MIZAN TEPI UNIVERSITY

College of Engineering and Technology

Department of Mechanical Engineering

“A guideline for a project proposal report writing”

Prepared by:
Mr. Tesfaye Olana (MSc)
Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MTU
tesfitti2016@mtu.edu.et

Editor:
Mr. Belachew Girma (MSc)
Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MTU
belachewgt@gmail.com

Tepi, 2019.
Key Concepts
The final year proposal is an important undertaking and should use the structural guidelines
outlined below. This Guideline has been developed for various reasons. One is to assist
students in their attempt to submit a professionally made Proposal Paper on a high level of
perfection. And the other is to introduce standardization and to maintain a certain minimum
level of quality, both on the Proposal Paper as well as the practical activities.
READ THIS GUIDE CAREFULLY AND THOROUGHLY! Ignoring
requirements set in this paper may lead to rejection of your Proposal Paper!
The Proposal for your Project at the end of your studies may give you the chance to prove
and to improve your capabilities:
 Consolidating the various courses, you had taken to solve a problem
 Application of skills, knowledge and abilities gained during the 5-year-degree
program
 Improving practical skill, deepening your scientific knowledge
 Merging theoretical knowledge with practical skill & relevance
 Combining practical skill with scientific approach
Components of the Layout
The basic components of a final year Proposal report are the same in many engineering
fields. These components are listed above based on their flow order and can be regarded as
steps in Proposal report preparation. The organization of the contents of a Proposal may vary
somewhat with the nature of the activity conducted on the project.
Generally, the components will be described in this section in the order in which they most
logically appear in a project proposal report.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 1

Cover page

The cover page should contain elements including: Name of the University, Department,
Title of the Project proposal, and Submission date to easy identify by merely looking at the
outside of the manuscript. There should be no need to look inside.
For this reason, at least the following elements should be clearly seen on the cover page:
 The name of the of the University, Department (in words)
 The University logo
 Title of the Project proposal
 The month and year of submission
Note that the Cove page should not show a page number.
Title Page

The title page contains all the important information about the project proposal. There are
various classical ways for presenting this information but the common feature is that it must
be simple and clear. The page identifies the information including Title of the project
proposal, Degree that it contributes towards, Names of students, Advisor(s) name(s) and
other.

The title page must contain the following information:

 The name of the of the University, Department (in words)

 Title of the Project proposal
 Degree that it contributes towards
 Names of the students
 Advisor(s) name(s)
 City and Year

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 2

 MIZAN TEPI UNIVERSITY (18 font size)
College of Engineering and Technology (16 font size)
Department of Mechanical Engineering (14 font size)

[Title of the project] (14 font size)

Month, year (14 font size)

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 3

 MIZAN TEPI UNIVERSITY (16 font size)
College of Engineering and Technology (14 font size)

Department of Mechanical Engineering (12 font size)

(Line spacing 1.5 points, 06 pts before and after)

[Title of the project] (12 font size)

Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for award of the degree of:(12 font size)

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

IN

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING (12font size)

By (12font size)

[Students name] (ID.no.) (12 font size)

Advisor: [Name(s) of advisor(s)] (12 font size)

[City]

(12 font size) [Year]

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Approval Sheet

After the completion of the project proposal, the advisor(s) and the department examination
committee should give approval about the project. Thus in project report preparation an
approval sheet will be prepared to get approval signature from the concerned bodies.

This page will have the following format:

MIZAN TEPI UNIVERSITY

College of Engineering and Technology

Department of Mechanical Engineering

APPROVAL SHEET

Approval Board:

______________________ _____________ ___________

Department Head Signature Date

______________________ _____________ ___________

______________________ _____________ ___________

Project Advisor (s) Signature Date

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Abstract

The abstract is a one-page brief summary of the proposal. It should allow the reader who is
unfamiliar with the work to gain a swift and accurate impression of what the project proposal
is about, how it arose and what is going to be achieved. To that end, it needs to show what
new contribution your work will going to make.

The Abstract should summarize the major problems and information inside the proposal
including period of time and budget required. At the end of the abstract page a key words
which defines the abstract statement more should be specified. It can be one or two words,
but not more than this.

Acknowledgment

Student(s) will mention (acknowledge) organizations, projects related to the topic of the
project in which he/she going to take part, and peoples who all helps them to accomplish
what they have. It is normal to thank those who have given help and support (typically your
supervisor). Keep acknowledgements short and business-like.

