Cleveland State University ESC 720 Research Communications Lecture 7 – Writing Structure and Style Dan Simon

Cleveland State UniversityESC 720

Research Communications

Lecture 7 – Writing Structure and StyleDan Simon

Writing Structure and Style

1. Paper Structure2. Paper Title and Authorship3. Abstract4. Paragraphs5. Writing Style

– Contractions, Voice, Tense, Connectors, Lists, Repetition, and Formatting

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1. Paper Structure• Abstract (100–200 words, often with a different font)• Introduction: First numbered section

Background of paper Related work Overview of paper

• Sections Subsections

Paragraphs• Conclusion: Last numbered section

Summary Future work

• Acknowledgments (un-numbered section, or footnote on first page)

• References: Un-numbered section• Appendices

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1. Paper Structure

Some Elements of a Good Introduction• Is the subject of the report clearly defined?• Why is the subject important?• Who are the important researchers?• What are their motivations for studying the subject?• What are the important definitions in the subject?• What is the basic history of the subject?• Does the first paragraph catch my interest?• Does the introduction motivate me to keep reading?

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1. Paper Structure

Sections• At the start of each section, give an overview of the material

in that section. This is similar to the paper outline in the introduction.“In this section we discuss … Section 3.1 shows that … Section 3.2 derives … Section 3.2 provides simulation results …”

• At the end of each section, summarize.“We have shown that … Furthermore, we have seen that …”Note that this is an exception to the rule of using a consistent tense.

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1. Paper Structure

Some Elements of a Good Conclusion• Has the report been summarized well?• Is there adequate discussion of future work?

– Discussion of future work is the only new material that should be in the conclusion

• Is the ending graceful?• Do not refer back to figures, tables, or

equations in the conclusion

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2. Paper Title and Authorship

• Paper titles should be specific but not too long• Titles should not contain acronyms unless they

are generally known• A Real-Time Markov Analysis of BBO with a

Comparison to GAs and Application to Flux Capacitor Design in Time Machines

• Markov Analysis of Biogeography-Based Optimization: Application to Time Machines

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• Avoid meaningless words – i.e., be specificReal-world performance evaluation of a newly proposed novel optimization algorithmAn immigration refusal approach for biogeography-based optimization with application to motor controlA newly developed intelligent control algorithm for real world applications

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2. Paper Title and AuthorshipThe IEEE affirms that authorship credit must be reserved for individuals who have met each of the following conditions: (1) made a significant intellectual contribution to the theoretical development, system or experimental design, prototype development, and/or the analysis and interpretation of data associated with the work contained in the manuscript, (2) contributed to drafting the article or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content, and (3) approved the final version of the manuscript, including references.IEEE Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual

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• Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be mentioned in an un-numbered acknowledgments section which appears just before the un-numbered references section.

• Financial support can be mentioned in the acknowledgments section, or in an un-numbered footnote on the first page.

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… blah blah blah … and this concludes our work.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NSF grant 9A453 in the Engineering Directorate. The authors gratefully acknowledge Albert Einstein for help with the relativity equations. The anonymous reviewers were instrumental in correcting the misuse of semicolons in the original version of this paper.

References

[1] A. Einstein, “On the Theory of Brownian Motion,” Annalen der Physik, 19, 371–381, 1906.

...

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3. Abstract• The abstract must be self-contained.• Define acronyms that are used in the abstract.• The abstract must not contain references. • It is acceptable, although not common, to identify work by

author. For example, "Our flux capacitor design is based on the work of Dr. Emmett Brown and Prof. Marty McFly."

• Avoid saying "in this paper" in the abstract, unless you’re writing in the third person.

• Avoid general motivation and background in the abstract. • Highlight the problem and main results. • Remember that the abstract may be the only part of your

paper that anyone reads!14

3. Abstract

Sample Abstract: BBO is a population-based EA [1] that is based on the mathematics of biogeography. This paper presents a Markov analysis of BBO. The reason we do this is because general conclusions cannot be drawn from simulation results, so it is important to obtain analytical results about the behavior of BBO.

Problems: Undefined acronymsReferencesUse of the phrase “This paper”Too much motivation

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3. AbstractBetter abstract:Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a population-based evolutionary algorithm (EA) that is based on the mathematics of biogeography. We present a Markov analysis of BBO. Our analysis provides the probability of each population distribution for a given problem. Analytical comparisons on various types of simple problems (unimodal, multimodal, and deceptive) show that with low mutation rates, BBO outperforms other EAs.

Corrections: Acronyms are definedThe reference has been removedThe phrase “This paper” has been removedDiscussion about motivation has been

removedResults have been summarized 16




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4. Paragraphs

• A paragraph should contain around 100 words– Shorter than 30 words is too choppy– Longer than 200 words is cumbersome, hard to read– Vary the length of your sentences and paragraphs

• A paragraph must never have just one sentence – Does a sentence ever contain only one word? No.

(Okay, there are a few exceptions.)– Does a section contain only one paragraph?

(There are exceptions – like transitional paragraphs.)– Does a report contain only one section?

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4. Paragraphs

• A paragraph should contain:– Introductory sentence, also called topic sentence

• The most general sentence in the paragraph

– Middle sentences, also called body sentences or supporting sentences, which discuss one subject

– Conclusion (linking) sentence• May be omitted if the paragraph is short

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4. Paragraphs: Example

In state estimation problems, we want to estimate the state x because it contains all of the information about the system. The problem is that we cannot measure x directly. Instead we measure y, which is a function of x that is corrupted by the noise v. We can use y to help us obtain an estimate of x, but we cannot necessarily take the information from y at its face value because it is corrupted by noise. We therefore need a way to properly balance our measurement information with our model information.

