School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering

School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering Final Year Project

Thesis Preparation Guide

1 Table of Contents

1. The Purpose of the Thesis...... 3 2. Thesis Structure...... 5 3. Title Page...... 6 4. Project Summary...... 7 5. Preamble – Letter of Transmittal, Acknowledgements, Contents, Publications and Nomenclature ...... 7 6. Introduction and Literature Review...... 10 7. “Process” - Experimental Method, Model Formulation, Design Approach, Data Collection...... 13 8. Results and Discussion...... 16 9. Conclusions and Future Work...... 23 10. References and Appendices...... 20

2 11. Format...... 211. The Purpose of the Thesis

The purpose of the thesis (or indeed any engineering report) is the communication of the project’s motivations and findings to others. For engineering projects, the following elements are usually of interest to the intended audience;  The project objectives, and the reasons for pursuing these particular objectives.  The background history and current state of the art in the area of interest.  The techniques, equipment and procedures used in accomplishing the project objectives.  The findings of the investigation, whether they be experimental results, a new design, a suggested change in operating practice, or a direction for further research.  A discussion of the findings in the context of the original objectives, the background history, and the previous state of the art.  A set of conclusions, and a discussion of the next steps that would be taken in the continuation of the project or the implementation of its findings.

When formulating any report, it is important to understand both the nature of the report’s audience, and the motivations that the audience might have in reading the report. Audiences for engineering reports may include;  Other professional engineers  Academic researchers  Government organisations or parliamentary committees.  Corporate managers, who may or may not have engineering training  Potential investors/supporters  The general public

The motivations of the audience will vary widely, but may include;  Determining whether the reported findings have application in the audience’s own projects.  Making a decision on whether to implement the findings or recommendations of the project.

3  Evaluating whether the proposed design should be adopted.  Continuing or extending the work done by the initial project.  Providing funding to develop or apply the findings of the report.

2. Thesis Structure

The recommended thesis structure provides a framework for ensuring that the project content is communicated to the audience in a logical fashion. In general, a final year project thesis will be composed of the following sections;

 Title Page  Project Summary  Letter of Transmittal  Acknowledgements  Table of Contents  Publications (if applicable)  Nomenclature (optional)  Introduction (and Literature Review)  Process  Results & Discussion  Conclusions & Future Work  References  Appendices

Given the wide variety of investigations undertaken in this unit, the structure of the main body of the thesis (comprising the Introduction, Process, Results and Discussion, and Conclusions) may be adjusted to suit a particular investigation. It is preferable, however, that creative energies are focused on the ideas presented in designs, investigations, or experiments rather than on developing novel structures for the thesis.

4 3 Title Page

The title page sets the tone for the presentation and professionalism of the entire report. The elements should be arranged in a clear and orderly fashion, and typographical errors on the title page should be regarded as completely unforgivable.

Remember – First impressions are critical!

The title page must include;  The project title.  The authors. For this report, this would include the lead author’s name and student number, along with the name(s) of the project supervisor(s).  The organisational affiliation of all authors. For the most part, this will be the “School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Western Australia”.  The date of submission

This information is standard on any professional report or manuscript, and is all that is required on the cover page; a sample title page is included overleaf that demonstrates an appropriate arrangement. Images are not required on the cover page, and should never be included at the expense of the required information. It should also be remembered that the markers (or, in the case of a professional report, subsequent readers) will usually print the thesis in black and white due to the expense or unavailability of colour printing. As a result, colour images may not appear as the author intends, and may in fact detract from the appearance of the cover page.

Similarly, it has become common for students to somewhat randomly place a variety of corporate, UWA, or school logos on the title page. This is not required, nor is it recommended. Most organisations have very strict rules governing their visual identity, which may extend to include the size, placement and presentation of the logo. UWA is no exception, and in most instances students have not presented UWA logos in the approved fashion. Outside organisations may also prohibit students using their logo on a thesis, as it may incorrectly imply that it is an official corporate document. A logo should only be placed on the cover page in exceptional circumstances, with the explicit approval of the relevant organisation. 5 6

Project Title For Sample Title Page

John Q. Student Student Number School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering University of Western Australia

Supervisor: Jessica Q. Supervisor School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering University of Western Australia

Co-Supervisor: Robert J. Otherguy Other School or Company Inc.

