This guide follows one proposal from a blank page to the copy you hand your supervisor, in InkScribe. The example is “Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Hostel Allocation System for the University of Benin”, a Computer Science system proposal. Every screenshot is from that proposal, so you can see what each step gives you.

Before you start

You will get a much better first draft if you have these ready. None of them has to be final.

A working title. It can change later; InkScribe updates the title page when it does.
The problem in a sentence or two. For the example: allocation is done by hand, students queue at the Student Affairs office, and records are duplicated.
How you plan to do it. Your tools, where your requirements will come from, and the development model.
Anything your supervisor has already said. Here, the supervisor wanted a use case diagram and a context diagram in Chapter Three.

If your topic isn’t settled yet, read How to write a project proposal that gets approved first. It explains what each chapter has to prove.

Set up the proposal

From your dashboard, start a new report. Setup has four short steps, and the title page on the right updates as you type.

Topic. Choose Project proposal, not Project report, and type your working title. The title page now reads “A project proposal submitted to…”.

The first step of a new report: Project proposal selected, the hostel allocation title typed, and the proposal title page previewed on the right — Choose “Project proposal” and type your working title.

Details. Your name, matric number, institution, department, faculty and supervisor. Type your school’s name or abbreviation and its crest is added to the title page.

Type “UNIBEN” and the crest is found for you. Leave anything you don’t know yet blank.

Format. Pick the type of study, which InkScribe suggests from your title. A system project is Software / system. Then set your citation style, how recent your sources should be, and the target length. Most proposals are about 4,000 words with around 15 references; use your department’s numbers if they differ.

The format step with Software / system selected, APA 7th, sources from the last 10 years, 1.5 line spacing, about 4,000 words and about 15 references — The type of study decides the chapters you get. A system project gets system analysis and design, not a questionnaire.

Brief. This is the most important step. Tell InkScribe what you told yourself in Before you start. The chips under the box remind you what a system project needs: the problems with the existing system, users and their roles, modules, language and framework, database tables, the development model and your supervisor’s instructions.

The brief step with a paragraph describing the UNIBEN hostel system, its users, Laravel, MySQL and Bootstrap, and chips for problems, users, modules, framework, database tables, development model and supervisor’s instructions — Everything in the brief guides every section InkScribe writes. You can add diagrams or documents here too.

The brief for the example said: replace the manual, queue-based process at Student Affairs; students apply online and bed spaces are allocated by level, gender and payment status; the hall warden manages rooms; built with Laravel, MySQL and Bootstrap; requirements from interviews with Student Affairs staff and a survey of 50 students; waterfall model; the supervisor wants use case and context diagrams. Click Create proposal.

Check the outline

Your proposal opens with the title page done and an outline planned for your topic: Chapter One (Introduction), Chapter Two (Literature Review) and Chapter Three (here, System Analysis and Design), ending with a work plan and an estimated budget. A Proposal label sits beside the title.

The new proposal in the editor: the title page with the UNIBEN crest, the planned outline on the left with a Proposal approved? card, and InkScribe on the right offering Autopilot, Tailor outline, Chapter One, Literature review and Methodology — The outline is planned from your title and brief. Chapter Two already has sections on hostel allocation and online payment.

Read the section titles before you write anything. If your department uses different headings, rename them in the text or ask InkScribe: “Rename 3.3 to Description of the Existing System.” Adding or removing a section now is easier than after it’s written.

Write Chapter One

Hover the CHAPTER ONE heading and click ✦ Write with InkScribe, or click Chapter One in the InkScribe panel. InkScribe finds sources first, then writes every section of the chapter in order, in the future tense, because the study hasn’t been carried out yet.

Chapter One written: the background to the study with a citation, the outline showing word counts for sections 1.1 to 1.7, and InkScribe’s summary listing things to check and two suggested sections for Chapter Three — One request writes the whole chapter. Read the notes at the end: they tell you what to check.

When it’s done, InkScribe tells you what to check. In the example it pointed out that the scope says fees won’t be collected by the system, and asked the student to change that if their system does take payments. It also suggested adding a Context Diagram section, since the supervisor had asked for one, and a Database Design section. Suggestions like these are never applied without you.

Now read the objectives and research questions closely. Your supervisor will.

Section 1.3 Aim and Objectives: an aim and four specific objectives, from examining the existing process to implementing and evaluating the system, followed by 1.4 Research Questions — Each objective starts with an action you can show was done: examine, design, provide, implement and evaluate.

Chapter Two with real sources

Write each Chapter Two section the same way. InkScribe searches for published papers on that section’s topic, checks each one against publication records, and cites only papers it could verify. Every source it uses goes into Sources, with how often it’s cited and whether its DOI was verified.

