Technical English: Fewer is better!

Technical English:Fewer is better!

John MorrisFaculty of Engineering,Mahasarakham University

Computer Science/Electrical and Computer Engineering,The University of Auckland

Iolanthe II leaves the Hauraki Gulf under full sail –Auckland-Tauranga Race, 2007

First Rule

• Direct active sentences– Verbs not nouns!

• Example:We made a measurement of the velocity

– Grammatically correct, but …– Better

We measured the velocity– Statistics

• We said exactly the same thingbut used four words instead of seven!!

First Rule- Direct active sentences

• Verbs not nouns!• What did we do to transform

We made a measurement of the velocityto

We measured the velocity• We took the noun ‘measurement’ and an

auxilary verb ‘make’ and– Replaced both with the verb from of the noun– “Made a measurement” “measured”

Active sentences

• Verb is the important word• Remove all the meaningless verbs• More examples

This experiment produced the result that We observed that …

This trial resulted in … We observed that …

We made an assertion that .. We asserted that ..

We conducted an examination of the product …

We examined the product ..

An extensive analysis of the results showed ..

We analyzed the data carefully ..

Active sentences• Verb is the important word• Remove all those meaningless verbs• More examples

We formed a hypothesis that .. We hypothesized that …

An annotation was made on the text .. The text was annotated ..

We made a summary of the data .. We summarized the data ..

An observation of the … behaviour was made ..

We observed how … behaved

A filter was used to smooth the data … The data was filtered ..

We used dynamic programming to compute ..

We computed with dynamic programming ..

We acquired more knowledge .. We learnt ..

Useless words

• Some words you can do without ….– Gave– Produced– Did– Formed– Used– Made– Acquire

• You can almost always remove them and turn the following noun into a verb!

More examples ..

• Most taken from real papers ….Relatively early, some scholars made researches on motion estimation .. Some scholars studied motion estimation …

• I’ve removed ‘relatively early’ also because it doesn’t add much ..

• Verb is ‘studied’ (past tense) – unless it’s really important that it was a long time ago, it probably doesn’t matter how long ago …

• Remove irrelevant detail to keep things short!!

Score:9 words 5 words (44% less!)

More examples ..

• Taken from real papers …... and variable block size motion estimation is not adopted here. .. and we do not estimate motion with varying block

sizes.• Verb is ‘estimate’• We didn’t achieve any word saving,

but the sentence is direct .. ‘estimate’ instead of ‘estimation is adopted’

Score:10 words 10 words ()

Tenses Topic 2

TensesPurpose Example

Future

Simple Future

Actions which will take place … We will measure this tomorrow

Future continuous

Actions which will continue to take place .. We will be sampling for 6 months

Future perfect

Actions which will be completed in the future

After 6 months, we will have sampled all the areas (and completed sampling).

PresentSimple present

Action takes place now .. This error is too large.

Present continuous

Action will take place over some period of time ..

They are measuring yields today.

TensesPurpose Example

Past

Simple past Actions which took place in the past We measured the velocity

Past continuous

Actions which took place over some period of time in the past

We were collecting data for 3 months

Perfect Actions which took place in the past and are assumed to be complete

We have sampled all the areas (and completed sampling).

Perfect continuous

Action which took place and was completed in the past

Until now, we have been sampling every day.

Past perfect Action which took place and was completed in the past

By 2006, we had sampled every area (and finished).

Past perfect continuous

Action took place over some period of time and was completed in the past

We had been measuring yields for years (but we stopped some time ago).

Tenses

Purpose ExampleSubjunctive … you don’t really want to know

… and there are some more !!!

Tenses – Good newsPurpose Relevance in Technical

PapersFuture

Simple Future

Actions which will take place … ‘Future work’ section

Future continuous

Actions which will continue to take place ..

Rarely

Future perfect

Actions which will be completed in the future

Rarely

PresentSimple present

Action takes place now .. Introduction – what’s the current state of research?

Present continuous

Action will take place over some period of time ..

Maybe

TensesPurpose Relevance

Past

Simple past Actions which took place in the past Past work, experiments, conclusions

Past continuous

Actions which took place over some period of time in the past

Rarely, avoidable

Perfect Actions which took place in the past and are assumed to be complete

Rarely, simple past almost always acceptable

Perfect continuous

Action which took place and was completed in the past

Rarely, use simple past instead

Past perfect Action which took place and was completed in the past

Very rare, use simple past

Past perfect continuous

Action took place over some period of time and was completed in the past

Very rare, use simple past

Tenses• For scientific papers, you only need a few

from the complete palette of English grammar– Present– Simple past– Perfect (sometimes, simple past almost always OK)– Future (if you have future work)

• Leave use of others to the native speakers!• Your paper does not need them!

