Writing

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Writing presentation skills
Self-organization course CRNs 28225, 26056
Lecture 14
carl_at_isye.gatech.edu
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Writing review articles
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Review articles
Review articles

• Something new to say about field / area
• New issues, insights, results, framework
• More than literature review
• Tutorial / overview of previous work and ideas
• General audience
• May be quantitative
• Meta-analyses e.g., 30 / 35 studies of
  endangered species reintroductions failed

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Review articles
Review articles

• Best reviews are synthetic
• Organize material to see bigger picture
• Bridge building to other disciplines
• New classification
• Cellular automata continuous vs discrete states
• Example Anderson, 2002
• See old material in new ways
• Point of view
• Take home message
• Why do we care?

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Review articles
Review articles

• To be comprehensive balanced,
  acknowledge
• Controversies
• Hype
• Unresolved questions
• Recent developments
• Other viewpointsbe objective
• Conflicts / bias

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Writing
Review articles

• Clarity accuracy
• Single, clear narrative
• Tangential point
• Remove it
• Footnote it. Then remove it
• Organization
• Chronology
• Relationship
• Guiding theory, competing models, perspective
• Go against the grain what everyone thinks, why
  they think it, why I think otherwise

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Writing
Review articles

• Title
• Informative Descriptive
• Memorable / Quirky
• The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian
  paradigm a critique of the adaptationist program
• The spaniels of St. Marx and the panglossian
  paradox,a critique of a rhetorical programme
• Use colon
• Live and let die why fighter males of the ant
  Cardiocondyla kill each other but tolerate their
  winged rivals Anderson et al., 2003
• Headings and subheadings
• Table of contents / explicit layout in text

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Self-organization in relations to several similar
concepts are the boundaries to self-organization
indistinct?
Review articles

• Abstract / Introduction
• What is self-organization?
• Could a self-organized use global information?
• What is the role of the degree of correlation of
  activity among individuals?
• Qualitative versus quantitative stigmergy
• Qualitative versus self-assembly
• Self-assembly versus self-organization
• What is the role of positive feedback?
• Could self-assemblages involve positive feedback?
• Do some examples of self-organization lack
  positive feedback?
• Conclusions

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Review articles
Reviews should not be like phone books!
Impressive cast, lots of numbers, but not much
plot
No mind-numbing lists of references
One can be comprehensive, but this detail can be
relegated to tables and appendices
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(No Transcript)
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Document structure
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The double funnel
Introduction
Infinite of possible topics
EXAMPLE
General topic
Traffic
Traffic on roads (vs)
Why interesting / important
Self-organized behavior
More specific issues
What are the collective behaviors, how do they
arise, can they be manipulated?
Specific questions ( order?) addressed in this
study
GOAL FOCUS THE READER
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The double funnel
Discussion
Very specific topic
EXAMPLE
Specific findings
Traffic is self-organized because
What we conclude
Why interesting / important
How does this relate to other systems, phenomena
More general issues
Where next?
To infinity and beyond
GOAL put results, ideas, and conclusions in
broader context
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The double funnel
Overall scheme Draw your readers into
subject Discuss your subject conduct your
study Put ideas in broader context
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Paragraph structure
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Paragraphs
P. 552, Gopen Ward, 1990
When the writer puts the emphatic material of a
sentence in any place other than the stress
position, one of two things can happen both are
bad. First, the reader might find the stress
position occupied by material that clearly is not
worthy of emphasis The second possibility is
even worse The reader may find the stress
position occupied by something that is
inadvertently emphasized .the writer will have
lost an important opportunity to influence the
readers interpretative process. The stress
position can change.
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Paragraphs
Issue
When the writer puts the emphatic material of a
sentence in any place other than the stress
position, one of two things can happen both are
bad. First, the reader might find the stress
position occupied by material that clearly is not
worthy of emphasis The second possibility is
even worse The reader may find the stress
position occupied by something that is
inadvertently emphasized .the writer will have
lost an important opportunity to influence the
readers interpretative process. The stress
position can change.
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Paragraphs
Organization
When the writer puts the emphatic material of a
sentence in any place other than the stress
position, one of two things can happen both are
bad. First, the reader might find the stress
position occupied by material that clearly is not
worthy of emphasis The second possibility is
even worse The reader may find the stress
position occupied by something that is
inadvertently emphasized .the writer will have
lost an important opportunity to influence the
readers interpretative process. The stress
position can change.
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Paragraphs
Organization
When the writer puts the emphatic material of a
sentence in any place other than the stress
position, one of two things can happen both are
bad. First, the reader might find the stress
position occupied by material that clearly is not
worthy of emphasis Second, and even worse, the
reader may find the stress position occupied by
something that is inadvertently emphasized
.the writer will have lost an important
opportunity to influence the readers
interpretative process. The stress position can
change.
?
2nd what? Too much material between the two may
have forgotten. Use topic as reminder
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Paragraphs
Conclusion
When the writer puts the emphatic material of a
sentence in any place other than the stress
position, one of two things can happen both are
bad. First, the reader might find the stress
position occupied by material that clearly is not
worthy of emphasis The second possibility is
even worse The reader may find the stress
position occupied by something that is
inadvertently emphasized .the writer will have
lost an important opportunity to influence the
readers interpretative process. The stress
position can change.
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Paragraphs
Paragraph linking
When the writer puts the emphatic material of a
sentence in any place other than the stress
position, one of two things can happen both are
bad. First, the reader might find the stress
position occupied by material that clearly is not
worthy of emphasis The second possibility is
even worse The reader may find the stress
position occupied by something that is
inadvertently emphasized .the writer will have
lost an important opportunity to influence the
readers interpretative process. The stress
position can change.
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Paragraphs
Repetition
?
The first step towards clarity is to write simply
and directly The second step toward clarity is
to organize the manuscript so that An example
of a review organized around competing models
is An example of a review organized around a
point is provided by
Bem, 1995. Psychol Bull. 118 172-177.
Example Slave-maker ants raid the nests of other
ants. During the assault?
Dont flip unnecessarily between alternative
jargon to mix it up you may confuse the reader
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Paragraphs
Paragraphs

