Links and Suggestions

Writing our first papers is not an easy task, if not challenging. It is also not easier for native speakers as technical writing has its own "rules" and norms. My experiences below may be useful for you (fresh PhD students, capstone/Master students writing your thesis/report, etc):

Abstract: Draw the big picture, then state the problem, followed with what you do, how you do it, and what you observe. The abstract should be self-contained. To attract/maintain readers' interest, you should be enthusiastic/proud of what you do/write/report (if you are not, who else? :) ).

Introduction: Detail the big picture and the problem/missing gap in the literature. Is addressing it challenging or trivial (if trivial then not much for us to claim our contributions, right?)? Detail what you do and how you do it. Link what you do with what have been done in the literature to position your contributions. State your contributions in dot points.

A paragraph: start it with a head/lead sentence then use all other sentences of the paragraph to support/clarify with more detailed/specific information

• References: In technical writing, most statements are logic ones that need to be supported with evidence or published works. For that, if the information in the statement is not obvious, relevant references should be provided. Make sure that references that you use are selective (in fact, references also say a lot about the quality of the work and authors)

• Use short sentences: Avoid long sentences if you can. Make it short and simple and sharp

• Not verbose but concise (again: keep it short, simple, and specific)

• Be specific: reporting and supporting your results/conclusions with numbers (e.g., instead of saying the results are better/worse than xyz, say: 15%, 3 times, 10% less/more than....)

• Avoid vague words: For example, instead of saying "the performance is ...", say what you really mean by "the performance", e.g., the BER, the throughput, the energy,...Also avoid ambiguous words like several, some, about

• Mathematical notations: Avoid any unnecessary confusion (e.g., using m and M for two different concepts that have no connection); avoid double subscripts. Make sure all notations are properly defined

• Be neutral when reporting the results: Just report what you observe and refrain from self-praising the results

• Color norms: Use blue/green/black for what to be on the positive/good side and red/orange for the opposite

• Legends and labels: Make sure their font size is large enough. Use markers to ensure curves can be distinguishable in B/W

Conclusion: Make sure to use the past tense (where you report what have been done, what you did, and the lesson/insights learned)

Revision: Revise it as many times as possible and seek help from your co-authors, supervisors/advisors.

Practice: Read and Read and Read and Read. The more you read (good papers/readings) the better your writing will be.

Good papers/Good readings: There are usually a vast number of papers on one topic or problem. We don't have enough time to read them all. Even worse, reading and learning from mediocre ones not only wastes our time but likely also makes us learn "bad" habits/problems (e.g., writing, reasoning, etc). So be selective and picky in our reading. A good supervisor/advisor can tell you if you should read this or that.   

Với các bạn sinh viên Việt Nam: Mình nên cố gắng tư duy, nghĩ bằng tiếng Anh chứ không nên nghĩ bằng tiếng Việt rồi sau đó cố gắng dịch sang tiếng Anh khi viết. Tập tư duy bằng tiếng Anh bằng cách đọc nhiều bài báo tốt và cố gắng hiểu mà không cần phải dịch nghĩa trong đầu sang tiếng Việt. Tập nghĩ bằng tiếng Anh trong đầu và đọc thật nhiều bài báo tốt không chỉ giúp chúng ta viết tốt hơn mà còn giúp chúng ta trao đổi và giao tiếp tốt hơn.

More useful notes:

http://conferences.sigcomm.org/co-next/2006/files/pres/10tipsforwritingapaper.pdf  (by Jim Kurose, University of Massachusetts)

http://newslab.ece.ohio-state.edu/for%20students/resources/tenrules.pdf (TEN SIMPLE RULES FOR MATHEMATICAL WRITING by Dimitri Bertsekas)  

https://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/hitch4.html “So long, and thanks for the Ph.D.!”   

Like writing technical papers, preparing slides for technical talks/presentations is also not easy. Below are some suggestions:

• About 1 minute per slide: For a student, maintaining the rate of 1 minute per slide is quite reasonable. So if you have 20 minutes for your talk, don't have more than 18 slides

• Font size: The minimum should be 16 (some prefer at least 20) so that it is reasonably visible to audience

• Color selection: Note that the colors that you view on your slides are often not authentically shown by the projector. So be aware of this while selecting the colors for your text and figures (e.g., don't use yellow text on a white background,...)

• Don't be too colorful: Limiting to 5 different colors in one slide if you can

• Articles (a/the) can be omitted to save space

• Minimize text and use more plots/figures: With limited time, don't expect that the audience can understand the details in your work. If you can show the problem and then "sell" your ideas and make them read your work after the talk, you are successful with your presentation. For that, try to use illustration, figures, plots for these purposes, instead of dwelling on equations/mathematical notations. 

• Remember to summarize: Conclude the talk with key points that you want audience to remember (the take home messages)

More useful notes:

https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~pueschel/teaching/guides/guide-presentations.pdf