how to write =1=good papers

Philosophy of paper writingAbout reviewers

Components of a paperPaper writing processWriting good English

Conclusions

How to Write Good Papers

Zhouchen [email protected]

Microsoft Research Asia

October 10, 2008

Zhouchen Lin How to write good papers



Conclusions

Outline

1 Philosophy of paper writingHave correct understandings on paper writing

2 About reviewersSomething you should know about reviewers

3 Components of a paperPaper structure and general tips for every component

4 Paper writing processHow to manage your writing process

5 Writing good EnglishGeneral tips and good habits

6 ConclusionsKey message on paper writing




Conclusions

Have correct understandings on paper writing

Outline










Conclusions


Why write papers? (1)

Incorrect answers:I have to graduate/promoteMy boss asked me to write




Conclusions


Why write papers? (2)

Correct answers:Claim your credit on new findings

Critical for your academic career

Help refine your thoughtI hear and I forget;I see and I memorize;I write and I understand.

DocumentationGuard against forgettingInformative for other people (save your time to explainrepeatedly)Necessary in many other cases (such as patent filing)




Conclusions


When to write papers? (1)

Incorrect answers: I have to start becauseI will graduate half a year laterthe conference deadline is only a month away




Conclusions


When to write papers? (2)

Correct answers: I can start because Ihave passion with my invention/conceptam compelled to speak and writehave truly novel concept/algorithm/procedure/architecturehave vision or survey that provides value for the researchcommunityhave solid and sustainable results




Conclusions


Elements of a good paper

Good content:Right subject matterWell-defined problemClear contributionsReliable and reproducible results

Good writing skills:Good organization and logical flowClear explanation and strong argumentGood illustration and intuitive notationSmooth and error-free English (including punctuations!)




Conclusions


Misconceptions

The more ideas, the betterOne problem, one solution in a conference paperOne problem, more complete solutions in a journal paper

The bigger claim and selling, the betterNeither over-claim nor under-claim

The more complex, the betterKeep it simple, perhaps stupid

The more authoritative, the betterBe modest and avoid excessive use of own references




Conclusions

Something you should know about reviewers

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Conclusions


About reviewers

Reviewers are volunteersDo not assume that the reviewer is an expert of yourproblem

Reviewers are busyMake your paper easy to read and follow

Reviewers are potential competitorsRespect related work and the reviewer




Conclusions


What does a reviewer look for?

Is the paper within the scope of conference/journal?

New problem or new solution?

Are the main results significant?

Is the paper technically correct?

Are the experiments convincing/reproducible?

Does the paper provide a fair assessment of its strengthand limitation?

Is the paper clearly written, thus accessible to generalreaders?

Are the references adequate?

...




Conclusions


Misconceptions

Reviewers will carefully read my paperA reviewer often has a pile of papers to reviewA reviewer typically makes up his/her mind after 5-minutebrowsingtitle/author->abstract->conclusions->references->introduction, then spends < 1h to justify(moving to main body of the paper)

Your action:make your points EARLYbring up your results QUICKhighlight your contributions FASTmake your paper easy to read, clear to follow, and good tolearn




Conclusions

Paper structure and general tips for every component

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Conclusions


Components of a paper

Title

Abstract

Introduction

Previous work

Body

Experimental results

Conclusions/discussions/future work

References

Appendices




Conclusions


Title

Purpose: summarize your paper in less than a sentenceUsually after the whole paper completes

Do:Be shortBe easily memorizable and comprehensible

Don’t:Be ambiguous and misleading




Conclusions


Abstract

Purpose: Give overall picture, entice readersDo:

Be brief but informativeGive relevant high-level descriptionsHighlight your contributionsIndicate why your work is new and better

Don’t:Paste from introduction or conclusionsGive details




Conclusions


Introduction

Purpose: motivate and justify your workDo provide:

background of your problemwhy your work is importanthighlight your contributions, but neither over-claim norunder-claimrelated work and distinction from similar worktechnical sketches

Optional:Roadmap of your paperIllustration of your ideas/logics




Conclusions


Previous work

Purpose: present the related work to justify your noveltyCould be an independent section or a part of introduction

Do be:relevantcomprehensiverespectful to those authors

Don’t:hide related work that you knowoverly self-citeharshly criticize the work by others