• Exercises
• Examine list of topics (in order) in your essay.
  Do they outline a story?
• Does each paragraph have a point?
• No point? Discard
• Too many points? Split paragraph

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Sentence structure
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Subject verb separation
Sentences

• Do not have too many or too long parenthetical
  interruptions between subject and verb
• Carl, typically, for he is British and therefore
  it is deeply ingrained within his culture, likes
  to drink tea. 19 words 14 word subject-verb
  interruption
• Carl likes to drink tea this is perhaps
  unsurprising given that he is British and tea
  drinking is deeply ingrained within their
  culture. 5 18 words no interruption

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Stress position
Sentences

• Early in sentence old and familiar material
• Stress point new and unfamiliar
• Typically end of sentence
• Carl and his British friends love drinking tea.
• Not always, e.g. with semicolon () or colon ()
• Carl likes to drink tea this is perhaps
  unsurprising given that he is British.
• Carl is a typical Brit he likes drinking tea,
  and he adores the queen.
• Carl is a typical Brit first, he likes drinking
  tea second, he adores the queen.
• Sentence too long more candidates for stress
  positions than available stress positions

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Crafting sentences
Sentences

• First things first subjects should be followed
  as soon as possible by their verb
• Units of discourse should serve a single function
  or make a single point
• Save the best for last information intended to
  be emphasized should appear at stress point

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The complexity of the colony also has
consequences for the organisation of work within
the colony. In addition to worker policing (see
section III), reduced intracolony conflict in
complex societies has another important
consequence the type of social control. In small
simple societies, as in the ponerine ant
Dinoponera quadriceps Ref A, there is much
aggression and direct control of colony activity
by the queen or gamergate. Gamergates are
mated reproductive workers in queenless ants Ref
A. In effect, the reproductives centrally
control simple conflict-ridden societies.
However, in the relatively harmonious larger
societies, colony control and decision-making
tends to be decentralized. That is, workers react
to local information and configurations and so
are self-organized Refs B-E. Centralized
control would be difficult or impossible in large
colonies. However, decentralized control can be
very adaptive at the colony level, even with very
large colony sizes, and importantly does not
necessarily require complexity at the individual
level More Refs. Interestingly, there are
theoretical reasons to suppose that a large
decentralized colony can be both efficient and
reliable Anderson McShea, 2001

• Underline the topic sentence(s).
• Underline subject and verb for each sentence.
• Examine the stress points in each sentence.
• Consider the organization of the final sentence
  of main paragraph.

