how to write good technical paper

8/2/2019 How to Write Good Technical Paper

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HOW TO WRITE

A TECHNICAL PAPER?

Sheikh Ali Akbar

CISM, Dept. of Materials Science & Eng.

The Ohio State University

Some general guidelines

Based on personal experience

UMJuly 20, 2011


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Where is Ohio?Where is Columbus?


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OSU - largest(~60,000 students)

Where am I?


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How to write a good technical paper?

How to give an engaging technical talk?

Organizing a successful presentation is amajor step toward writing a scientific paper.


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Part 1: Specify what problem (topic) is being

addressed Why is the problem (topic) interesting!

Part 2: What is the current state of the art of

solutions? Or, how is the topic currently beingaddressed in literature?

Why is the current literature inadequate?

Part 3: What is the proposed solution?

Why is it interesting?

Important Parts

This mostly constitutes the Introduction


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Important Parts (contd.)

Part 4: Experimental/Theory

Present methodology.

Part 5: Results and Discussion

Present key results with figures and data.

How does the proposed solution compare with others?o In theory?

o In practice?

What are the weaknesses?

Part 6: Conclusion

Summarize proposed solution and why it is interesting.

Summarize weaknesses/limitations.

Identify open questions/unresolved issues.


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PLANNING AHEAD

- Right from the beginning of your project, think about

experiments in terms of future papers, especially the FIGURES.

For example, for photomicrographs, think about

the best magnifications and orientations to show

the important features.

Keep consistent backgrounds.Record the magnifications for the scale bars.

Decide what are the key conclusions of the paper - the important

message you want to convey. Do you have all the data AND the

figures to prove your point?

- Have printed/e-copies of key references and read them.

- Start a Database for references e.g. ENDNOTE will format

references for different journals.


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SHORT PAPER (Letter)

In many ways this is the hardest to write, even thoughit is the shortest. The paper has to be concise and

engaging, right from the opening sentence.

For some journals the first paragraph of a short

format paper (Letter) is also the abstract and

describes both the significance of the work and the

major results.


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General considerations:

- Download Instructions for Authors.- Note limitations like

page number, word and/or character count

number of Figures, number of references

word length of Abstract.It is best to know the limits in advance than have to go back

and change the paper later.

- Print out one or two examples of a high qualitypaper in your field in this journal.

- Note specific styles (Italics/bold for headings;

Hours/hrs; Fig/Figure and other special features)

FULL-LENGTH PAPER


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- The main contributor should be thefirst author;

typically student/post-doc

- Corresponding author is usually the senior author

(e.g., thesis advisor, center director); typically the lastauthor

Criteria for authorship:

Generate at least part of the intellectual content

Conception or design of the work

Data analysis and interpretation

Draft, critically review or revise the intellectual content

Authorship


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Spell and Grammar Check

Use software with judgement

Use Spelling and Grammar option in Microsoft Word.

However, remember that Spell-check will only highlight

words that do not correspond to an entry in the dictionary.

For example, if you typed

We added halt and than heater fur too ours to denature the

protean.

versus

We added salt and then heated for two hours to denature the

protein.

Spell-check will not find any mistakes!


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Use Of Tenses

- Text can be in either the past or present tense;personal taste.

- Past tense is OK for describing results of an experiment,

but use present tense for a general conclusion.

We observed that the growth rate WAS increased. This suggests

that the growthIS regulated by temperature.

- Present tense is more immediate and indicates that a process

is ongoing.

In the early stage, the HOS cell is in contact with the surface nano-

structures, and calcium deposition has begun to develop as athickening of the nano-structure.

versus

In the early stage, we found that the HOS cell was in contact with the

surface nano-structures and calcium deposition had begun to develop as a

thickening of the nano-structure.


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WHATEVER TENSE IS USED, BE

CONSISTENT AND DONT

SWITCH BACK AND FORTH INTHE SAME PARAGRAPH !!!


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Use of suggest that ; hypothesize that possible that

- These phrases do not need may, might

Examples:

Our results suggest that Hoxa3 may be involved in thymus

development (not correct)

It is possible that Shh in the endoderm may regulate Bmp4

expression in the mesoderm. (not correct)

Our results suggest that Hoxa3 is involved in thymus development(correct)

It is possible that Shh in the endoderm regulates Bmp4 expression

in the mesoderm. (correct)


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Use the active voice

NO YESIt can be seen that... We can see that...

34 tests were run We ran 34 tests

These properties werethought desirable

We wanted to retain theseproperties

It might be thought thatthis would be a type error

You might think this wouldbe a type error

The passive voice is respectable

but it DEADENS your paper.

We = youand thereader

We = theauthors

You = the

reader


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Use simple, direct language

NO YES

The object under study was displaced

horizontallyThe ball moved sideways

On an annual basis Yearly

Endeavour to ascertain Find out

It could be considered that the speed

of storage reclamation left something

to be desired

The garbage collector was really slow


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Use Short Sentences

A very long sentence

Genes A, B, C and D and their antagonists are expressed at high

levels in the thymus of the wild type embryos but in the

heterogeneous mutants they are lower and in the null mutant they

are absent except in a small region where the latter are expressed

at low levels.

This is better

Genes A, B, C and D, and their antagonists are expressed at high

levels in the thymus of wild type embryos. Transcription of all

genes is lower in heterogeneous mutants. By contrast, in

homogeneous null mutants no expression of any gene could be

detected, except in a small region in which the genes encoding

the antagonists are still fully active.


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Before Sending to the Journal

- Have the paper read by several people.

Listen to what they say, especially if same criticismcomes up several times.

- Check and recheck spelling, figures, references, legends, etc.

Reviewers can be really annoyed by careless editing and

mistakes reflect badly on your science.

- Make sure you have followed all the requirements of the

journal about electronic submission, etc.

Some have a specific Checklist and Front Page format

(key words; contact information; e-mail address etc.)

- Include a cover letter outlining the originality and important

findings and why it will be of interest to the typical reader of the

journal you have selected.

- Suggest possible referees, especially if the topic is unusual.


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Listening to your reviewers

This is really, really hard

But itsreally, really, really, really, really,

really, really, reallyimportant

Read every criticism as a positive suggestion for

something you could explain more clearly

Be (truly) grateful for criticism as well as praise


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Thank you

Questions?

UMJuly 20, 2011

how to write good technical paper

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