Final Year Project Thesis School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering University of Western Australia

Submitted: November 1st, 2015

7 4. Project Summary

The Project Summary (also known as the synopsis, or abstract) should provide a clear, concise executive summary of the thesis. It should concisely identify the reasons for undertaking the project, the objectives of the project, the approach(es) used to achieve the objectives, and a summary of the key findings or recommendations. It should never exceed one page; for this unit, a limit of 250 words should be observed (which should be comfortably less than one page). It should be placed on a page of its own, immediately following the title page.

In professional practice, for busy readers the Project Summary may be the only part of the report that is read. It will serve as the “shop window” for the report – readers will determine whether the rest of the report is relevant to their interests based on the summary. The importance of first impressions should accordingly be remembered in its preparation. In a professional environment, a poor Project Summary will inhibit the chances of the recommendations or design being adopted; in a school environment, it may leave the marker in a more critical (or negative) state of mind when they read the rest of the thesis.

5. Preamble – Letter of Transmittal, Acknowledgements, Contents, Publications and Nomenclature

The Project Summary is followed by a series of items that convey essential information about the project and the thesis document. The first is the Letter of Transmittal, which is a required element. An example letter is included at the end of this section; it should be retyped for inclusion in the thesis, changing the appropriate details. At the time of writing, Professor John Dell serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and the Letter of Transmittal is to be addressed accordingly.

A page listing Acknowledgements may (and in most cases, should) be included next. On this page, individuals or organisations that have provided significant assistance in the completion of the project should be acknowledged. It is particularly important that anyone who has contributed results or data to the project is acknowledged. When a thesis is submitted, it is assumed to represent the student’s work, and it is the student’s

8 contribution that is being assessed – for that reason, it is important to identify any contributions that should be attributed to third parties.

A Table of Contents must be provided next. The purpose of the Table is to make it easy for readers to find particular sections of the thesis; a good Table of Contents enhances the presentation of the thesis, while a scruffy or (worse) incorrect table will detract from the reader’s overall impression. The Table of Contents in this document provides an example of a suitable format. Listings should be limited to sections (such as the Introduction, or Experimental Method) and sub-sections (major topic headings within the sections); it would not be usual to include sub-sub-sections in the Table of Contents.

The remaining elements of the preamble are optional, or, in many cases, not applicable. If the project has generated manuscripts that have been accepted or submitted to journals or conferences (other than the School’s Final Year Technology Conference) for publication, then a list of these publications should be provided. Only those manuscripts that have actually been submitted should be listed; “projected” submissions must not be listed.

A “Nomenclature” section may be included that provides a list of the symbols used in the thesis and their meaning. This may be useful if the thesis introduces a large number of symbols, but should be regarded as optional; even if a Nomenclature page is provided, many (most) readers would prefer important symbols to also be defined in the text when they first appear.

Students should note that while none of these elements appear directly in the thesis marking guides, they do contribute to the overall presentation of the thesis, and shortcomings may be reflected in the presentation mark. Importantly, their presence at the front of the thesis means that their appearance will contribute to the reader’s early impression of the thesis, and thus may affect their state of mind as they go on to review the main body of the thesis. For these reasons, it is important that care be exercised in the presentation and review of these elements.

9 Sample Letter of Transmittal

John Q. Student 27 Residential Street Crawley, WA, 6009

XXnd October, 20XX

Winthrop Professor John Dell Dean Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley, WA, 6009

Dear Professor Dell

I am pleased to submit this thesis, entitled “Thesis Title Here”, as part of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Engineering.

Yours Sincerely

John Q. Student Student Number

10 6 Introduction and Literature Review

The purpose of the introduction is to describe the issue that is being addressed, define the specific objectives of the project, describe the reasons for pursuing those objectives, and place the objectives in the context of the past history of the field and the current state of the art.

The introduction should accordingly start by defining the specific issue being addressed by the project. In most cases, it will be appropriate to incorporate schematic diagrams, graphs or tables illustrating the nature of the issue for the reader (remembering that the issue may be new to the reader).

In defining the issue, the implications of the issue for any interested parties, such as a company, the scientific community, government organisations, or affected members of the public, should be discussed. Many projects set out to enhance the engineering and academic communities’ understanding of an issue, which will help guide future research, policy formulation or planning. For operational problems in a plant, the project may address environmental, health and safety issues, potential production losses, or maintenance requirements. For a design problem, the project may investigate improvements that enable a product to either compete more effectively or enter a new market. For projects dealing with organisational practices, the objectives may relate to the efficiency or effectiveness of operations.

