The basis of writing your assignment

BGN214

Prepared by:
Hafizah Mohd Latif

For:
Related students: Diploma level
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

You may include any individuals / companies that have contributed to your report writing. However,
you must acknowledge each of their contribution separately, do not sum up all names in one.
For example, do not say – I am thankful to Dr Hafizah, Dr XYZ and Dr KLM for their …
You may want to say – I am grateful to Dr Hafizah Mohd Latif for giving me valuable…. and…..She
has given me a tremendous….. I would also like to thank Dr XYZ for allocating the time to advise me
on…..

ABSTRACTS (by Will Hughes)

The abstract should not be a table of contents in prose, neither should it be an introduction. It
should be informative. Tell the reader what the research was about, how it was undertaken and
what was discovered, but not how the paper is organized. The main findings must be summarized. If
there are too many of them, then just exemplify them in the abstract. The essential elements of the
abstract are:
• Background: A simple opening sentence or two placing the work in context.
• Aims: One or two sentences giving the purpose of the work.
• Method(s): One or two sentences explaining what was done.
• Results: One or two sentences indicating the main findings.
• Conclusions: One sentence giving the most important consequence of the work.
 The length of abstract should not be more than 200 words
 Use past tense

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Start with the description of your topic. Define important concepts within your topic with refer to
relevant references. Please cite the books/ journal papers (you can find using
www.scholar.google.com) that you referred to. The more the citations, the better your writing is as it
shows your readings.

For example, if you are reporting about basement topic (in particular the top-down method), you
should describe what is basement. Why it is important? How many types of basement are they
theoretically? What are the differences? And then you should narrow down your writing to the
advantages of top-down method. At the end of this two-page description, in the last paragraph,
please state the aim of your study. You may want write for example- there are many types of
basement, however, the aim of this is to discover the construction of top-down basement at a
conjected area in Malaysia (closely related to your report title). Please take note that the aim and
objectives are different.

1.1 Objectives

Objectives set you to achieve your aim. For example, in order to discover the construction of top-
down basement, you first need to study the methods, this will be your first objective. You may start
your sentence with to investigate, to determine, to analyse, to describe… depending on what you
include in your study. Do not have more than three objectives.
For DBN 204, please copy the following objectives and complete the sentence according to your
selected topic :
a) to investigate the methods/ procedures of…..,
b) to determine the problems occurred ….
c) to determine the solutions taken to solve the problems.

1.2 Scope of study

Where is the study carried out/ which site? Which province and state? What is your study focus e.g.
top-down and cut-and-cover methods only. What are studied e.g. the methods including materials
and machineries. What are not studied e.g. the quantity of labours. Please describe in detail for each
of your objectives.

1.3 Research methods

Describe the methods you use to collect data about your study/ site. Please take note that
references to BOOKS and INTERNET are not data. They are what you refer to write, thus, they should
be included as references. Data and references are two different elements.

Typical data collection methods for practical students are:

1. Observation – please describe what you observed/ see about the topic e.g. methods of
constructing the x. For how long did you involve/observed? How did you record your observation
e.g. written notes, pictures and videos?

2. Interviews – there are several types of interviews. For example if you ask questions when you are
doing your observation/ when you do your work (to understand more about the topic) that can be
considered as unstructured-interviews. Please describe whom did you had this type of interviews
e.g. labours, supervisors, engineer, QS, architect… (Do not include their names but the designations)
and where.

You can also have semi-structured interviews in which questions are prepared beforehand. And
when you ask these questions, more follow-up questions cropped up. Describe how long were the
interviews carried out. Who and where? How did you record? By audio recorder or by writing short
notes?

3. Document reviews – please state what documents you refer to e.g. construction drawings/
company profile/ standard operating procedures/ progress report/ pictures that belongs to others,
not the one you taken.
 2.0 CASE STUDY

Please start by describing what the project is and others details such as the project value and date of
completion. You may also want to include in the key plan, location plan and the site plan and brief
explanation of where it is situated and the surrounding areas/ networks. You also may want to
describe the activities carried out on the site and your focus is on XYZ activities only. There shall be
no citations found in this chapter, unless there are comparisons or further clarifications need to be
made.

2.1 Methods/ your objective no.1

Describe in detail how works were carried out. Please do not copy the standard operating
procedures because it gives instructions, not what is actually carried out on site. Report what
happened on site in detail! For example, do not just write - the points for ground beams were
marked – but explain more – the points for ground beams were marked using a string, which were
pulled from….

