CS710: Chapters

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CS710 Chapters

• Norman Paton

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Situating a Chapter

• A chapter
• Has a purpose that can be stated in a sentence.
• Has a statement at the beginning that makes the
  purpose clear.
• Has a statement at the end as to how the purpose
  has been achieved.
• Is explicit about how the chapter relates to what
  goes before and after.

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Example of Purpose/Situation
Preamble to Empirical Evaluation Chapter This
chapter describes the experiments performed to
compare the five join algorithms described
in Chapter 4. The experiments involve
Summary This chapter described the experiments
performed on the Polar system for comparing the
join algorithms described in Chapter 4. Some
of the conclusions that can be drawn from the
results obtained are as follows
Sampaio 02
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Example of Purpose/Situation
Preamble to Cost Model Chapter Cost models are
used by query optimisers of database systems to
This chapter presents a cost model which
models the behaviour of the algorithms of the
parallel algebra described in Chapter 4. The
cost model associates cost functions with each
operator, based on the operations performed by
the operator, taking parallelism into
account. The cost model is validated
Sampaio 02
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Writing a Chapter

• The introduction sets the agenda for the thesis,
  and thus for each chapter.
• Develop the table of contents and write the
  introduction first.
• Time spent on the plan for a chapter is unlikely
  to be wasted.
• Generating text is not easy developing text and
  the story at the same time is bad news.

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Making It Easy for Yourself

• Have some common themes
• Lead in and lead out text.
• Location of related work material.
• Style of related work material.
• Diagrams expanded as story is refined.

• Have a running case study
• Illustrate related work using this.
• Follow the case study through your proposal.
• Use the case study in a demo or presentation.

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Existing Material

• Most research students write as they go
• Transfer/continuation report.
• Design documents.
• Technical reports.
• Papers.
• Reuse of text from these is fine as long as you
  wrote that text.
• Experience suggests that transplanting large
  blocks of material rarely works.

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The Blank Page
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Getting Going

• You already know
• The purpose of the chapter.
• The structure of the chapter.
• The amount of space allocated to each part.
• The main technical result.
• The running example/case study.

• So to start
• Write the material on the purpose.
• Include the structure.
• Identify existing figures, definitions, proofs,
• Work up the examples relevant to the chapter.
• Then start on the remaining text, in order if
  possible.

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Figures Are Good

• Usable for
• Context.
• Architecture.
• Design.
• Results.
• Examples.
• Given
• A decent drawing tool.
• The absence of bitmaps.
• Good figures make the text easy.

• Not all figures are good
• Use notations with a known meaning.
• Make explicit what symbols mean.
• Figures rarely speak for themselves.
• Computer science is weak on captions.
• Text in figures is often too small.

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Decide for Yourselves
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Examples Are Good

• Useful for
• Motivation.
• Clarification.
• Comparison.
• Explanation.
• How frequent should these be?
• Part of the fittings.
• Abstract concepts benefit from concrete
  illustration.

• Examples can differ in scale
• A sentence in the text.
• A scenario in a chapter.
• A context for an experiment.
• A thesis-long illustration.

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Get the Small Things Right!

• Zobel (see recommended reading) discusses
• How to present mathematics.
• Graphs, figures and tables.
• How to present algorithms.

• It is truly hard to tell a coherent and
  consistent story at thesis length.
• It is not so hard to
• Spell.
• Draw graphs.
• Present algorithms.
• but they matter.

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Summary

• Writing specific chapters is easier if
• You have written extensively en-route.
• The aims and objectives are clear.
• The thesis structure is clear.
• The examiner is a human too, and likes
• To know why you are saying what you are.
• Plenty of examples.
• Thoughtful diagrams.
• Finite length.