Writing
for CS and CE
Research Paper
CSCE 481
Fall 2016
Dr. Scott Schaefer
Acknowledgment – Prof. John Keyser & Aakash Tyagi
Specific Writing
• We will discuss some specifics for writing research
papers.
• This is commonly done in graduate school.
– Material developed for graduate students
– But, many principles carry forward to other writing
• Other topics:
– Proposals
– Technical documents (E.g. Algorithm description)
– Executive summaries
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Sections of a Research Paper
•
•
•
•
Title (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
Abstract
Introduction (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
Previous Work (Executive Summary, Proposal)
– Possibly including background information
• Main Work (ideas/theory/exposition) (Algorithm Description)
– Possibly in several sections
• Implementation
– If needed
• Results
– Possibly combined into main work section
• Conclusion (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
– With future work
• Acknowledgements
• References (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
• Appendices
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Title
• Don’t underestimate title importance
• Memorable titles can help people remember the
paper
• The title will be used for searching, later
• Remove unnecessary words
• Watch for misleading words
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Introduction
• Motivation and Summary
• By the end of the introduction, someone should be
able to tell someone else what you did, and why.
– But probably not give any details about how
• Keep the introduction short, relative to the rest of the
paper.
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Motivation
• Early on in the paper, you must make the case for why
you are doing this
• This should not be too long
– If you have to spend too long to say why someone should
read the paper, then there’s probably not a good reason
– The motivation is not why you are writing the paper, it’s just
there to get people to read it
• Sometimes this is more important than other times –
sometimes motivation is obvious
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Summarizing Main Results
• You want to make it clear what the main results of
your paper are.
– Don’t “hide” them or make them a “surprise” at the end
– Remember, most people will not read your full paper – you
still want them to know the main results
• Should always be in the abstract
• Should be in the introduction of the paper
– Main Results, Contributions, Thesis Statement
• Can be in the conclusion
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A “Main Results” Section
• Could be a subsection, a paragraph, a bulleted list, or
a sentence
• Should be easy to find/locate
• Should make clear what is the new, unique
contribution of this work
– It is not a summary of everything you’ve done, or even a
summary of the paper
– Just list the key point(s) that are new to your work.
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The Thesis Statment
• A short statement that summarizes what the focus of
the paper is
• Can help to focus your writing, presentation, and
research
• The goal of the paper is to show why the thesis
statement is important and true (or false…)
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Previous Work Section
• Provide references to relevant material
– What are the key papers that someone should read to
understand this?
– What are the most relevant related papers/alternatives?
• Demonstrate that you are familiar with the main
research in the area
– Ensure you cite all the relevant work
• Especially the papers of those who will read yours…
– Can’t cite everything; cite the most important things
– Usually, citations to textbooks aren’t needed
• Unless that textbook provides a unique derivation, a particular
summary, etc.
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Previous Work Section
• If necessary provide background summary of prior
work
– For example, if you are building on your own prior work
– Make sure that prior work is separated from new work
• You want to clearly delineate what is new vs. what is old.
• When giving citations to previous work, it is good to
show how your work fits in with that prior work.
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The New Work
• This is the main, core part of your paper
• It should be the part that you are most confident in,
and have the most to say about
• It is important that you are clear and accurate.
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Things to Look Out For
• You are not just presenting a list of what you did.
– Every piece of research has lots of “infrastructure” work that
goes on behind it – you don’t need to go into this, unless it
is critical
– You don’t need to discuss “dead end paths” that you
pursued
• One exception is if it is very likely someone else would follow that
dead end path
– You research is evaluated on results, not process.
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Things to Look Out For
• You want to develop your material clearly
– Usually, someone will read this section in order
– Don’t pull ideas/material from nowhere
– Make sure that information is presented in a logical order
– Think of it as telling a (technical) story:
• Keep the story moving
• Don’t refer to things that the reader has no knowledge of
• Make sure the reader understands what has happened!
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Things to Look Out For
• Avoid tangential topics
– Make the section about the main results,
not the interesting “side” items
– Use appendices if necessary
• Make sure there is a clear overview
– Avoid going directly into details
if the person doesn’t have the overall picture
– Often, overview sections or figures are helpful
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Results
• You want to demonstrate all of the core ideas that
you discussed in practice
– If you discussed something, show the results
• Idea is to show that what you presented works, and
give some sense of how well it works
• Pick good test cases, that cover a range of situations
– Ones that allow comparison
– Ones that allow evaluation of parts of your technique
– Ones that simulate “real world” cases
• You need to provide comparisons to other work,
whenever possible
– This lets people evaluate your work
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Conclusion
• Now that we have seen the work in the paper, what
can we conclude?
– What has been the “contribution” of this work?
– What insights does this work offer?
– What does this now allow us to do?
• Conclusion should not be just a summary of what was
in the paper – that is obvious.
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Future Work
• Usually part of the conclusion
• Not always included, but a good idea if possible
• People want to know that the paper is not a “dead
end”
– What more could be done? If I like this area, what could I
work on next?
– Is this likely to stimulate future work?
• Can be a “defense” against reviewers.