Once the issue and its implications have been defined, the next element of the introduction is the literature review, which may be described as a discussion of the background history and the current state of the art. The emphasis of the literature review will vary depending on the nature of the project. For research investigations, this review may deal almost entirely with the academic literature. For design projects, existing approaches or designs for the issue of interest would be discussed, along with any relevant codes or standards, along with relevant academic literature. For investigations of engineering practice, current operating practices and standards would be discussed. For projects that involve particular organisations, the past history of the issue within that organisation should be explored. All references must be properly cited, using the Harvard citation format.

11 It is important to remember to carefully review the literature, as opposed to simply surveying the literature. A good literature review provides a critical analysis of the material that is being cited, grouping together similar papers, highlighting unique contributions, and discussing their relevance to the current project, thereby providing a coherent summary of the (relevant) state of the art. In contrast, a literature survey simply sequentially lists paper, devoting a paragraph or sentence to each with no real indication as to their relative importance or relevance. Both may cover the same range of papers, but a properly constructed review demonstrates greater insight on the part of the author, and is recognised accordingly in the thesis marking scheme.

In constructing the literature review (or, indeed, any part of the thesis), it is important to clearly understand practices regarded as plagiarism. Examples of plagiarism include: * failure to reference source material or unpublished work of other people; * copying graphics without quoting the original work and attributing the work to its rightful author; * copying extensive tracts of text verbatim from reference material, even if the source is properly cited. Occasionally it may be appropriate to reproduce verbatim text, placing the text in quotation marks and citing the source. However, the extent of such reproduction should almost never exceed one to two sentences, and you should check with your supervisor on the appropriateness of the reproduction. Verbatim reproduction of multiple paragraphs is never acceptable. * one or more students cooperating to complete a project and then handing in identical submissions; * one student copying any part of another person's project. The Harvard style has been adopted for citing sources in final year project.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated in final year project theses, and will be prosecuted according to the policies of the faculty and university. Plagiarised figures are usually extremely easy for markers to identify, with quick image searches on Google providing documentary proof. Students are advised that software (such as “Turnitin”) may also be employed to check for and document plagiarism in the text, though it should be noted that instances of plagiarism are usually immediately obvious to experienced readers.

12 Once the state of the art has been described, the next step is to describe the specific objectives of the current project, placing them in the context of the pre-existing state of the art and the interests of affected organisations or parties. The manner in which these objectives will advance the state of the art should be described. If the project is laying the groundwork for continuing studies, this should be stated, and the ultimate goals of any continuing investigations should be described (it is quite common for final year projects to be a part of larger investigations involving several students and academic staff).

At this stage, it is often worthwhile, and indeed important, to assess the benefits that would accrue to interested entities from the successful achievement of the objectives. Examples of this include:  Assessing the positive financial consequences of achieving the objectives (or, conversely, the negative consequences of failing to address the issue).  Estimating the impact on an entity’s Key Performance Measures.  Addressing the manner in which the project findings affect environmental, health and safety issues.  Determining whether an entity’s resources may be more efficiently or effectively deployed This aspect is often neglected in final year project reports, but it forms an essential element of reports delivered in professional practice. Any final year report would be enhanced by the inclusion of such a discussion.

13 For longer reports, it is common to include a brief description of the structure and contents of the different sections of the report at the end of the introduction. This may be considered for final year projects theses, especially if an unconventional structure is adopted, but is not required. Students may opt to separate the introduction and the literature review into separate chapters – the decision as to whether adopt such a format would depend entirely on whether the format causes the thesis to “flow” in a more logical fashion. The marking scheme would not assess any penalty for such a decision – but it should be remembered that the reader’s overall impression plays an important part in determining the marks they assign, and the choice should be made according to which format will give the best flow, and thus the best impression. 7. “Process” - Experimental Method, Model Formulation, Design Approach, Data Collection

This section describes the “process” by which the project objectives are being achieved. The nature of this process will vary according to the type of project – select a title for this section that is appropriate for the project. The guiding principle for this section is that it should provide all the information necessary for subsequent workers to repeat the work.

Elements of this section for different types of investigation could include the following (note that more than one may apply for any given investigation);

Experimental Investigations  Diagrams and descriptions of experimental apparatus.  Specimen designs, preparation and/or sources  Descriptions of experimental procedures, including references to relevant test standards  Descriptions of the methods used to calculate key parameters from the raw data For example, to describe a tensile test a drawing of the specimens showing the specimen dimensions should be provided, along with a description of the manner in which the specimens were fabricated and prepared for testing (including any heat treatment), the relevant ASTM standard, gripping arrangements, loading rate, and the method used to measure displacement (and thence strain). The method used to calculate the elastic modulus, yield strength. Ultimate tensile strength and/or failure strain from the experimental record should also be described.

