds. ASAE, St. Joseph, USA.
ASAE Standards, 36th Ed. 1989. S352.1. Moisture measurement -- Grain and seeds.
ASAE, St. Joseph, USA.

 Papers:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of paper]. [Organisation] Paper No. [Number of

paper]. [Name of publisher], [City of publisher], [Country of publisher].

Example:

Anthony, WS. 1989. Performance characteristics of cotton ginning machinery. ASAE

Paper No. 89-1010. ASAE, St. Joseph, Michigan, USA.

 Journals:

Note: Journals include refereed journals, newsletter and periodicals (e.g. Farmers
Weekly, Water Wheel)

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of article]. [Title of journal] [Volume]([Issue]):[pages].

Examples:

Slaughter, DC and Harrell, RC. 1989. Discriminating fruit for robotic harvest using
colour in natural outdoor scenes. Transactions of the ASAE 32(2):757-763.
Burner, AD. 1989. Driveline design considerations. Agricultural Engineering
70(July/August):16-19.
Jacobson, LD. 1989. Reluctance to drink, stray voltage symptom. International
Pigletter 8(12):47-48.

 Handbooks:

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[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of article]. In: [Title of handbook]. [Name and number
of handbook], [Name of publisher], [City of publisher], [Country of publisher].

Example:

Griffin Jr., AC. 1977. Cotton moisture control. In: Cotton Ginners Handbook.
Agricultural Handbook No. 503, USDA, Washington, USA.

 Reports:

[Surname], [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of Report]. Report No. [Report number]. [Institution],
[City of institution], [Country of institution].

Example:

Smithers, JC and Schulze, RE. 2003. Design Rainfall and Flood Estimation in South
Africa. Report No. 1060/1/03. Water Research Commission, Pretoria, RSA.

 Referencing articles off the WWW:

Note: Refer to Section 4.2 for discussion on what is acceptable as a source of

information. Due to the transient nature of web links, enough information should be
provided for the reader to obtain the article when they are not able to follow the link
provided.

Where the author's name is not apparent, either use Anon as the author's name or use
the institution's name (e.g. FAO, USDA, or IWMI) as a substitute.

[Surname]. [Initials]. [Year]. [Title of article/paper/report]. [Internet]. [Name of

publishing institution/organisation/department], [City of publisher], [Country of
publisher]. Available from: [URL]. [Accessed: [Date]].

Example:

Rogers, DH, Lamm, FR, Alam, M, Trooien, TP, Clark, GA, Barnes, PL and Mankin, K.
1997. Efficiencies and Water Losses of Irrigation Systems. [Internet]. Kansas
State University, Research and Extension Engineers, Manhattan, USA.
Available from: http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/ageng2/mf2243.pdf.
[Accessed 17 March 2000].

 Referencing images/tables off the WWW:

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Note: All images, figures, photographs, or tables that are taken off the WWW should
be referenced. If the name of the author/owner is available, then reference it to them.
Otherwise, use the name of the website to reference the image/figure/table.

[Surname or name of website], [Initials]. [Year]. [Description of image, figure or table].

[Internet]. [Publishing institution, company, or website], [City of publisher],
[Country of publisher]. Available from: [URL]. [Accessed: [Date]].

Example:

Arkal Filtration Systems. 2003. Spin Klin ® disk filter spine. [Internet]. Arkal Filtration
Systems, Kibbutz Bet Zera, Israel. Available from: http://www.arkal-
filters.com/agriculture/tm_spin.gif. [Accessed: 14 October 2003]

An example of how this figure would be referenced in the text is shown in the caption for
Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1 Internal spine for Spin Klin ® disk filters (Arkal Filtration Systems, 2003)

Bibliographic software tools (e.g. EndNote, RefWorks) are available for managing
references and for automatically generating a list of references in a specified format. It is
highly recommended that one of these tools is adopted and used.

This section has dealt with most eventualities for having to cite work done by others. One
should strive to find a reference type that best suits the document that needs to be
referenced. The next step is to acquire all the relevant information needed to adequately
list the reference.

The following chapter deals with formatting details for figures, tables, equations and other
style conventions.

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5. ADDITIONAL STYLE CONVENTIONS

This chapter will address specific style and formatting conventions for figures, tables,
equations, and general conventions.

5.1 Style Conventions for Figures

A figure is any drawing, photograph, plate, flow chart, or graph. Figures can be used to
great effect in documents. "A picture is worth 1000 words". They can be used to present
information in an easy and understandable manner. They also allow for breaks in large
sections of text. However, figures that are used should add value to the document and not
just be present to occupy space. They are most effective when used to complement an
explanation in the text.

For this reason, figures should be placed in the document as soon as possible after they
have been referred to in the text. No figure should be placed in the document if it is not
referred to and discussed in the text. Each figure should be placed shortly after the first
point at which it is mentioned. Do not “anthropomorphise” a figure by writing “The figure
shows that...”. Figures are not alive, and they cannot show, demonstrate, or indicate
anything by themselves.

The caption of a figure appears below the figure and should be numbered using the
chapter number and the number in the sequence of figures in that chapter. The caption
should not be terminated with a full stop. When figures are referred to in the text, the “f” is
capitalised (e.g. … as can be seen in Figure 4.3). Figures should be centre aligned and
have a box placed around them. The caption therefore, should also be centre aligned. The
figure should be able to be understood from its description in the caption. A hanging
indent should be used for captions that are longer than one line.

In general figures should be in black and white or greyscale to enable the document to be
photocopied. However, detailed GIS maps that do not lend themselves to being produced
in black and white or greyscale can be inserted in colour. These maps should be kept to
an absolute minimum to reduce reproduction costs.