Conclusions


Body

Purpose: explain the technical detailsBe reproducible

Do be:logicalsimple yet clearcompleterelevant

Use:block diagrams, table, pseudo-codes, illustrations, figures,and examples




Conclusions


Experiments

Purpose: validate your claimsDo:

provide the complete details of experimentsbe fair and complete when compared with other algorithmspay attention to the visibility (color, contrast, labels, fontsize, and line style) of the resultsdescribe tables and figures in textinterpret the results (what, how, and why)

Use:table and figures (blowups) to present the results




Conclusions


Conclusions/Discussions/Future Work

Purpose: last chance to impress the readers; show thelimitations, the effects of assumptions, alternativetechniques, or possible extensions; attract the reader tofollow your workDo:

highlight your contributions againbe concise and informativebe honest and pertinent




Conclusions


References

Purpose: present the materials to back up your paperDo:

be complete and relevantcite all the references and comment on those closelyrelated papers in Introduction, Previous Work, or Bodyfrequently refer to the related papers




Conclusions


Appendix

Purpose: present the details that may hinder reading flow ifpresented in BodyDo:

pay attention to the self-consistency and the level of details




Conclusions


Examples (1)

“This paper has ten contributions...”→ Focus on the mostimportant contribution.

“This is a breakthrough/revolution/paradigm shift...” (onlywhen yourself deeply believe in this)→ “This paperpresents a novel idea on...”

“It is the best/first-ever...”→ “To the best of our knowledge,it is the best/first-ever...”

a pile of math formulae→ intuitive explanations after theformulae




Conclusions


Examples (2)

(title) “Multiplicative Kernels: Object Detection,Segmentation and Pose Estimation”




Conclusions


Examples (3)

“A Discriminatively Trained, Multiscale, Deformable PartModel”: (abstract) This paper describes a discriminativelytrained, multiscale, deformable part model for objectdetection. Our system achieves a two-fold improvement inaverage precision over the best performance in the 2006PASCAL person detection challenge. It also outperformsthe best results in the 2007 challenge in ten out of twentycategories. The system relies heavily on deformable parts.While deformable part models have become quite popular,their value had not been demonstrated on difficultbenchmarks such as the PASCAL challenge. ...




Conclusions


Examples (4)

“NLP-Enabled Information Retrieval”: (introduction) Thetraditional IR models do not employ NLP techniquesbecause NLP techniques are not robust, reliable and notpractical enough for processing large corpora. ...




Conclusions


Examples (5)




Conclusions

How to manage your writing process

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Conclusions


Phases of paper writing

Prewriting effortsRead materialsRecord ideas

DraftCollect materials

Complete related workDoing/enhancing/recording experiments

EnrichFill in experimental resultsRevise

Read your paper as if you are not an expert in this topicTo find out the best organization andwhich part should be detailed and which part should be bony

EditZhouchen Lin How to write good papers



Conclusions


Writing order

Different people have different writing order. Choose theone you feel comfortable.

top-down (skeleton first, then fill)bottom-up (details first, then reorg)linear (progress from begin to end)random

My writing order:Frequent documentationBody partIllustrationsComplete literature surveyIntroduction and Reference partExperimentsTitle, Abstract, Conclusion, and AppendixRevise and Edit




Conclusions


Two key issues

Frequent documentation

Distribute writing time




Conclusions

General tips and good habits

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Conclusions


General Tips

Never write Chinese version first and then translate toEnglishUse only those words and phrases you are familiar with

but avoid using repeated words and phrases

One paragraph, one main pointAvoid casual writingAvoid extreme words, e.g., “absolutely”, “no doubt”Avoid long, convoluted sentencesHave connecting statements between sections andparagraphsMake correct transitions and conjunctionsProofread carefully, including punctuations




Conclusions


Recommended techniques

Never think of relying on others

Use good papers as samples (mark the good words,sentences and transitions)

Record your mistakes and eliminate them

Keep the revision history by others and record why

Use spelling check tools before final submission

Reviewing papers helps




Conclusions

Key message on paper writing

Outline










Conclusions


Conclusions

Writing refines your thought and improves yourunderstanding

Write only when you want to

Good paper = good content + good English

Reviewers are busy and also your potential competitors

Make your paper logical, simple, and complete

Frequent documentation is important; distribute yourwriting time

Don’t rely on others

Revise, revise, and revise!




Conclusions


References

Sing Bing Kang, A Perspective on DoingEffective Research

Ya-Qin Zhang, How to Publish a (Good) Paper?

Ashley Chang, English Writing




Conclusions


Thanks!

My Email: [email protected]


how to write =1=good papers

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