List of Contents /Table of Contents

This should give a complete list of what the report contains starting with the abstract page.
The cover page and title page is not included in the contents list. Pages including abstract,
acknowledgment, list of tables, list of figures and nomenclature should be given page
number with Roman numbering (i, ii, iii, iv, ……). This helps the reader to easily identify
the main body of the report with the other topics. But the main chapters of the proposal work
will have Arabic numbering system (1, 2, 3, 4…) and the subsections under each chapter
will follow a logical sequence order by separating with decimal points. For more reference
about the Heading, Font sizing and style of chapters and the sub-sections refer General
Format and Content Guide line given at the end of the document.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 6

List of Tables

If the proposal report contains figures a list of these should be provided. This indicates the
pages in which the various tables are to be found in the report. The titles appearing here
should be exactly the same as those in the main body. The list should give the table number,
the title of the table or figure and the page number.

Example:

Table 1.1: Title of the table………………………………………...…………………….16

Table 1.2: Title of the table…………………………………….…………………………17

….

….

Table 2.1: Title of the table………………………………..………………………………26

Table 2.2: Title of the table………………………………...…….………………………27

List of Figures

This indicates the pages in which the various figures/diagrams to be found in the main text.
The titles appearing here should be exactly the same as those in the figure title.

Example:

Figure 1.1: This is the name of the figure...............................................................16

Figure 1.2: This is the name of the figure...............................................................17

.....

......

Figure 2.1: This is the name of the figure...............................................................26

Figure 2.2: This is the name of the figure...................................................... .........27

.....

......

Note been:

 If only a few tables and figures are present, they may be treated on one page.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 7

  Each table and figure inserted in the report should be explained and analyzed
explicitly.
 Figures and tables that are not essential to the smooth reading/understanding, but
which still are of significant interest should be put in main Appendices.

Figure Caption: For the figure write the name of the figure below the figure as shown below.

Figure 1.1: This is the name of the figure (Time new Romans, 12 font sizes)

 Figures, diagrams and charts must be in the perfect shape/size placing at the center
of the page (also its text), should not be elongated in length or height, and must not
be distorted in any way.

Table Caption: If it is table, put its title (caption) above the table.

Table 2.1: Title of the table (Time new Romans, 12 font size)

 Table should be aligned at the left of the page (also its text) and should have the same
table style as shown in example above

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Nomenclature (Acronyms)

A nomenclature is a list which provides the reader a chance to quickly look up the
abbreviations and denotations used in the report. Every abbreviations and notations used
during explanation in the main report must be defined in the nomenclature section, not in the
main body. It may be an equation or a repeated word must be included in nomenclature, the
main report should be free from any word definition and abbreviations.

Example:

LHV Low Heating Value

HHV High Heating Value

WBT Water boiling test

CSA Central Statistical Agency

EREDPC Ethiopian Rural Energy Development & Promotion Centre

ASTM American Standards of Testing Materials

ASAE American Society of Agricultural Engineers

ASABE American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 9

 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background

It is the part of a project proposal report that provides readers with the background
information for the project proposed. Its purpose is to establish a framework for the
proposal, so that readers can understand how it is related to other projects. This is a statement
of something sufficiently interesting to motivate your reader to read the rest of the proposal
report. The introduction should cite those who had the idea or ideas first, and should also
cite those who have done the most recent and relevant work. This reading could be outlined
in either a References Section or a Bibliography Section. You should then go on to explain
why more work is necessary (your work).

The introduction also should address the following points:

 Sufficient background information about the project proposed to allow the reader
understands the context and significance of the planned project.
 Explaining the nature and application of the planned project
 Explain the scope of the project work, what will and will not be included.
 Proper acknowledgement of the previous work on which you are going to build.
 All cited work should be directly relevant to the goals of the project proposal.

1.2. Problem Statement

Most projects, whether design or production of a prototype or both, must considered as a

response to a problem. A problem might be defined as the issue that exists in the literature,
theory, or practice that leads to a need for the study. The prospective researcher should think
on what caused the need to do the research (problem identification).

The problem statement describes the context for the study and it also identifies the general
analysis approach. Effective problem statements answer the question “Why does this
research/project need to be conducted.” If a researcher is unable to answer this question
clearly, then the statement of problem will come off ambiguous and diffuse. The most
frequent dilemma among students is their seemingly aimless project for a problem
significant enough to pursue and discrete enough to handle. A well-articulated statement of
problem establishes the foundation for everything to follow in the project. Formulate a
problem statement in your specific area of project.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 10

1.3. Objectives/Aim of the study/project

An objective may be thought of as either a way toward achieving a solution; an end state to
be achieved in relation to the problem. The objectives of a project work summarize what
will be achieved by the study. Objectives should be closely related to of the problem. After
statement of the primary objective, secondary objectives may be mentioned.

