Research methods and tools, Cheat Sheet of Research Methodology

Download Research methods and tools and more Cheat Sheet Research Methodology in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 5: Writing a Paper The Scope of a Paper What is the scope of a paper and why it is important? It is what you plan to write up in your paper. it is necessary to make choices about what to include, and thus it is necessary to identify what might be included.in this this stage your research has become focused on investigation of a small number of specific questions, and you have preliminary experimental or theoretical results that suggest what the core contribution of the work is going to be. What are the questions that you can ask yourself to define what you need or how to start? ▪ Which results are the most surprising? ▪ What is the one result that other researchers might adopt in their work? ▪ Does it make sense to explain the new algorithms first, followed by description of the previous algorithms in terms of how they differ from the new work? Or is the contribution of the new work more obvious if the old approaches are described first, to set the context? ▪ What assumptions or definitions need to be formalized before the main theorem can be presented? ▪ What is the key background work that has to be discussed? ▪ Who is the readership? For example, are you writing for specialists in your area, your examiners, or a general computer science audience? How to choose where the work might be published? There are many factors that should be considered when making this decision, such as relevance to your topic and how your work measures against the standard for that forum. In particular, the venue partly determines the scope of a paper. For example, is there a page limit? Are there specific conventions to be observed? Are the other papers in that venue primarily theoretical or experimental? What prior knowledge or background is a reader likely to have? Do the editors require that your code be available online? Telling a Story What is Telling a Story when you write a paper? A cornerstone of good writing is identifying what the reader needs to learn. A strong thesis or paper has a story-like flow, with a sequence of concepts building from a foundation of knowledge assumed to be common to all readers up to new ideas and results. How you can do that or What is the structures that you can follow to write a paper like telling a story? There are several common ways for structuring the body of a paper: ✓ Chain in which the results and the background on which they build dictate a logical order for presentation of the material. • First might come, say, a problem statement, then a review of previous solutions and their drawbacks, then the new solution, and finally a demonstration that the solution improves on its predecessors. ✓ Compression for fast external sorting, the demonstration is a series of graphs and tables based on experiments that compare the costs of sorting with and without compression. ✓ One option is to structure by Specificity, an approach that is particularly appropriate for results that can be divided into several stages. The material is first outlined in general terms, then the details are progressively filled in. ✓ Another structure is by Example, in which the idea or result is initially explained by, say, applying it to some typical problem. Then the idea can be explained more formally, in a framework the example has made concrete and familiar. ✓ A final alternative is to structure the body by Complexity. For example, a simple case can be given first, then a more complex case can be explained as an extension, thus avoiding the difficulty of explaining foundational concepts in a complex framework. Some other structures are inappropriate for a write-up. For example, the paper should not be a chronological list of experiments and results. The aim is to present the evidence needed to explain an argument, not to list the work undertaken. Organization What do you need to make your paper organize for your reader to understand or quick scan it? Scientific papers follow a standard structure that allows readers to quickly discover the main results, and then, if interested, to examine the supporting evidence. Many readers accept or reject conclusions based on a quick scan, not having time to read all the papers they see. ➢ Describe the work in the context of accepted scientific knowledge. ➢ State the idea that is being investigated, often as a theory or hypothesis. ➢ Explain what is new about the idea, what is being evaluated, or what contribution the paper is making. ➢ Justify the theory, by methods such as proof or experiment. Getting It Wrong Problems that make it certain that the paper will be rejected, and which in some cases are obvious to the referee in the first few moments of reading. 1. Irrelevance (I cannot figure out what this paper is about) There is a lack of connection to the literature on any particular topic, and thus no sense of what the author is trying to achieve. In some cases, the author has proposed an elegant solution, but it is not obvious what the problem is, in some papers there is no obvious research question, no statement of aims or goals, and no claimed contribution. 