Industrial Engineering
Report Assignment
Assignment:
Choose a topic from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Body of Knowledge (BoK) which can be found here:
• Product Design & Development – you can pick any subject that is related to this topic.
Main website: https://www.iise.org/Details.aspx?id=43631
There are 14 knowledge areas in the BoK. The webpage above includes links to the document for each knowledge area. These documents consists of a brief introduction, an outline of topics, and a bibliography. Your task is to learn about your chosen topic, on your own, and to synthesize the information into a written report.
Depending on your interest, you may choose a single topic or a group of related topics. For example, knowledge area 6 Ergonomics and Human Factors includes subsection 6.11:
6.11. Human Information Processing, Skill, and Performance
6.11.1. Information processing models
6.11.2. Cognitive systems
6.11.3. Problem solving

Your topic could be “Human Information Processing, Skill, and Performance”, for a report that will broad but not too deep. You might choose “Information processing models” if you wanted a focused report. You might choose “Cognitive systems” and “Problem solving” if you want to cover information from both these areas.

You may use any resources you can find to learn about your selected topic. These include text books, journal articles, webpages, speaking with other students, speaking with faculty, speaking with experts in the field, watching videos, etc.
Though you may use any resource to learn about your topic, the report itself must be your own original work.
Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism occurs when you take credit for someone else’s work as your own. The most egregious form of plagiarism is obviously wrong, for example if we found out that a well-known murder mystery author had stolen a manuscript from an amateur writer and publishing it under his own name, we would clearly agree that it was morally wrong. As a student, you are unlikely to encounter this form of plagiarism, but students often get caught committing lesser forms of plagiarism which are still wrong and unacceptable. So, how do you avoid plagiarism?
Always cite the source of your information.
If you repeat another author word for word, you must put quotation marks around the text and follow it with a citation.
Although word-for-word quotes, when properly cited, don’t count as plagiarism, if you have too many quotes your report will not be considered acceptable as a scholarly work. In other words, if you build your report by copying and pasting the words of others, your understanding of the topic will be put into question. As a general rule, you should only use quotes when there is a specific reason to repeat another author word for word. For example if there is a statement that is so technical and nuanced that it cannot really be stated any other way, then a quote is appropriate. Quotes are also appropriate when the intent is to show the contribution of the original author rather than to explain the material being quoted. In most other cases you should explain the concept in your own words and cite the author as the source of the information that you based your statement on.
Sometimes students do not fully understand what an author is saying and are reluctant to explain the information in their own words. In these cases, students will sometimes try to take a direct quote and re-arrange or swap out a few words, claiming that these minor edits make the statement their own. This is similar to taking a masterpiece oil painting, adding a few additional brush strokes, and calling the entire painting your own. If your contribution is trivial, then the statement is not in your own words, and it is still plagiarism.
When your write a technical document, the objective of most of your sentences will be to deliver information to the reader. If the information can be considered common knowledge, you do not need to cite a source. If the information is based on some sort of data or specialized knowledge it should be backup up by a citation. Here are some examples:
Traffic on Houston roads is a major issues for commuters. – This can be considered common knowledge and does not need a citation
The most dangerous locations on Houston roadways are intersections. – This may seem like a reasonable statement but you would need to cite a source. Ideally your source would be an author working from actual data. In this way your citation is an indication to your reader that the assertion you are making about Houston roadways is based on the research of the cited author and is not simply your own conjecture or speculation.
How do you know if something is common knowledge or if it requires a citation? As a general rule, if the information can be found in a textbook it can probably be considered common knowledge. That doesn’t mean you can copy word for word from the textbook, it just means that you probably don’t need to cite the textbook. It is not, however, wrong to cite a textbook, especially if the textbook is covering a more specialized topic.
Taking all of the above into consideration, the best strategy for writing your report and avoiding plagiarism is the following:
1) Explore various sources to get a feel for what you want to write about
2) Outline what you want to say
3) Identify assertions you want to use that will require a citation
4) For each assertion, look for source material (books, journal articles, websites, etc) that can back up your assertion with data or with the expert knowledge of the author.
5) On a piece of paper, or on your computer, make two columns. On the left write down your source and on the right notes about the key findings reported by the source.
6) Start writing your report.
7) When you get to the point where you need to make an assertion, look over you notes from step 4 and write a sentence based only on your notes. You can also get the source to site from your notes
8) Once you are done with the report, go back and double check each citation you made against the source material to make sure you didn’t misrepresent the source or accidently write wordfor-word the same thing the original author wrote.
The above strategy will ensure that you are “synthesizing” the knowledge that you have gained into an original work and will help you avoid potential plagiarism issues.
Citing Sources
There are two goals for citing sources. First, within the text of your report, you need a convenient way to tell the user that you are backing up your assertions by referring to the works of other authors. Second, you need a way to tell the reader how to find the other author’s work.
The first goal is satisfied by using “in-text citations.” The second goal is satisfied by including full references at the end of your report. An in-text citation is a short note that directs the reader to the correct reference at the end of the document. From the reference the reader can then track down the original source material to read for himself or herself. In this way all academic writing becomes part of an interconnected network of shared knowledge.
The way you create an in-text citation and a reference depends on the style guide. Common style guides used for academic writing in general include MLA, APA and CMS, and for science and engineering ACS and IEEE are also common.
In text citation usually take one of the following two forms:
• (author last name, year of publication), for example (Smith, 2007)
• A number reference either in brackets or superscript, for example [3] or 3.
Styles that use numbers for in-text citations make it easier for the reader to look up the corresponding reference, but it is a lot harder on the author to keep them organized. For student assignments, it is therefore much more common to use the (author last name, date) style and that is the style you will use for the report.
The references at the end of the report will usually include the following information: author’s name (or names), title of publication, date of publication, name of the publisher, volume and issue number for journal articles, and website address for webpages. Depending on the type of material being referenced and the style guide being used more or less information may need to be included. For style guides that use numeric in-text citations, each reference is numbered and listed in numeric order. For style guides that use (author’s name, date) the references are usually organized alphabetically by the first author’s name.
Below are some made up examples showing how references look:

