• How to Read a Paper [pdf] | Hacker News (pdf)

  • I give all my doctoral students a copy of the following great paper (and I’ve used a variant of the check list at the end for years - avoids errors when working on multiple papers with multiple international teams in parallel) http://www-mech.eng.cam.ac.uk/mmd/ashby-paper-V6.pdf

I’ll write here the main points from each of the linked PDF, copyright belongs to the original authors ofc.

How to Write a Paper

How to Write a Paper
Mike Ashby
Engineering Department, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
6 rd Edition, April 2005

This brief manual gives guidance in writing a paper about your research. Most of the advice applies equally to your thesis or to writing a research proposal.

This is based on 2016 version of the paper, more are here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38446418#38449638 with the link to the 2016 version being https://web.archive.org/web/20220615001635/http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/keshav/home/Papers/data/07/paper-reading.pdf

1. The design
   1. The market need - what is the purpose? Who will read it? How will it be used?
      1. Thesis / paper / research-proposal:
2. Concept

   1. When you can’t write, it is because you don’t know what you want to say. The first job is to structure your thinking.

   2. A3 paper where you draw things:
      1. 
      2. 

   3. Don’t yet think of style, neatness or anything else. Just add, at the appropriate place on the sheet, your thoughts.

3. Embodiement
   • the first draft
   • the PDF lists random bits about each sections, like abstract / introduction / …
   • Introduction:
     • What is the problem and why is it interesting?
     • Who are the main contributors?
     • What did they do?
     • What novel thing will you reveal?
   • Method
     • ‘just say what you did, succinctly’
   • Results
     • Same; also succinctly, without interpretation etc.
   • …
   • Appendices:
     • essential material that would interrupt the flow of the main text

• Grammar!
  • 
  • That VS which!
• Punctuation:
  • really interested and itemized
  • Dashes: “The dash sets off parenthetic material that results in a break in continuity in a sentence. [..] A dash can lead to an upshot, a final summary word or statement, and give emphasis:”
  • Parentheses—literally: putting-asides—embrace material of all sorts, and help structure scientific writing. But do not let them take over, clouding the meaning of the sentence with too many asides.
  • Italics: the best of the three ways (with bold and underline) to emphasize stuff in scientific writing.
  • Brackets are used to indicate editorial comments or words inserted as explanation: [continued on p. 62], [see footnote].
• Style
  • Be clear. Use simple language,familiar words, etc.
  • Design: Remember who you are writing for. Tell them what they want to know, not what they know already or do not want to know.
  • Define everything
  • Avoid cliches; avoid empty words

    • Avoid clichés (standard formalised phrases): they are corpses devoid of the vitality which makes meaning spring from the page

    • 
  • Do not overstate, over emphasise or apologise: не верь, не бойся не проси
  • Avoid being patronising, condescending or eccentric
  • Good first sentence:
    • Openings such as: It is widely accepted that X (your topic) is important … has the reader yawning before you’ve started.
• At the end it has examles of effective and ineffective writing
• At the very end it has this:

How to read a paper

How to Read a Paper
S. Keshav
David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
Waterloo, ON, Canada
keshav@uwaterloo.ca

http://ccr.sigcomm.org/online/files/p83-keshavA.pdf

• Three passes of varying levels of thoroughness
• Literature survery:
  • also three steps:
    1. find recent papers in the area through google scholar etc.
    2. find top conferences
    3. look through their recent conference proceedings