2. Inconsistency, Inadequacy, and Incompleteness (the experiments are inadequate- parts of the paper are missing) There may be an interesting method, but the experiments are trivial or uninformative, and fall far short of supporting the claims; often, in these cases, the problem is that the data set used is too artificial to allow any interesting conclusion to be drawn. Or a small data set may be used to support claims for applications at an entirely different scale. Or the data set may not be relevant to the problem at all. 3. Incomprehensibility The reader feels that the work cannot be of value. there seems to be a wide gap between what the writer wants to say and the actual words on the page. 4. Ugliness If something looks terrible, then the author doesn’t care about the content; and if the author doesn’t care, then the reader certainly shouldn’t. There are several common forms of this ugliness. One is in illustrations and tables: graphs that are badly designed or badly rendered, tables that are irregular or chaotic, diagrams in which the parts are unrelated. When absurdly sized headings or columns that overlap. Use bad fonts and colors. A more subtle form of ugliness is when a paper is dense with errors. These may be errors of fact, spelling errors, garbled citations, incomplete sentences, or any of a range of such things. They show that the author is indifferent to the work, and the reader will respond likewise. 5. Ignorance A way of persuading the reader that a paper is worthless, nothing is more certain than a display of ignorance. An example of this is when much of a paper is spent explaining an elementary concept that will be familiar to any likely reader and maybe even to undergraduates. While a few lines of review may be appropriate. Chapter 6: Good Style Economy ▪ Text should be taut. The length of a paper should reflect its content—it is admirable to use only as many words as are required. Every sentence should be necessary. Papers are not made more important by padding with long-winded sentences; they are made less readable. In the following example, the italicized text can be discarded without affecting the intent. ▪ Taut writing is a consequence of careful, frequent revision. Aim to delete superfluous words, simplify sentence structure, and establish a logical flow. That is, convey information without unnecessary dressing. ▪ If someone dislikes something you have written, remember that it is readers you need to please, not yourself. Again, it helps to set aside your ego. Tone Science writing should be objective and accurate. Many of the elements that give literature its strength nuance, ambiguity, metaphor, sensuality are inappropriate for technical work. In contrast to popular science writing, the primary objective is to inform, not entertain. On the other hand, use of awkward, convoluted language is perhaps the most common fault in scientific writing; a direct, uncomplicated style is appropriate. Aim for austerity, not pomposity. Simple writing follows from a few simple rules: • Have one idea per sentence or paragraph and one topic per section and have a straightforward, logical organization. • Use short words and short sentences with simple structure. • Keep paragraphs short. • Avoid buzzwords, clichés, slang and excess, in length or style. • Omit unnecessary material. • Be specific, not vague or abstract and break these rules if there is a good reason to do so. Examples ▪ Use an example whenever it adds clarification. A small example often means the difference between communication and confusion, particularly if the concept being illustrated is fundamental to understanding the paper. People learn by generalizing from concrete instances, and examples can give substance to abstract concepts. ▪ Each example should be an illustration of one concept; if you don’t know what an example is illustrating, change it. Examples can be blocks of text with a heading such as “Example 3.5” or detailed discussions of specific instances where a technique can be used, but often an informative example is just a few words. Motivation Many authors take considerable trouble over the structure of their papers but don’t make the structure obvious to the reader. Not only should the parts of a paper be ordered in a logical way, but this logic needs to be communicated. The introduction usually gives some indication of the organization of the paper, by outlining the results and their context, and may include a list of the parts of the paper. Link text together as a narrative each section should have a clear story to tell. The connection between one paragraph and the next should be obvious. This principle is sometimes expressed as: Tell the reader what you are going to say, then say it, and then tell the reader that you have said it. A common error is to include material such as definitions or theorems without indicating why the material is useful. Motivate the reader at each major step in the exposition: explain how a definition (theorem, lemma, whatever) is to be used, or why it is interesting, or how it fits into the overall plan. Balance Within a paper, each topic should be discussed to a similar depth. An algorithm that is only sketched does not merit twenty graphs and tables; an algorithm that is described in detail needs a substantial analysis or other justification. The length of a paper is a consequence of how much material is included and of how much detail is given, that is, the depth to which each topic is discussed. When