HOW TO WRITE A GOOD PAPER

1. HOW TO WRITEA GOOD PAPER Jehan-François Pârisjparis@uh.edu

2. Introduction • You have interesting results • You have learned to write correct English • Now your adviser tells you it is time to write a paper • What should you do?

3. What I will tell you today • We will • Tell you how to present your results • Cover the basic parts of a scientific paper • Focus on what to say in each of them • Review a few basic rules to follow

4. How to present your results • Your results should be interesting • Improve upon the state of the art • In a significant manner • It is your job to explain that to the reader

5. Things to do • Present you results in the most positive way • Do not tell that the hit ratio of your cache went from 98 percent to 99 percent • Tell instead that the miss ratio of the cache was cut in half • Show how your approach differs from those of previous authors.

6. Things to avoid • Never make overstated claims • Never try to hide the weaknesses of your method • Never make unrealistic assumptions • If you absolutely need to make one, • Acknowledge it • Explain why it is necessary

7. Your future paper • Five parts • Abstract • Introduction • Review of previous work • Your own contribution • Conclusion Followed by a list of references

8. The abstract (I) • Not an introduction • A very brief summary of the results of the paper • Describe the problem • Sketch the approach • Present you best results

9. The abstract (II) • No need to explain why the results are important • Introduction is there for that! • Abstract must be self contained • No unexplained acronyms • No references! • Use very sparingly mathematical symbols

10. The introduction (I) • Should present the topic and the scope of your paper • Key objectives are • explaining what you will do (and not do) • making it sound interesting captatio benevolentiae = getting the goodwill of the reader

11. The introduction (II) • Main difficulty • Must describe the problem and your results in very general terms • Must simplify things without being inaccurate • Some authors end the introduction by a roadmap of the paper • Section II of this paper reviews …

12. The review of previous work • Mention previous work that is relevant to your paper • The key word is “mention” • You should not describe in any detail any previous work unless it is necessary for the understanding of your own work • Do not sweat it!

13. Your own contribution • Explain in a few lines its scope: • You will investigate an idea that you find interesting • You have a better idea that solves of the problems other proposals did not solve

14. Checklist (I) • Do not forget to mention the limitations of your approach • Markov models of disk arrays must assume that disk repair times follow an exponential distribution • Not true! • Necessary for having a tractable model

15. Checklist (II) • Be sure you present your results the best you can • Tables • Graphs • Do not forget to label the axes and the curves and to indicate the units

16. Checklist (III) • Use an equation editor for your equations • Avoid ax^2 + bx + c • All variables used in the text must be italicized • The number n of disks in the array

17. The conclusion • Should summarize the results of the paper • Overlaps with abstract • Often written in perfect tense • Research papers often include directions for future work • Many people read the conclusion first before deciding if the whole paper is worth their time • Make it informative

18. The list of references (I) • Normally appears as an unnumbered section • Very important part of paper • indication of good scholarship • Format obeys to strict conventions • another indication of good scholarship • Take it very seriously

19. The list of references (II) • Always cite papers describing “pioneering work” • First paper on broadcasting for video-on-demand was by Viswanathan and Imielinski • Must be cited even though much better techniques have been devised • In case of doubt, cite the papers that other people cite

20. Writing the paper (I) • Avoid the passive voice • BAD:Three different block sizes were selected for our experiments • BETTER:We selected three different block sizes for our experiments

21. Writing the paper (II) • Use short sentences • Uses figures whenever it helps • You can borrow figures as long as you acknowledge your source Figure 9. A page table (from [9]) where [9] is a reference to a paper you cite

22. Tables and figures (I) • Tables have titles that are above the table

23. Tables and figures (II) • Figures have captionsbelow them • Make your table titles and figure captions as self-explanatory as possible • Many readers will look at the tables and figures before reading the text

24. Other rules to follow (I) • Spell numbers at the beginning of a sentence • BAD:52 % of the observations … • BETTER:Fifty-two percent of the observations…

25. Other rules to follow (II) • AWFUL:3 different block sizes were selected … • BAD:Three different block sizes were selected … • BETTER:We selected three different block sizes …

26. Other rules to follow (III) • Spell out percent everywhere in your text • BAD:We observed a 20% increase • BETTER:We observed a 20 percent increase

27. Other rules to follow (IV) • It’s is not a possessive • BAD:It’s main disadvantage • BETTER:Its main disadvantage • It’s is a contracted form of “ it is” • Most good writers avoid these forms in scientific papers and reports: • you’re, can’t

28. A last word • Good writing is a craft • You must exercise it to become better at it • Good writing takestime and effort • Will become more enjoyable as you progress