Appendix A

Guidelines for Technical Report Writing

A-1 General Remarks

In your formal studies of chemical engineering, you will be always required to submit
technical reports which effectively communicate the work which you have conducted.
Therefore, your reports should seek to inform, instruct, and often to persuade that its
interpretation of data is the correct one. Greatest clarity with the least number of words
becomes an essential constraint. In general, use shorter words rather than longer ones; avoid
redundancy and verbosity, be consistent with the tenses, use past tense, passive voice, and third
person to describe what was done. Backup your judgments with data and scientific facts and
avoid sensationalism. Avoid unnecessary technical jargon; use simple expressions, and avoid
excessive speculation in discussing your results. Always proofread your report, and then read it
again.

Every table, graph, chart, drawing etc. must have a number and a title to identify it and must
be referenced in text body of the report. Figures, charts, and drawings usually have their
numbers and titles below whereas tables have their numbers and titles above.

Symbols, subscripts, abbreviations, superscripts and letters must be defined the first time they
occur in the text and listed in the Nomenclature section.

Plagiarism is not permitted, always give reference to the source of any piece of
information you copy from the literature. Cite your references as you proceed through the
report using embraced number (e.g., [1], [2]) and match a list of numbered references at the
end of your report. References must occur in (sequential) order in the body of your report.

A-2 Report Components and Organization

Reports are to be printed on A4 plain white paper. The format of the report must be as
follows: double spaced using an appropriate font (Times, Ariel, etc) with 1.5 left, 1.0
top, bottom, and right margins. The font should be 12 pt for the report body, and may be 14
pt for the headings. Main headings should be bold and subheadings should be indented with
no bold. Page numbering is required in the bottom right of each page of the report body.
The Abstract and the Table of Contents must be numbered with i, ii, iii, etc, whereas the
report body, starting with the Introduction, must be numbered as 1, 2, 3, etc.

The report must be organized in the order listed below with each section beginning on a new
page.

1. Cover Page
2. Abstract
3. Table of Contents
a. List of Figures
b. List of Tables
4. Objectives
5. Introduction/Literature Review
6. Theoretical Background
7. Experimental: Set-up and Procedure
8. Results and Discussion
9. Conclusions and Recommendations
10. Nomenclature
11. References
12. Appendices





Below is a brief description of each section:
1. Cover Page
The cover page should be kept simple. It should include the title of the experiment, the
name of the group members and their university numbers, the name of the instructor to
whom the report is submitted, and the date of report submission. Use a bold larger font size
for the experiment title, but keep it reasonable. Remember that page numbering does not
start with the cover page.

2. Abstract
The abstract is the shortest but most important part of the report. It is the basis for another
reader to decide whether or not your work is of relevance to him. In the space of one or two
paragraphs the reader should grasp the essentials of the report. Thus it should be short,
precise, and direct. It should convey the objective of the experiment, what was performed
or measured, and how it was accomplished, the most important results obtained and do the
results compare with the theory.

3. Table of Contents
List every division and heading in the report and give the number of the page on which it
starts to appear. It is essential that titles and subtitles match those occurring in the text.
Therefore, the best approach here is to cut the titles and headings from the body of the report
and paste them in the Table of Contents. The following is an example of listing divisions
and headings:

Theoretical Background...................................................................................... 10
Criteria for VLE.............................................................................. .......... 12
VLE of binary liquids in the presence of salt .................................. .......... 16
Experimental ...................................................................................................... 20

All figures and tables must appear in the List of Figures, and the List of Tables,
respectively.

4. Objectives
Mention the objectives of the project.

5. Introduction and Literature Review
This section introduces to the unfamiliar reader the needed background so that he/she can
follow up and understand the conducted work. Previous similar or related works done by
others is also presented in this section. Reference to the applicability of the topic should also
be given. The objectives of the study are included at the end of the introduction. The
introduction is often less than a few pages long, if a Theoretical Background section is also
presented.

6. Theoretical Background
The section presents the theoretical basis of the work and the related equations that will be
used in the analysis of the data. Complete derivation of the equations, if needed, is usually
included in the Appendices section.

7. Experimental Methods
This section lists the chemicals used with their purity, presents a description of the
equipment (with the accuracy of each) with a schematic diagram, and explains the
experimental procedure, in step, followed in the experiment, and safety concerns.

