Workshop Writing Scientific Papers: Introduction

WorkshopWorkshopWriting Scientific Papers:Writing Scientific Papers:

IntroductionIntroduction

Clovis Torres Fernandes

Learning and Interaction Laboratory – LAIComputer Science Department – IECInstituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica – ITA

Workshop GoalsWorkshop Goals

To present some tips for writing good introductions for scientific papers

To gain hands-on experience applying some of the tips to real examples

Palavras-chave

Keywords

Resumo

Abstract

Paper Paper StructureStructure

Title

Main Text

Introduction

7. Writing the Introduction

Writing ProcessWriting Process

5. Writing preliminarly the Introduction (optional)

IntroductionIntroduction

It is an explanatory section at the beginning of a scientific paper

IntroductionIntroduction

It establishes the context of the work being reported

It communicates the focus of your paper

IntroductionIntroduction

It should make your readers want to read your paper

Introduction StructureIntroduction Structure

Five Questions Scheme (or Three to Five Paragraphs)

by Prof. Kristin SainaniStanford University

Introduction StructureIntroduction Structure

1. What’s known?2. What’s unknown?3. What is your burning

question/hypothesis/aim/problem to solve?

4. What is your experimental approach or research methodology?

5. How to link the Introduction to the text body?

1. What’s known?1. What’s known?

Introduce the research topic or issue

Define the terminology, if need be

Relate the topic to the existing research (literature)

1. What’s known? (cont.)1. What’s known? (cont.)

Why is the topic important?

What did we know about it before I did this study?

What has so far been done on the topic?

What’s known

2. What’s unknown?2. What’s unknown?

Limitations and gaps in previous studies Represented by phrases

beginning with “But”, “However” etc.

Use an example, if convenient, for exposing limitations and gaps

3. What is your burning 3. What is your burning question/hypothesis/aimquestion/hypothesis/aim/problem to solve?/problem to solve?

4. What is your experimental 4. What is your experimental approach or research approach or research methodology?methodology?

Explain the theoretical framework the study is based on

Why is your experimental approach or research methodology new and different and important (fills in the gaps)?

4. What is your experimental 4. What is your experimental approach or research approach or research methodology? (cont.)methodology? (cont.)

What is the contribution of the paper on the problem?

Is the contribution original? Explain why

Is the contribution non-trivial? Explain why

5. How to link the 5. How to link the Introduction to the text Introduction to the text body?body?

Ends with a short summary of the rest of the paper:

"The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, we …"

Tips for writing an Tips for writing an IntroductionIntroduction

Don't review all studies that have ever been published on the topic

Keep paragraphs short

Write for a general audience a clear, concise, non-technical text

--> Describe the approach used in sufficient detail so that a reader who is not familiar with the technique will understand what was done and why

Take the reader step by step from what is known to what is unknown. End with your specific question

Known --> Unknown --> Question

Emphasize how your study fills in the gaps (the unknown)

Explicitly and clearly state your research question/aim/hypothesis:

“We asked whether …” “Our hypothesis was …” “We tested the hypothesis that …” “Our aim/s was/were …” “We face this challenge by

focusing our analysis on …” ...

Do not answer the research question (no results or implications)

--> Controversial: you can mention very briefly the conclusion of the paper!

Summarize at the end at a high level!

Leave detailed descriptions, speculations, and criticisms of particular studies for the discussion/related works

Yes, you can use passive voice!

But, keep it to a minimum!

Verb TensesVerb Tenses

1. What’s known?2. What’s unknown?3. What is your burning

question/hypothesis/aim/problem to solve?

4. What is your experimental approach or research methodology?

5. How to link the Introduction to the text body?

Present

PastPast

Present: why isImportant?

Past

Another Another ExamplesExamples

Read the introduction found in TIDIA: Workshop--ExerciseGoodBadIntroduction 01--The Essence of Object Orientation for CS0- Concepts without Code.pdf

Tell if it follow the Five Questions Scheme, and why!

Classroom WorkClassroom Work

Read the introduction found in TIDIA: Workshop--ExerciseGoodBadIntroduction 02--Easy Rubric--um Editor de Rubricas no Padrao IMS Rubric-VersaoFinal.pdf

Tell if it follow the Five Questions Scheme, and why!

Classroom WorkClassroom Work

Read the introduction found in TIDIA: Workshop--ExerciseGoodBadIntroduction 03--Easy Rubric--um Editor de Rubricas no Padrao IMS Rubric.pdf

Tell if it follow the Five Questions Scheme, and why!

Classroom WorkClassroom Work

Alternative Methods Alternative Methods

for Writing for Writing

IntroductionsIntroductions

Five Questions Scheme1. Why is the topic interesting?

2. What is the basis of previous solutions, if any?

3. What is the basis of alternative solution(s)? [optional]

4. What was done in the present research effort? [explicit focus]

5. What will be presented in this paper?

Others Schemes

Just Introductionhttp://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/etc/intro-style.html

Writing Technical Articleshttp://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/etc/writing-style.html

The EndThe End