– Remember your aim is to communicate ideas and results, not demonstrate mastery of English

Tenses• Hardest decision

– Present or Past or Perfect?• Describing your experiments

– ALWAYS SIMPLE PAST• We measured …• The mixture exploded …

• Describing the work of others– SIMPLE PAST

• Robertson reported that ..• Explosions were observed by …

– PERFECT (sometimes)• Many researchers have observed …

but• Many researchers observed …

Is acceptable

Tenses• Hardest distinction• Simple past vs Perfect• Simple past

– Actions that have occurred already– All your experiments

• Perfect– Implies completeness– In the formal scientific theory,

No experiment proves anything, it only provides support for a hypothesis

So experimental work is never complete!! Perfect tense should not be used to describe it– Experiments can disprove theories so it’s reasonable to write

• The experiments of x and y have demonstrated that this theory is not valid– Again

• The experiments of x and y demonstrated that this theory is not valid is acceptable

If you use simple past only, then you will make very few real mistakes!!

Examples

IntroductionRecent developments in real-time stereo (allow) us to capture dense depth maps at 30fps for high resolution images (1Mpixel or more). Real-time depth information in addition to intensity images (can) be used for a wide range of tasks such as segmentation, object extraction and scene reconstruction. Systems which (can) generate dense high resolution disparity maps in real-time (report): Greisen et al's system (use) correlation based algorithm for disparity estimation using an FPGA, GPU and CPU [Greisen2011] whereas Morris et al (implement) Symmetric Dynamic Programming Stereo (SDPS) [Gimelfarb2002] on an FPGA [Morris2009c,Morris2009d].

Introduction from our paper to be presented at IVCNZ, Dunedin, NZ next week

What is the correct form of the verb to use?The present singular form of the verb is given in blue. Work out the correct tense, voice (active or passive) and number (singular or plural form, eg ‘need’ or ‘needs’).

Examples

IntroductionRecent developments in real-time stereo allow us to capture dense depth maps at 30fps for high resolution images (1Mpixel or more). Real-time depth information in addition to intensity images can be used for a wide range of tasks such as segmentation, object extraction and scene reconstruction. Systems which can generate dense high resolution disparity maps in real-time have been reported: Greisen et al's system uses correlation based algorithm for disparity estimation using an FPGA, GPU and CPU [Greisen2011] whereas Morris et al implemented Symmetric Dynamic Programming Stereo (SDPS) [Gimelfarb2002] on an FPGA [Morris2009c,Morris2009d].


What is the correct form of the verb to use?The present singular form of the verb is given in blue. Work out the correct tense and number (singular or plural form, eg ‘need’ or ‘needs’).

Examples

IntroductionRecent developments in real-time stereo allow us to capture dense depth maps at 30fps for high resolution images (1Mpixel or more). Real-time depth information in addition to intensity images can be used for a wide range of tasks such as segmentation, object extraction and scene reconstruction. Systems which can generate dense high resolution disparity maps in real-time have been reported: Greisen et al's system used correlation based algorithm for disparity estimation using an FPGA, GPU and CPU [Greisen2011] whereas Morris et al implemented Symmetric Dynamic Programming Stereo (SDPS) [Gimelfarb2002] on an FPGA [Morris2009c,Morris2009d].



Examples

Previous workMian et al. (discuss) a Point-of-Interest detection technique using depth maps from range images only[Mian2008,Mian2010]. Viksten et al. also (use) range data to detect Points-of-Interest with an extended Harris corner detector[Viksten2008]. Steder et al. [Steder2011] (use) a technique which first (classify) object borders and then (locate) Points-of-Interest but it (design) for range data and (is) computationally expensive. Holzer et al. (use) a learning based Point-of-Interest detection technique from Kinect data[Holzer2012], Flint et al. [Flint2007] (describe) distinctive scene features and Rusu et al. [Rusu2009] (identify) rigid objects in indoor environment using a laser range finder.


What is the correct form of the verb to use?The present singular form of the verb is given in blue. Work out the correct tense, voice (active or passive) and number (singular or plural form, eg ‘need’ or ‘needs’).

Examples

Previous workMian et al. discuss a Point-of-Interest detection technique using depth maps from range images only[Mian2008,Mian2010]. Viksten et al. also use range data to detect Points-of-Interest with an extended Harris corner detector[Viksten2008]. Steder et al. [Steder2011] used a technique which first classifies object borders and then locates Points-of-Interest but it is designed for range data and is computationally expensive. Holzer et al. used a learning based Point-of-Interest detection technique from Kinect data[Holzer2012], Flint et al. [Flint2007] describe distinctive scene features and Rusu et al. [Rusu2009] identify rigid objects in indoor environment using laser range finder.



