General Notes on Research Proposals

Suggested Organization• Title, Abstract, Keywords (problem statement)• Introduction and Overview

– Background information; problem description in context– Hypotheses and objectives– Assumptions and delimitations– Importance and benefits

• Related Work/Literature Review• Research Design and Methodology• Plan of Work and Outcomes (deliverables, schedule)• Conclusions and Future Work• References• Budget (appendix)

Notes on Writing and Style

Styles

• Verbose or cryptic, flowery or plain, poetic or literal

• Conventions important – reduce the effort required from readers

• Disregarding conventions – may distract from the message (unless that is the message)

Science Writing

• Prosaic

• Clear, accurate, but not dull

• Economy – every sentence necessary but not to the point of over condensing

• Ego less – you are writing for the readers not yourself

Scientific Tone

• Objective and accurate

• To inform not entertain

• Do not over qualify – modify every claim with caveats and cautions

• Limit the use of idioms like “crop up”, “loose track”, “it turned out that”, etc.

• Use examples if they aid in clarification

Scientific Motivation

• Brief summaries at the beginning and end of each section

• The connection between one paragraph and the next should be obvious

• Make sure your reader has sufficient knowledge to understand what follows

Other Writing Issues

• The upper hand – inclusion of offhanded remarks like “ …this is a straightforward application …”

• Write for your dullest readers, as an equal• Obfuscation – aim is to give an impression of

having done something without actually claiming to have done it

• Analogies – only worthwhile if it significantly reduces the work of understanding, most of the time bad analogies lead the reader astray

Writing Issues

• Straw men – indefensible hypothesis posed for the sole purpose of being demolished

• “it can be argued that databases do not require indexes”

• Also use to contrast a new idea with some impossibly bad alternative, to put the new idea in a favorable light

Unsubstantiated Claims

• Most user prefer the graphical style of interface.• to• We believe that ….• Another possibility would be a disk-based method,

but this approach is unlikely to be successful.• Another …, but our experience suggests that …

Titles• Titles should be concise and informative• A New Signature File Scheme based on Multiple-Block

Descriptor Files for Indexing Very Large Data Bases• (better) Signature File Indexes Based on Multiple-

Block Descriptor Files• An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Extensions to

Standard Ranking Techniques for Large Text Collections

• (better) Extensions to Ranking Techniques for Large Text Collections

Opening Paragraphs

• Begin well• Most care with the opening• Bad openings

– This paper concerns– In this paper

• Distinguish description of existing knowledge from the description of the paper’s contribution

Paragraphing

• Discussion of a single topic or issue• Long paragraphs can be an indication that

the author has not disentangled his/her thoughts

• Readers pay attention to the first lines and last

• Link paragraphs by reuse of key words or phrases

Lists

• Good, but don’t overuse, only for important information

• A list of trivia can be more attention grabbing than a paragraph of important information

• But, don’t replace narrative with bulleted lists

Sentences• Simple structure, a line or two long• Avoid nested structures• In the first stage, the backtracking tokenizer with a two-

element retry buffer, errors, including illegal adjacencies as well as unrecognized tokens, are stored on an error stack for collation in to a complete report.

• (better) The first stage is the backtracking tokenizer with a two-element retry buffer. In this stage possible errors include illegal adjacencies as well as unrecognized tokens; when detected, errors are stored on a stack for collation into a complete report

Direct Statements

• The following theorem can now be proved• (active) We can now prove the following theorem.• Artificial use of verbs• Tree structures can be utilized for dynamic

storage of terms.• Terms can be stored in dynamic tree structures• (watch – perform, utilize, achieve, conducted,

occurred)

Direct Statements• “we show”• In this paper it is shown that• The authors show• (Here we can help explain to the reader who is

making the contribution)• Other times we should not be used• When we conducted the experiment it showed that

our conjecture was correct• (correct) The experiment showed that our

conjecture was correct

Ambiguity

• Check carefully

• The compiler did not accept the program because it contained errors.

• (better) The program did not compile because it contained errors

Qualifiers

• One per sentence ( might, may, perhaps, possible, likely)

• It is perhaps possible that the algorithm might fail on unusual input.

