Scientific Communication CITS7200

Lecture 4Composition

Composition = Organisation + Simplification

Choose a suitable design

• Haiku poem• 3 lines• 17 syllables as 5+7+5

A syllable is “a single uninterrupted sound”

Ame no hi ya!Miyako ni tokiMomo no yada. (Buson)

The day is rainy.Far from the capital isMy peach-blossom home.

How beautifullyThat kite soars up to the sky From the beggar’s hut.

(Issa)

No sky and no earthAt all. Only the snowflakesFall incessantly.

(Hashin)

Windows Haiku

First snow, then silence.This thousand dollar screen diesSo beautifully.

Server’s poor responseNot quick enough for browser.Timed out, plum blossom.

The code was willing.It considered your requestBut the chips were weak.

The web site you seekCannot be located butEndless others exist.

Stay the patient courseOf little worth is your ire.The network is down.

Yesterday it worked.Today it is not working.Windows is like that.

Sonnet – 14 lines, iambic pentameter10 syllables each line, ababcdcdefefggShall I compare thee to a summer's day?    Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,    And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,    And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines,    By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade,    Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,    When in eternal lines to time thou growest; So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Classical detective novel

• Mysterious death• Small, closed circle of suspects• Each suspect has motive and

opportunity• Detective central character• Murder uncovered by logic

Make the paragraph the unit of composition

• Paragraph=unit of thought, not length

• Homogeneous in subject matter• Can be any length, but usually

fewer than thirty lines• Use paragraph position and size to

highlight importance of ideas

• Rank ideas• Put important ideas first• Begin each paragraph with a

sentence that suggests the topic, or with a transition from the previous paragraph.

•Don’t rely on the content of the previous paragraph for sense.

In order to achieve convergence it was initialised to …

In order to achieve convergence the learning algorithm was initialised to …

Use the active voice

• active voice makes for forcible writing

• passive voice distances the writer from the action

• active voice makes the writing more direct and emphatic

• There is a plethora of algorithms for sorting.

• Sorting algorithms abound.

• Finally, the complexity of this algorithm can be seen.

• We now see the complexity of this algorithm.

Put statements in positive form

• He did not think that studying Scientific Communication was a sensible way to use one's time.

• He thought the study of Scientific Communication a waste of time.

• not honest = dishonest

• not important = trifling

• did not pay any attention to = ignored

• did not have much confidence in = distrusted

• Words such as would, should, could, may, might and can suggest doubt.

• Use them only for situations of real uncertainty.

Use concrete language

• Prefer the specific to the general• Definite to the vague• Concrete to the abstract

A period of unfavourable weather set in.

It rained every day for a week.

• In proportion as the manners, customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulations of its penal code will be severe.

• In proportion as men delight in battles, bullfights, and the combat of gladiators, will they punish by hanging, burning, and the rack.

Omit needless words

• Good writing is concise

• Ideal sentence 15-18 words• Every word should count

the question as to whether = whether

there is no doubt but that = doubtless

he is a man who = he

this is a subject that = this subject

the reason why is that = because

owing to the fact that = since

in spite of the fact that = though

Waffle (A but B but A but B)

We would like to have more information about the high-frequency data, but our model can account for all the information in our simulations. Observations in nature are, however, all too few. But the fact remains that much can be learnt by simulation. Acquisition of real data would necessarily mean that we would have to correct our initial model. In the meantime, the work on improving the simulation will continue.

Avoid a succession of loose sentences

Refers to sentences of two clauses, the second introduced by a conjunction or relative

The image is first thresholded, and then the binary version is extracted for further processing. The Laplacian pyramid is calculated, and the Gaussian pyramid is also computed for later use. The two pyramid structures are stored in an image structure of type image array, while the image itself uses the normal image structure. Wavelet transformation theory can be used to do scale analysis, but Fourier theory is usually adequate for most applications.

The image is first thresholded, and then the binary version is extracted for further processing. Both the Laplacian pyramid and the Gaussian pyramid are computed for later use; they are stored in an image structure of type image array, while the image itself uses the normal image structure. Although Fourier analysis is adequate for most purposes, recent research indicates that the wavelet transform gives much better results for scale analyses.

Express coordinate ideas in similar form

• Parallel construction

• Expressions that are similar in content and function should have the same outward structure

• In SIMD, the same instructions are applied simultaneously to multiple data sets, whereas in MIMD different data sets are processed with different instructions.

• In SIMD, multiple data sets are processed simultaneously by the same instructions, whereas in MIMD multiple data sets are processed simultaneously by different instructions.

• With lots of ideas, use a table

Write parallel chapter titles and headings

Chapter 1: The ProblemChapter 2: Solving the ProblemChapter 3: A First Solution of the

ProblemChapter 4: Second Problem SolutionChapter 5: Why Solve the Problem?

Chapter 1: ProblemChapter 2: Method of SolutionChapter 3: First SolutionChapter 4: Second SolutionChapter 5: Rationale for SolutionsChapter 6: History of Solutions

Section 1 DesignSection 1.1 Initial MeetingSection 1.2 Project ObjectivesSection 1.3 Time Line

Section 2 PrototypeSection 2.1 Why Should You Build It?Section 2.2 How Can You Build It?

Use parallel entries in lists

Hans built the kitchen cabinets using several wood-working techniques:

– Wood carving– Sawing of wood– Planing the wood– The drill– Sanded it smooth

Lyn carves wooden masks in eight steps:– Select a block of hardwood– Create a form– Attach the block to the form– Rough out the facial structures– Carve the details– Scrape the wood smooth– Saturate the wood with thin shellac– Sand and oil the wood

Keep related words together

• We notice a large loop in the algorithm that is right in the centre.

• We notice a large loop right in the centre of the algorithm.

• New York's first commercial human-sperm bank opened Friday with semen samples from 18 men frozen in a stainless steel tank.

In summaries, keep to one tense

• Use the present tense in summarizing

• Never change tense within the same paragraph

• Can use past tense in lit review

Place the emphasis at the end

• The simplest neural network, the perceptron, was introduced by Rosenblatt (1962).

• Rosenblatt (1962) introduced the simplest neural network, the perceptron.

•Use italics for emphasis with care.

Steve cried, “You are disappointed that we can’t go to the beach today? How do you think I feel?”

The insertion that unbalanced the tree structure occurred in the left subtree of the left child of the pivot node.

• Never use bold or underline for emphasis

• Never use bold and italic

•Use italics for definition

Space mating is the term used to describe certain of the research programs on docking in space.

•Use italics to indicate you are speaking about the word itself

Des once informed an overly inquisitive interviewer that the difference between flute and lute was eff off.

Conclusion

•Start early

• Write, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, ...

The road to wisdom? Well, it’s plain and simple to express:

Err, and err, and err again, but less, and less, and less.

• Read

• Model the reader

• Master the medium

• Master the material

• Simplify

Everything should always be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Einstein)

• Avoid recycling

•Aim for excellence

It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us. (D’Israeli)

• Conversely:

Aim for excellence, not perfection.