Department of Civil Engineering

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT

(Winter 2007-08)

Guidelines for Preparation and Presentation of Seminar

1. OBJECTIVES
The objective of the seminar is to impart training to the students in collecting materials on a specific
topic from books, journals and other sources, compressing and organising them in a logical
sequence, and presenting the matter effectively both orally and as a technical report. The use of
slides, transparencies, overhead projector, slide projector, multimedia projector, etc., is also
introduced to the user during the seminar. The following points may be borne in mind regarding the
seminar preparation and presentation.
2. CHOOSING THE TOPIC
The seminar should be an in-depth study of a topic, which does not form a part of regular syllabus.
Choose a current topic of Structural Engineering/Offshore Structures which is relevant to our
country or region. Submit one page Abstract of the selected topic along with copies of minimum
two journal references and get the topic approved by one of the members of staff in charge of the
seminar. The Abstract should be concise and direct. It should clearly indicate the content that is
being presented in the report.
The full text can be prepared with all drawings, tables, references, etc. The contents should not be
a mere repetition of reference material. There shall be a minimum of two journal references of recent
time related to the topic. Presentation of topic based on mere website data is not allowed.
3. PREPARATION OF REPORT
The seminar report shall be in A4 size format with the following contents:
1. Cover page
2. Opening page (same as cover page)
3. Certificate in the standard form
4. Acknowledgments
5. Table of contents
6. List of figures and tables
7. Abstract
8. Body or text of report
9. References
10. Appendices
The cover and opening page shall be of font Times New Roman, regular, size 14 points except
Title, which is of font Times New Roman, bold, size 16 points and all caps. The cover page format
will be supplied to you by the faculty in charge of seminar.
Certificate shall be typed in one page in Times New Roman 12 point italics. Its format will also
be supplied by the faculty in charge.
Acknowledgements and abstract shall be typed in regular 12 point Times New Roman with 1.5
line spacing. The title should be in bold.
Abstract shall highlight the contents of the paper in about 300 words.

The seminar report shall be of 20 to 25 typed pages, excluding figures, monograms, tables, charts,
appendices, etc.
The text of the report shall contain Introduction, Body of the paper and Conclusions, arranged as
different chapters.
o The font style shall be Times New Roman consistently. This should be also followed for the text
that appears in figures and tables.
o The line spacing shall be 1.5 consistently.
o Paragraph alignment shall be left and right justified.
o 6 pt spacing shall be given after headings and paragraphs.
o 1 cm indentation shall be given at the beginning of each paragraph except the first paragraph of
any section/chapter.
o Headings should be numbered and aligned left. Font sizes and style should be as given below.
1

CHAPTER HEADINGS (0 LEVEL)

14pt, UPPER CASE, bold

1.1

Main Headings (First Level)

12pt, Title Case, bold

1.1.1

Second level headings

12 pt, Sentence Case, bold

1.1.1.1 Third level headings

12 pt, Sentence case, italics

Preparation of sketches should be done neatly with proper headings and details. Care should be
taken to see that SI units only are used in the illustrations.
Equations
All equations must be clearly set and numbered. Use equation editor as far as possible and set the
font size to 12 points (which is the default font size). When referring to the equations in the text,
preface the number with the word Eq. or Eqs and place the number within brackets. Thus, for
example, Eq. (1.1). Equations should be numbered as (1.1), (1.2), (1.3), etc. The first number
represents the chapter number. The numbers should appear at the extreme right end of the line. Do
not set them in bold or italics type. Ensure that subscripts and superscripts are clearly legible.
Tables
Tables must be set as part of the text. Smaller font sizes may be used to enable the table to fit the
space. All tables must have a caption. The caption should be kept above the table and centred. If the
caption runs into more than one line, keep it justified at both ends. Captions should be numbered
sequentially starting with number 1. Thus for example, Table 1.1: Input data. Leave 12 pt space
above and below tables. Large tables may be set in landscape, i.e. sideways on the page, reading up.
Illustrations, Figures, Diagrams, Maps, etc.
These should be neat and clear. They should be positioned centrally on the width of the page and
close to their text reference. They should not appear on the opening page (first page) and must fit
within the page text size. Try to avoid boxing text between two illustrations on a page as this can
sometimes make reading more difficult. Ensure that all spelling and annotations (numbers, letters,
symbols and captions) conform to their usage in the text.
Captions to figures, (diagrams and/or illustrations) should be set text size and centred below the
figure. If the caption is more than one line in length follow the alignment style as given in the table
captions above. All figures must be numbered sequentially starting with the number 1. Thus for
example, Figure 1.1: Velocity fields. Leave 12 points above and below each figure/illustration.

