Scientific writing
The skills required for science and writing – are they different?
"The best science is based on straightforward, logical thinking, and it isn't artistic prose that we expect in [scientific texts] -- we expect clarity." [Writing for Computer Science, J. Zobel]
Be simple
Be concise and precise
be unambiguous (e.g., are back references such as “those” or “it” clear?)
concrete statements instead of vague descriptions such as “many”, “good”, “quite” etc.
Avoid
abbreviations. If used, use them consistently.
footnotes, because they interrupt the reading flow.
parentheses. Either it is important to say/read → write it, or it is not important → do not write it.
Tense
Technical terms
introduce (italics, \emph{…})
re-use consistently
use existing terms instead of inventing new, own terms
Thread
vary connecting phrases (many authors overuse “However, …”)
introductory sentence per section
Refer to each figure/table. Refer at that point where reader should switch from main text to figure/table.
Be critical on your own text.
“… following elementary steps: create a logical organization, use concise sentences, revise against checklists of possible problems, seek feedback. Like many skills, writing improves through practice and a willingness to accept and learn from criticism.” [Writing for Computer Science, J. Zobel]
“There is no excuse for a report that contains spelling errors.” [Writing for Computer Science, J. Zobel]
Citations
Why to care about previous work?
do not invent the wheel a second time
appreciate previous work
demonstrate your knowledge of the research area
provide links to other relevant, interesting, background literature
What should you cite?
books, book chapters
review articles
journal articles (peer-reviewed)
conference articles (peer-reviewed)
avoid: PhD theses, posters, personal communication
if you have several choices: primal publication, most recent publication, most important publication, most elegant publication?
How?
name-year system: “BLAST (Altschul et al. 1990) and FASTA (Pearson 1990) are based on pairwise alignment.”
number system: “BLAST [11] and FASTA [17] are based on pairwise alignment.”
Emphasize others work by stating authors and year of publication: “In 1990, two methods based on pairwise alignment have been introduced: BLAST by Altschul et al. [1] and FASTA by W. Pearson [17].”
Where?
as close to the statement as possible
directly after naming a method/algorithm/tool
in case of several statements, after the last
BibTeX
blabla~\cite{KEY1, KEY2}
blabla~\cite[Chapter 3]{BOOKKEY}
\nocite{*} for test usage
\bibliographystyle{abbrv, alpha, …}
"Tell them what you're going to tell them,
tell them, then tell them what you've told them"
Introduction/Motivation
The topic
Actual content
Now you can go ahead like “In this manuscript, …”
as cursorily as possible (to not loose the reader due to too many details)
as detailed as necessary (to be informative and comprehensible)
Structure
Structuring a manuscript well can be difficult. Communicate the structure/logic to the reader.
short paragraph (separated from above by \medskip)
one sentence per chapter
not too monotonic, connect sentences
E.g.: “Together, these results show that the hypothesis holds for linear coefficients. The difficulties presented by non-linear coefficients are considered in the next section.”
Conclusions
“tell them what you've told them” … and more:
Mathematics
Variables in italics ($ $).
Do not use the same variable name for different things.
Avoid sub- and superscripts.
Do not begin sentences with variable names.
Repeat the type of variable when using a variable, but be careful with the placing of the variable. E.g.:
“… a sorted list of numbers sampled from the given set S” versus “… a sorted list S of numbers sampled from given set”
Beautify:
Take care of the spacing, e.g.: +x (sign) versus + x (addition)
Take care of line breaks.
Do not use 'x' or \times as multiplication symbol. Use \cdot or just a space.
paratheses in different sizes: \left( \sum … \right)
x_1 + x_2 + \cdots + x_n
x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n
Checklist
Did you write concisely (no excessively long sentences; no redundancy)?
Are paragraphs used reasonably?
Did you use some variation in the sentence structure and use of introductory phrases? (Phrasebank)
Are the title and headings consistent with the content?
Is the style and wording of headings and captions consistent?
Do all headings have maximum or minimum capitalization?
Have all terms been defined?
Were all new terms introduced in italics (\emph)?
Has terminology been used consistently?
Are all variable names in italics (Latex math mode $ $)?
Are variable names used consistently, not for different things, and not at the beginning of a sentence?
Is every abbreviation (abbrv.) stated in full when first used (like in this example)? Is any abbrv. introduced more than once? Is any full statement subsequently used unnecessarily?
Is every abbrv. used less then, say, four times? If so, can it be removed?
Have bold and italic been used logically?
Are any words hyphenated in some places but not in others?
Do the parentheses match? Are they necessary?
Are the graphs/figures all the same size? Is similar font size used in graphs/figures?
Are figure sources explicitly cited in the figure caption (Figure reprinted from [x].)?
Are all figures, tables, and algorithms referenced at an appropriate place in the text?
Are captions of figures and tables as well as definitions, lemmas, theorems etc. self-contained?
In the references, has each field been formatted consistently? (Automatically done by Biblatex.) Is capitalization correct, e.g., are acronyms or names capitalized (embrace by {} in your bibfile)? Are journal and conference names abbreviated in the same way? Is the style of author names consistent? (Automatically done by Biblatex.) Has a sufficient and consistent set of fields been provided for each reference of the same type (e.g., “location” for books, “last access” for websites)?