Objectives should be:

 simple (not complex),
 specific (not vague),
 stated in advance (not after the project work is done), and
 stated using “action verb” that are specific enough to be measured.

Commonly, project objectives are classified into General objective and Specific
objectives. The general and specific objectives are logically connected to each and the
specific objectives are commonly considered as smaller portions of the general objective. It
is important to ascertain that the general objective is closely related to the statement of the
problem.

1.3.1. General objective

General statements specifying the desired outcomes of the project. What exactly is going to
be studied? The general objective should be stated as a one paragraph.

E.g. The general of this project will be to ……….bla bla ….

1.3.2. Specific objectives

 Specific statements summarize the project proposal activities and including

description of the outcomes and their assessment in measurable terms. An effective
way to set objectives is to follow the well-known acronym SMART. A SMART
objective is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time scaled.
 It identifies in greater detail the specific aims of the project proposal work, often
breaking down what will be accomplished into the project, often breaking down what
will be accomplished into smaller logical components.
 Specific objectives should systematically address the various aspects of the problem
as defined under ‘Statement of the Problem’ and the key factors that are cause the
problem.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 11

They should specify what you will do in your project, where and for what purpose.

Why should project objectives be developed?

The formulation of objectives will help you to:

 Focus the project area (narrowing it down to essentials);

 Avoid the collection of data which are not strictly necessary for understanding and
solving the problem you have identified; and
 Organize the project proposal in clearly defined parts or phases.

The specific objectives for undergraduate project is maximum of two.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 12

 CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
A literature review is a description of the literature relevant to a particular field of topic. It
gives an overview of what has been said and done, what questions are being asked, and what
methods and methodologies are appropriate and useful. As such, it is not in itself primary
research, but rather it reports on other findings and topics related with your title.

NB: Here all idea related to the topic you working on should be included in their order of
significance. All data you have which is a relevant to the topic must be organized and
explained under this chapter.

The range of your reference may include the following media:

 books (text books, reference books);

 articles from journals, whether print or electronic
 newspaper
 historical records;
 commercial reports and statistical information;
 government reports and statistical information;
 theses and dissertations;
 other types of information which may be relevant to your topic

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 13

 CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
3.1. Description of the expected outcome and explanatory variables

The methods or procedures section is really the heart of the project proposal work. And it
is the main body of the project proposal work. You must decide exactly how you are going
to achieve your stated objectives: i.e., what data you need in order to address your problem
you have selected and how you are going to collect and process this data. The method is
used to achieve the objective of the project that will be accomplished in a perfect result.

The activities should be described with as much detail as possible, and the continuity
between them should be apparent. Indicate the methodological steps you will take to answer
every question, to test every hypothesis or address the objectives you set.

In methodology includes description of your materials, procedure, theory, calculations,

technique, the cost analysis the project (if necessary). It shows in detail the general project
plan. It also contains the following contents:

 Description of study design

 Methods of design process
 Tools (software’s) going to be used

3.2. Study design

The study type may dictate certain project designs. More commonly, the study objectives
can be achieved through a number of alternative designs. Students have to select the most
appropriate and most feasible design.

The type of research/project design chosen depends on:

 the type of problem;

 the knowledge already available about the problem; and
 the resources available for the study.

In the case of a theoretical project, the method of solution must be clearly explained. In the
case of an experimental investigation, the parameters for analysis must be clearly identified
and presented.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 14

 CHAPTER FOUR
BUDGET
A budget breakdown to conduct or execute the project will be prepared in detail for the
project. A detailed budget will help you to identify which resources are already locally
available and which additional resources may be required.
The process of budget design will encourage you to consider aspects of the work plan you
have not thought about before and will serve as a useful reminder of activities planned, as
your research gets underway. It is necessary to use the work plan as a starting point.
 Specify, for each activity in the work plan, what resources are required.
 Determine for each resource needed the unit cost and the total cost.
NB.
UNIT COST (e.g., per diem or cost of petrol per km), the MULTIPLYING FACTOR
(number of days), and TOTAL COST are required for all budget categories.
The budget for the fieldwork component of the work plan will include
 funds for personnel,
 transport and
 supplies
Example of Budget breakdown.
Multiplying Total
No. Budget Category Unit Cost Factor Cost
Daily Wage Number of
1 Personnel (Birr) staff days (Birr)
1.1 Salary for Assistant 150 2x6 1800
Salary and expenses for sub-contracted
1.2 professional data collectors 100 3x8 2400
1.3 Salary and expenses for researcher 171 1x88 15048
Total Personnel Expense 19248
2 Material and Supply Expenses
Supplies required throughout the research
2.1 like pen, paper, erasers, voice recorder etc. 2000 1x2000 2000
Total Material and Supply Expense 2000
3 Travel Expenses
Domestic travels required for interviewing
project managers of agricultural sectors at
3.1 regional and national level 125 1x22 2750
Total Travel Expense 2750
Publication/Documentation/
4 Dissemination

