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Memorandum Written Content

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There is not a length requirement for the memo, however the report needs to cover everything

listed below. Also, the report needs to be written in third person and past tense. Points will be

deducted if first person and present/future tense is used.

Please do not copy word for word from the example memo!! It is only there to provide some

guidance and sentence structuring. This lab needs to be signed and turned into me before the start

of class. Labs turned in after 6:30 will have a 10% deduction automatically. The online

submission needs to be completed before the start of class as well. I realized now that some of

you may not be able to figure out what D10 is because the percent retained in the pan may be

above 10 %. In this case this information does not need to be reported and can be reported on the

next lab.

Paragraph 1

Include information such as:

- Date the lab took place

- ASTM Standard/name of lab

- always give a visual classification of what the soil appeared to be for every lab (ie. type of soil

and color, I will later discuss other ways to classify a soil further)

- discuss the objective of the lab

Paragraph 2

Discuss how the lab procedure was performed (past tense)

Paragraph 3

Discuss the attachments, figures, and tables in the report.

Paragraph 4

Discuss your findings from the lab and answer the questions on the last page of the handout.

Lastly, provide a way for me to contact you if I have any question. Then sign the paper and put

your name at the bottom as in the example memo. Also put a message at the very bottom of the

page or in the footnote that showcases what is in the attachments (same as in the example

memo).

Tables

Tables need to be aligned to the left. Above the table, there needs to be text that displays the

table number along with a brief description about what is in the table. This text should also be

aligned to the left and the line spacing between the table and text need to be zero. The units must

be shown in the table (see example below).

Table 1: Sieve opening and percent finer results.

Sieve opening (mm) Percent finer (%)

4.75 100

2.36 92

1.18 81

0.6 70

0.3 59

0.15 47

0.075 25

Figures

Figures need to be in the center of the page. Below the figure, there needs to be text that displays

the table number along with a brief description about what is in the figure (ie. Perent finer versus

sieve opening). This text should be centered under the figure and the line spacing between the

figure and text need to be zero. Include axis titles and for this lab make the x-axis into

logarithmic scale and values in reverse order. The units need to be displayed in the figure (see

example below). Your figures should be similar to the example for this lab.

Figure 1: Percent finer versus sieve opening.

Attachments

Place the attachments in the same format as shown in the example memo.

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0.010.1110

P e

rc e

n t

F in

e r

(% )

Sieve opening (mm)