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HOW TO WRITE
A TECHNICAL PAPER?
Sheikh Ali Akbar
CISM, Dept. of Materials Science & Eng.
The Ohio State University
Some general guidelines
Based on personal experience
UMJuly 20, 2011
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Where is Ohio?Where is Columbus?
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OSU - largest(~60,000 students)
Where am I?
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How to write a good technical paper?
How to give an engaging technical talk?
Organizing a successful presentation is amajor step toward writing a scientific paper.
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Part 1: Specify what problem (topic) is being
addressed Why is the problem (topic) interesting!
Part 2: What is the current state of the art of
solutions? Or, how is the topic currently beingaddressed in literature?
Why is the current literature inadequate?
Part 3: What is the proposed solution?
Why is it interesting?
Important Parts
This mostly constitutes the Introduction
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Important Parts (contd.)
Part 4: Experimental/Theory
Present methodology.
Part 5: Results and Discussion
Present key results with figures and data.
How does the proposed solution compare with others?o In theory?
o In practice?
What are the weaknesses?
Part 6: Conclusion
Summarize proposed solution and why it is interesting.
Summarize weaknesses/limitations.
Identify open questions/unresolved issues.
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PLANNING AHEAD
- Right from the beginning of your project, think about
experiments in terms of future papers, especially the FIGURES.
For example, for photomicrographs, think about
the best magnifications and orientations to show
the important features.
Keep consistent backgrounds.Record the magnifications for the scale bars.
Decide what are the key conclusions of the paper - the important
message you want to convey. Do you have all the data AND the
figures to prove your point?
- Have printed/e-copies of key references and read them.
- Start a Database for references e.g. ENDNOTE will format
references for different journals.
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SHORT PAPER (Letter)
In many ways this is the hardest to write, even thoughit is the shortest. The paper has to be concise and
engaging, right from the opening sentence.
For some journals the first paragraph of a short
format paper (Letter) is also the abstract and
describes both the significance of the work and the
major results.
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General considerations:
- Download Instructions for Authors.- Note limitations like
page number, word and/or character count
number of Figures, number of references
word length of Abstract.It is best to know the limits in advance than have to go back
and change the paper later.
- Print out one or two examples of a high qualitypaper in your field in this journal.
- Note specific styles (Italics/bold for headings;
Hours/hrs; Fig/Figure and other special features)
FULL-LENGTH PAPER
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- The main contributor should be thefirst author;
typically student/post-doc
- Corresponding author is usually the senior author
(e.g., thesis advisor, center director); typically the lastauthor
Criteria for authorship:
Generate at least part of the intellectual content
Conception or design of the work
Data analysis and interpretation
Draft, critically review or revise the intellectual content
Authorship
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Spell and Grammar Check
Use software with judgement
Use Spelling and Grammar option in Microsoft Word.
However, remember that Spell-check will only highlight
words that do not correspond to an entry in the dictionary.
For example, if you typed
We added halt and than heater fur too ours to denature the
protean.
versus
We added salt and then heated for two hours to denature the
protein.
Spell-check will not find any mistakes!
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Use Of Tenses
- Text can be in either the past or present tense;personal taste.
- Past tense is OK for describing results of an experiment,
but use present tense for a general conclusion.
We observed that the growth rate WAS increased. This suggests
that the growthIS regulated by temperature.
- Present tense is more immediate and indicates that a process
is ongoing.
In the early stage, the HOS cell is in contact with the surface nano-
structures, and calcium deposition has begun to develop as athickening of the nano-structure.
versus
In the early stage, we found that the HOS cell was in contact with the
surface nano-structures and calcium deposition had begun to develop as a
thickening of the nano-structure.
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WHATEVER TENSE IS USED, BE
CONSISTENT AND DONT
SWITCH BACK AND FORTH INTHE SAME PARAGRAPH !!!
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Use of suggest that ; hypothesize that possible that
- These phrases do not need may, might
Examples:
Our results suggest that Hoxa3 may be involved in thymus
development (not correct)
It is possible that Shh in the endoderm may regulate Bmp4
expression in the mesoderm. (not correct)
Our results suggest that Hoxa3 is involved in thymus development(correct)
It is possible that Shh in the endoderm regulates Bmp4 expression
in the mesoderm. (correct)
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Use the active voice
NO YESIt can be seen that... We can see that...
34 tests were run We ran 34 tests
These properties werethought desirable
We wanted to retain theseproperties
It might be thought thatthis would be a type error
You might think this wouldbe a type error
The passive voice is respectable
but it DEADENS your paper.
We = youand thereader
We = theauthors
You = the
reader
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Use simple, direct language
NO YES
The object under study was displaced
horizontallyThe ball moved sideways
On an annual basis Yearly
Endeavour to ascertain Find out
It could be considered that the speed
of storage reclamation left something
to be desired
The garbage collector was really slow
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Use Short Sentences
A very long sentence
Genes A, B, C and D and their antagonists are expressed at high
levels in the thymus of the wild type embryos but in the
heterogeneous mutants they are lower and in the null mutant they
are absent except in a small region where the latter are expressed
at low levels.
This is better
Genes A, B, C and D, and their antagonists are expressed at high
levels in the thymus of wild type embryos. Transcription of all
genes is lower in heterogeneous mutants. By contrast, in
homogeneous null mutants no expression of any gene could be
detected, except in a small region in which the genes encoding
the antagonists are still fully active.
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Before Sending to the Journal
- Have the paper read by several people.
Listen to what they say, especially if same criticismcomes up several times.
- Check and recheck spelling, figures, references, legends, etc.
Reviewers can be really annoyed by careless editing and
mistakes reflect badly on your science.
- Make sure you have followed all the requirements of the
journal about electronic submission, etc.
Some have a specific Checklist and Front Page format
(key words; contact information; e-mail address etc.)
- Include a cover letter outlining the originality and important
findings and why it will be of interest to the typical reader of the
journal you have selected.
- Suggest possible referees, especially if the topic is unusual.
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Listening to your reviewers
This is really, really hard
But itsreally, really, really, really, really,
really, really, reallyimportant
Read every criticism as a positive suggestion for
something you could explain more clearly
Be (truly) grateful for criticism as well as praise
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Thank you
Questions?
UMJuly 20, 2011