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 15

 Expenses required for documentation and
Dissemination such as printing, copying,
4.1 computer service etc. 600 1x600 600
Total
Publication/Documentation/Dissemination
Expense 600
5 Recreational Expenses
5.1 Break time expenses such as tea, coffee etc. 150 1x150 150
Total Recreational Expense 150
6 Other Expenses (Miscellaneous) 250 250 250
Total Miscellaneous Expense 250
Expense Grand Total 24998

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 CHAPTER FIVE
WORK PLAN
This section is about your time management when to start and finish your project. You have to specify exactly when you will start and finish the project.
The presentation date is probably planned a week before your graduation day or based on the Academic calendar of the year. It is prepared based on
Gantt Chart method and here example is provided. It is based on the semester calendar.
No. Activity

September
August
March
April

June
May

July

Wk. 1-4
Wk. 2
Wk. 3
Wk. 4

Wk. 2
Wk. 3
Wk. 4

Wk. 2
Wk. 3
Wk. 4

Wk. 2
Wk. 3
Wk. 4

Wk. 2
Wk. 3
Wk. 4
Wk. 4
Wk. 1

Wk. 1

Wk. 1

Wk. 1

Wk. 1
1 Preparing proposal research &
including comments re-
preparing new proposal
2 Securing finance for the thesis

3 Reviewing of literature
Conducting to collecting data ,
method, procedures
4 Develop and design mechanical
components
Selecting necessary hardware
and software
5 Modeling and simulation

6 Writing research report

7 Finding Result, conclusion and

Recommendation
8 Progressive and final
presentation
9 Including the given comments
Sand submitting the final paper
& publishing

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 18

References

All reference should be listed at the end of the document as quoted throughout the text; for
proper referencing, you can use the following format and should be consistent throughout.
Use font size 12 for all references. The title of the book, article, or paper should be in Italic
font style. References can be given in the following format.
Book
Author(s) (year of publication), “Book title”, Publisher, city, Country.
E.g: John A. Duffie, William A.Beckman (1980), “Solar Engineering of Thermal
Process”, Jhon wiley & Sons, New York, USA.
Article
Author(s), “Article Title”, Name of the Journal, Vol. #, No.#, year of published
E.g: A. Chaurey, T.C Kandpal (2010), “A techno economic comparison of rural
electrification based on Solar home systems and PV micro grids”; Energy Policy, vol.38,
issue 6; June 2010.
Personal communication
Name of person who provided the information quoted, the person’s employer (company,
organization) and position, form of communication, date(s) of communication.
E.g: Belachew Abebe (2012), Personal communication with Belachew Abebe,
Environmental Coordinator at Addis Ababa Environmental Protection Agency,
September 10, 2012.
Web page
Author(s) (year of publication), “Publication title and address” (i.e. book, journal, report or
conference title, relevant page numbers-as quoted), webpage URL (as applicable,
including date of issuing/modified as well as accessing the article on the web page).
E.g: George Yaw Obeng, Hans Dieter Evers (2009), “Solar PV rural electrification and
energy poverty”; available on,
http://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/17136/1/MPRApaper17136.pdf, posted on September
2009, viewed on April 2012.

N.B.
For reference, the citation type for engineering projects is VANCOUVER type, please refer
to the Technical Research writing course how to use Vancouver type of citation.
Appendixes

These should be sequentially numbered starting with Appendix 1. Pagination continues form
the main body of the document through the appendices. Appendix includes all that general
information taken from different resource like handbooks, CAD generated files, any
software results or programs or algorithm written.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 20