• (better) The algorithm might fail on unusual input.

Padding

• The fact that

• In general

• In any case

Remove these

Misused Words

• Watch for• Which, that, the• May, might, can

– may is for personal choice– can to indicate capability

• Less, few – less, continuous quantities (space)– Fewer, discrete quantities (errors)

Misused Words

• Affect, effect– Effect – consequence of an action

– Affect – (verb) influence, as in outcomes

• Alternate, alternative, choice– Alternate – switch between

– Alternative – something that can be chosen

– Choice – more than one alternative

– Note, if there is but one alternative, there is no choice

Overuse of Words

• Same word in the same sentence is annoying.

• Redundancy

• Adding together -> adding

• After the end of -> after

• In the region of -> approximately

Tense

• Most text past or present

• Present used for eternal truths– The algorithm has complexity … not the

algorithm had complexity

• In references past tense used in describing work and outcomes– … the ideas were tested ….

Others

• Abbreviations - best none

• Acronyms – use CPU not C.P.U – Limit – may confuse reader

• Sexist language – get rid of pronouns and recast the sentence

Research Proposal Presentations

Preparation

• Condensing a complex body of information

• 15 minute presentation (and 5 minutes for comments or questions)– speaking rates should not exceed 100 to 150

words per minute– about 1500 to 2000 words– 12-14 slides

Types of Presentations

• memorized speech

• read from manuscript

• EXTEMPORANEOUS

Extemporaneous Presentation

• Audience centered and dynamic

• made from minimal notes or outline

• Slides should contain the primary concepts or ideas being introduced– But, level of detail not the same as speaker

notes (have a copy of your slides and write the notes on margins)

– Don’t skip important elements without some visual representation in the slide

Extemporaneous Presentation

• include key phrases, illustrations, statistics, dates (and pronunciation guides for difficult words)

• along the margin, place instructions, cues, such as SLOW, EMPHASIZE, TURN CHART, GO BACK TO CHART 3

• Dictum: better to have fewer slides that don’t cover all the things you want than to have too many slides and have to go fast.

Speaker Problems

• Too soft, too fast• do not let your words trail off as you complete a

sentence• do not “uhs”, “you know”• no rocking• no fiddling with clothes (or change in your

pocket)• In general, avoid things that distract attention for

your presentation

Title Page

• Title of Research

• Your name

• The date

• For whom and by whom it was prepared

• Collaborators, etc.

Selecting a Title

• Brief

• include the variables included in the study

• the type of relationship among the variables

• the population to which the results may be applied

• Avoid … “Report of,” “Discussion of,” single-word titles (and probably double word titles)

Outline & Organization

• Provide one– tell the audience where you are taking them

• Major Parts– Opening– Background– Design– Schedule / Plan– Deliverables

Opening

• About 10-15% of the time

• Motivation, setting the stage – explain the problem, its context, and why it is

important to solve it

• Explaining the nature of the project– what it attempts to do (goals)– your proposed solutions and your hypothesis– why/how is it novel

2-3 slides

Background• Remember the audience may be unfamiliar

with the area, so basic concepts are necessary – provide the necessary definitions

• Use an illustrative example to explain complex concepts

• Discuss the prior work in the problem and how your proposed research will result in a different or a better solution (explain the gap)

A couple of slides

Research Design

• Research Methodologies (and why)• Data collection and characteristics (if any)• Experimental designs • Analysis including metrics used to

determine if proposed solutions are successful

• Tie all of this to how you will verify your hypothesis and your claims

• 3-4 slides

Schedule and Deliverables

• Schedule– Only the important steps– Leave the details in the proposal

• Deliverables– What do we get out this study?

1 slide

Conclusions and Ending

• Have one slide for Conclusions

• Include some ideas for extensions or future work

• End the talk cleanly, do just not fade away– a bad ending is : that’s it, that’s all I have say.

• Wrap up the talk with a positive spin

Question Time

• Try to anticipate questions

• Respond positively and honestly to all questions

• don’t try to bluff

• no one knows all the answers – don’t try to make things up

• never be rude