8. Results and Discussion
In this section, the results of your work should be presented in the clearest, most revealing
manner; statements, tables, and/or figures. Reference must be made to all figures and tables
given in the report. Whenever possible, give estimates of the precision of the data, and the
goodness of fit for any regressions which were performed. For some data reduction, further
statistical measures may also be informative. Tables and graphs must have titles and
numbers. The numbers should be in the order of their appearance in the report. Curves
should be drawn such that they show the best average representation of the data. If more than
one curve is plotted on the same graph, different symbols for data points can be used to
distinguish between them. Do not include a graph or a table and not say anything about it.
Results must be discussed and compared with theory and/or literature. Each table or graph
should be explained in writing and the trends of curves must be justified. Sources of errors,
if any and their relation to the obtained data must be stated. Different paragraphs must be
used to discuss different tables or graphs. Always refer to figure number when discussing
the figures.
Sometimes two separate sections are used; one for results and the other for the
discussion. The thought here is that the results section should include only what was
measured and determined experimentally, and that the suggestion of models, speculation
about the cause of unexpected results, etc, should be placed in the discussion section.
Sample calculation (with steps and equations) must be shown.

9. Conclusions and Recommendations
In this section, the conclusions or findings of the study should be presented. They must be
related to your discussion. Conclusions could be written either in the form of a bulleted list or
stated within paragraphs. For recommendation, present suggestions or ideas to modify the
procedure or the equipment in order to improve the experiment. Recommendations should be
relevant and justified by your observations and/or results.

10. Nomenclature
Your report may include parameters, variables and constants, either in equations or just as a
reference. All of these must be defined in the nomenclature. A description and the units
of each entry must be given. This sect i on usually contains a Roman, Greek,
Subscript/Superscript, and Abbreviation section. Each s e c t i o n must be arranged
alphabetically.

11. References
All the literature data used in the report must be referenced in the order of their
appearance in the report. A proper reference for a book should include the name of the
author(s), the title, the publishers, and place and year of publications (e.g., T. L. Brown,
H. E. LeMay Jr., and B. E. Bursten, Chemistry The Central Science. 9
th
Edition, Prentice
Hall, ( 2003). For a journal article, the reference should include the name of the author(s),
the article title, the journal title and volume number, the year in which this issue was
published and the page numbers on which the article begins (e.g., F. A. Abu Al-Rub, and
R. Datta, Separation of 2-Propanol-Water Mixture with Capillary Porous Plates,
Separation Science & Technology, Vol. 34, pp. 725-742 (1999).

12. Appendices
Supplemental material and additional information are placed in an appendix. Each
appendix must be referenced in the report. A separate page with the title of the appendix
(centered, both horizontally and vertically) is also usually placed before the information in
each respective appendix. The original data sheets used in the laboratory, with the title
and the date of the experiment, should also appear in this section. Instructors approval
must appear on that sheet.

Appendix B
Experimental Errors and Data Analysis

References:

1. S. E. Kegley, and J. Andrews, The Chemistry of Water, University Science Books,
California, 1998.
2. J. R. Taylor, An Introduction to Error Analysis, 2
n d
Ed., University Science Books,
Sausalito, 1997.
3. R. B. Buckner, Surveying Measurements and their Analysis, 1983, Landmark
Enterprises


B-1 EXPERIMENTAL ERRORS
There is no perfectly accurate or exact experimental measurement. Many instrumental,
physical and human limitations can cause measurements to deviate from the "true" values of
the quantities being measured. These deviations are called "experimental uncertainties," but
more commonly the shorter word "error" is used. The true value of a measured quantity is the
value if all above mentioned limitations are eliminated.
Systematic (determinate) and random (statistical) errors are the two types of uncertainties in
any measurement.
Systematic error results from a bias in the instrument, and/or the experimental
procedure. Sources of systematic error include poor measurement technique, errors in
instrumental calibration. For example, if a refractometer we are using was calibrated
incorrectly and reads 2% higher than it should, then every refractive index reading we
record using this refractometer will have an error of +2%. Repeating the measurement
several times and taking the average of the readings will not reduce the size of this
systematic error. If the size and direction of the systematic error are known then it will be
possible to correct for it and thus eliminate its effects completely. Although it is not always
possible to know the size and direction of the systematic error, the size of the error, or the
instrument accuracy, is usually provided by the instrument's manufacturer. Possible sources
of systematic error must be considered in each stage or phase of the experiment.