14 Modelling Investigations  A description of any software tools used and/or created.  A description and diagram of the model configuration.  Descriptions of the model input options selected (boundary conditions, constitutive behaviours etc)  A discussion of the process by which the final model configuration was determined (for example, discussing the tests undertaken to ensure that the model has converged towards the true solution).  A description of any model validation tests (in some cases, this may appear in the results and discussion section) Design Investigations  A description of the constraints imposed on the design (particular materials, cost limits, etc)  A discussion of the criteria that will be used to make design choices and evaluate the success of the final design.  Descriptions of any design tools or procedures employed (such as software).  A discussion of the relevant code sections or requirements (this may be included in the criteria or constraints).  A description of any experiments undertaken to evaluate the constructed design (following the guidelines provided above for experimental procedures).

Engineering Practice Investigations  A description of data collection methods (surveys, interviews, lists of questions).  A description of the principal information sources.  A description of the any relevant codes or standards,  A description of the tools to be used in formulating any new approaches.  A discussion of the criteria that will be used to make decisions and evaluate the success of any recommended procedure.

For projects that are predominantly literature reviews, this section may perhaps not be necessary (there’s no real need to discuss the use of standard literature databases, unless a novel approach was adopted).

Illustrations 15 Markers have observed that the quality of equipment and model illustrations provided has declined markedly in recent years. This is in large part due to over-reliance by students on digital photographs of experimental rigs and designs, and screen prints of model configurations. In most cases, a photograph of a test rig by itself is completely and utterly worthless. A carefully drawn set of schematic diagrams or engineering drawings, showing the important dimensions and labelled appropriately, conveys much more information to the reader than a photograph. Furthermore, when printed in black and white, as theses very often are for marking, colour photographs often become unintelligible. There are occasions when photographs of rigs should be included provide useful and important information regarding the scale of equipment or specimens, but schematic diagrams or engineering drawings of the test rig, model or specimens must ALWAYS be provided. Failure to do so is simple laziness.

In a similarly lazy practise, it has regrettably become fashionable for students to “lift” schematic illustrations directly from texts, papers, other students’ theses, or web sites instead of drawing their own diagrams. This commonly results in the inclusion of poor resolution images, images that do not include all the necessary information, or images that do not accurately reflect the test rig used for the project. Furthermore, if a student fails to cite the source of the reproduced image, they are guilty of plagiarism and may be penalised accordingly.

It is important to draw original illustrations, to ensure that relevant and accurate information is included.

16 8 Results & Discussion

This section should provide the results of the investigation, and discuss their implications in the context of the original objectives, the background history, and the pre-existing state of the art. The guiding principle for this section is that it should describe what has been done, and demonstrate how well the findings are understood.

For experimental and modelling studies, the “results” are easy to identify. For design studies, the final design, and the expected or measured performance of that design will represent the “results”. For a literature review project, the findings of the review will form the “results”; in many cases, the review is undertaken to identify directions for further research, and these directions should be regarded as results.

Depending on the volume of raw data, it may not be appropriate to present all of the raw data in the body of the report – it is usual to only provide characteristic elements of the raw data in the main body of the report if they are important to the discussion, and to provide the remainder in an appendix. The results should rather present all relevant “analysed” data, in graphical or tabular form (as appropriate). In many instances, it will be appropriate to present “comparative” results – these may be results comparing the behaviour under different sets of conditions, or comparisons of performance under the recommended new approach with former approaches, for example. As much as possible, a format should be selected that permits the results being compared to appear on a single page – it is very difficult for the reader to compare images on multiple pages, or to reconcile tables on different pages.

Important figures, especially graphs, must be presented in the main text if they are to be important subjects in the discussion. For example, if 10 stress-strain plots have been collected, a single representative, composite, or average plot should be presented in the main text, with the remaining individual plots relegated to the appendix. There is nothing a reader dislikes more than having to hunt in the appendix for figures that illustrate the discussion. Many students have made poor choices in recent years by relegating all graphs and figures to the appendix, simply to avoid exceeding page limits, and it has reduced the marks awarded to their theses.

17 The purpose of the discussion is to place the results in context, and demonstrate the student’s understanding of the implications of the results. The following elements may be present, depending on the nature of the project;

Compare the findings with any original expectations.  How did the original hypothesis hold up?  How has the hypothesis evolved based on the results?  Does the proposed design meet the original objectives?

