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Academic Writing Week 4

Academic writing workshop lectured by Steven Wallace.

Also see the blog in his technical writing editor company: https://www.editing.tw/blog

Why go to conferences

To meet other humans of the same special interest group and to impress them

  • reviewers and editors
  • potential coauthors

Show them you are interested in their studies. Exchanging email addresses is even better.

Conference paper

  • Accepts partial results (if you get full results go for regular journals)
  • Most likely not count towards multiple submissions, except
  • Journal conference papers
  • Conference with a ISBN
  • If rejected, send a nice letter to query reviewer comments to help your paper.

Abstract

  • Match the keyword for survive the screening and for search engines
  • Word limit for abstract is around 300 words (2 sentences for each section)
  • Do not use abbreviations. uncommon acronyms, symbols difficult to explain
  • Cite one new research for novelty, one important person in your field, and one conference reviewer (e.g. technical editor) for connection.

How to write a paper

(General version)

Writing order

Methods and results -> (target a journal) -> Intro and discussion -> title

Introduction

  • Avoid telling a long history
  • Minimal amount a necessary background information
  • Motivation
  • Literature review for terms and definitions
  • Knowledge gap
  • Research questions (Research aim)
  • Only cite for
  • Context (motivation)
  • Keywords (lit. review)
  • Concepts (lit. review)
  • Knowledge gap (related work)
  • Common mistakes ⚠️
  • Cite one source too much
  • Cite irrelevant sources
  • Overcite definitions
  • Misattribute (may upset your referee)
    • Misuse implication as facts
  • Cite a citation (for the keyword definition, go for the first one)
  • Quote too much
  • Paraphrasing : when you just opy the notes. Instead: close the reference and note and try to recall by impression alone.

Tenses

  • Present: for facts and descriptions in figures / tables
  • Present perfect: for multiple previous studies (e.g. knowledge gaps)
  • Past: for a single previous study and your methods / results

Materials and methods

  • Past tense, except for populations and facts
  • Cite for methodology only
  • Passive voice to hide we
  • Occasionally hint the reader the purpose of your methods
  • Avoid using then too much
  • After A, B...
  • Once A, B ...
  • In the end, ...
  • Verbs > Nouns. Adv. + Verb >> a lot of descriptions
  • Give your devices a meaning name instead of tube 1, tube 2, ...

Results

Figures and table are here to save your text, not to replicate them.
- Use present tense in the descriptions
- legends should be standalone
- Put related data into subplots
- Avoid power point humors

Discussion

What does your results mean?

  • Note and difference of strong vs weak verbs: e.g. found (strong facts) vs. suggested (weak implications)
  • Do reverse lit. review to state the connection of prev. work and yours
  • Future works to encourage other to join force and you can get cited. Also get relevant to the reality.

Acknowledgements

  • Ones who helped you and cheered you up
  • Reviewers and editors
  • Sponsors and funding

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