Scientific Communication CITS7200

Lecture 7Reading and Revising a Paper

• All writing should be revised• Aim to

– Organize material in the correct order– Correct spelling, grammar and typos– Remove ambiguities– Check all pointers– Make writing clear, concise and

forceful

Strategies for reading and revision• Know how a paper is organised

– Title and abstract– Introduction– Materials and Methods– Results– Discussion– Acknowledgments and References

Strategies for reading and revision• Organise the way you read

– Read the title and abstract– Clarify your background, refresh your

memory, integrate new claims into your existing knowledge

– Read the Results section and then the Discussion

– Go back to other sections to clarify

Strategies for reading and revision• Difficulties

– Poorly written– Logical connections left out– Cluttered with jargon– No clear road map– References back to previous papers for essential details

– Authors uncritical, don’t distinguish between fact and speculation, overstate

Strategies for reading and revision• What questions does the paper address?• What are the main conclusions?• What evidence supports these

conclusions?• Do the data actually support the

conclusions?• What is the quality of the evidence?• Why are the conclusions important?

Strategies for revision• Read after a few days• Read aloud• Read at high speed• Check overall shape• Read at page level

• Count on a number of drafts• Write sections in any order

Revise on paper

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Place before \begin{document}

• Eliminate words, phrases and sentences that add nothing to the argument

• The clock hands move in a right-handed, dextrorotary direction – that is, they move clockwise.

• Greg resolved decisively to spend a day indulging gratifyingly in introspective self-examination.

• Please remain seated, with your seatbelt fastened, until the airplane has come to a full and complete stop; when you deplane from the airplane, be sure to take with you all your personal belongings.

Replace long words with short words• Interrogate – ask• Requirement – need

• More night jobs would keep youths off the streets.

• Studies have found that more night jobs would keep youths off the street.

• Studies have found that additional nocturnal employment would keep adolescents off thoroughfares.

• Studies have identified the fact that additional nocturnal employment would keep adolescents off thoroughfares.

• Various available applicable studies have generally identified the fact that additional appropriate nocturnal employment could keep adolescents off thoroughfares.

• A number of various available applicable studies have generally identified the fact that additional appropriate nocturnal employment could usually keep adolescents off thoroughfares.

• A number of various available applicable studies have generally identified the fact that additional appropriate nocturnal employment could usually keep juvenile adolescents off thoroughfares.

• There is no escaping the fact that it is considered very important to note that a number of various available applicable studies have generally identified the fact that additional appropriate nocturnal employment could usually keep juvenile adolescents off thoroughfares.

• There is no escaping the fact that it is considered very important to note that a number of various available applicable studies have generally identified the fact that additional appropriate nocturnal employment could usually keep juvenile adolescents off thoroughfares, including but not limited to the time prior to midnight on weeknights and/or 2am on weekends.

• There is no escaping the fact that it is considered very important to note that a number of various available applicable studies ipso facto have generally identified the fact that additional appropriate nocturnal employment could usually keep juvenile adolescents off thoroughfares during the night hours, including but not limited to the time prior to midnight on weeknights and/or 2am on weekends.

Eliminate fuzzy words• Some• Thing• Very• Truly• Really• In fact• Actually

• You need some utilities to make this system useful.

• The addition of three utilities would make this system useful.

• The addition of a graphical editor, a text editor, and a formatter would make this system useful.

• There are a few things that might clutter the main logic of the algorithm

• We can eliminate clutter in this algorithm by assuming that the string representing the infix expression contains only arithmetic operators, parentheses, the delimiter #, and operands that each consist of a single character.

• Actually, differential files in fact have advantages, such as that recovery after a program error is really fast.

• Trie hashing has benefits, such as that it preserves order, so sequential accessing is fast.

Sentences in right order?• Definitions come before the item is

first used• Abbreviations or acronyms are

regularised (defined at first use)• First sentence of each paragraph

sets the idea

Are words in right order?• I hit him in the eye yesterday.

• Only I hit him in the eye yesterday.

• I only hit him in the eye yesterday.

• I hit only him in the eye yesterday.

• I hit him only in the eye yesterday.

• I hit him in only the eye yesterday.

• I hit him in the only eye yesterday.

• I hit him in the eye only yesterday.

• I hit him in the eye yesterday only.

• We only calculate the first two items on this list.

• We calculate only the first two items on this list.

• Peter also writes programs. • Peter writes programs also.

• Peter also writes programs.

• Mary writes programs; Peter also writes programs

• Peter runs programs; Peter also writes programs

• It is either the agent (Peter) or the verb (writes) that is being modified by also

• Peter writes programs also.

• Peter writes programs; he writes science fiction also

• It is the recipient of the activity that is being modified

Rule• Place also before the verb when also

modifies either the agent or the activity, and place also after the verb when also modifies the recipient of the activity.

• Remove unnecessary repetition, especially between abstract and introduction.

• Check all claims are fully supported by the facts.

• Check that your mathematics is correct.

• Have you made good use of citations?

• Check all pointers.

• Dangling participles• Split infinitives• Sentences ending in prepositions

• Dangling participles occur where the first part of the sentence and the clause that follows just don’t belong together, and therefore don’t make sense.

• Driving through Taranaki, Mt Egmont dominates the landscape.

• Crossing the room, her foot bled all over the carpet.

• Driving home in yesterday’s storm, a tree fell on the back of my car.

• If properly installed, you shouldn’t be able to open the door without first pressing the safety button.

• In evening clothes and with her hair specially styled, Mark always thought his mother as glamorous as a film-star.

Split infinitives• To boldly go where no one has

gone before.• To go boldly where no one has

gone before• To go where no one has gone

before boldly.

• To better understand the miners’ plight, he went to live in their district.

• To understand better the miners’ plight, he went to live in their district.

• We are seeking a plan to gradually, systematically, and economically relieve the burden.

• Preposition: word serving to mark the relation between the noun or pronoun it governs and another word

• Found him at home• Wait in the hall• What did you do it for?• The bed he slept on• Won by waiting• Came through the roof

• Perth is a good place in which to live

• Perth is a good place to live in

• Churchill: “…the sort of English up with which I will not put.”

• What did you want to bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?