Avoid using the words shall be, must be, should be - these are instructions, not descriptions! For
example, you should say – the top soil was excavated 150mm thickness using a backhoe. Do not
write – 150mm thick of the top soil must be excavated – this is wrong.

Please do not include any method statement. This section shall be described in paragraphs, not in a
table form/ statements.

If you have any pictures/ diagrams/ including organisation chart, please number them as Figure 1,
Figure 2, Figure 3….. Regardless under which chapter they appear. If the pictures are yours, you do
not need to state the source. However, if you took the pictures/charts form the company you are
doing your practical training/ other companies, please state the source as a courtesy e.g. Figure 1:
the levelling works at Zone A. (Source: Courtesy of HIJK Sdn Bhd)

Similar to the Figures, please name the Tables as Table 1,2, 3 and so forth.

2.2 Objective no.2 (Problems)

Similar as above

2.3 Objective no.3 (Solutions)

Similar as above
You should not have 2.4 sub-heading because you only have two/ three objectives.
 3.0 CONCLUSIONS (by Will Hughes, some notes added by Hafizah Mohd Latif)

Every paper should finish with conclusions, explaining the discoveries of the research and its impact.
The conclusion should follow from the work that was done.
Please write what you have investigated or discovered in section 2.0. Were the methods new? Were
the methods similar to that of theory? What were carried out differently? Were the problems hard
to solve?
 Please do not include your feelings e.g. this study is helpful, new information were gained etc.
 Please do not use the first name (I, we, us) in this section or other sections in the report, except
acknowledgement
 Please do not acknowledge anyone or say thank you in this section. Do this in your
acknowledgment section!

REFERENCES (by Will Hughes)

Referencing a book

1. Name(s) of author(s)/editor(s) Surname first, followed by initials, but without full-stops after
initials. (If editors, add Ed. or Eds, as appropriate, in brackets) 2. Year of publication, in brackets,
with no punctuation after it 3. Title of the book in double quotation marks, followed by full-stop 4.
Edition, if not the first 5. Place of publication followed by colon 6. Name of publisher 7. Number of
volumes, if more than one
Examples: Burns, T and Stalker, G M (1966) “The management of innovation”. London: Tavistock.
Walker, A (1996) “Project management in construction”. 3ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Referencing a paper/chapter in a book

1. Name(s) of author(s) of the paper/chapter, surname first, followed by initials, but without full-
stops after initials 2. Year of publication, in brackets (no full-stop or comma after it) 3. Title of the
paper or chapter 4. Editor(s) of the book, prefaced with the word In: and followed by Ed. or Eds. in
brackets 5. Title of the book in double quotation marks 6. Volume number, part number, where
applicable 7. Place of publication 8. Name of publisher
Example: Flint, F O (1984) Advances in light microscopy of foods. In: G.G. Birch and K.J. Parker, (eds.)
“Control of food quality and food analysis”. London: Elsevier Applied Science Publishers.

Referencing an article in a periodical

1. Name(s) of author(s) of the article, surname first, followed by initials, but without full-stops after
initials 2. Year of publication, in brackets (no full-stop or comma after it) 3. Title of article 4. Full title
of the periodical (or an accepted abbreviation, as given in the World List of Scientific Periodicals, but
the full title is preferred) in double quotation marks 5. Volume number
Running title, no more than three words 6. Issue number, in brackets. You don’t always have to give
the issue number, if pages in issues within the volume are numbered consecutively, but for those
journals where each issue re-starts at page 1, it is essential. 7. Page numbers
Example: Wantanakorn, D, Mawdesley, M J and Askew, W H (1999) Management errors in
construction. “Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management”, 6(2), 11220.
Reference to a paper in a conference

1. Author(s) of the paper 2. Year of publication in brackets (no full-stop or comma after it) 3. Title of
the paper or chapter 4. Editor(s) of the conference proceedings, prefaced with the word In: and
followed by Ed. or Eds. in brackets. 5. Title of the conference in double quotation marks 6. Date of
conference 7. Location of conference 8. Publisher of Proceedings 9. Volume number, part number,
where applicable 10. Start and end page numbers of the whole paper
Example Ashton, P and Gidado, K (2001) Risk associated with inadequate site investigation
procedures under design and build procurement systems. In: Akintoye, A (Ed.), “17th Annual ARCOM
Conference”, 5-7 September 2001, University of Salford. Association of Researchers in Construction
Management, Vol. 1, 961-9.