Download Tips for Writing Technical Papers and more Study notes Technical English in PDF only on Docsity! About Writing Technical Papers: DR. DANIYAL MUNIR Main Sections in A Scientific Paper e Introduction (Why?) e Methods (How?) e Results (What?) e Discussion (So what?) Results e What is the one major finding? e Are enough of the data presented? © To help readers judge how the experiment turned out? e Do you make use of figures and tables to clearly? e Do you see patterns or trends in the data? © that should be emphasized? o Are there problems that are not addressed? e What is the significance of the results? Discussion e Can you make convincing conclusions? e Are these conclusions appropriately careful? e Are there other factors that could have influenced? e Future work? oO What further experiments would you think of? © To continue the research or o To answer remaining questions? e Do you clearly state your contribution of the paper? Writing Style e Write below the readers’ reading level. o The avg. person in the US reads at a 5th grade level (11 years of age). © The avg. professional reads at 12th grade level (18 years of age). e Keep paragraphs short and sweet. © Keep sentences shorter and sweeter. o This means "concise," not cryptic. e White space is not wasted space — it improves clarity. o Ablank line only adds a byte to the article length, so x Don't be stingy if it will help make your meaning clearer. Pay Attention to Every Detail e Format. e Grammar. e Avoid klear errores; Format e General You need a space wow o after comma ",", Wow © a space before and after "=", and © two spaces after period ".". e Avoid obvious grammatical mistakes. oOFor example, “analyses” is noun, not verb. olts verb is “analyzes.” e Period or comma at the end of Eq? Count Them Right! e Some words are not countable oO research oO work e “Future Researches” is not English e Do not use the word "work" in plural. o "Research works" is not a correct term. The Word “Useful" Is Not Useful e Choose word with concrete meaning for precise expression. e Aword with too general meaning becomes meaningless. e You should provide a concrete word to say how "useful" is it. o “XML is useful in the Web.” — “XML is innovative in the Web.” — “XML is popular in the Web.” — “XML is powerful in the Web.” Words and Sentences e Don't repeat words. o Change them to their synonyms. oO MS Word gives you a good tool for that. e Make shorter sentences when possible. © The longer the sentences you make, =x the more ambiguous they may sound. Words and Sentences e “And” should connect sentences of the same tense. Bad: “Our solution is based on network models in [1] and we proposed a new approach for authentication.” Right: “Our solution is based on network models in [1]. We proposed a new approach for authentication.” Better: “Based on network models in [1], we proposed a new approach for authentication.” About Reference e Put reference in O either appearance order or 0 alphabetical order (according to the first author's last name). e Include your own related papers. e No reference citation in abstract and conclusion. About Reference - 2 e Consistent reference format, including x authors, x paper title, = proceedings names, = issue number, x volume, = places, x dates, =x page numbers. o In a consistent sequence, oO With right fonts and punctuations. Guides to good practice e N. J. Higham, Handbook of writing for the mathematical sciences. SIAM. e R. Barrass, Scientists must write. Science paperbacks. e Let LaTeX do the work of formatting (most of the time) — you concentrate on the content e Good bibliography is part of good scholarship e Put every paper that you read into your bibliography e Keep careful bibliographic details of papers read and get them right
