Academic Writing Tips

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  • Paper Roadmap
    • Problem -> Ideas -> Methods -> Algorithm -> Implementation -> Experiments -> Conclusion
  • Logic
    • Transfer words (link sentences)
    • Connection between points and points
    • Claim the whole section in the head
  • Writing Paradigm
    • Problem X is important (in theory or application)
    • Work A, B, C… are state of the art method for X
    • A, B, C… have weakness not solved
    • Analyze the weakness and propose a new method D
    • Experimentally compare D with A, B, C
    • Why does D work? Why E, F, G do not work?
    • Strngth and weakness of D
    • Future work of D

  • Rejection. Why?

    1. Not enough Innovation
      • Has done before
      • Too straightforward/naive (Simple is good, but straightforward is bad)
      • Limited modifications/improvement
      • Intuitive technique, without serious theory proof
    2. Experiments cannot convice readers or need more experiments
      • Lack of comparsion (with state-of-art methods)
      • Unfair comparsion
      • Unbelievable Results
      • The advancement is limited
    3. Don’t claim a clear Motivation
      • Which problem will be solved? And why?
        • ignored problems
        • exsiting problems with not excellent solution
    4. Discussion or Conclusion is not rigorous
      • The discussion about previous works is not appropriate
        • One-sided
        • Inaccurate about advantages/disadvantages
        • Casual logic is unreasonable
    5. Others:
      • Architecture Chaos and lack of logic
      • Lower level mistakes
      • It’s hard for reader to understand / Don’t provide enough background
      • Lack of Citations
      • Have confictions with reviewers

  • Fluent writing

    • From lower level to higher level (You know your work well, but the readers not)
    • From old to new information
      • Never introduce new concept at the beginning of a sentence
      • Must explain the abbreviation before using it
    • Section/Paragraph
      • Abstract the contents before you want to introduce a new topic

  • Abundant Figure and Table

    • Figure
      • Self explaination
      • Easy to understand
    • Table
      • Sorted!
      • The important one must put into the header or tail

  • Tips

    1. One paper, single central message/contribution
    2. Story must be Top-down
    3. Outlines -> Section -> Subsection -> Paragraph
    4. First => Introduction + Related Works
    5. Last but most important=>Conclusion + Abstract + Refine Title
    6. Figure => Almost the more the better
    7. TODO

  • Reference: