how to write a paper - 2

8/13/2019 How to Write a Paper - 2

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How to write a

great research paper

Simon Peyton Jones

Microsoft Research, Cambridge



Why

bother?

Good papers andtals are a

f!ndamental part ofresearch e"cellence

Fallacy

we write papers and gi#e

tals mainly to impress

others, gain recognition, andget promoted



Papers comm!nicate ideas

$o!r goal% to infect the mind of yo!r reader with

your idea, lie a #ir!s

Papers are far more d!rable than programs &thin

Mo'art(

)he greatest ideas are &literally( worthless if yo! eep them to yo!rself



Writing papers% model *

IdeaDo

researchWrite paper



Writing papers% model +

Idea Doresearch

Write paper

Idea Write paper Do research

orces !s to be clear, foc!sed

Crystallises what we don-t !nderstand .pens the way to dialog!e with others% reality chec,

criti/!e, and collaboration



0o not be intimidated

Write a paper,

and gi#e a tal, abo!t

any idea ,no matter how weedy and insignificant it may seem

to yo!

Fallacy $o! need to ha#e a fantastic idea before yo! can

write a paper or gi#e a tal1 &2#eryone else seems

to1(



0o not be intimidated

Write a paper, and gi#e a tal, abo!t any idea, no

matter how insignificant it may seem to yo!

Writing the paper is how you develop the idea in the

first place

3t !s!ally t!rns o!t to be more interesting and challenging

that it seemed at first



)he p!rpose of yo!r paper



)he p!rpose of yo!r paper is111

)o con#ey

yo!r idea

111from yo!r head to yo!r reader-s head

2#erything ser#es this single goal



)he p!rpose of yo!r paper is not111

)o describe the

Wi'Wo' system

$o!r reader does not ha#e a Wi'Wo'

She is primarily interested in re4!sable brain4st!ff, not

e"ec!table artefacts



Con#eying the idea

Here is a problem

3t-s an interesting problem

3t-s an !nsol#ed problem Here is my idea

My idea wors &details, data(

Here-s how my idea compares to other people-sapproaches

3 wish 3 new

how to sol#e

that5

3 see how

that wors13ngenio!s5



Str!ct!re

6bstract &7 sentences(

3ntrod!ction &* page(

)he problem &* page( My idea &+ pages(

)he details &8 pages(

Related wor &*4+ pages( Concl!sions and f!rther wor &918 pages(



)he abstract

3 !s!ally write the abstract last

:sed by program committee members to decide

which papers to read

o!r sentences ;<ent =ec>

*1 State the problem

+1 Say why it-s an interesting problem

1 Say what yo!r sol!tion achie#es

71 Say what follows from yo!r sol!tion



2"ample

*1 Many papers are badly written and hard to!nderstand

+1 )his is a pity, beca!se their good ideas may go

!nappreciated1 ollowing simple g!idelines can dramatically

impro#e the /!ality of yo!r papers

71 $o!r wor will be !sed more, and the feedbac yo! get from others will in t!rn impro#e yo!rresearch



Str!ct!re


Introduction &* page(






)he introd!ction &* page(

1. Describe the problem

2. State your contributions

111and that is all



0escribe the problem

:se an

e"ample to

introd!ce

the problem



State yo!r contrib!tions

Write the list of contrib!tions first

)he list of contrib!tions dri#es the entire paper%

the paper s!bstantiates the claims yo! ha#e made

Reader thins @gosh, if they can really deli#er this,

that-s be e"citingA 3-d better read onB



State yo!r contrib!tions

=!lleted list of

contrib!tions

0o not lea#e the reader tog!ess what yo!r contrib!tions

are5



Contrib!tions sho!ld be ref!table

We ha#e b!ilt a G:3 toolit in Wi'Wo', and

!sed it to implement a te"t editor &Section 8(1 )he res!lt is half the length of the Ja#a #ersion1

We ha#e !sed Wi'Wo' in practice

We pro#e that the type system is so!nd, and

that type checing is decidable &Section 7(

We st!dy its properties

We gi#e the synta" and semantics of a lang!age

that s!pports conc!rrent processes &Section (1

3ts inno#ati#e feat!res are111

We describe the Wi'Wo' system1

3t is really cool1



o @rest of this paper is111B

ot%

3nstead, use forward references from thenarrative in the introduction1

)he introd!ction &incl!ding the contrib!tions( sho!ld

s!r#ey the whole paper, and therefore forward

reference e#ery important part1

@)he rest of this paper is str!ct!red as follows1 Section

+ introd!ces the problem1 Section 111 inally, Section D

concl!desB1



Str!ct!re








o related wor yet5

Related

wor

$o!r reader $o!r ideaWe adopt the notion of transaction from =rown ;*>, as modified for distrib!ted

