Papers writing tips

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Papers writing tips

• Paper structure
• Abstract
• Introduction
• 1) What is the paper about? What problem/issue
  are you addressing? I.e. PROBLEM FORMULATION
• 2) What approaches have been studied in the past
  for the same problem (or similar problems)? What
  are the main advantages and disadvantages of
  those approaches? I.e. LITERATURE REVIEW
• 3) How are you planning to address the problem?
  What are your strategies? What is the paper
  structure and/or organization? I.e. PLAN
• Body (e.g. discussion)
• Conclusions

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Papers writing tips Introduction

• The first sentence of the abstract and/or the
  introduction should say what the paper is about
  and should catch the readers attention.
• Lets look at the Masters (the real ones)
• Newtons Principia (The Mathematical Principles
  of Natural Philosophy) preface starts with
• Since the ancients (as we are told by Pappus),
  made great account of the science of mechanics in
  the investigation of the natural things and the
  moderns, laying aside substantial forms and
  occult qualities, have endeavoured to subject the
  phenomena of nature to the laws of mathematics, I
  have in this treatise cultivated mathematics so
  far as it regards philosophy.
• So Newton is saying that inspired by Pappus of
  Alexandria (previous work) he is planning to
  study mechanics (problem formulation) by
  presenting and using mathematic fundamental tools
  (how he is planning to address the problem).
• Lets see other examples

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Papers writing tips Introduction
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Papers writing tips Introduction
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Papers writing tips Introduction
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Papers writing tips Introduction
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Papers writing tips Introduction
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Papers writing tips Main body

• First, a few comments about the title
• Never include acronyms in the title.
• Dont use new or novel in the title.
• The main body may contain one or more sections.
• Start by stating again the problem, then solve
  it, and finally verify your solution with
  simulations and/or experiments.
• Call figures, tables and references in order.
  For figures and tables first you need to call
  them in the text and then you should included
  them in the document.
• In a communication process the emitter (writer)
  is the one responsible to transmit the message
  with a suitable code that can be understood by
  the receiver (reader). E.g. never assume that an
  acronym is well known, except the ones included
  in IEEE acronym list (e.g. ac or dc)

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Papers writing tips Main body

• Avoid very long sentences.
• Combine long and short sentences.
• You may use passive voice but not all the time.
• Be gender neutral and try to avoid sentences in
  first (I, we) or second person (you).
• Be moderate. Use may, better, etc.
• Avoid clichés or excessive commercial
  approaches.
• When discussing your solution to a problem or
  your design be fair. Always mention both the good
  and bad things.
• Go to the point. Shorter is usually better.

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Papers writing tips Main body

• Avoid being redundant.
• Some problems have a very specific structure
  that you need to follow. For example in
  optimization problems you need to be very clear
  regarding the objective function and the
  constraints.
• Avoid prepositional sentences. E.g.
• Wrong way the voltage in the output
• Right way the output voltage
• Start all paragraphs with a sentence that helps
  to understand what are you going to talk about in
  that paragraph.
• Lead the readers throughout the paper.
  Connecting sentences, such as thus, however,
  and others, are helpful.
• Avoid 1-sentence long paragraphs.

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Papers writing tips Conclusions

• You need to summarize all your paper.
• You need to tell what was the problem, how you
  analyzed it and what were the results.
• Again, say both the good and the bad things
  about your approach.
• If it is relevant, mention possible future work
  or new questions that are derived from the paper.
• Dont forget to acknowledge contributions and
  support for the work.
• After submitting your paper be open to
  criticism. Great scientists and engineers had
  been proved wrong many times.

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Papers writing tips References

• The references must be relevant
• Use good quality references (e.g. avoid blogs or
  wikipedia unless you can verify the piece of
  information you are using from another
  independent and trustworthy source).
• When some author has similar published papers,
  cite only the most relevant of all.
• Add your own work in the references but with
  moderation and only when it is relevant.
• Follow the appropriate format. For electrical
  engineering use the IEEE format. Details can be
  found at
• http//www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs/pubs/transac
  tions/auinfo03.pdf
• http//wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/find/citation/ieee.
  html
• http//www.ece.uiuc.edu/pubs/ref_guides/ieee.htm
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