5.2 Style Conventions for Tables

Information that is presented in a figure should not also be presented in a table. The
caption for a table appears above the table. The same numbering convention as for
figures should be used (e.g. Table 4.2), and the table as well as the caption should be
centralised. Table captions do not end with a full stop. The table should be able to be
understood from its description in the caption. As with figures, a hanging indent should be
used for captions that exceed one line. An example of table layout is shown in Table 5.1.
Note that the number of decimal places used in a column must be consistent and be
aligned.

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Table 5.1 Example table of results

Run Volume Peak Discharge

Number
(m3) (m3.s-1)
1 1000.6 1.2
2 3000.9 3.3
3 5000.6 5.4

5.3 Style Conventions for Equations

The formatting conventions as mentioned in Section 3.2.7 should be followed when

inserting equations. All equations that were obtained from other sources should be
referenced. All variables listed in the equations should be explained in the text preceding
the equation or in a list directly below the equation. The following is an example of the two
approaches:

F=ma
(5.1)
where F = force [N],
m = mass [kg], and
a = acceleration [m.s-2].

Or,

The force, F [N], acting on a body is determined from the mass of the body, m [kg], and
the acceleration of the body, a [m.s-2], according to the following equation (Jones, 2000):

F=ma (5.1)

In the first example it is preferable to have all the variables and descriptions line up
vertically. This can be achieved by using tab stops. Units must be specified for all
variables, unless they are dimensionless.

5.3.1 Proper use of tense

Tense is expected to be used properly throughout the document. Typically, scientists have
difficulty deciding between past and present tense. Proper usage of tense in scientific
writing is as follows:

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Past tense – use past tense to refer to things that have already happened. For example:
“The experiment was conducted in the summer of 1947” or “The sensors were installed at
a depth of 1.4 meters”.

Present tense – use present tense to refer to results of an experiment, because they are
(hopefully) valid for all time. For example: “The results indicate that rainfall intensity varies
with the inverse cube of soil depth”. Also, use present tense to refer to published work of
others (for the same reason).

5.3.2 Active vs. passive voice

The use of active and passive voice is somewhat controversial in scientific writing, and a
consensus has not been reached on this issue. Passive voice is more “impartial” and
“scientific” because the focus of the writing is the action, rather than the person performing
the action. However, passive tense can be very boring to read, and active tense is
sometimes necessary to indicate human involvement. In general, use passive voice for
the following three situations1:

 Descriptions of processes that do not involve direct human control: “The streambed
is eroded most intensely during periods of spring runoff.”
 Descriptions of procedures. “The sample is placed in the beaker and mixed for 3
minutes.”
 Explanations of existing knowledge: “The mechanisms of thermal exchange are not
well understood.”

5.4 General Conventions

This section will list some common errors that regularly appear in reports and seminars
that should be avoided. These common style discrepancies often detract from the quality
of the document.

 Proof reading - Have a colleague read through the document to find errors that are
easily overlooked by the author. Sometimes spellchecker does not pick up words
that are used incorrectly, because they are correctly spelt, e.g. fro instead of for.
 Long sentences - A common stylistic trend when writing is to use long sentences.
These sentences often exceed 5 lines. They become cumbersome and the meaning
of what is being presented is often difficult to fathom. It is more desirable to break
these long winded sentences up into shorter ones.
 Having a sub-heading directly follow another heading - This can be avoided by
providing a sentence or two that describes the sub-sections that follow.

1
Note that this bulleted list only has three points (whereas the style guide suggests a minimum of
4). If your list is somewhat verbose, lists of three items may be placed in bulleted form.

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 Inconsistent use of bullets - The same bullet style should be used throughout the
document. If the sentences in one list are separated with commas/periods, the same
should be done in other lists.
 Not linking sections in a document - The document should flow from start to
finish. This can be achieved by presenting the information in a logical sequence that
shows how the topic is being developed. Linking sentences between sections can
be used to demonstrate how each section fits into the overall document plan.
 Inconsistencies in the document – While it is expected that the entire document
should consistently follow the required style, inconsistency in style within the
document detracts from the quality of the document. It is preferable to be consistent,
even if you have deviated from the required style, than for the document to be
inconsistent in style!

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6. REFERENCES

ASAE. 2003. Journal Manuscript Format. [Internet]. American Society of Agricultural

Engineers, St. Joseph, USA. Available from:
http://www.asae.org/pubs/style/format.html. [Accessed 15 October 2003].
Faculty of Science and Agriculture. 2003. Style Manual for Dissertations and Theses.
[Internet]. University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, RSA. Available from:
http://www.sciag.unp.ac.za/downloads/style_1.pdf. [Accessed 10 October 2003].
WRC. 2003. Water SA Authors Guide. [Internet]. Water Research Commission, Pretoria,
RSA. Available from: http://www.wrc.org.za/publications/watersa/authors.asp.
[Accessed 14 October 2003].

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APPENDIX A: SAMPLE OF TITLE PAGE

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 NAME OF THE REPORT
(ARIAL, 14 CPI, CENTRED, BOLD)

A.N. Other (Student number)

(Arial, 11 cpi, Centred, Bold)

REPORT / ASSIGNMENT
(Arial, 11 cpi, Centred, Capital letters, Choose type of report as well as report number and
insert module code and number)

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the module QALC1513 Academic Literacy, Communication and Language for the
degree of BSc majoring in Physics and Engineering Subjects
(Arial, 11 cpi, Centred, insert module code and full module name)

Engineering Sciences
University of the Free State
Bloemfontein
Day Month year