Alphabetical order example:
Smith, John. 2007. “A Study of Examples Used in Various Courses to Illustrate Important Points.” The Journal of Exemplary Works. v 210. n 3.
Numeric order example:
3. Smith, John. 2007. “A Study of Examples Used in Various Courses to Illustrate Important Points.” The Journal of Exemplary Works. v 210. n 3.

The above information is intended to give you a general understanding of what an in-text citation looks like and what a reference looks like, but real-world source material comes in many forms and there are many considerations for proper formatting. Covering all possibilities is beyond the scope of this document. You will need to look up the appropriate style guide using the internet or resources provided by the library.
It is worth mentioning that there are free software applications and websites to help you manage and create in-text citations and references. Zotero is a popular freeware application. There is also a website version called Zoterobib (https://zbib.org/ ) which is useful for small projects such as this report. Zotero and Zoterobib are great resources if you are unsure how your chosen style guide requires you to format in-text citations and references.
For the report, you should use the APA style for your in-text citations and references. You must have at least on in-text citation for each reference.

Finding Source Material
The three main source materials you will draw from are academic journal articles, books, and websites. Journal articles and books are the best source materials because they are more permanent and they generally go through a review process before being published to ensure they are of higher quality. Websites can change over time and they don’t necessarily require any review, meaning the content may be of questionable legitimacy. With that said, websites can still be a good source of information and can be used as sources for your report.
Academic Journal Articles: These can be found by using Google Scholar or by using the search engine on the Library Website. You can also find journal articles by looking at the cited sources in a journal article (that’s the point of citing the sources after all!)
Books: These can be found using a general Google search, Google Scholar, the Library, or even by searching online bookstores such as Amazon. Each knowledge area in the BoK includes a bibliography listing books that may be of help.
Websites: These can obviously be found by doing a general Google search.

Report Requirements and Grading
Your report will be submitted as a Word document. You should have a header and a footer on every page except for the title page. In the footer include the page number. In the header include the title of the report.
Abstract:
The abstract should consists of about 4-8 sentences describing the report succinctly so that the reader can quickly find out what he or she will learn by reading it.

Body of the Report:
The body of the report will consist of the Introduction, a number of sections describing the key concepts, and a conclusion. The body of the report must be between 4 and 10 pages (including figures), written in double spaced 12 point Times New Roman or Arial font.
Introduction:
Explain what the topic of the report is.
Identify the key concepts that will be covered and explain how they relate to one another.
Concepts:
Each key concept should be given a section of the report titled with an appropriate description. The number of concepts and the length of each section will depend on your topic area and how broad or narrow your coverage of the topic will be. What specifically you will write will depend on the concepts you choose. Consider talking about why the concept is important, explaining non-obvious aspects, emphasize connections to other concepts, and providing examples.
Conclusion:
Please do not start your conclusion section by saying “In conclusion…” it gets very tedious to read again and again. If it helps you, start by writing it, then once you finish the sentence just delete that part off.
Identify the most important details from each concept section. Explain again how the concepts relate, but give more depth than you did in the introduction and focus on the important details you identified. Explain the importance of the topic with respect to the field of industrial engineering and/or the industries served.

References:
The references section is not counted as part of the body of the report. Each reference must have at least one corresponding in-text citation.
You must include at least 6 references and at least 3 of those must be from academic journal articles.
Use APA style for references and in-text citations.

Report Draft Version and Final Report Version
The rubric will be used for grading both the Draft Version and the Final Version. The grade for the Draft Version will be curved.

Report PowerPoint presentation – PowerPoint slides including, on the same topic that you have chosen for your written report. Report topics are based on the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Body of Knowledge (BoK) which can be found here: