Writing Tips #24

: INTRODUCTION

 

—What question did you ask in your experiment? Why is it

interesting? The introduction summarizes the 

relevant literature so that the reader will understand why you 

were interested in the question you asked. One to four 

paragraphs should be enough. End with a sentence explaining the

specific question you asked in this experiment. 

ps: Eid Mubarak folks!

Writing Tips #23

ABSTRACT

 

1. — An abstract, or summary, is published together with a research article, giving the reader a "preview" of what's to come. . Such abstracts may also be published separately in bibliographical sources. They allow other scientists to quickly scan the large scientific literature, and decide which articles they want to read in depth. The abstract should be a little less technical than the article itself; you don't want to dissuade your potential audience from reading your paper.
2. — Your abstract should be one paragraph, of 100-250 words, which summarizes the purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the paper.
3. It is not easy to include all this information in just a few words. Start by writing a summary that includes whatever you think is important, and then gradually prune it down to size by removing unnecessary words, while still retaining the necessary concepts.
4. — Don't use abbreviations or citations in the abstract. It should be able to stand alone without any footnotes.

—  What should be in an abstract?

1. The Question(s) you investigated (from Introduction)

—  State the purpose clearly in 1-2 sentences

2. Design and Methods used (from Methods)

—  Briefly describe the basic methodology used

—  Data, design and technique

3. Major findings (from Results)

—  Report the results which answer your questions

—  Identify any trends or changes

4. Summary of analysis (from Discussion)

—  Clearly state the implications of the findings

—  What should  NOT  be in an abstract?

1. Lengthy background information
2. References to other literature
3. Incomplete sentences
4. Abbreviations or confusing terms
5. Any sort of illustration or figures

Writing Tips #22

: AUTHORS

 

1. — The person who did the work and wrote the paper is generally listed as the first author of a research paper.
2. For published articles, other people who made substantial contributions to the work are also listed as authors. Ask your mentor's permission before including his/her name as co-author.
3. — Corresponding author-- the one that maintain communication with the publisher. could be anyone in the team.

If you are a research student then try to put your name the last even though you have put a lot of effort into the paper. Be modest and ask you supervisor if he/she could be interested to be the first author. Some supervisors are reluctant due to the low quality of the paper--so you know right there and then whether your work is up to the standards or not. 

Writing Tips #21

:TITLE

 

Make your title specific enough to describe the contents of the paper, but not so technical that only specialists will understand. The title should be appropriate for the intended audience.

—  The title usually describes the subject matter of the article: Effect of Group Studying on Academic Performance

—  Sometimes a title that summarizes the results is more effective: Students Who Study Alone Get Lower Grades

—   

Poor titles :

• —  Cloud Computing
• —  Knowledge Management

—  Why? Because they are too general

—  Better titles would be :

• —  Resolving Security Issues in Cloud Computing
• —  The Effects of Efficient Knowledge Management In an Organization

—  Why? Because the keywords identify a specific action (resolving, finding the effects),area of study ( security, knowledge management) and the platform of the study (cloud computing, organization)

Writing Tips #20

 : Quotes

Direct quotes may be essential for social science articles. In CS articles, there is very rarely any call for a direct quote. As a rule, do not use direct quotes in a scholarly technical paper. Your own thoughts must be expressed, not those of someone else.

Writing Tips #19

Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation thoroughly

Use a spellchecker, but be aware that they don't catch all mistakes.

•  "When we consider the animal as a hole,..." Student's paper
•  Your spellchecker may not recognize scientific terms.
•  Don't, use, unnecessary, commas.
•  Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. 

The keyword is to read, read and read a zillion times before sending the manuscript out for any evaluation. As an author, one small comma, missing or otherwise, could mean a lot of different interpretations.