Graduate Writing Resources
“One of the best ways to enhance your career and ensure your employability is by improving your writing skills. Well-written work portrays you and your employer in a positive light. It allows your colleagues, supervisors, current clients — and potential ones — know how good your ideas and proposals are. Writing well can pay off in raises and promotions, and bring new work to your company.”
—IEEE
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is dedicated to helping you to improve your professional communication skills to aid your success after graduation. This page has templates and tutorials for many different kinds of written work and oral presentations.
Qualifying Exam
Overview
A supervisory committee can write any variety of questions to evaluate a student’s readiness for research and provide with an extensive learning opportunity. Potential types of questions could include any of the following (and more!)
- Assess technical literature in the student’s area of research (i.e., evaluate a paper, provide a survey, summarize patent literature, etc.)
- Explain techniques (measurements, simulations, etc.) that student’s may need to use
- Critically analyze technical ideas (i.e., significance, pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses, etc.)
- Demonstrate mastery of material from the student’s coursework related to their research
- Identify opportunities for new research directions
Students should be prepared to answer questions not just through technical or mathematical responses, but also through proper writing and formatting.
Instructions for Students
This exam is open-book/resources. Students may refer to any textbook, literature, or online resources. However, discussions with other individuals are strictly prohibited.
Students should be concise and clear in their responses. It is recommended that a submission not exceed five pages. If this does not seem appropriate for the questions, the student may discuss with their supervisory committee chair.
Answers should be submitted in IEEE format:
- Visit IEEE Author Center for resources. It is recommended that students use the Author Tools and choose a template for a journal in their specialty.
- For calculations or code/computations the student may consider any other professional format that their committee can understand.
If a student needs clarification on what a question is asking, what format or length your response can take, or similar procedural questions, they may discuss these with their supervisory committee chair or the Graduate Student Coordinator.
Proposal
Written Submission
Proposals should be written in an NSF or NIH format which would include only the technical proposal and the vita sections. The choice of which format to use would be based on the area of research. The faculty advisor would help the student choose.
Written length should be:
– 10 pages for MS students
– 15 pages for PhD students
Outline
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| 1: Introduction | Brief overview research topic. What will be your contributions to the scientific community? |
| 2: Literature Review | How is your work using or improving the prior work? |
| 3: Research Summary | What research have you already done? |
| 4: Proposal for future research | Where are you going with this? What do you plan to do? |
| 5: Conclusion | Re-summarize introduction section |
| References | IEEE Citation Guide |
Oral Presentation
- On the day of the exam, the student will arrive 10 min. early to the conference room/Zoom link complete setup and verify that sound and video are functional.
- Once a majority of committee have arrived by the designated time, the student will begin their proposal presentation. If the proposal is broadcast over Zoom, the Graduate Student Coordinator will begin recording.
- At the end of the presentation, the student will answer questions from the public (supervisory committee, guests invited by the student, etc.)
- After finishing the public presentation and question session the Graduate Student Coordinator will stop the recording and additional guests will be asked to leave. The student will remain and will answer questions from the supervisory committee.
- The student will be asked to leave the room/the Graduate Student Coordinator will place the student in a private Zoom room. The supervisory committee will then deliberate as to whether the student has either passed, failed, must make revisions and/or retry.
- The student will be invited to re-join the supervisory committee and will receive the results of their proposal.
Please note: MS thesis students are not required to complete an oral presentation for their proposal unless their supervisory committee requests it.
Additional Resources
-
- Proposal Outline – Recommended by Dr. Furse
- NSF Preparing your Proposal
- NSF Grant Proposal Guide
- NIH Grants
Thesis / Dissertation
The defense is conducted by the supervisory committee according to Graduate School regulations. A student will be passed only if the committee is satisfied that the thesis research and documentation are unquestionably of the quality that will bring distinction to the candidate and the department.
All students must understand that they are responsible for ensuring that the submitted thesis meets the requirements of the Graduate School for proper format. Ample help is available from the Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation Editor in the form of a Handbook for Theses and Dissertations as well as seminars. Theses with improper format will be rejected. When students send a draft to their committee, they must also upload their thesis for Preliminary Review to the Graduate School.
Writing Style
Because the student writing a thesis or dissertation is presenting the results of research primarily for other scholars within the academic community, the style should be formal rather than colloquial. The tone of the thesis or dissertation should be serious; in general, a conversational writing style is not appropriate. Despite a lack of particular knowledge about a field, an intelligent reader of a thesis or dissertation should be able to understand terminology and the discussion of research. Jargon must be avoided because it obscures rather than clarifies the topic.