 GENERAL FORMAT AND CONTENT GUIDELINE
Paper
The entire report must be submitted on A4 size paper. Drawings often need larger size papers
but should be properly folded to A4 size and included in the appendix.
Printing
The report should be printed on one side of each page only. The print quality should be dark
and clear.
Margins
The margins of the pages shall be set to:
 Left margin 3.5 cm.
 Top, bottom and right margins 2 cm.
Justification
Right and left margins should be justified (giving a straight edge to the text on both sides).
Font size
Use a Times New Roman font, font size 12 for the main body of the document.
Headings and Legends
Section and subsection headings should be emboldened. Major Headings should be printed
in font size 14. Legends (these are the figure and table identifications) should be emboldened
and centered, but not enlarged.
HEADING 1 TIMES NEW ROMAN 14 BOLD All CAPITALS
Heading 2 Times New Roman 12 Bold Title Case
Heading 3 Times new roman 12 bold sentence case
Pagination (Page numbering)
The report must carry sequential pagination throughout, including appendices. The page
number should be on the bottom right margin of each page. The title page is counted in the
numbering, but bears no page number.
Page Breaks
Try to ensure that these occur in sensible places. There is no need to take a new page for
each main section heading but you should do so for new chapters. Never let a page break
separate the last line of a paragraph. Try to ensure that, if possible, enumerated lists (a, b, c,
etc) are not split across pages.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 21

Header
A header should be placed at the top of each page apart from the title page. In addition to the
page number, the document header should include the title of the project and calendar year
with bold and 14 points times new roman.
Paragraphs
These should be blocked (no indentation on the first line) and separated by a single blank
line (this blank line is double-spaced).
Citations
Care to acknowledge the work of others is of paramount importance. Use of work of others
without attribution is tantamount to stealing.
Where a sizeable chunk (around 30 words or more) is quoted from the work of another
author, the quotation should be blocked and indented 10mm from the left and right margin.
It should also be separated from the preceding and following text by a blank line. When
quoting direct from a source it is essential to provide a full reference, including page number,
so that readers can locate the passage if they so desire (Author, date, page number or a
unique number). This authors name would appear in the references. If the quotation omits
some material between the source’s start and end points, this is indicated by dots.
A further way to cite from another author’s work is to refer to it, but not quote from it. The
next sentence gives an example. According to Chan (1999) the use of formal methods has
little to offer.
Line Spacing
The text of the document should be 1.5 spaced.
Content Sectioning
Sections and subsections are used to organize the document into cohesive chunks for the
reader. Give them meaningful headings. Never subdivide beyond three levels e.g. 3.1.1.2 is
too much.
Below is an example of the numbering system:
1. Introduction
1.1 …
1.2 …
1.3 …
2. Literature Survey
2.1 …

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 22

 2.2 …
2.2.1
A. …
B. …
2.3 …
2.4 …
3. Force Analysis
4. …
.
.
.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 23

Tables and figures
These should each be sequentially (and separately) numbered throughout the document.
Tables should be left aligned and figures should be centered. Both should be labeled with
identification number and title. If necessary to fit the contents of a table on one page, 10-
point font size may be used; alternatively, the page may be printed in landscape mode.

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 24

Acronyms
When using an acronym for the first time, always precede it with the expanded version. In
case acronyms are used to avoid repetition of long technical terms,
e.g. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT).
Colloquialisms
These are chatty, idiomatic or slang expressions that are appropriate in informal conversion
but have no place in your report. A related point is that in academic and technical writing
the use of the first person ‘I’ is avoided as much as possible. In similar way, avoid referring
to the reader as ‘you’.
Grammar
Do be careful to write in full sentences and to proof read the document to ensure not only
that the text is grammatically sound, but also that it means exactly what is going to be
intended. So it should be written in a FUTURE TENSE

Jargon
Try to strike a good balance between use of jargon and appropriate use of technical terms.
There is no merit in using so much obscure terminology that the document is virtually
unreadable, but on the other hand, failure to use key words properly can lead to unnecessary
wordiness and tends to give an unprofessional impression. It is important to be consistent
in the use of terms, to define them if necessary and to use the same term for the same concept
throughout
Spelling
There should be no excuse for spelling mistakes in a word processed document. Spelling
errors create a bad impression. Always use a spell checker; they are invaluable for picking
up typographical errors as well as genuine spelling mistakes. Note, however, that spelling
checkers cannot detect cases where the wrong word happens to be a real word
e.g. from – form. So a careful proof read is necessary.
Equations
All equations must be properly written using Microsoft Equation Editor or other software.
Any equations and formulas from other reference should be rewritten with Microsoft
equation editor; it shouldn’t be presented as picture in the main body.

………………GOOD LUCK………………

MTU, Mechanical Engineering April 9, 2019 25

References

[1]. Mauch, Guide to Successful Thesis and Dissertation, 5th Edition, 2003.
[2]. Rahim, F. Abdul, Thesis Writing Manual for all Researchers, 2004
[3]. Alemayehu, E. Research Methodology Teaching Material, Jimma University, 2018.
[4]. Peter G. Miller, John Strang, Peter M. Miller Addiction Research Methods 2010
[5]. Catherine, D. Introduction to research methods a practical guide for anyone undertaking
a research project 2009

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