Random error occurs as a result of the statistical nature of things. Repeating a
measurement several times can help minimize this type of error. The reproducibility of
measurements made by identical methods determines the Precision or uncertainty of the
measurement. Precision or uncertainty can be expressed by the number of significant
figures (SF) used to express a measurement or a result. The more SF, the more accurate the
result is. The number of SF in any measured quantity is determined by the precision of the
measuring instrument, for example, if a balance measures the mass to two digits of grams,
the reported mass should be expressed with two digits of grams, e.g., 5.01 g. The following
rules should be considered when reporting data.
1. Always report data to the proper number of significant figures. In reporting data from your lab, the
following rules may be used
a. Pipette, volumetric flask and burette: two digits of ml.
b. Balances: usually 4 digits of g.

2. Zeros:
i. Leading zeros are not significant, e.g., 0.001 has one SF
ii. Captive zeros are significant, e.g., 1.003 has 4 SF
iii. Trailing zeros are significant only if the number has a decimal point, e.g., 1.000 10
4
has 4 SF.

3. Addition and subtraction: In addition and subtraction, the answer has the same number of
significant figures as the least precise measurement, e.g.
4.03 g + 5.0023 g = 9.0323 g = 9.03 g
(Calculation) (Report)

4. Multiplication and division: When numbers are multiplied or divided, the answer
should have the same number of SF as that of the least significant figures: e.g. 2.008
g 1.0 g = 2.008 g = 2.0 g
(Calculation) (Report)
5. The number of SF in the number of trials is infinity.

6. When a series of calculations are performed, do not round off until the final result is
obtained. When rounding off numbers:
i. If the insignificant figure is less than halfway, round down, e.g. 23.44 23.4
ii. If the insignificant figure is more than halfway, round up, e.g. 23.46 23.5
iii. If the insignificant figure is exactly halfway, round to the nearest even digit, 23.45
23.4

Analysis of Random Error

1. Standard Error, , is the error in a single measurement. For a set of data composed of n
points (measurements), can be calculated by the equation:
1
) (
1
2

=

=
n
x x
n
i
i
o (B-1)
Where
x
is the mean or average of the reading, and can be calculated using the equation

n
x
x
n
i
i
=
=
1
(B-2)

2. The relative standard deviation, RSD:
RSD=(
o
/
x
) 100% (B-3)

The mean represents a value around which the data set is tending to center. The standard
deviation provides a measure of spread of the data around the mean. The relative standard
deviation is another way of representing the standard deviation as a percentage of the average
value. For a large data set, it is known that the observations (data values) will be distributed
normally around the average value with 68% of the observations are confined within
o 1 x and 95% are confined within o 2 x . Therefore, a (questionable) data point lying
outside the range o 2 x can be considered as an erroneous point and can be rejected away.
Note that the questionable data point(s) must be included in calculating x and o .

Example:

Given the following measurements of the refractive index of a pure component,
calculate, the mean, the standard deviation, the relative standard deviation and decide
whether or not there are erroneous data points (that do not belong to the data set).

Sample number 1 2 3 4 5 6
Refractive index 1.4567 1.4566 1.4562 1.4569 1.4566 1.4564

4566 . 1 6 / 7394 . 8
1
= = =

=
n
x
x
n
i
i


0002 . 0
1
) (
1
2
=

=

=
n
x x
n
i
i
o


This means that our data is uncertain in the ten thousandth decimal place. o 2 x in this case
becomes: 1.4566 2(0.0002) = 1.4566 0.0004, i.e., any point outside the range (1.4562
to 1.4570) can be thrown away. Therefore, all points can be accepted. RSD = 0.01663%,
i.e., the reliability of these numbers is 0.01663%.

Propagation of Error in an Equation

When checking an equation using measured values the effects of all measurement errors
must be considered:
1. Additive Formulae: When the result R is calculated from two measured values: x with
an error of x, and y with an error of y, and two constants a and b from the formula R
= ax by , then the error in the result R is given by

2 2
) ( ) ( y b x a R A + A = A

2. Multiplicative Formulae: If R = a x y or R = a x / y, where a is a constant, then
2
2
|
|
.
|

\
| A
+ |
.
|

\
| A
=
A
y
y
x
x
R
R


3. Powers: If R = x
n
, then
x
x
n
R
R A
=
A