Technical Report

Undergraduates are required to submit a technical report; graduate students are required to submit a technical report or alternate assignment designated by their academic advisor.

**NOTE: STC and Chemistry students should contact their departmental advisor for specific requirements regarding report guidelines.

General report guidelines for all other departments

The report must be typed (double-spaced), with standard side margins of 1.25", and top/bottom margins of 1" with a maximum of 12 point font.

Report must be written using correct grammar, and be at least 7-9 pages in length, including essay questions. Please keep in mind that your report may need to be longer than the minimum length to provide adequate coverage of information.

You must have a cover page in an identical format to the example provided, which includes a signature line that must be signed by your supervisor to signify that the report does not contain company proprietary information.

Reports may contain charts, graphs and supplemental material permitted by your employer, however, these materials will not count towards the seven page minimum.

Technical reports are due at the Harold Meese Center (Career Services Building) at the end of the 4th week after you return to campus. If you co-op during the spring semester, your report is due at the end of the 4th week of summer semester.

Exception: If you are working for the same company through the summer (even if you are not registered for a co-op), you may request an extension of your due date to the 4th week of the fall semester.

Students who are completing 2 consecutive co-op assignments with the same company may write one technical report spanning both assignments. The length of the report remains 7-9 pages (or as directed by your department.)

Students who have already completed one technical report MAY have the option to do an oral presentation in lieu of another written report. Prior permission must be granted from both the departmental academic advisor and the co-op office before the report due date. Oral presentations still require written essay responses and a signed proprietary statement from the co-op supervisor. See these Guidelines for more details.

Cover Sheet

See a sample of the Cover Sheet.

Abstract

You must include an abstract as the first page of your report. An abstract is not an introduction: it is a brief, 50-70 word summary of your report.

Report Content

Technical content of your job is emphasized in this report. In addition, this report is structured to provide an overall assessment of your co-op experiences and the co-op program. You must include the following information within your report.

The company at which you worked

• Provide the name, location, and division of the company at which you worked. (If your division is part of a large parent corporation, provide this information as well).
• What is/are the major product(s) of the division or company in which you worked?
• In which department or unit did you work?
• What are the primary responsibilities and objectives of the department?
• Your co-op work assignment
• Describe your job and how it related to the objectives of the department in which you worked.
• Provide a description of the objectives of your job assignment and the technical approach employed.
• Describe in some detail the specific project (or projects) on which you worked. Some figures may be useful here. If a final project report was written to the employer, it (or parts of it) may be attached to this report as an appendix. Do not include information that is proprietary to your employer.
• Provide overall assessment and impact of the co-op program on your professional development.

Explicitly answer these essay questions in paragraph form at the end of your report

Each question should be listed with your response written after it.

1. How have your co-op assignments adequately prepared you to enter the industry you plan to pursue upon graduation?
2. How can the MTU co-op program be improved to meet the demands of industry and our students?
3. Describe how cooperative education has enhanced your understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.
4. How has cooperative education influenced your ability to identify, formulate, and solve problems?
5. Describe how your co-op experience exposed you to the use of techniques, skills, and modern tools necessary for your career. Which of these items were you exposed to at MTU, and which were you only exposed to through your co-op experiences?
6. How has your co-op experience helped you to develop social, team building, and written and oral communication skills?
7. Undergraduates: Would you recommend cooperative education to a sophomore student? Why or why not?
8. Graduates: Would you recommend cooperative education to other graduate students? Why or why not?

Report Completion Checklist

• Report is in proper format for this work term.
• Report addresses each question of the format.
• Bibliography page is provided for articles.
• Report cover sheet has supervisor certification statement signed by supervisor.
• Progress, Student's Final, and Supervisor's Final Evaluations have been submitted to the co-op office by their due dates.
• Updated resume reflecting co-op experience is uploaded on the Career Services's NACElink system.

Sample Technical Report

Documenting Sources MLA Style

Listing periodicals: Magazines and Newspapers

The basic format for an article from a periodical includes the following information:

Lever, Janet.*1 "Sex Differences in the Games Children Play."*2 Social Problems 23 (1976): 478-87 *3

*1. The author's full name: last name first, followed by a comma, and then the first name and a middle name or iinitial Omit any title or degree attached to the author's name on the source such as Dr. or Ph.D. End the name with a period and two spaces.
*2. The full title of the article, including any subtitle. Place the title in quotation marks, capitalize all important words in the title, and end the title with a period (inside the final quotation mark) and two spaces.
*3. The publication information:
*A. The underline title of the periodical (minus any A, An or The, at the beginning).
*B. The volume or issue number ( in Arabic numerals). See the not below.
*C. The date of publication, followed by a colon and a space. Se the note below.
*D. The inclusive page numbers of the article (without the abbreviation "pp."). For the second number in inclusive page numbers over 100, provide only as many digits as needed for clarity (usually two): 100-01, 1026-36, 11902-06, 398-401.

Note: The treatment of volume and issue and publication dates vary depending on the kind of periodical being cited, as the models indicate.

A signed article in a weekly or biweekly magazine

Stein, Harry. "Low and Behold." New Republic 24 Dec. 1998: 27-33.

A signed article in a monthly or bimonthly magazine

Stevens, Mark. "Living with Lies." Esquire Dec. 1994: 23.

A signed article in a daily newspaper

Gargen, Edward A. "Buffalo Concern Give Pop Sound to Player Pianos." New York Times 16 Feb. 1999: B1.

An unsigned article

"The Right to Die." Time 11 Oct. 1997: 101. "Protests Greet Pope in Holland." Boston Sunday Globe 12 May 1994, sec. 1:1+.

A government document

Hawaii. Dept of Education. Kauai District Schools, Profile 1998-99. Honolulu: Hawaii Dept. of Education, 1999.