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Future Work
• Avoid using “throwaway” future work
– In computer science, you can always say you want to
improve performance, port to a new system, or integrate
with something else.
– Better to have one or two solid areas for future work than
10 that aren’t developed.
• Don’t just state areas, give some indication of the
challenges/opportunities
– Why will that be worthwhile?
– What are some obstacles that will be faced in that
extension?
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General Comments on Research
Paper Writing
Shorter is Better
• Don’t use many words when fewer will do
Worse: The function utilizes a looping
structure to iterate over the list while
analyzing whether or not one element is
larger than the next.
Better: The function checks if the list is
sorted.
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Avoid Indefinite Pronouns
• Don’t use unqualified pronouns…
particularly “it” and “this”
Worse: The source code produced an error
due to the input. Therefore, it was rewritten.
Better: The source code produced an error
due to the input. Therefore, the input was
re-written.
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Active Voice
• Avoid passive voice
Worse: The source code was a mess. So the
code was rewritten.
Better: The source code was a mess. So
John rewrote the code.
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Audience
• Make sure you are writing to the appropriate
audience
• Usually, this is to other researchers in the field
– Not to novices – they will know the basics of the field
– Not necessarily to just the foremost experts in the area –
they will not be familiar with every bit of prior work
– Not to experts in all areas – they may not be familiar with
simpler concepts from other fields
• Some papers (e.g. literature reviews) are for more
general, less expert, audiences
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Audience
• Give them the background they need to understand
the paper
– Particularly if you rely on another technique; don’t make
them read other papers before they can read yours
– Not always possible – sometimes there is too much to do
• Notation might not be standardized
– Explain the notation as needed
– The concepts might already be known
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Overstating/Understating
• Do not oversell your work
– Do not promise more than you deliver
– Do not try to make your work have more impact than it
reasonably does
• You probably have a higher opinion of your work than
others do or ever will.
• Readers are annoyed if they spend their time reading
your article, only to find it didn’t do what was
promised.
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Overstating/Understating
• Do not undersell your work
– Don’t put in so many disclaimers that you discourage
someone from reading/following it
– Point out problems, especially key ones, but:
• Your goal is not to point out every conceivable flaw
• If necessary, point out why problems might not be so bad
• You are writing the paper because you have
something new to present, that others should find
valuable.
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Overcoming Objections
• Those reading the paper will often have
questions/objections.
• You want to answer/address these in the paper
• This is key to getting the paper accepted through
review, but also for getting the paper accepted after
publication
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Overcoming Objections
• Think: “If I were a reviewer, what would I have
questions about?”
– Find a way to address those directly
– If they are technical concerns and you have not addressed
them in the work, show that you’ve thought about them
• What examples should be included?
• What tests should be provided?
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Figures and Captions
• People will usually look at figures before they read
the text
• You want the figures to stand on their own as much
as possible
• Be sure that your captions clearly describe what is in
the figure. Do not rely on the text to describe the
figure.
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Comparisons to Prior Work
• Always a tricky proposition
– Your goal in the paper is to show how good your work is.
You have spent a great deal of time on your own approach.
– You must be fair to prior work, but you probably can’t
devote as much effort to replicating it.
• If standardized comparisons can be made, use them
• If you implement another method for comparison, be
sure to do your best with it
– If not, be sure to clearly state what you did not do, and why.
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Comparisons to Prior Work
• It is not OK to just present your material and assume
it should be accepted
– That does not show any new contribution over the state of
the art
– Exception: if it is truly the first time someone has
accomplished something
• If you cannot provide comparisons, at least provide
concise, clear arguments that evaluate your method
vs. other methods.
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Feedback
• If possible, get someone else to read your work
– They should be willing to give direct, honest feedback
– Take their evaluations to heart
• When reviewers reply with objections, don’t blame
the reviewer
– If the reviewer didn’t understand it, it’s probably your fault
– Make sure that you address their concerns
• Sometimes it is only a style/writing issue!
• Sometimes they have found more fundamental flaws
– Even these can sometimes be addressed by writing differently.
– There are (very rare) exceptions where reviewers are way
off
• Always be polite and respectful in your responses, anyway
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Sections of a Research Paper
•
•
•
•
Title (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
Abstract
Introduction (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
Previous Work (Executive Summary, Proposal)
– Possibly including background information
• Main Work (ideas/theory/exposition) (Algorithm Description)
– Possibly in several sections
• Implementation
– If needed
• Results
– Possibly combined into main work section
• Conclusion (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
– With future work
• Acknowledgements
• References (Executive Summary, Proposal, Algorithm Description)
• Appendices
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Textbook Guidance
• Chapters 5 – 8, for general technical writing
Chapter
Executive
Summary
Algorithm
Description
Proposal
Chapter 2
Getting Started (Research Planning)
Chapter 3
Reading and Reviewing
(Literature Review)
Chapter 4
Hypothesis, Questions, & Evidence
Chapter 10
Algorithms
Chapter 11
Graphs, Figures, & Tables
• There may still be overlap, but this will be a good guide.
CSCE 481 – Fall2016