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4. Paragraphs

• Topic sentences need to be general but also need to be limited to a single topic.

• Examples:– Our new controller is stable, converges quickly,

and is low cost …(unless this sentence is in the conclusion)

– Our new controller is stable under certain conditions …

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4. Paragraphs

• Topic sentences need to be general but also need to be limited to a single topic.

• Examples:– Our new controller is stable if the gain is less than

the infinity-norm of the noise-to-error transfer function, which in turn is less than unity …

– Our new controller is stable under certain conditions …

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– Formal Writing, Voice, Tense, Connectors, Lists, Repetition, and Formatting

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5. Writing Style: Formal Writing

Two kinds of writing:• Informal (magazines, newspapers, web sites)• Formal (academic, professional)

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5. Writing Style: Formal Writing

Informal writing:• Beginning sentences with conjunctions (And, But, …)• Contractions (can’t, won’t, doesn’t, …)• Use of the word you• Use of the imperative (should, need, …)• Abbreviations (a few are okay in formal writing: e.g., i.e., etc.)• Person shift (I, you, he, she, it, we)• Emotional content, personal stories• Short sentences and short paragraphs• Lack of references

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5. Writing Style: Consistent Voice

• Voice is a term that indicates if you are writing in the first person (I or we), second person (you), or third person (he, she, they, it).

• In state estimation problems, we want to estimate the state x because it contains all of the information about the system. The problem is that you cannot measure x directly. Instead we measure y, which is a function of x that is corrupted by the noise v. Engineers can use y to help us obtain an estimate of x, but they cannot necessarily take the information from y at its face value because it is corrupted by noise. We therefore need a way to properly balance my measurement information with my model information.

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• Tense is a term that indicates if you are writing in the past, present, or future. Present is the preferred (but not required) tense.

• In our state estimation problem, we want to estimate the state x because it contains all of the information about the system. The problem is that we could not measure x directly. Instead we measured y, which is a function of x that was corrupted by the noise v. We will use y to obtain an estimate of x, but we cannot take the information from y at its face value because it is corrupted by noise. We therefore will need a way to properly balance our measurement information with our model information.

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5. Writing Style: Consistent Tense

5. Writing Style: Use Connectors

• For example, …• For instance, …• One example is …• First, second, third, …• As another example, …• Another example is …

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• Finally, …• In conclusion, …• To summarize, …• On the one hand, …• On the other hand, …• However, …• But …• Also …• In addition, …

5. Writing Style: Use Connectors

Each of the U.S. space projects had specific goals. The Mercury project was designed to test whether or not human beings could survive in outer space. The Mercury project tested rockets with a new space capsule which could hold one person. The Gemini project was intended to find out whether two people could work in weightlessness. Gemini astronauts took “spacewalks.” They floated outside their spacecraft in a spacesuit. Gemini astronauts tried out new flying skills. On some Gemini flights, astronauts linked two spacecraft together. This was a major goal of the Gemini program. The Apollo project had the goal of testing spacecraft that could fly to the Moon.

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We need some connectors!

5. Writing Style: Use ConnectorsEach of the U.S. space projects had specific goals. For example, the Mercury project was designed to test whether or not human beings could survive in outer space. In addition, the Mercury project tested rockets with a new space capsule which could hold one person. As another example, the Gemini project was intended to find out whether two people could work in weightlessness. One way of doing this was by having Gemini astronauts take “spacewalks.” That is, they floated outside their spacecraft in a spacesuit. Gemini astronauts also tried out new flying skills. On some Gemini flights, astronauts linked two spacecraft together. This linking was a major goal of the Gemini program. Finally, the Apollo project had the goal of testing spacecraft that could fly to the Moon.

30Good use of connectors!

5. Writing Style: Lists

• Avoid lists that are set apart from your text. • But lists can be embedded in the text.

In this section we compare BBO with ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, artificial immune systems, and differential evolution.In this section we compare BBO with four other algorithms: (1) ant colony optimization, (2) particle swarm optimization, (3) artificial immune systems, and (4) differential evolution.

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5. Writing Style: Avoid Repetition

• Vary terminology for the sake of variety, as long as you don’t sacrifice accuracy.Computers control many aspects of our lives. Computers merge hardware and software, integrating the two and generating complex interactions. It is thus imperative that we construct computer software and computer hardware so they can evolve together. This paper discusses one approach to integrate computer hardware and computer software.

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5. Writing Style: Avoid Repetition

• Vary terminology for the sake of variety, as long as you don’t sacrifice accuracy.Computers control many aspects of our lives. Computing systems merge hardware and software, integrating the two and generating complex interactions. It is thus imperative that we construct hardware and software so they can evolve together. This paper discusses one approach to accomplish this integration.

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5. Writing Style: Formatting

• For journal/conference submissions, use one column, double-spacing, and 12-point font.

• For your “camera-ready” format, use the following:– Two columns for 10-point font (or smaller)– One column for 12-point font (or larger)

• Include header and footer information on each page.• Exceptions: some journals and conferences include a

template that you must use.

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Note the footerinformation at the bottom of the page.

5. Writing Style: Formatting

Acknowledgments

• lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/toeflwrite.html• www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/etc/writing-style.html• www1.umn.edu/urelate/style/language-usage.html • Technical Communication, by Mike Markel

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Cleveland State University ESC 720 Research Communications Lecture 7 – Writing Structure and Style Dan Simon