research skills, reading and writing in computer science
Post on 22-Mar-2017
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Research Skills Theme DayIMA RESEARCH GROUP
Dr. Julie Greensmith
Today’s Timetable1000-1045: Reading and Writing
1045-1115: Impact
1115-1230: Posters!
1230-1300: Lunch
1300-1500: Presentations!
Reading Academic Literature
Dr. Julie Greensmith
Reading papers efficiently is essential
Structured reading leads to faster reading and better information retention
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
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
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
Reading high volumesTry 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
A paper != a textbookI 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
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?
Paper reading order?introduction
results
methods/algorithms/tools
results (again)
conclusions
background
the rest
What this meansNever 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
What this meansTake 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
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?
The Blank PageStarting 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
Plan Initial StructureGetting 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 ✅
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.
This creates signpostingWithout 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….
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’
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
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
Spot the differenceBecause 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
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
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]
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
HypotaxisLong, 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
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?
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”
Common mistakesPlurality: 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
Latin horrorsWhen 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)
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
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
Figure legendsA 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
The results sectionAll 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
Drawing conclusionsYou 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 technique Y. 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
Writing an abstractThis 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
Proof reading strategiesFactor 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)
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+eloquence
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