Writing Your Research Paper Masters-Doctoral Seminar

Research Paper Requirements All students taking this course for a letter grade must write a short research paper Must be in ACM SIG Conferences Proceedings formatACM SIG Conferences Proceedings –Font sizes and formats for citations and references must be as specified in this document. –Exceptions: “Categories and Subject Descriptors” and “General Terms” parts can be omitted. Length should be 4-6 pages (minimum). –Conference papers usually limited to 6-8 pages –Each journal specifies their length limits. 2

Research Paper Requirements (cont) Should be written at a level that is accessible to CS graduate students. Should be based on either –research you have conducted towards your thesis or dissertation –2-3 research papers of interest to you on the same topic, but should not be based on a single paper. Must include several appropriate research citations. –All citations, including web citations, must follow appropriate style. 3

Research Paper Requirements (cont) A first draft of the paper must be submitted to me electronically by 5pm Monday Nov 29, –Must follow the required ACM style and be in.doc,.docx, or.pdf format. –Papers that do not meet reasonable standards will be returned for revisions Doesn’t follow ACM formatting rules English grammar needs improving English presentation (e.g., paragraphs) needs improvement Technical presentation needs improvement Final version must be submitted electronically by 5pm on Wednesday December 8,

Choosing a Good Title for Paper The title is the part of your paper that will be seen by the most people. Must be carefully selected in order to properly convey the main focus of the paper Do not try to mention every topic covered in paper in its title –Leads to long complicated names that difficult to recall and to understand its meaning Preferable to avoid titles that are long, complex, and difficult to remember Title should not be similar to the title of another paper, as that will cause confusion in the future. Specific and reasonably short names that fit the main topics will leave options open for future titles for follow- up papers on these same topics. 5

Abstracts The abstract is a stand-alone description that captures the most important information about a paper Other than the title, it is the part of the paper that will be read by the largest audience. Abstracts are often published without the rest of the paper, it must be self-contained, brief, and non-repetitive. Researchers often make a decision about whether to purchase or read your paper, based on your abstract. 6

Abstracts (cont-1) The abstract should be written last after all other parts of the paper are completed. –It is a compact summary of the essential information from the entire paper –If a version of the abstract is required earlier, it should be re-written after paper is finish. Normally written as one compact single paragraph that conveys as much about the paper as possible. –Often papers and conferences limit the length to words. –Eliminate all non-essential information from abstract 7

Abstracts (cont-2) Ideally, the first sentence will convey the new information contained in the paper. Try to convey as much essential information as possible in a very direct manner using concise sentences. Delete any extra words, extra phases, and background information. Delete any citation of references, as the abstract may be able to “stand alone” without the paper. Omit or include at most only a brief mention of the methods used in the paper. View the abstract as your advertisement to attract other researchers to “read your paper”. 8

Abstracts (cont-3) Normally avoid all motivation in the abstract. While unusual, another paper can be mentioned by listing its first author and an abbreviated title. Usually avoid any use of math (e.g., equations and formulas except for famous ones like E = mc 2 ) in the abstract. –An exception could be including an important running time for your algorithm –E.g., “This is the first algorithm of this type to have an O(log 2 n) running time.” 9

Abstracts (cont-4) Normally avoid use of the phase "in this paper" in the abstract. What other paper would you be talking about here? Usually write abstract (and paper) in third person, avoiding use of “I”. “we”, “our”, etc. –Can use words like “this investigation” or “this research” instead. 10

Contents of a Technical Paper Title, Author(s) Short abstract Introduction -- first section/chapter in paper Related Work Main body – Problem, approach, results –These may be broken up into more than one section/chapter, if desired Conclusions, summary, future work –Usually in the final section/chapter in paper References Appendices –Not appropriate for a research paper. 11

Writing Style Re-read Elements of Style by Strunk and White –See our webpage for a link to online copy The first sentence of a paragraph should be a topic (or introductory) sentence and provide an overview of content of that paragraph. Use of one sentence paragraphs are occasionally appropriate, but should be minimized. Give the paper to one or two other people to read and critique. –E.g., one person who has good English skills and another who is familiar with technical area of paper 12

Links on Technical Writing Study the references cited on our web page for more advice and details. Two (possibly new) useful links: – – style.html 13