Writing tips
As a nonnative speaker of English, I should have been working on elaborating my writings seriously. Here I post some useful materials that helped me substantially.
Reading
- How to read a paper
http://www.albany.edu/spatial/WebsiteFiles/ResearchAdvices/how-to-read-a-paper.pdf
Writing
- Bugs in writing
I strongly recommended this book to other people who asked me about writing skills. This was a big help to me. I think, the best usage of this book is having a draft and reading 5 chapters everyday and correcting "bugs" in the draft (I found a lot when I did it for the first time). It has 150 chapters so it took me a month to complete the corrections but absolutely worth it.
http://www.amazon.com/BUGS-Writing-Revised-Edition-Debugging/dp/020137921X
- A theoretician's guide to the experimental analysis of algorithms
A friend of mine was reading this paper since it was one of the assigned papers for his qualifying exam. He enjoyed reading it although it was a part of the exam, so I decided to read it and really liked it.
http://plato.asu.edu/ftp/experguide.pdf
- How to write a great research paper
The lab watched this video in a group meeting. It was so helpful. I have a summary of the video (see below) but recommend watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmvWIy6l1Fg
(Shorter: https://youtu.be/ArSoUNmczIM)
1. Start writing earlier.
2. Identify your idea.
3. Tell a story.
- intro: 1 page
a. describe problem (specific example).
b. state your contributions. (use bullet points and give references)
c. skip "rest of this paper ..." part.
4. Nail your contribution.
5. Related work
- after idea development
- comparison
a. don't downplay others' works.
b. be generous
c. your method don't need to outperform others in all dimensions: just mention good points.
6. Put your readers first.
- convey intuition first (an example and a general case, like speaking to people with a white board).
- don't explain a "personal journey.": describe the direct route to my idea.
7. Listen to your reader.
- Heilmeier's catechism
I use this when I write the introduction of a paper and make the first several slides of a presentation.
(Credit: https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/heilmeier-catechism)
- What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
- How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
- What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
- Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make?
- What are the risks?
- How much will it cost?
- How long will it take? What are the mid-term and final “exams” to check for success?
- How to Write a Technical Paper
This is not a very nice one but helpful when I had no idea of technical writing few years ago.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.68.8133&rep=rep1&type=pdf
- My own tip
I try to choose a word carefully considering its nuance. I use thesaurus.com for this purpose. I used to replace the word by several synonyms and read the sentence. This takes some time, but if I do this for the introduction, the rest of paper probably won't need this again since words are repeated and I already know what to choose.
- Another tip
Once I choose a research topic, I used to make a folder as soon as possible to write a working document for the topic. In the beginning, the folder usually has almost nothing except one latex file, style files, and a bibtex file. The latex file also has nothing except my name and some templates for figures and tables. This might be nothing to someone else, but the existence of the folder motivates me a lot to work hard... kind of stimulating the desire to complete the paper.
Etc
- How to be a successful PhD student
I read this in the first semester of my PhD course. I was really impressed but able to follow only few of all the things listed in the paper. I feel like I have to read this again and actually should have read every semester. It's lengthy so recommend a quick perusal.
https://people.cs.umass.edu/~wallach/how_to_be_a_successful_phd_student.pdf
A summary of Mathematical Writing by Knuth et al.
http://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematical_writing.pdf
1. Symbols in different formulas must be separated by words (e.g., "where").
2. Don't start a sentence with a symbol.
3. Don't use the symbols like "\therefore", "\implies", "\forall", "\exists"; replace them by the corresponding words.
4. The statement just preceding a theorem, algorithm, etc., should be a complete sentence or should end with a colon.
5. The statement of a theorem should usually be self-contained.
6. The word "we" is often useful to avoid passive voice.
6'. This use of "we" should be used in contexts where it means "you and me together". Think of a dialog between author and reader.
7. There is a definite rhythm in sentences. Read what you have written, and change the wording if it does not flow smoothly.
8. Don't omit "that" when it helps the reader to parse the sentence.
8'. Avoid unnecessary padding "because of the fact that" unless you feel that the reader needs a moment to recuperate from a concentrated sequence of ideas.
9. Vary the sentence structure and the choice of words, to avoid monotony.
10. Don't use the style of homework papers, in which a sequence of formulas is merely listed.
11. Try to state things twice, in complementary ways, especially when giving a definition.
11'. All variables must be defined, at least informally , when they are first introduced.
12. Motivate the reader for what follows. Perhaps the most important principle of good writing is to keep the reader uppermost in mind.
12'. When describing the work of other people, it is sometimes safe to provide motivation by simply stating that it is "interesting" or "remarkable"; but it is best to let the results speak for themselves or to give reasons why the things seem interesting or remarkable.
12''. When describing your own work, be humble and don't use superlatives of praise.
13. Many readers will skim over formulas on their first reading of your exposition. Therefore, your sentences should flow smoothly when all but the simplest formulas are replaced by "blah".
14. Don't use the same notation for two different things. Use consistent notation for the same thing when it appears in several places.
15. Don't get carried away by subscripts, especially when dealing with a set that doesn't need to be indexed.
16. Display important formulas on a line by themselves.
17. Sentences should be readable from left to right without ambiguity.
18. Small numbers should be spelled out when used as adjectives, but not when used as names.
19. Capitalize names like Theorem 1, Lemma 2.
20. Some handy maxims (omitted; see the document)
21. Some words frequently misspelled by computer scientists (omitted; see the document)
22. Don't say "which" when "that" sounds better. The general rule nowadays is to use "which" only when it is preceded by a comma or by a proposition, or when it is used interrogatively.
23. Examples of wrong use of colons (omitted; see the document)
24. The opening paragraph should be your best paragraph, and its first sentence should be your best sentence.
25. Commas and periods should be placed inside of quotation marks, but other punctuation stay outside unless they are part of the quotation.
26. Resist the temptation to use long strings of nouns as adjectives.
26'. Don't use jargon unnecessarily.