Addis Ababa Science and Technology University

College of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Technical Steps

(For Intern ship, Final year project and Thesis)

Short Manual on preparation of Ms Word Document
Prepared by: Yohannes H. (Msc)
Lecturer, Civil Engineering Department

September, 2015G.C
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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 Table of Contents
1. Main divisions of a report ........................................................................................................... 1
2. How to insert Cover page............................................................................................................ 4
2. How to insert page break ............................................................................................................ 4
3. How to insert page number ......................................................................................................... 4
4. How to create land scape between two pages ............................................................................. 5
5. How to insert table of Contents ................................................................................................. 5
6. How to label and insert list of tables and figures ........................................................................ 7
7. How to insert References/Bibliography ...................................................................................... 8
8. How to insert index and table of authorities ............................................................................... 8

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 1. Main divisions of a report
A full report should contain the following. Those marked with an * are not always required,
particularly in a shorter report.
 cover Page
Probably isn't part of this document, and can be prepared in a separate file if necessary (certainly
that helps keep headers and footers off it). You're often given specific instructions about what
should be on this page and where. Stick to them.
 Title page
The title page is the first page of the report that the reader sees. It is especially important
therefore that it should be neat, not overcrowded and contains the relevant information. The title
page should include the title of the report, who wrote it, what course and establishment they are
from and the date. These are always required. Additional items may include whom the report is
for, company logo, report reference number etc…
 Certification*
This is included to certify for acceptance the project/research in partial fulfillment of the
requirement of BSc/MSC/Phd.Your advisors should sign on this format.
 Declaration and copy right*
This is to declare that the paper you prepared is your own original work that has not been
presented and will not be presented by you to any other other organization for similar or any
other degree award without permission of your sponsorship. It can also be included copy right
protected It may not be reproduced by any means, in full or in part, except for short extract with

permission.
 Approval page*
This page is included for approval of your paper by members of the Examining board (Chairman,
Internal and External examiners and department.
 Acknowledgments*
If particular help has been received on the work contained within the report, it is polite to thank
the persons involved. You may also thank for any sectors/organizations they provide project data
or financial support during the project/ research work. This is a suitable place to do that.

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  Abstract
One page generalized abstract of your research, not exceeding 250 words should be included
clearly. And, key words shall also included at the bottom of the same page.
 Table of content
The contents list is one of the first parts of the report to be sketched out and one of the last to be
finalized. It will refer to all sections, divisions and subdivisions of the report and is the reader's
guide to navigation within the report.
Example: See the following

Table of Contents
Heading 1 ............................................................................................................................. ....................... 22
Heading 2 ................................................................................................................................................ 23

 List of tables*
This section lists the titles of the tables, their reference numbers and their locations (page
numbers). It is not always required, especially in a smaller report. Tables should be self-
explanatory. Headings and the column/row entries should be clearly related. Tables less than half
a page should be preceded or followed by the text.
Example: Table 2.3/ 2:3/ 2-3 :- The first number stands for chapter and the second number

indicates the third table in chapter 2.And, the table is found on page 22.
Table 2- 3 Committed and Planned Generation Projects........................................................... 22
 List of figures*
This section lists the titles of the figures, their reference numbers and their locations (page
numbers).
Example: Figure 1.1/ 1:1/ 1-1:- The first number stands for chapter and the second number
indicates the first figure in chapter 1. And, the figure is found on page 3.
Figure 1-1 Ethiopia Sub basins, lakes and major rivers ...............................................................3
 Acronyms and abbreviations*
If a lot of specialist abbreviations have been used, it may be worth making a special table of
them and putting it here. The table should be in alphabetical order of abbreviation.
Example:
EEPCO Ethiopia electric power corporation
 Executive Summary*

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If you prepare a project feasibility study, you may put the components of the study in volumes.