systems by White ;+>, !sing the fo!r4phase interpolation algorithm of Green ;>1

.!r wor differs from White in o!r ad#anced re#ocation protocol, which deals with

the case of priority in#ersion as described by $ellow ;7>1



o related wor yet

Problem *% de cribing alternati#e



3nstead111

Concentrate single4mindedly on a narrati#e that

0escribes the problem, and why it is interesting

0escribes yo!r idea

0efends yo!r idea, showing how it sol#es the problem,

and filling o!t the details

.n the way, cite rele#ant wor in passing, b!t defer

disc!ssion to the end



)he payload of yo!r paper

Consider a b!firc!ated semi4lattice 0, o#er a hyper4mod!lated signat!re

S1 S!ppose pi is an element of 01 )hen we now for e#ery s!ch pi

there is an epi4mod!l!s E, s!ch that p E F p i1

So!nds impressi#e111b!t

Sends readers to sleep

3n a paper yo! M:S) pro#ide the details,

b!t 3RS) con#ey the idea



)he payload of yo!r paper

3ntrod!ce the problem, and yo!r

idea, !sing

!"#$%Sand only then present the general

case



:sing e"amples

2"ampleright away

)he Simon PJ /!estion%

is there any typewriter

font?



Con#eying the idea

2"plain it as if yo! were speaing to someone !sing

a whiteboard

Con#eying the int!ition is primary, not secondary

.nce yo!r reader has the int!ition, she can follow

the details &b!t not #ice #ersa(

2#en if she sips the details, she still taes away

something #al!able



2#idence

$o!r introd!ction maes claims

)he body of the paper pro#ides evidence tosupport each claim

Chec each claim in the introd!ction, identify thee#idence, and forward4reference it from the claim

2#idence can be% analysis and comparison, theorems,meas!rements, case st!dies



Str!ct!re





&elated wor' &*4+ pages( Concl!sions and f!rther wor &918 pages(



Related wor

allacy )o mae my wor loo good, 3 ha#e to

mae other people-s wor loo bad



)he tr!th% credit is not lie money

Gi#ing credit to others does not diminish

the credit yo! get from yo!r paper

Warmly acnowledge people who ha#e helped yo!

=e genero!s to the competition1 @3n his inspiring paper

;ooD> oogle shows1111 We de#elop his fo!ndation in thefollowing ways111B

6cnowledge weanesses in yo!r approach



Credit is not lie money

ailing to gi#e credit to others can ill

yo!r paper

3f yo! imply that an idea is yo!rs, and the referee nows it is

not, then either

$o! don-t now that it-s an old idea &bad(

$o! do now, b!t are pretending it-s yo!rs &#ery bad(



Maing s!re related wor is acc!rate

6 good plan% when yo! thin yo! are done, send the

draft to the competition saying @co!ld yo! help me

ens!re that 3 describe yo!r wor fairly?B1

.ften they will respond with helpf!l criti/!e

)hey are liely to be yo!r referees anyway, so getting

their comments !p front is Eolly good1



)he process

Start early1 ery early1

Hastily4written papers get reEected1

Papers are lie wine% they need time to mat!re Collaborate

:se CS to s!pport collaboration



Getting help

2"perts are good

on4e"perts are also #ery good

2ach reader can only read yo!r paper for the first time

once5 So !se them caref!lly

2"plain caref!lly what yo! want &@3 got lost hereB is m!chmore important than @wibble is mis4speltB1(

Get yo!r paper read by as many friendlyg!inea pigs as possible



Iistening to yo!r re#iewers

2#ery re#iew is gold d!st

=e &tr!ly( gratef!l for criticism as well as

praise

)his is really, really, really hard

=!t it-s really, really, really, really, really, reallyimportant



Iistening to yo!r re#iewers

Read e#ery criticism as a positi#e s!ggestion for

something yo! co!ld e"plain more clearly

0. .) respond @yo! st!pid person, 3 meant B1

i" the paper so that is apparent e#en to the

st!pidest reader1

)han them warmly1 )hey ha#e gi#en !p their time

for yo!1



Iang!age and style



=asic st!ff

S!bmit by the deadline

<eep to the length restrictions

0o not narrow the margins

0o not use (pt font

.n occasion, s!pply s!pporting e#idence &e1g1

e"perimental data, or a written4o!t proof( in an appendi"

6lways !se a spell checer



is!al str!ct!re

Gi#e strong #is!al str!ct!re to yo!r paper !sing

sections and s!b4sections

b!llets

italics

laid4o!t code

ind o!t how to draw pict!res, and !se them



is!al str!ct!re



:se the acti#e #oice

We can see that1113t can be seen that111

$o! might thin this wo!ld be a

type error

3t might be tho!ght that this wo!ld

be a type error

We wanted to retain these

properties

)hese properties were tho!ght

desirable

We ran 7 tests7 tests were r!n

)S*+

)he passi#e #oice is @respectableB b!t it 02602S yo!r paper1 6#oidit at all costs1

@WeB K yo!

and the

reader

@WeB K thea!thors

@$o!B K the

reader



:se simple, direct lang!age

)he ball mo#ed sideways )he obEect !nder st!dy was displaced

hori'ontally

)he garbage collector was really slow

3t co!ld be considered that the speed of

storage reclamation left something to be

desired

ind o!t2ndea#o!r to ascertain

$early.n an ann!al basis

)S*+



S!mmary

3f yo! remember nothing else%

3dentify yo!r ey idea

Mae yo!r contrib!tions e"plicit

:se e"amples

6 good starting point%@6d#ice on Research and WritingB

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how to write a paper - 2

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