Section 2.7 Review of Existing Hostel Allocation Systems, citing studies from Babcock University and Bayero University Kano, with the Sources panel listing five verified papers and InkScribe’s search returning eight verified papers — The review of existing systems compares real studies and ends with the gap your project fills.

Open each source and read at least its abstract. You will be asked about them at your defence, and you should only cite what supports your point. To add a paper you already have, use Add by DOI / title in Sources.

Add your diagrams

Click where the diagram should go, such as 3.8 System Modelling, then choose Insert → Diagram. Describe it in plain words: the actors and what each one does. For the example:

“Use case diagram for the hostel allocation system. Actors: Student, Hall Warden, Student Affairs Officer. Student: register and log in, apply for a bed space, view allocation status, print allocation slip. Hall Warden: manage rooms and bed spaces, confirm check-in. Student Affairs Officer: set allocation criteria, run allocation, verify payment status, generate reports. Run allocation includes verify payment status.”

The diagram editor showing the use case diagram it drew: Student and Hall Warden actors outside the Hostel Allocation System boundary, use cases such as Apply for bed space and Run allocation, an include link to Verify payment status, and the caption Use case diagram of the proposed hostel allocation system — Every shape can be moved and edited. Add a caption and click Insert; it’s numbered as a figure.

InkScribe draws it and tells you anything it decided for you, so you can change it. Ask for changes in the same box, or drag and edit the shapes yourself. Context diagrams, data flow diagrams, flowcharts and ER diagrams work the same way.

Work plan and budget

Ask for these as tables, and say what should be in them:

“Write the Work Plan as a short paragraph and a table of activities by week over one semester (about 14 weeks): requirements gathering, analysis and design, implementation, testing, documentation and submission.”

Section 3.10 Work Plan with Table 3.1 listing five activities, their durations and timeline from Weeks 1–2 to Weeks 12–14 — The work plan comes back as a numbered table, Table 3.1, and appears in your List of Tables.

For the budget, InkScribe sets out the items and leaves the prices for you, because only you know what hosting, data and printing will cost you:

Table 3.2 Estimated budget of the study, with items for web hosting, domain name, internet data, transport, printing and binding, and miscellaneous, and blank placeholders for quantities and costs; InkScribe’s note asks the student to supply the prices — Prices are left as [₦] for you to fill in. Give InkScribe your figures and it totals the column.

Check that it agrees

The most common reason a proposal comes back is that its parts don’t match: an objective with no method, or a research question nothing will answer. Before you send it, ask:

“Before I send this to my supervisor: do my objectives, research questions and the methods in Chapter Three match each other? List any that don’t, in a short table. Don’t change the report.”

InkScribe’s answer as a table: each mismatch, where it is, and what to do, such as objective iii naming hostel administrators while the use case diagram has a Student Affairs Officer, and objective i having no method yet because 3.2 and 3.3 are empty — A table of what doesn’t line up, where, and how to fix it. Nothing in your report is changed.

In the example it found that objective iii said “hostel administrators” while the use case diagram had a Student Affairs Officer, and that objective i had no method yet because 3.2 and 3.3 were still empty. Fix each one, then ask again.

Send it to your supervisor

Choose File → Download chapters to make a Word file of exactly the parts you want reviewed. The references list keeps only the sources cited in the parts you choose, and the table of contents, list of tables and list of figures are made for you.

The Download chapters dialog with the title page, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, Chapters 1 to 3 with word counts, and References with 5 sources cited all ticked — Pick the parts and download a Word file with the formatting done.

For the final copy, use Export for Word or PDF. When your supervisor’s comments come back, tell InkScribe what they said, in your own words: “My supervisor said 1.2 needs local statistics and 3.2 should justify the waterfall model.”

After approval

You don’t start again. Click Proposal approved? Start the full project from it at the top of the outline.

The Start the full project dialog: your 3 chapters carried over with every citation, figure and table, the remaining chapters and front matter added, and InkScribe ready to move the text from future to past tense — A new report is made from your proposal. The proposal itself stays as it was.

Your three chapters come across with their citations, diagrams and tables, and the rest of the project is planned around them. For a system project that means chapters on implementation and testing, and the summary and conclusion.

The full project made from the proposal, at Chapter Four Implementation and Testing, with sections for the Laravel, PHP and MySQL setup, the student registration, hostel application and automatic allocation modules, and the hall warden room management module — Chapter Four is planned from the modules in your proposal, ready for you to build and write up.

Once the system is built, ask InkScribe to move Chapter Three from the future to the past tense and update anything that changed while you built it. Then carry on with How to use InkScribe, and run the Plagiarism & AI check before you submit.

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