Example:
VOLUME 1 TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEYS
VOLUME 2 HYDROLOGY
VOLUME 3 DESIGN AND LAY OUT OF THE PROJECT
VOLUME 4 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
 Sections or Chapters of report (main body)
This, at last, is where the work will go. Chapters are used to break down the work, if it covers
many separate topics. The chapters may be subdivided into logical sections, each of which may
be further reduced into subsections.
 Equations
Equations should always be numbered. The way I do this is by defining an "equation" style (see
the style sheet in this document for an example), which puts the equation number at the right-
hand side, as most textbooks do, for example:

 Conclusions
The conclusion section is normally reasonably short. It gathers together the results of the work in
the form of what has been learnt that may be useful to the reader. No new work should be
introduced.
 Recommendations*
The writer can give recommendations on the project paper either for further expansion of the
paper or for some improvements of some problems encountered.
 References/Bibliography
A reference is a source from which you have taken a specific piece of information. Unless your
work is completely original (highly unlikely), you will have references.
A bibliography is a list of sources that you’ve found useful for background information, but
haven’t directly quoted, or taken any specific piece of information from. Alternatively, they

might be sources that the reader can look for to get further information. They appear after the
main text. Project reports may or may not have bibliographies, but they always have references.
Example:

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Author’s surname, INITIALS. (Year of publication) Title of book (in italics), Edition (if not the

first), Publisher, Place of publication.

K.SUBRAMANYA, (1998), Engineering Hydrology, Tata McGraw-Hill 2nd ED

I. H. A, UNITED KINGDOM, NOV 2000, HYDROPOWER and the worlds energy Future
 Appendices
An appendix or appendices should be used to remove from the main text all information which is
not needed by the majority of the users of the report.
All the above divisions of a report should be included especially in MSc thesis paper
(publications).

2. How to insert Cover page

Steps
Click insert menu→ click cover page tool bar →select one according to the standard

 The document of internship/project/thesis shall include the following main issues

The names of your university, Faculty and department
Title of the intern ship/project/ thesis
The name of your intern ship hosting company and its duration of work
The name of supervisors for project and thesis
2. How to insert page break
 Click on the preceding page → Click page layout → Click Breaks → select Next page
(i.e Insert a section break and start the new section on the next page )

3. How to insert page number

 Click insert Menu → Click page number → Format page number
 Select the numbering style either I, II …. or 1, 2 …….
 Choose the position of page numbers top, bottom, center etc…..

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  According to page breaks, you may select number format and page numbering then
choose either continue from previous section or start at.
4. How to create land scape between two pages
 Click page layout menu →Click margins → Custom margins → Adjust margins → Click
land scape → Apply to→ this point forward, then you will see all pages next to the
selected page will be in land scape format.
 To return the next page in portrait format, Left Click in the land scape page , the redo the
above step again except do portrait orientation.

5. How to insert table of Contents

Steps
Click Home menu bar → Select Heading-1, 2, 3 depending on the title and you can
modify the heading by clicking the right mouth →then in modify style manager →Adjust
font type, size etc…..

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Example: Chapter one ------------- Heading 1
1. Introduction------------ Heading 1
1.1 classification of hydropower ------------ Heading 2

Click format to adjust paragraph, tabs etc…

 After selecting all headings in the document, you can insert table of contents by clicking
References menu bar Go to the first blank page →Click Table of contents→then select
one format to insert the table of contents.

 To update the table of contents any time while working, just Right click in the table of
contents →update field → update entire table

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6. How to label and insert list of tables and figures
 Select the table or figure title →Click references → Click insert caption

 Label 2. →see the caption starts from table 2.1

 When chapter ends, Click new label button →then
put table 3. → the caption starts from table 3.1
 Position of the caption may be below or above the
selected item →then use back space to align caption
and title of table/figure

 To insert list of tables /figures, Go to the blank page next to table of contents → Click
insert table of figures → select caption label → click ok
 You may choose tab leader and all boxes should be checked ( i.e show page numbers
etc….)
 You can not update entire list of tables/figures for all chapters at a time. But, you can
update for each chapter independently.

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7. How to insert References/Bibliography
 Click References → click Bibliography→Fill the necessary references

8. How to insert index and table of authorities

 Click References → Insert index /insert table of Authorities → Adjust the formats