Research Skills, Reading And Writing in Computer Science
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The document outlines effective research and writing strategies for PhD students, particularly in scientific fields, emphasizing the importance of efficiently reading academic literature and developing structured writing practices. It highlights the necessity of becoming familiar with existing literature to make original contributions and provides guidelines for systematic reading, as well as tips for clear and impactful writing. Additionally, the document covers organizational techniques for constructing theses, properly using visuals, and planning for proofreading.
![Hypotaxis vs Parataxis
Parataxis is a literary technique, in writing or
speaking, that favours short, simple
sentences, with the use of coordinating
rather than subordinating conjunctions. It
contrasts with syntaxis and hypotaxis.
[Wikipedia]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/imarsthemedaywr-170315171529/85/Research-Skills-Reading-And-Writing-in-Computer-Science-26-320.jpg)
![Common mistakes
Plurality: its it’s, data datum, sheep 🐑
Use vs utilise (did you really?)
Methodology vs method, effect vs affect
Raise vs rise, that or which, principle vs
principal
[The worst one] Could of vs Could have](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/imarsthemedaywr-170315171529/85/Research-Skills-Reading-And-Writing-in-Computer-Science-31-320.jpg)
Research Skills, Reading And Writing in Computer Science
- 1. Research Skills Theme Day IMA RESEARCH GROUP Dr. Julie Greensmith
- 2. Today’s Timetable 1000-1045: Reading and Writing 1045-1115: Impact 1115-1230: Posters! 1230-1300: Lunch 1300-1500: Presentations!
- 3. Reading Academic Literature Dr. Julie Greensmith
- 5. Reading papers efficiently is essential Structured reading leads to faster reading and better information retention
- 6. But I know how to read! The average PhD student in science will read in excess of 250 papers throughout the duration of their project Reading papers which are not exactly on topic or from a different domain/field and can be boring! lots of acronyms and jargon Bulk of reading performed in first six months
- 7. Feeling Confused? Familiarisation with new literature can be very daunting It can range from frightening to completely bewildering Lose all confidence in your abilities Look at what all these really clever people are saying, they are so smart it must be all correct “I’ll just skip the paper and read the abstract” It takes time, patience and practice to get right
- 8. Reasons for reading a stack of literature You have to become mini-experts in your field make an original contribution have to know who has done what, when and with whom The recall of this information becomes ‘viva critical’ “have you read the paper of Dr. Xyz et al on your very topic??” A lot of papers which you download will be irrelevant its confusing as to what you ignore and what you need to keep
- 9. Reading high volumes Try and read everything about your topic? since “google scholar” et al, there is almost too much information! Be selective about what you read? start with review papers, but be careful (why?) focus on the major publications, but you could miss something.... Only read the papers your supervisor suggests? who’s to say your supervisor is some kind of research god? Develop a strategy or process for systematically reading papers
- 10. A paper != a textbook I avoided this more by accident than by design! I didn’t want to read all the papers all the way through as I got bored Linear: start reading a paper at the abstract and don’t stop until you hit the acknowledgements section Passively reading papers in this style Complete read of a paper would take a graduate student 3/4 hours 3 * 50 = 150 hours on reading alone without doing anything else which is unrealistic
- 11. Adaptable strategies depending on purpose Initial familiarisation with a field requires examination of the background sections of papers chase down the citations and then the citations in the citation etc quick look at the conclusions and future work Looking for specific pieces of information don’t print it out, this makes it very tempting to read the whole thing make use of the fact that electronic documents are easily searchable These are slightly more unusual cases, so what about the general purpose paper read?
- 12. Paper reading order? introduction results methods/algorithms/tools results (again) conclusions background the rest
- 13. What this means Never judge a paper by its title the key to a paper is usually in the introduction not the title or abstract last paragraph of introduction always states the contents of the paper Leave the maths until the second read through unless you are from maths that is Skip next to the results section (if its an experimental paper) what have they done and what was the outcome Check their methods which can make more sense if you know the outcome
- 14. What this means Take a second look at the results and make assessment do they match what is given in the introduction and methods? in bad papers none of this stuff will match up properly hard to see if you’re just passively reading See what they conclude do you agree?You don't have to, especially if there is no proof! Use the background section to find out more information or to clarify unfamiliar terms
- 15. Writing When we read papers is it recommended to do so in a linear fashion? When we write papers do we do this in a linear fashion?
- 17. The Blank Page Starting a large document can be intimidating Do not write in presentation order Start with what you have done e.g. the methods and results first; introduction and abstract come last Then you know what material you need to support the work you are presenting
- 18. Plan Initial Structure Getting the structure right is the cornerstone of technical writing Sketch out what you want to say Best practice to never go beyond 3 levels of subsections 2.3.1.4.1.5 ❌ 2.3.1 ✅
- 19. Large Documents Are Fractal Large documents need strong narrative Introductions and Conclusions for the whole document Within each section write and introduction and a conclusion Within each subsection do the same etc.
- 20. This creates signposting Without narrative the document becomes very difficult for the reader to manage Repeating what you are doing and where in the document aids navigation Provides signposts so that the reader knows what they have read and what they are going to read shortly Remember:You are not writing crime novels, always give your readers the full picture and avoid SUSPENSE….
