Good Writing Leads to Good Publication

1. Technical Writing and Presentation Guidelines
Waqas Nawaz
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Good Writing Leads To Good Publication
Fourteen Steps to a Clearly Written
Technical Paper

2. 2
Outline
■ Sections of a Technical Paper
■ 14-steps for Clarity
Complete First Draft
Order, Transitions, Paragraph with Unity
Simple Sentences, Avoid Passive Verbs
Verbs > Nouns , Reduce Abstract Words
Verb Tense, Pronoun, Grammatical Mistakes
Polishing & polishing
Conclusion section

3. 3
Sections of a Technical Paper
■ Introduction
 Open up the subject
 Survey past work relevant to this
paper
 Describe the problem addressed in
this paper, and show how this work
relates to, or augments, previous
work
 Describe the assumptions made in
general terms, and state what results
have been obtained
■ Formulation of the problem
 Define the problem in detail
 Define all terminology and notation
 Develop the equations on which
your results will be based
■ Results
 Theoretical or Experimental
 Figures: Clear point of view and
interpretation
■ Conclusion
 Summarize what has been
accomplished in the paper
Of course, the names of the
sections may differ slightly
from those above

4. 4
14-steps for Clarity (1/4)
■ Complete first draft
 Except for the Introduction and
Conclusion
 always present the big picture first
 Don’t worry about wording
■ Right Order
 Can the reader understand every
passage strictly from the material up
to that point?
 move blocks of the paper around
■ Transition
 At each stage the reader has a
roadmap of where he or she is going
■ Paragraph Unity
 Each paragraph should have one
main point
• Topic sentence at the beginning
■ Sentence Structure
 Work on the sentences to reduce
the fog index
 The Fog Index F is defined as F =
0.4(L + P), where L is the average
number of words per sentence and P
is the average number of
polysyllables per 100 words of text
 A polysyllable is a word with three
or more syllables

5. 5
■ Fog Index: Example
 Fog Index = 35: “In order to eliminate the possibility of errors occurring in the
time charges relating to engineering jobs through transposition of numbers or
typing errors, each of the Division Planning Offices should set up a file of time
cards showing all authorized project numbers and make a daily check of the
charges on all time sheets forwarded to the Accounting Department to be sure
that only authorized numbers are used.” (1 sentence, 69 words, 13
polysyllables)
 Fog Index = 11: “It is easy to transpose digits and make typing errors when
entering project numbers. We suggest each Division Planning Office set up a
file of time cards showing all authorized project numbers. Then all charges
should be checked each day before sending time sheets to the Accounting
Department.” (3 sentences. 48 words, 5 polysyllables)
14-steps for Clarity (2/4)

6. 6
14-steps for Clarity (3/4)
■ Avoid Passive Verbs
 Reader always needs to know who
is doing what to whom, and a
passive verb often obscures both the
agent and the recipient of an action
Example
• “The data were measured and
the results were correlated.”
• “We measured the data and
correlated the results”
■ More verbs than nouns
 “The annual report produced a
disappointed reaction from the
sponsor.”
“The annual report disappointed
the sponsor”
■ Avoid Abstract Words
 Use specific words instead of
abstract words
 “We determined the conditions
for performance improvement,”
 “We measured the noise variance
necessary to increase the bit error
probability by 5 percent.”
■ Verb Tense
 Check that your verb tense is
consistent throughout the paper
 “We shall present our results in
Section III.”
 “We present our results in
Section III,”

7. 7
14-steps for Clarity (4/4)
■ Pronoun mistakes
 Do not use “this” as a pronoun
 Avoid sentences such as “This is...”
and “This gives...”
 Example
• “By increasing the impedance, the
radiation level is increased and
the electric field becomes
stronger. This means that...”
• “This result is...” OR “This
difficulty is due to...”
■ Grammatical mistakes
■ Polish & polish
 Check that the sentence rhythm
and timing are pleasing
 The ideas flow clearly and simply
Solution
• Reduce the Fog Index
• Ensure paragraph unity
■ Conclusion
 Summarization for what has been
presented in the paper

8. 8
References
[1] Fourteen Steps to a Clearly Written Technical Paper by R. T.
Compton, Jr.

9. 9
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