Compare the findings with the pre-existing state of the art.  How has the investigation added to the body of knowledge in the field?  How do the results compare with the results of previous investigations?  How does the new design or procedure improve on existing approaches?

Compare the proposed approach with alternatives.  For design and engineering practice investigations, it is important to discuss the alternative approaches that were considered, and the reasons for selecting the final approach.  Were other modelling tools available? Why were they not adopted? Do they offer any possible advantages for future investigations?

Discuss the limitations of the current project.  Do the current experimental rigs or software impose limits on the extent to which the objectives could be explored (or on the application of findings?  What could be done better? Which assumptions should be challenged?  What does the new design fail to achieve?  Which aspects of practice require further investigation?  Describe any remaining issues or suggested future work.

It is important that limitations be discussed openly, and not be regarded as negative – it is very important to understand the limitations of a technique, in order to properly apply results. In many cases, a recognition of the limitations demonstrates the improved understanding developed as a result of an investigation.

18 Similarly, it is important that the discussion address any arbitrary choices made during the course of a project. In most projects, it will be necessary to take some arbitrary choices in order to make progress. These choices should be identified, and alternative approaches should be considered in the discussion. Once again, this should not be viewed negatively – demonstrating an awareness of such choices is a way of displaying the depth to which an issue has been understood, and may provide motivation or directions for future studies.

Remember – all statements and arguments in the report must be supported, either by results, or information available in the literature. This is especially important in the Discussion section. Avoid “hand waving”!

19 9. Conclusions & Future Work

Conclusions should state concisely the most important findings of the project. This will include;  A summary of the key arguments developed in the discussion  An assessment of whether or not the project objectives have been achieved (and if not, why not)  A description of future work arising from the project (unresolved issues, or steps for implementation).

While the conclusions section will generally brief, care should be taken in writing this section. Remember, it will be the last thing that the audience reads, so it will be the last thing on their mind before they make a decision on the future of the project (in professional practice), or on the mark (right now)!

20 10. References and Appendices

The reference list is an important “road map” for anyone following up on the project – and for final year students, may prove to be extremely useful if they continue on with similar work, either in their professional career or in postgraduate research. The Harvard citation format is to be used when citing references in the main text, and in compiling and presenting the reference list. A PDF outlining the required format is available at the unit website.

Appendices may be provided as appropriate, especially to provide original data that do not necessarily fit conveniently into the main text. Material typically included in appendices may include;  Raw experimental data  Contour plots from modelling software  Raw images (ie images prior to processing or filtering)  Software (codes) used to compute results.  Literature or results from previous studies.

It is worth reiterating that important figures, especially graphs, must be placed in the main text if they are to be important subjects in the discussion. For example, if 10 stress-strain plots are available, a single representative, composite, or average plot should be presented in the main text, with the remaining individual plots relegated to the appendix. There is nothing a reader dislikes more than having to hunt in the appendix for figures that illustrate the discussion. Many students have made poor choices in recent years by relegating all graphs and figures to the appendix, simply to avoid exceeding page limits, and it has reduced the marks awarded to their theses.

21 11. Report Format

General Considerations In general, this document may serve as a template for the thesis. There are no page limits on the thesis – but remember that theses are read, not measured. As a guide, 50 pages has been considered the upper limit for the main body of a final year project thesis (ie excluding the preamble references and appendices). This is not a hard limit, and no penalties are currently assigned for exceeding this limit. Indeed, if the main body is one or two pages over the limit it will probably not even be noticed. This is an important point to consider when relegating material to appendices – don’t make the mistake of moving important details of the experimental procedure or key results figures to the appendix just for the sake of “saving” 2-3 pages. If it’s important, the reader will have to go to the appendix anyway, which will annoy them, and the thesis will still be perceived as having that extra length.

That having been said, it is important to consider the marker’s state of mind when they mark the thesis. They will be busy, as they will have many theses to grade, as well as facing the grading of any exams they are associated with. They will be expecting theses around 50 pages in length, and are likely to be unimpressed if the thesis is significantly longer than that. This may place them in a more critical frame of mind as they approach the thesis, so if the page limit is exceeded, it is important that it occurs because additional material that is important and of high quality is being presented. If the thesis is long because it is padded with unnecessary or repetitive material, the marker will form a negative impression, which will likely detract from their mark.