- 21. Making Chapters Self Contained Good narrative and signposting can mean that any given thesis chapter can be read independently Minimise the amount of back and forward referencing Skipping about while you are reading a document disrupts the flow, and can be hard to do in digital formats Think about proximity and how reading can be a very ‘tactile process’
- 22. Getting started within a chapter Again, avoid the blank page if you can Flesh out what paragraphs will go in what section using bullet points Should be able to see the overall construction of a thesis at this point and be able to read it through as a summary
- 23. Use Paragraphs Appropriately! This seems to be very simple, but is a common mistake for MSc Students Reader’s attention is held only for the first few sentences of each paragraph- put the most important information at the top of the paragraph One paragraph, one subject Check you have done this effectively by reading through your chapter based on looking at the first line of each paragraph only
- 24. Spot the difference Because of the work performed by Pearson et al. (2002) where cells were discovered to have high levels of communicative connectivity, we can abstract a model of cell-cell communication which adhere to small world principles We can abstract a model of cell-cell communication which adheres to small world principles, based on the findings presented in Pearson et al. (2002) where cells were shown to have high levels of communicative connectivity
- 25. Using ‘power sentences’ Transform the impact an individual sentence has by writing it so the most important part of the sentence comes first The reader pays more attention to the first few words of a sentence Helps you to focus your sentences and write more convincingly Often I write out a sentence as I would say it, which does not necessarily make it either clear or concise
- 26. Hypotaxis vs Parataxis Parataxis is a literary technique, in writing or speaking, that favours short, simple sentences, with the use of coordinating rather than subordinating conjunctions. It contrasts with syntaxis and hypotaxis. [Wikipedia]
- 27. Parataxis One sentence, one subject, one object “Robots within a swarm must be able to cooperate.Their communication devices are tailored to their particular morphology and functionality.Therefore communication across different robotic platforms is difficult” Very concise and understandable, but is very turgid if this is written for a long time
- 28. Hypotaxis Long, multiple clause, (frequently) long winded sentences), with multiple parentheses and punctuation which are not necessarily conducive to providing the clearest conveyance of the true meaning of a sentence; although can be used sparingly to break up the turgidity of constant parataxis. If your sentence has multiple objects and topics, and is more than two lines long, it probably needs to be decomposed This takes quite a lot of practice to achieve the correct balance between parataxis and hypotaxis
- 29. Hypotaxis can confuse “The decentralized decision-making mechanisms found in the above examples, and others in the natural world, offer an insight on how to design distributed algorithms that solve complex problems related to diverse fields, such as optimization, multi-agent decision making, and collective robotics.” How can we re-write this to be a power sentence with some elements of parataxis?
- 30. Using formal language, fam. The ‘tone’ of scientific papers is technical and formal Write out contractions in full Don’t -> Does not, Haven't -> have not Avoid slang innit bro Think from the perspective of your reader about the clarity of your sentence to remove ambiguity “Eats, shoots and leaves”
- 31. Common mistakes Plurality: its it’s, data datum, sheep 🐑 Use vs utilise (did you really?) Methodology vs method, effect vs affect Raise vs rise, that or which, principle vs principal [The worst one] Could of vs Could have
- 32. Latin horrors When you want to cite multiple paper authors, for more than three authors we use et al. Note its in italics and no stop after the et Confusion over e.g. and i.e. e.g. Greensmith et al. (2008)
- 33. Using maths appropriately Introduce all notation with definitions either before or directly after their usage a = |b - c| * (c + d), where a is the measured response, b is a constant, c is the contraction magnitude and d is the contraction rate Numbering equations is useful if you refer to them at a later point Simple expressions in line with the text, more complex expressions should be centred like a table or figure
- 35. Communicating with figures Select the appropriate visualisation technique Never, never, ever, use a pie chart Label all axes and provide legends (if line) Assume the figure will be printed in black and white For each figure write an appropriate figure legend
- 36. Figure legends A figure should also be a self contained object You should not have to look at the text to understand what is happening in a figure Figure 2: Shows the speed-up of network traffic comparing the standard technique with the novel peer-to-peer implementation, based on measurements taken at 0.5Hz on the JSim network simulator (Version 5.4) No interpretation, but a clear description of what is in the figure
- 37. The results section All results must be described and stated in the results section (they don't belong anywhere else) Statistical analysis is presented in the results section Do not repeat results, pick to either put into a graph or into a table - no extraneous graphs Keep methods/implementations out of this section Tables like figures need a self contained legend and are best referenced also like figures
- 38. Drawing conclusions You should not introduce any new results in the conclusions, all results go in the results section Draw meaningful comparisons “Our new technique X is better” - better than what, my cat’s dinner? “We show that technique X is better than techniqueY.We believe this is because…..” Write down 1/3rd of your conclusions as “Future work” The conclusion must come to some ‘conclusion’ and not just be a summary of the paper.The summary is the ABSTRACT
- 39. Writing an abstract This is a summary of the whole paper The majority of people who download your paper/thesis will only ever read this A concise and comprehensive summary of the work - avoiding abbreviations! Include a summary of results and a conclusion in the abstract
- 41. Proof reading strategies Factor in time for proof reading - and not just checking for typos Check your sentences, figures are complete, perhaps read the first sentence of paragraphs Check all reference information is present and correct I used speech to text to ‘listen’ to my theses while I was reading them (also my Dad proofread them)
- 42. Further Reading and Videos Writing for Computer Science (Justin Zobel): I loved it so much I bought 2 copies https://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Computer-Science-Justin-Zobel- ebook/dp/B00TEYLNBI/ref=sr_1_2? ie=UTF8&qid=1487352524&sr=8-2&keywords=Justin+ZObel Write now: http://www.harold.thimbleby.net/teaching/Writing.pdf Simon Peyton Jones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3dkRsTqdDA Elements of Eloquence: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elements-Eloquence- Perfect-English-Phrase-x/dp/1785781723/ref=sr_1_1? ie=UTF8&qid=1487352598&sr=8-1&keywords=Elements+of+eloquenc e