a paper must be kept within a length limit, some compromise is required. Some of the discussion must be omitted, or the graphs selected more carefully, or the text condensed. Voice Avoid excessive use of indirect statements (passive voice), particularly descriptions of actions that don’t indicate who or what performs them. The direct style (active voice) is often less stilted and easier to read. Another unpleasant indirect style is the artificial use of verbs like “perform” or “utilize”, perhaps in the false belief that such writing is more precise or scientific. These words can often be removed. Change of voice sometimes changes meaning and often changes emphasis. If passive voice is necessary, use it. Complete absence of active voice is unpleasant, but that does not mean that all use of passive voice is poor. Chapter 8 Fonts and Formatting Question: What are the key principles for choosing and using fonts and visual elements in mathematical or computing documents to ensure readability and professionalism? 1. Limit the Number of Fonts: Use three to four fonts at most (plain, italic, bold, and optionally fixed-width for code) to avoid a messy appearance. 2. Sparingly Use Emphasis: Use bold and italic fonts sparingly, as overuse can be distracting. Avoid underlining for emphasis as it is considered obsolete. 3. Choose Readable Fonts: Standard fonts like Times-Roman and Cambria are recommended for text. Avoid fonts like Helvetica and Courier as they are harder to read, and sans-serif fonts like Calibri may not seem serious enough for formal documents. 4. Avoid Visual Clutter: Eliminate unnecessary graphic devices, excessive punctuation, and overuse of emphasis to maintain a clean and professional look. 5. Consistent Paragraph Indication: Choose either indentation or blank lines to indicate new paragraphs, but not both Question What are the guidelines for using stops (periods) in sentences, abbreviations, acronyms, and headings? 1. Ending Sentences: Stops are used to end sentences. 2. Abbreviations and Acronyms: Stops are used in abbreviations and acronyms. 3. Ellipses: Stops are used in ellipses to indicate omitted text or a trailing off thought. 4. Headings: It is not usual to put a stop at the end of a heading. For example, a heading should be written as "3. Neural Nets for Image Classification" without a period at the end. 1. Examples of Usage: • Abbreviations at Sentence End: "The process required less than a second (except when the machine was heavily loaded, the network was saturated, etc.)." • No Extra Stop Needed: "The process required less than a second (unless, for example, the machine was heavily loaded or the network was saturated)." Question: What are the primary uses of commas, and how can incorrect usage affect the meaning of a sentence? Answer: The primary uses of commas are as follows: 1. Mark Pauses: helping to clarify meaning and improve readability. 2. Correct Parsing: Commas help to correctly parse sentences 3. Form Lists: Commas are used to separate items in a list. 4. Parenthetical Remarks: Commas indicate that a phrase is a parenthetical remark. Question: What are the rules for using apostrophes in singular possessives, plural possessives, pronoun possessives, and contractions, and what common mistakes should be avoided? Answer: The rules for using apostrophes are as follows: 1. Singular Possessives: • Add an apostrophe and "s" to form singular possessives. • Examples: "the student’s algorithm," "Brandt’s book," "Su and Ling’s method." • For names ending in "s," you can optionally omit the "s" after the apostrophe. • Examples: "Williams’s book" or "Williams' book." 2. Plural Possessives: • Add only an apostrophe to form plural possessives. • Examples: "students’ passwords," "teachers’ lounge." 3. Pronoun Possessives: • Pronoun possessives do not require an apostrophe. • Examples: "its speed," "hers," "theirs." 4. Contractions: • Use an apostrophe to indicate omitted letters in contractions. • Examples: "it’s" (it is), "can’t" (cannot). • Note: Contractions should be avoided in technical writing. Question: What are the guidelines for using hyphens in compound words, overriding right associativity, and line-breaking in word processing, and what are the different types of dash symbols used in writing? Answer: The guidelines for using hyphens and dash symbols are as follows: 1. Compound Words: 2. Overriding Right Associativity 3. Rewriting for Clarity 4. Hyphenation in Word Processing 5. Different Dash Symbols Question: What are the guidelines for capitalization in writing, particularly in technical writing, and what are the best practices for consistency in capitalization? Answer: The guidelines for capitalization in writing, especially in technical writing, are as follows: 1. Proper Names: • Only proper names are capitalized. Even common-use names should be in lowercase. • Example: "the extensible hashing method" should be in lowercase. 2. Inconsistent Capitalization: • Names of programming languages and some other terms can have inconsistent capitalization. • Acronyms that cannot be sounded out (e.g., "APL") should always be capitalized. • Proper names and programming languages should always have an initial capital letter. • Examples: "FORTRAN," "Prolog" (correct); "lisp," "pascal" (incorrect). 3. Technical Writing: • Capitalize names like "Theorem 3.1," "Figure 4," and "Section 11."