Photographs
If you decide to include photographs use prints which are clear, glossy, have good contrast. Paste
them at appropriate positions.
References
A list of references must be included with every report and placed at the end. It should include only
the work referred to in the text. The list of references should be compiled by arranging the authors
name alphabetically. Although books and journal articles are cited slightly differently, they shall be
placed in the same list of references.
The following sequence for citation of references, which is the one most normally used, is
recommended:
Books:
Author(s): Surname, then give initial(s)
Year of Publication
Title (italics)
Edition (if not the first)
Publisher
Place of Publication
An example, with correct punctuation:
Braid, I.C., 1974, Designing with Volumes, 2nd edn, Cantab Press, Cambridge, England.
Journal Articles:
Author(s): Surname, then initial(s)
Year of Publication
Title of Article (italics)
Title of Journal
Volume Number of Journal, then Number or Part (in any) in brackets
Starting and ending Page Numbers of Full Article
An example with correct punctuation:
Raibert, M.H., Brown, H.B. Jr. and Chepponis, M., 1984, Experiments in Balance with a 3D OneLegged Hopping Machine, Int. J. Robotics Research, 3 (2), 75-92.
If the author has published several works during the same year, it is conventional to add 'a', 'b', 'c',
etc. after the year.
CD-ROMs:
References to CD-ROMs should include the same information as references to printed
sources and have (CD-ROM) after the title. For example, see the one given below:
Martinelli, D. R., 1996, A Systematic Review of Busways. Journal of Transportation
Engineering (CD-ROM), Vol. 122, No. 3.
Websites:
References to websites should be avoided as much as possible as a reference seen on a
website one day may not exist on a later day. If provided, such a reference should include
corporate or personal authors, title of document, date of document (if available), web address
(complete URL), and date accessed by the author.
Stevens, R. C., Testimony before United States Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000
Technology Problem, Sep 10, 1998.
(http://www.senate.gov/~y2k/statements/091098stevens.html. Accessed Oct. 5, 1998.)

Footnotes
Footnotes may be used if found necessary.
Consistency of styles
Use British English only. Use the spelling and grammar checking tools and set language to English
(UK).
Be consistent in the use of punctuation, figures, capital letters and abbreviations, and more
importantly in nomenclature and symbols.
Seminars will not be held unless the final typed copy is ready. One copy of the seminar report
duly certified by the member of staff should be made available to the department.
In case the report is not up to the expected standard, the student will be asked to prepare the report
afresh and resubmit. This will result in loss of marks.
4. PRESENTATION
Use the overhead/multimedia projector for your presentation as it is an effective aid for good
communication. It helps one to organise the sequence of the material presented.
1.

Familiarise with the working of projector before the presentation. Check that the fonts for
equations/symbols are appearing properly.
2. The presentation shall be limited to 20 minutes. It will be followed by discussions, questions
and answers. There will be credit for the novelty of the topic, contents of the seminar, the
effectiveness of presentation, and the way questions and queries are answered.
3. Presentations should be prepared using presentation software such as MS PowerPoint. If
necessary use charts, drawings, etc.
4. Write only points on the slides (use telegraphic language instead of long sentences). The
slides should NOT be a copy of the text of ones seminar report. Ideally 6 to 8 lines only
shall be there on each slide.
5. Equations shall be given in the final form only. Derivations should be avoided on slides.
However, the derivations can be prepared as separate slides with links from the main
presentation so that the same can be used if need arises.
6. Use colours to make the slides attractive and to highlight the important points. However,
remember that the use of too many different colours can make the slides absurd.
7. Choose the letter sizes corresponding to the importance of the points. It is better to choose a
font which has a uniform width (for example, Arial)
8. Ensure that all the material presented on slides is legible when projected.
9. Reading of the written/typed material or from the slides is not acceptable.
10. Always remember that you are communicating with people and not to the projector or the
screen or the board. It means that eye contact shall not be lost at any time.
In the event that the presentation of the seminar is found unsatisfactory, the student shall be asked to
repeat the same.
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