The thesis text should be expressed in the usual scientific fashion – 3rd person, impersonal. There should be no need to use “I”, “we”, or “you” in a technical report. Where necessary, individuals may be identified directly by name (as if citing a reference).

The report will be submitted online in “pdf” form, in order to eliminate (as much as possible) formatting problems. It is essential that the pdf be carefully checked before submission. The markers will see the pdf version, and any translation errors may affect their mark.

22 Font The font is to be 12 point: Times or Times New Roman are suggested. Larger font sizes may be used on the title page if desired, as shown in the example provided in section 3.

Margins and Page Numbering A 4 cm left hand margin and a 2 cm top, bottom and right hand margins are to be used. Page numbers must be included in the footer.

Line Spacing & Paragraph Format 1.5 line spacing should be used throughout. Paragraphs should be separated by a single line (as in this document). Text should be left aligned or justified. Paragraphs should not be indented.

Headings Section – 12 point Bold; Subsection - 12 point underline; Subsections - 12 point italic

Graphs & Figures Diagrams, graphs and pictures should be included to enhance the paper, but when embedded in files can cause problems when being translated between applications and computer platforms. Where possible, use diagrams stored in a fixed picture format such as .eps (an enhanced version of PostScript which is the language used to drive most laser printers), tiff (for all images), .gif (for line diagrams) or .jpeg. Ensure that a high enough resolution is used to ensure that the image is of high quality.

One way to avoid translation problems, especially in excel graphs or manually drawn diagrams, is to paste the graph (or diagram) into a powerpoint presentation, and then to save that presentation as “tiff” images. The resulting image files can be inserted into the document and cropped or resized (use the insert/picture/from file option), and are very stable. Inserting images or diagrams from files is preferred – it is much easier to handle from a formatting standpoint than an image that is inserted amongst or over the text. Align figures in the center of the page, and ensure that all figures have a caption, as illustrated in the example below.

23 Figure 1: Example figure caption (schematic illustration of a nanoindentation model).

Figures may be submitted in colour, but it is recommended that figures be submitted black and white. The thesis will be distributed in pdf form, and the individual printing the document may not (in fact, often does not) have access to a colour printer – and colour figures and photographs rarely show up well when printed in black and white. This may become important if markers encounter difficulty in interpreting the figures; the markers will be busy, so make it as easy for them as is possible! For complex contour plots, most software packages will generate the contours in greyscale format, which will print well in black and white.

As was noted in the Process section, Markers have observed that the quality of equipment and model illustrations provided has declined markedly. This is in large part due to over-reliance by students on digital photographs of experimental rigs and designs. In most cases, a photograph of a test rig by itself is completely and utterly worthless. A carefully drawn schematic diagram or engineering drawing, showing the important dimensions and labelled appropriately, conveys much more information to the reader than a photograph. Furthermore, when printed in black and white, as theses very often are for marking, colour photographs often become unintelligible. There are

24 occasions when photographs of rigs should be included provide useful and important information regarding the scale of equipment or specimens, but schematic diagrams or engineering drawings of the test rig, model or specimens must ALWAYS be provided. Failure to do so is simple laziness.

In a similarly lazy practise, it has regrettably become fashionable for students to “lift” schematic illustrations directly from texts, papers, other students’ theses, or web sites rather than drawing their own diagrams. This commonly results in the inclusion of poor resolution images, images that do not include all the necessary information, or images that do not accurately reflect the test rig used for the project. Furthermore, if a student fails to cite the source of the reproduced image, they are guilty of plagiarism and may be penalised accordingly. It is important to draw original illustrations, to ensure that relevant and accurate information is included.

The only exception to this arises in cases where data is being reproduced from previous studies; even then, it is important to recognise that any such data MUST be properly attributed (and referenced), and, in the case of material reproduced from texts or journal papers, that the permission of the copyright holder to reproduce the material has been secured if it is planned to proceed to publication. In general, however, avoid including figures in the thesis that are not original.

Tables Tables should be numbered and provided with captions, as illustrated below. 2 Particle Area (µm ) Material Indenter Peak Load (mN) Average Std Dev

SiC (Duralcan) Spherical 5 µm 100 161.82 41.88

MicralTM (ComralTM) Spherical 10 µm 200 494.62 130.43

Table 1: Sample table caption (Average exposed surface areas of indented reinforcement particles, as determined by analysis of SEM images.).

Equations

25 Where equations enhance the discussion, they should be provided. The equation itself should be centred using a centre tab, and all equations must be numbered, with the number being right justified, as illustrated below; (1.1)