OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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Write the M.S. Final Project Report using the general guidelines below:
Submit digital copies of your Final Report to your major professor and to each committee member.
The Scientific Report, not including pre-text pages, references, or appendices, should be a minimum 40-60 pages in length double-spaced.
If printed as a hard copy, the Final Report must be printed on standard size, white, 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper.
Use regular, unadorned print (e.g., New Times Roman or Arial), 10-12 point size for text. Scientific names of genera and species should be underlined or printed in true italics.
Every page of the internship report must be kept within a minimum margin of 1-1/2 inches (for binding purposes) on the left side of the page; 1 inch at the right side; 1-1/4 inches at the top and bottom of the page.
All pages except the title page are numbered. This includes full-page photographs, charts and graphs, the bibliography, and appendices. For the pretext pages, use small Roman numerals (ii, iii, etc.). Page i is the abstract page, but the page number is not printed on this page.
The first item on the Table of Contents list should be the Abstract. This will be followed by the title page, the approval page and any dedication or acknowledgment section you may wish to include. This is numbered in the small Roman series, with the page numbers displayed. The remainder of the internship report is numbered with Arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.).
The page numbers that are displayed must be centered at the bottom of each page, within the bottom margin.
Download the format example (.doc)
Describe where your project was conducted and under whose supervision. Summarize your project goals, activities, and accomplishments, highlighting key knowledge or skills gained. How did this project benefit you, and how did it benefit the body of scientific knowledge?
The abstract is limited to 350 words in length. It should be 1.0 line-spaced, and should be within the report margin requirements (see above).
If you wish, you may include a page with a brief note of dedication or acknowledgment of help received from particular individuals.
Project reports are expected to have a Table of Contents for the convenience of the reader. If figures or tables are scattered throughout the text, a separate List of Figures or List of Tables should be included after the Table of Contents.
Use Arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.) to number these pages. Start with the first page of the introduction as page 1 and end with the last page of your final report; either your Literature Cited or Appendices.
The format for the scientific report should include:
The introduction is a concise statement of the research problem and an outline of the scope, aim, and nature of your project. A review of the literature pertinent to the subject should be included and used to provide context for the project report.
The purpose of this section is to recount, in a concise manner, the materials and methods used to approach the project. It should include sufficient information so that the study could be repeated. Care should be exercised not to include superfluous information.
The results reflect the findings of your investigation only, not the findings of other researchers in the area. This is a summarized form of extensive data that may appear in the figures, tables and/or appendices.
The discussion section provides an analysis of the data acquired. In this section, you may draw comparisons with findings of other researchers in the field as well as suggest additional research.
The final section draws together the objectives and findings of the entire research project, with emphasis on the value added of your research.