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The complexity of the colony also has
consequences for the organisation of work within
the colony. In addition to worker policing (see
section III), reduced intracolony conflict in
complex societies has another important
consequence the type of social control. In small
simple societies, as in the ponerine ant
Dinoponera quadriceps Ref A, there is much
aggression and direct control of colony activity
by the queen or gamergate. Gamergates are
mated reproductive workers in queenless ants Ref
A. In effect, the reproductives centrally
control simple conflict-ridden societies.
However, in the relatively harmonious larger
societies, colony control and decision-making
tends to be decentralized. That is, workers react
to local information and configurations and so
are self-organized Refs B-E. Centralized
control would be difficult or impossible in large
colonies. However, decentralized control can be
very adaptive at the colony level, even with very
large colony sizes, and importantly does not
necessarily require complexity at the individual
level More Refs. Interestingly, there are
theoretical reasons to suppose that a large
decentralized colony can be both efficient and
reliable

• Underline the topic sentence(s).
• Underline subject and verb for each sentence.
• Examine the stress points in each sentence.
• Consider the organization of the final sentence
  of main paragraph.

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The complexity of the colony also has
consequences for the organisation of work within
the colony. In addition to worker policing (see
section III), reduced intracolony conflict in
complex societies has another important
consequence the type of social control. In
small simple societies, as in the ponerine ant
Dinoponera quadriceps Ref A, there is much
aggression and direct control of colony activity
by the queen or gamergate. Gamergates are
mated reproductive workers in queenless ants Ref
A. In effect, the reproductives centrally
control simple conflict-ridden societies.
However, in the relatively harmonious larger
societies, colony control and decision-making
tends to be decentralized. That is, workers
react to local information and configurations and
so are self-organized Refs B-E. Centralized
control would be difficult or impossible in large
colonies. However, decentralized control can be
very adaptive at the colony level, even with very
large colony sizes, and importantly does not
necessarily require complexity at the individual
level More Refs.
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The complexity of the colony also has
consequences for the organisation of work within
the colony. In addition to worker policing (see
section III), reduced intracolony conflict in
complex societies has another important
consequence the type of social control. In
small simple societies, as in the ponerine ant
Dinoponera quadriceps Ref A, there is much
aggression and direct control of colony activity
by the queen or gamergate. Gamergates are
mated reproductive workers in queenless ants Ref
A. In effect, the reproductives centrally
control simple conflict-ridden societies.
However, in the relatively harmonious larger
societies, colony control and decision-making
tends to be decentralized. That is, workers
react to local information and configurations and
so are self-organized Refs B-E. Centralized
control would be difficult or impossible in large
colonies. However, decentralized control can be
very adaptive at the colony level, even with very
large colony sizes, and importantly does not
necessarily require complexity at the individual
level More Refs.
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Passive voice
Sentences

• Passive voice
• Active voice Subject?Verb ?Object
• Bees?disperse ?pollen
• Passive voice Object?Verb?Subject
• Pollen ?is dispersed?by bees
• Usual advice never to use it. Not so
• Passive voice has its place
• Who is the story about? bees or pollen?
• Remove agency Mistakes were made
• MAO activity in some patients with schizophrenia
  is actually higher than normal
• Tse and Tung (1994) report that MAO activity in
  some patients with schizophrenia is actually
  higher than normal

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Sentences
Gopen and Ward, 1990 p. 556
The enthalpy of hydrogen bond formation between
the nucleoside bases 2deoxyguanosine (dG) and
2deoxycytidine (dC) has been determined by
direct measurement
We have directly measured the enthalpy of
hydrogen bond formation between the nucleoside
bases 2deoxyguanosine (dG) and 2deoxycytidine
(dC). dG and dC were
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Sentence
Sentences

• Exercises
• Topical words at a stress point?
• Do the sentences flow? E.g., are words in stress
  point related to topic of next sentence?

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Presentations
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Presentation
Presentations

• Logical and structured
• Spelling and grammar
• Free of distractions
• Clear and concise
• Important information highlighted
• Number and size of words
• Background and color
• Mathematical notation

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Stimulus dynamics
1 task, 2 castes
Efficiency of task performance
Stimulus regeneration / unit time
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Audience
Presentations

• Reading the audience
• Level of detail
• Eye contact
• Audience questions
• Check understood?
• Understandable language
• Acronyms
• Jargon
• Loud and clear
• Umm, errrr

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Presenter
Presentations

• Eye contact
• Loud and clear
• Umm, errrr
• Annoying gestures
• Explain charts and figures well?

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Presentations
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Presentations
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Tips
Presentations

• Keep it simple
• Dont use complete sentences
• Dont cram material on page
• Color
• Few High contrast
• Dont rush lose audience
• Dont overdo the effects
• Spirals, sounds, flashes etc.
• Recommend bars at page top