Colorado State University

                                                    Department of Electrical Engineering

                                                             Fort Collins, CO 80523

 

                                                                    August 30, 2015

 

M E M O R A N D U M

 

 

To: EE102 Students

 

From: A. Jayasumana, Instructor (Give your name plus lab day and time here–this is the one instance in your memo where you will look like a student rather than a working professional)

 

Subject: The Memorandum form of project reports

 

This memo which you are reading now is intended to convey what a memorandum should be. It is brief and factual, often serving as a cover document for attached material. The actual items to be included will vary with each project, and will require your good judgment.

 

The reader should be able to get the basic message from the text of the memo without going to the attachments. They provide detail in case the reader needs it, and show that you really did all the work.

 

When you prepare a project report of any sort for this course, PLAY A ROLE:

The audience for all your engineering project reports in EE102 is a fellow engineer -- a supervisor or colleague -- not your professor. Assume the role of a working professional, not a student. Do not write from a student's point of view. Adopt a businesslike tone, and write from the viewpoint of a  professional engineer presenting original work to a colleague. Do not say that the purpose of the project was for you to learn something, or discuss how you feel about it. Focus on the technical work itself.

 

Figure 1 summarizes the key things your memos should do.  To ensure a professional appearance, handwriting may appear in your project reports only in three possible instances, as summarized in Figure 1.  Everything else must be computer printed.  For complemented variables, it is permissible to type, for example, F' in place of  F with bar over it in typed reports.