For hyphenation and spelling, the current editions of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary and Webster’s Third New International Dictionary are standard sources. Punctuation, capitalization, and the rules of grammar can be found in any basic grammar book. For matters of English usage, the best source is R.W. Burchfield’s Fowler’s Modern English Usage (2004).
Outline
After successfully defending the thesis, the student must upload the final version of their thesis to the Graduate School. Detailed policies and procedures concerning the thesis are contained in A Handbook for Theses and Dissertations published by the Graduate School.
| Content | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Formatting – Preliminary Pages | Title Page | Fill in Graduate School Template (Word or LaTeX) |
| Copyright Page | Fill in Graduate School Template | |
| Statement of Dissertation Approval | Fill in Graduate School Template with only the names. The “date approved” slots will be filled in after your defense. | |
| Abstract | 350 words or less. | |
| Dedication | Optional | |
| Table of Contents | Fill in Graduate School Template | |
| Preface or Acknowledgements | See Graduate School Template and Handbook for purpose and content of a preface. | |
| Formatting – Chapter Pages | Chapter 1: Introduction | Overview of Thesis 1-2 paragraphs summarizing chapters 3-5. End with: “The contributions of this thesis are…” |
| Chapter 2: Literature Review | How is your work using or improving the prior work? | |
| Chapter 3 | First published journal article | |
| Chapter 4 | Second published journal article (PhD only) | |
| Chapter 5 | Third published journal article (PhD only) | |
| Additional chapters | Dependent on your research and additional publications, if any. | |
| Final Chapter: Conclusion (Defense Presentation) |
Go back to the overviews from Chapter 1 to re-summarize and explain what your published work is building to.
|
|
| Reference | Appendix – Can follow at the end of each applicable chapter or at the very end of paper | See Graduate School Template |
| References | IEEE Citation Guide |
Additional Resources
- Thesis Outline – Recommended by Dr. Furse
- Graduate School Thesis Templates – Word and LaTex
Speaking Resources
Getting Started
Any Speech, the BIG picture 
Slide Templates 
PowerPoint File
Slide Templates PowerPoint File
Technical Presentations (instructions included)
From Attention to Interest
Communicating Complex information
Five Important Features of a Technical Presentation
Analyzing Your Audience
Audience Analysis for Tech Speeches
Visual Aids
Advantages of Visual Aids
Lots-a Slide Templates 
Feedback and Evaluation
ECE 2000 – Intro Critique Form: Speech Critique form 1
Handling Fear of Public Speaking
Fear of Public Speaking
Writing Resources
Getting Started
Communication, Leadership, Ethics and Research (CLEAR)
University Writing Center
Electrical Engineering Research Guide
Lab Reports
Weekly Reports
Sample Report Checklist
Sample Report Template
Abstract
Some Considerations when Abstracting
The Scrutiny of the Abstract
Sample Abstract
Introductions
Info and Sample Introduction
Example from ECE3300
Methods and Procedures
Info and Sample procedures
Results / Discussions
Info and Sample Results and Discussions
Conclusions
Info and Sample Conclusion
Conclusion Tips
Summary, Analysis, Synthesis
References
Literature survey 
IEEE Reference Format
Appendices
Sample Appendices
Technical Papers
IEEE Format and References
IEEE Author Info (including templates)
Patents, Business Plans, Letters & Memos
Tutorial on Patents
Patent Template
Business Plan Template
Letters and Memos Assignment
Posters
General information (power point) 
Instructions for running the poster printer
Template 1
Template 2
Template Cyan
Template Blue
Template Red
Example A
Example B
Example (3 columns)
Example from BioEng
Poster Power Point Presentation by Aly
Senior Project/Thesis/Dissertation
Project Proposal
Thesis Template (.zip)
Graduate Student Survival 101
Mini-Lessons
Abstractions
Audience / Assessing the Audience
Context
Conversation model
Criteria
Description
Ethos
Evaluation
Shared Assumptions
Transitions
Warm-up
1.
2.
3.
4.
Write 1.
Cubing
Top 10 Tips
Plagiarism
Ethics of Multiple Submissions
Conclusion Handout
Assessment Strategies
Peer Review Form and Instructions .
(Slightly more complex form )
Intro Peer Evaluation Form
Evaluation
Conclusion Peer Evaluation Form
Proof Reader’s Marks
Teacher Workshops/Faculty Resources
ECE Write to Learn Activities
Write to Learn Rationale
PBJ Communication Day