A gentle introduction to writing research papers

1. A gentle introduction to writing research papers …but drawing heavily on slides from Chris Power Alistair Edwards

2. Objectives • To give a brief introduction to scientific writing in general • To help you prepare for the specific writing task for the assessment of this module

3. Exercise and assessment • Exercise • Now to Monday, Week 8 (18 November) • Small groups • Write a literature review on one of 4 topics • Assessment • Week 7 Spring Term to Week 1 Summer • Individual • Write a literature review on a topic of your choice, related to one or more ADVT classes

4. Why do we publish? ‘Publish or perish’

5. Organizing your research (paper)

6. Organizing your research (paper) • Choosing a topic • Choosing your audience • What is your hypothesis? • What is your story? • Doing your literature review • Finding your evidence

7. Choosing a topic • One key to success is – What are you going to research? • …but in the context of this assessment • Your group must choose one of the given topics • 1. Formal methods in HCI • 2. Designing for trust • 3. Motivations of people in crowdsourcing • 4. Effects of font size and line spacing of text on webpages - what should we be recommending to web developers use to make the web easiest for people to read?

8. Choosing a topic • One key to success is – What are you going to research? • …but in the context of the later assessment • must be related to one or more of the classes • must have a significant literature • must be of the right size • must require no original research

9. Choosing your audience • For the formative exercise think of your colleagues • on the HCIT programme • but have not read as much as you

10. Choosing your audience • For the assessment think of the second marker • is an HCI expert • but has not been to the classes

11. What is your hypothesis? • A hypothesis is a proposition • Your objective is to prove – or falsify – that hypothesis • (QUAN)

12. Example hypotheses • Animation makes web advertising more effective • Fast-tempo music increases game players’ sense of immersion • Perceived ease-of-use is positively related to flow experience of playing of an on-line game • Data entry by older users is easier when the pocket computer has a keyboard, albeit a small one

13. The null hypothesis • The negation of the hypothesis • Seek to prove it • Fail and you have proved the hypothesis e.g. Perceived ease-of-use is not positively related to flow experience of playing an on-line game

14. Even a review paper should have a hypothesis • Find a point to argue • and do so with reference to the literature

15. What is your story? • Every paper has a story • Finding it can be hard • but once you are clear you can write a clearer paper • ‘No tale is so good that it can’t be spoiled in the telling’ (Proverb)

16. Example stories • ‘This is my hypothesis and here is the evidence to prove or disprove it’ • A history • Selling • an idea • a product • Teach • start from what the reader knows • and lead them to new knowledge

17. Doing your literature review • There is always a literature review • Your assessment paper will be mostly a literature review

18. Doing your literature review

19. Doing your literature review • Look for those references that have titles and keywords that seem to match the problem you are solving • If available, read the abstract • Collect papers – either digital or go to *gasp* the library! • Do this early because if you need to see a paper and we don’t have it in the University you can order through inter-library loans (ILL)

20. Doing your literature survey • Read the abstract, introduction and conclusions • If they are well written these will tell you what the paper is about and whether it is useful • Discard those that are not useful – may want to keep a file of interesting things to look at for another time • Keep those that are applicable and read methods and results

21. Doing your literature survey • Read the abstract, introduction and conclusions • These will also be most important in the paper you write • and are often poor

22. Doing your literature review • Make notes as you go along • Organize the papers cleverly – use good tools to store and organize papers • Desktop – Bibtex, Endnote, RefMan • Cloud – Mendeley, Citeulike • Do not keep them in a word document or other basic file type – you will drown • With the above tools you can then generate bibliographies for your own paper in whatever format you want

23. What’s your story?

24. Structuring your paper • You then have to communicate all of the above to your reader • Build constructs of language – sentence to paragraph, paragraphs to sections, sections to papers • All constructs of our paper will have the same structure: • Introduction – orienting the reader • Contribution – the point of the construct • Conclusion – sending the reader off

25. Structuring your paper • Introduction • Contribution • Generally • Method • Results • Discussion • Conclusion

26. Structuring your paper • Introduction • Contribution • For the assessment mainly discussion • Conclusion

27. Abstract • Abstract: • State the contribution you are making • State the motivation as to why it is interesting • State the methodology you followed • State the results • State the conclusions • You get about 1-2 sentences for each of these • The abstract will keep people reading your paper • Extended abstracts – short paper – you get 1 or 2 paragraphs for each of these

28. Abstract • Abstract: • State the contribution you are making • State the motivation as to why it is interesting • State the methodology you followed • State the results • State the conclusions • You get about 1-2 sentences for each of these • The abstract will keep people reading your paper • Extended abstracts – short paper – you get 1 or 2 paragraphs for each of these

29. Abstract • The abstract and paper should be capable of being read independently • Don’t assume that the reader reading one of them has read the other

30. Introduction • Introduce the topic • ‘This paper is about…’ very early on • ‘No one reads the second paragraph’ • Journalists’ dogma • Introduce the background • Introduce the paper

31. Literature review • In this section you will convince the reader that what you are doing is new and interesting • Hit on major themes within the research community • Look for problem areas such as common disagreements or ‘dogma’ that is in the field so that you reference them clearly • This is particularly important in your assessment • You have not simply read the literature, you have analysed it critically • Discussion section?

32. Conclusions Simple rule • Introduce nothing new in the conclusions • It is a distillation of what has gone before

33. Conclusions State – or re-iterate – succinctly: • The contribution you have made • The motivation as to why it is interesting to your audience and how it applies to them • The methodology you already described • The key results • What the findings mean to the field and how it is original and important

34. Sources of information • ZobelWriting for Computer Science http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Computer-Science-Justin-Zobel/dp/1852338024 • Strunk and White - Elements of Style • For the specifics of constructions etc (if you are not confident) - Fowler’s Modern English Usage • Mander K. (1994) Writing for Humans http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/tutorials/writingforhumans.html

35. Sources of information • How to Write a Great Research Paper • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3dkRsTqdDA • Video (34:25) by Simon Peyton Jones • Thimbleby, H (2008) Write now!, (in) Cairns. P & Cox, A. (eds.) Research Methods for Human-Computer Interaction, Cambridge University press, pp.196-211 • Read literature critically for style - re-read papers, chapters that you found easy to read

36. Exercise • Instructions • Groups of 2 – 3 • Consult your tutor

37. Exercise • Instructions • Groups of 2 – 3 • My group • April, Richard • Sophia, Tracey • Hanieh, Leonardo • Yingzhu, Anqi

38. Formative exercise topics • 1. Formal methods in HCI • 2. Designing for trust • 3. Motivations of people in crowdsourcing • 4. Effects of font size and line spacing of text on webpages - what should we be recommending to web developers use to make the web easiest for people to read?

39. 1. Formal methods in HCI Harrison, M., Campos, J. C. & Loer, (2008) Formal analysis of interactive systems: opportunities and weaknesses. (in) P. Cairns & A. L. Cox (Eds), Research Methods for Human-Computer Interaction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 88-111.

40. 2. Designing for trust Shneiderman, B. (2000) Designing trust into online experiences, Communications of the ACM, 43 (12) pp.57-59.

41. 3. Motivations of people in crowdsourcing Nov, O. (2007). What motivates Wikipedians? Communications of the ACM, 50(11), 60-64.

42. 4. Effects of font size and line spacing of text on webpages - what should we be recommending to web developers use to make the web easiest for people to read? Ling, J. and van Schaik, P. (2007). The influence of line spacing and text alignment on visual search of web pages. Displays, 28(2), 60-67.