howtowrite.ppt

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howtowrite.ppt

• version 20101009

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How to Write

• William J. Rapaport
• Department of Computer Science Engineering,
• Department of Philosophy, Department of
  Linguistics,
• and Center for Cognitive Science
• rapaport_at_buffalo.edu
• http//www.cse.buffalo.edu/rapaport

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How to Write

• Why write?
• 2 ways to write
• Editing
• Formatting
• Citations
• Punctuation Difficult Words
• How to find journal articles

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Why Write?

• To tell others what you have learned
• what you have learned from reading thinking
• literature review what others have learned
• also useful for dissertation proposal
  dissertation
• keep a reading journal
• for each article or book, do
• record all bibliographic info
• copy interesting or important passages
• comment on them
• why are they interesting or important?
• what do they remind you of?
• take their ideas further

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Why Write? To Tell Others What You Have Learned

• What you have learned by discovering it yourself
• outline your research
• What problem are you trying to solve?
• Why is it important?
• What recent advances or interesting ideas are
  there?
• what have others done?
• what have others not done yet?
• literature review!
• What have you done (so far)?
• What is your next step?
• how does it relate to your goal?
• why is it important?
• How will you know when
• youve made progress?
• youre done?

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How to Write

• Write!
• 2 ways to write
• make an outline
• free writing
• Edit!

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How to Write

• Make an outline
• based on sorting your notes in reading journal
• or based on your research outline
• intro topic-1 topic-2
  topic-3 conclusion/summary
• idea-1
• sub-idea-1.1
• sub-idea-1.2, etc.
• idea-2, etc.
• use these as section headings

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How to Write

• Free writing
• sit down write
• let the ideas flow
• not (necessarily) recommended for beginners!

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How to Write

• Keep your audience (readers) in mind
• what assumptions can you make?
• avoid jargon / technical terms!

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How to Write

• Edit!
• Re-read what you wrote
• slowly actively
• be critical
• imagine what questions others might have
• get feedback from others
• Revise
• Repeat!

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How to Format

• Depends on whom its for
• course instructor?
• major professor?
• conference?
• Each will have their own rules

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How to Format

• General rules for formatting
• 8.5 x 11 (not A4)
• 1 margins (all 4 sides)
• single-sided (unless need to save paper)
• double-spaced (easier to proofread)
• indent paragraphs
• number all pages

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How to Format

• Order of contents
• Title identifying info
• descriptive title catchy subtitle
• your name
• your institution (or course name)
• date
• Abstract
• 1-paragraph summary
• Body of paper
• optional
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix
• Endnotes (footnotes are better!)
• References (in alphabetical order!)

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Things NOT to Do

• For article (not book)
• no table of contents
• no running heads
• No cover page
• No blank pages
• No expensive folders or binders
• use staples or binder-clips

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Things NOT to Do

• No box arrow diagrams without explanations

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Things NOT to Do

• No unexplained or unnecessary acronyms
• Abbreviations
• easy for you to type
• but hard for your audience to read!

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Citations

• Give enough info for reader to find document
• Actual format not important
• unless publisher / instructor says so!

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Citations

• For journal articleFamilyname, Givenname
  (year), Title, Journal vol firstpagelastpage.
• For example
• Rapaport, William J. (1986), Logical
  Foundations for Belief Representation, Cognitive
  Science 10 371422.

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Citations

• For bookFamilyname, Givenname (year), Title
  (city publisher).
• For example
• Schagrin, Morton L. Rapaport, William J.
  Dipert, Randall D. (1985), Logic A Computer
  Approach (New York McGraw-Hill).

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Citations

• In-text cross-references
• Dont use these unless you need to
• 23
• Rap
• Do use Familynameyear
• Rapaport 1986

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Punctuation Usage

• See my webpagehttp//www.cse.buffalo.edu/rapap
  ort/howtowrite.htmlgrammar

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How to Find Journal Articles(without leaving
your office)

• Assumption
• You already know author, title, source
• Could go to library
• First, check Bison to make sure UB has it!
• But then have to read it there, or copy it ()

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How to Find Journal Articles (without leaving
your office)

• Try to find online!
• See if UB subscribes to electronic journal
• MyUB ? MyLibrary ? E-Journals? search for
  specific electronic journal titles
• if not, then Google
• author-name title in quotes
• if not, then find authors homepage look there
• if not, if not in library,then use
  Inter-Library Loan (ILLiad)
• MyUB ? MyLibrary ? ILLiad Requests
• if all else fails, email author!