Introduction

Formatting is important.  It makes documents more legible and helps direct the reader to more easily find the information they want, through consistency of styling and predictable flow.

Styles and Stylesheets

Styles are a way to define the formatting of documents once, without having to alter fonts everywhere.  Using styles makes writing reports easier, because they can also be used to autogenerate tables of contents.  Though styles may be a new or foreign concept, they are an industry standard that you should become familiar with.  Please learn more about their use if you are unsure using the resources listed above. 

Please begin by defining the following styles in your document:

Normal Text (also called “Paragraph” text or “Body” text)

• Font: Use a 12 point font such as Arial or Times New Roman. Do not use difficult-to-read scripted fonts or Courier for body text. Maintain consistent fonts throughout the report.
• Spacing: Use single spaced lines.  Add 8pt spacing before and after each paragraph

Headings

• Fonts: “Heading 1’ should be larger than “Heading 2”, and so on.  Heading text should generally be larger than body text.  Headings should be emphasized through the use of Larger Sizes, bold, and/or italics.  Please do not get “creative” in selecting different fonts, this is a technical report.
• Spacing: Headings should have extra spacing above them(12-16pt) to separate them from the section above, and less space below them (0-6pt), to associate them with the text that follows.

Other Styles

Please use the other styles available to you in google docs as needed, including “Title” and “Subtitle”.

Page Formatting Requirements

• Utilize “letter” page size, primarily in portrait mode
• 1” margins
• Add the title of your report along with concise team information to the header.
• Add page numbers to the bottom.
• Include a table of contents