\documentclass[%
  slidesonly,%  this only prints the slides.
  %notes,%      both notes and slides.
  %notesonly,%  only notes %uncomment
  %article,%    for a printout of whole talk in a nice format do
         ,%    not use with portrait.
  %semlayer,%    needed for overlays and color
  %semcolor,%    needed for overlays and color
  %portrait,   this is needed for printing non-landscape files
         ]{seminar} 
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{fancybox}

\slidesmag{4}  %how much to blow up the slide.
\articlemag{1} %how much to blow up in article option

\slideframe{Oval} \slidestyle{bottom} \pagestyle{empty}
\renewcommand{\slidelabel}{\small \theslide\vspace{-10pt}}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%Warning:
%DO NOT use a font size bigger than large.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%PRINTING ISSUES
\renewcommand{\printlandscape}{\special{landscape}}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%Printing slides.
%\portraitonly
\landscapeonly
%printing is a pain.  To print landscape slides uncomment the above
%line and the slidesonly option.
%To print portrait slides uncomment \portraitonly and
%portrait option.  {slide} is landscape {slide*} is portrait. Notes go
%between the slides.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%\notslides{\ref{questions}-7,1}   %Try me: The slides are omitted.
%\onlyslides{1}  %Try me: Only these slides are included.
%\onlynotestoo                     %Try me: For selecting notes as well.
%use these items for printing only certain slides.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%other issuses
\newcommand{\sref}[1]{Slide \ref{#1}}
%Overlays works with semlayer and semcolor but there
%are printing problems-- as same above.  semcolor calles PSTricks
%which is not comparability with latex2e.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%Advice:  use landscape or portrait but not both.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\title{\Large\bf The Formal Technical Report}

\author{Jan Verschelde \\  %2mm with \slidesmag{5}
 % Department of Math, Stat \& CS \vspace{-0.5mm}\\
 % University of Illinois at Chicago \vspace{-0.5mm}\\
 % Chicago, IL 60607-7045 \vspace{-0.5mm}\\
  {\em e-mail:} jan@math.uic.edu\vspace{-0.5mm}\\
             www.math.uic.edu/\~{}jan
 }
\date{MCS 494 Special Topics in Computer Science: \\
      Industrial Math \& Computation, Fall 2002. \\
 \ \\
Adapted from Chapter 15 of ``{\em Industrial Mathematics.} \\
 {\em Modeling in Industry, Science, and Government}'' \\
      by Craig Gunn and Charles R. MacCluer.}

\newcommand{\heading}[1]{\begin{center}\shadowbox{\large\bf
      #1}\end{center}}
\newcommand{\subheading}[1]{\begin{center}\shadowbox{
      #1}\end{center}}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{document}

%\maketitle          % This won't show up when \onlynotestoo is in effect.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
  \ifslidesonly              % Title slide only for slidesonly selection.
  \maketitle
    %\addtocounter{slide}{-1}
  \slidepagestyle{empty} \fi
\end{slide}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{Outline of Talk}
\begin{enumerate}
   \item The Elements of a Technical Report
   \item Detailed Structure of a Technical Report
   \item Approaching Writing Task, Style Issues
   \item Technical Aspects of Writing
\end{enumerate}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{1. The Elements of a Technical Report}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Title and Abstract
   \item Table of Contents and Nomenclature
   \item Introduction and Analysis
   \item Experimental Equipment and Procedure
   \item Results and Discussion
   \item Conclusions, References, and Appendices
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{2.1 Title of the Technical Report}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Consists of seven to eight well-chosen words.
   \item Goal is to give clear understanding of the content.
\end{itemize}
\heading{2.2 Abstract (Summary)}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Should not be written until all other parts completed.
   \item Only one or two paragraphs (250-300 words).
   \item Stated in simple declarative sentences.
   \item It {\em must} stand alone from the report.
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{2.3 Table of Contents}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Lists each section heading along with page in report.
   \item Does not include Table of Contents and Abstract.
   \item Followed by a list of illustrations and a list of tables.
\end{itemize}
\heading{2.4 Nomenclature}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Alphabetic list of all symbols used (first Latin, then Greek).
   \item Separate list for extensively used acronyms and abbreviations.
   \item Acronyms and abbreviations must be spelled out at their 
         first appearance, e.g., fast Fourier transform (FFT).
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{2.5 Introduction encourages to read on}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Describes motivation: why is your work important?
   \item Provides background: what is the context of your work?
   \item Ends by describing what follows in the sections.
\end{itemize}
\heading{2.6 Analysis = underlying mathematical basis}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Derivation from well-known basic relationships to the
         specific formulas used to handle and interpret the data.
   \item Quote readily available results from the literature.
   \item Be self-contained, reader should not consult other sources.
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{2.7 Experimental Equipment and Procedure}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Schematic overview of the experimental equipment,
         \newline description of algorithms and software used.
   \item Open to peer review: experiments can be reproduced
         by someone familiar with the general area.
   \item Poor quality of tables and pictures may destroy report!
   \item Every table and picture must have clear caption,
         \newline i.e.: legend for column headers and coordinate axes.
   \item Never include tables or pictures not mentioned in the text.
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{2.8 Results}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Present answers obtained from experiments, referring to tables
         and pictures, inform about the analysis of the data.
   \item Assume some readers will jump immediately to results section.
\end{itemize}
\heading{2.9 Discussion}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Summarizes results, separating the new from the ``as expected''.
   \item Compares with similar investigations, pointing out strong points
         and the limitations of our work.
   \item Provides interpretation of the results, progressing logically,
         starting with what is know first, and then what is new second.
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{2.10 Conclusions}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Concise statements of your results and discussion.
   \item Clean synthesis without further explanation.
\end{itemize}
\heading{2.11 References}
\begin{itemize}
   \item[{[1]}] W. Strunk and E.B. White.  {\em The Elements of Style}.
        Fourth Edition.  Longman Publishers, 2000.
\end{itemize}
\heading{2.12 Appendices}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Side issues or (output of) lengthy calculation, for example:
         print out of Maple worksheet or MATLAB output.
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{3. Approaching a Writing Task, Style Issues}
\begin{itemize}
   \item Who will read what you are writing?
   \item Multiple authors: pass text around and discuss your changes
         to arrive at a neutral, uniform narrative flow.
   \item Technical writing is direct, concise, and clear.
   \item Read, revise, read, revise, read, revise...
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{slide}
\heading{4. Technical Aspects of Writing}
\begin{itemize}
   \item The typesetting environment:
         \begin{itemize}
            \item Microsoft products are germane in business and industry.
            \item \LaTeX\ is standard for mathematical typesetting.
            \item Know how to include graphical results in your documents.
         \end{itemize}
   \item Writing by hand versus typing on computer:
         \begin{itemize}
            \item By hand: focus on ideas and content.
            \item On computer: fast itemizing, attention for layout.
            \item In any case, use of spelling checker is mandatory!
         \end{itemize}
\end{itemize}
\end{slide}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\end{slides}
\end{document}