EEE 4309C: Electronic Circuits II Technical Memos and Laboratory Workbooks

TECHNICAL MEMOS
A technical memo (or memorandum) is a document that is specifically targeted to technical professionals who are interested in the details and results of a project or experiment. The technical memo should not be used to introduce a problem in general terms or to discuss a wide range of topics and ideas. These memos are brief, a maximum of three pages of text and three pages of figures, with one inch margins and fonts no less than 11 point. Technical memos are clear, concise, and directly to the point. For this course, you may submit an extra page of text to answer the post-lab questions. There are numerous formats for technical memos. For this course, the format will consist of: Header Information Introduction Main Body Summary / Conclusions / Recommendations Response to lab questions

Header Information The header information must include the date (in an unambiguous format), who the memo is written to, who the memo is from, and the subject of the memo. The header information titles must be in bold typeface and the header information must be vertically aligned. An example of a suitable of technical memo header information is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Proper format for a technical memo header Introduction The introduction is a single paragraph that clearly states the purpose and topic of the technical memo. It should include the goals of the experiment. The introduction should also introduce the subsequent sections of the technical memo. The introduction must be longer than one sentence. Main Body The main body of a technical memo consists of the necessary paragraphs to clearly and fully address the focus of the memo, which was presented in the introduction. Often this section is organized into appropriate subsections. Appropriate subsections may include methodology and results. The various subsections must be consistently formatted.

Dr. Alan Harris EEE 4309C: Electronic Circuits II Laboratory Handout: Technical Memos and Laboratory Workbooks

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The main body should include equations, tables, and figures. Tables and figures should be used sparingly and if possible, multiple plots should be clearly incorporated into graphs. Equations must be generated using the equation editor within the word processing software. Figures must be computer generated; hand drawn figures will not be accepted. The equations should be numbered. Tables must have titles on the top while figures have titles at the bottom. All equations, tables, and figures must be referred to within the text. Summary / Conclusions / Recommendations Depending upon the purpose of the technical memo, the last section of the technical memo presents a summary, conclusion(s), or recommendation(s). The final section is always in paragraph form. This section should restate the primary information, summarize findings, and allow the readers to see the important ramifications of the work documented. No new information should be presented in this section. No equations, tables or figures should be presented in this section.

GOOD WRITING PROCEDURES Technical memos are quite simple documents however there are a number of writing issues that are always encountered. Two of the main issues, rules for writing numbers and proper tense, are highlighted below. Rules for Writing Numbers 1. Write out numbers one through nine (e.g. one, four, and seven). 2. Use figures for numbers 10 and above (e.g. 10 kilograms of soil or 25 pounds of aggregate) 3. In a series of numbers, some of which are above nine and others below, write all the numbers as figures (e.g. The instructor provided 30 kilograms of coarse aggregate, 1 kilogram of sand, and 20 kilograms of cement.) 4. Do not write numbers of a million or more as figures (e.g. four million or fifteen thousand). For large mixed numbers, use a figure-plus-word combination: 12.8 billion, 23.2 million. 5. Numbers that start a sentence are always written as words. 5. Use a hyphen in fractions used either as nouns or modifiers (e.g. four-fifths of the students) 6. For decimals with a value less than one, use a zero before the decimal point to avoid confusion with preceding material (e.g. 0.12) 7. For decimals with a value greater than one, a zero must follow a decimal point (e.g. 3.0 not 3) 8. Use figures and words to distinguish adjacent numbers from each other (e.g. eight 6-inch sieves were used in the stack) Proper Tense Technical memos are typically written using both past and present tenses. Some simple rules for the use of tenses are listed below. 1. Use the past tense to write up what was done or what happened in the experiment (e.g. the gain of a common-emitter amplifier was measured) 2. Use the present tense to write: (a) statements of general, accepted knowledge, (b) facts that are always true, and (c) accepted findings in published work. 3. Use the present tense to refer to figures, tables, appendices, equations or other parts of the technical memo (e.g. Figure 1 shows the trend) 4. No first person should be used when writing a technical memo.

Dr. Alan Harris EEE 4309C: Electronic Circuits II Laboratory Handout: Technical Memos and Laboratory Workbooks

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SUBMISSION OF TECHNICAL MEMOS Each laboratory group must submit a technical memo. Technical memos must be submitted in hardcopy format by the start of the next laboratory class. Late technical memos will not be accepted under any circumstance

LABORATORY WORKBOOKS
As part of this course, students are required to submit a laboratory notebook (one per team). This notebook will be turned in at the end of the semester. The laboratory notebook will count 1 full lab report grade.

Dr. Alan Harris EEE 4309C: Electronic Circuits II Laboratory Handout: Technical Memos and Laboratory Workbooks

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