This is what my student wrote …

Each sentence is OK by itself!

But there is a mixture of present and past tenses!Consistency is important – do not switch styles!

Switching style distracts your readers!They are asking themselves:

Is there some reason for the change?If there is not, their understanding of your work is slowed down!They will regard your work more highly if they can understand it quickly!

Consistent simple past is better here!

Examples



Consistent past tense ..Previous workMian et al. discussed a Point-of-Interest detection technique using depth maps from range images only[Mian2008,Mian2010]. Viksten et al. also used range data to detect Points-of-Interest with an extended Harris corner detector[Viksten2008]. Steder et al. [Steder2011] used a technique which first classifies object borders and then locates Points-of-Interest but it was designed for range data and is computationally expensive. Holzer et al. used a learning based Point-of-Interest detection technique from Kinect data[Holzer2012], Flint et al. [Flint2007] described distinctive scene features and Rusu et al. [Rusu2009] identified rigid objects in indoor environment using a laser range finder.

Describing work in other papersYou can use either present tense:You’re telling your reader what he or she can find in a reference now –It’s as if the paper is talking to the reader!orpast tense:This is what the authors wrote in 200x.

Important RuleChoose one or the other and be consistent!Use either present everywhere ..or past everywhere.

I have a slight preference for past here ..

Examples



Consistent past tense ..Previous workMian et al. discussed a Point-of-Interest detection technique using depth maps from range images only[Mian2008,Mian2010]. Viksten et al. also used range data to detect Points-of-Interest with an extended Harris corner detector[Viksten2008]. Steder et al. [Steder2011] used a technique which first classifies object borders and then locates Points-of-Interest but it was designed for range data and is computationally expensive. Holzer et al. used a learning based Point-of-Interest detection technique from Kinect data[Holzer2012], Flint et al. [Flint2007] described distinctive scene features and Rusu et al. [Rusu2009] identified rigid objects in indoor environment using a laser range finder.

Examples

ExperimentFor the 8-bit images, which we (use) in our experiments we (assign) = 15. The algorithm (use) to compute Ledge and Redge (is) not critical: any one (use).


Examples

ExperimentFor the 8-bit images, which we used in our experiments we assigned = 15. The algorithm used to compute Ledge and Redge is|was not critical: any one could be used.


Examples

ConclusionWe (introduce) a fast and reliable Point-of-Interest detection technique for noisy depth maps which (use) all available information - left image, right image and disparity map. Some simple tracking sequences (use) to show how the ‘Triple Edge’ points (enable) us to rapidly locate objects in a scene for subsequent processing exercises.


Examples

ConclusionWe introduced a fast and reliable Point-of-Interest detection technique for noisy depth maps which uses all available information - left image, right image and disparity map. Some simple tracking sequences were used to show how the ‘Triple Edge’ points enable us to rapidly locate objects in a scene for subsequent processing exercises.


Past .. This is what we did

Present in dependent clauses .. This is current capability

Past OK here .. Consistent with past of primary clause

Examples

High resolution real-time stereo matching systems (need) to evaluate billions of disparity values per second. Our dynamic programming based stereo matching system on GPU inevitably (trade) some matching accuracy for speed. Thus 3D point clouds from our system (is) noisy and contain artifacts, which (hinder) tracking accuracy. We (reduce) the effects of dynamic programming streaks in the depth maps with these steps: an efficient joint colour-disparity filtering (segment) foreground; a fast clustering procedure based upon a set of simple volume rules (identify) candidate objects; an opportunistic tagging system (track) objects through occlusions and Kalman filtering (predict) next frame positions.

Abstract from our paper to be presented at IVCNZ, Dunedin, NZ next week


Examples

High resolution real-time stereo matching systems (need) to evaluate billions of disparity values per second. Our dynamic programming based stereo matching system on GPU inevitably (trade) some matching accuracy for speed. Thus 3D point clouds from our system (is) noisy and contain artifacts, which (hinder) tracking accuracy. We (reduce) the effects of dynamic programming streaks in the depth maps with these steps: an efficient joint colour-disparity filtering (segment) foreground; a fast clustering procedure based upon a set of simple volume rules (identify) candidate objects; an opportunistic tagging system (track) objects through occlusions and Kalman filtering (predict) next frame positions.



Examples

High resolution real-time stereo matching systems need to evaluate billions of disparity values per second. Our dynamic programming based stereo matching system on GPU inevitably trades some matching accuracy for speed. Thus 3D point clouds from our system are noisy and contain artifacts, which hinder tracking accuracy. We reduced the effects of dynamic programming streaks in the depth maps with these steps: an efficient joint colour-disparity filtering segments foreground; a fast clustering procedure based upon a set of simple volume rules identifies candidate objects; an opportunistic tagging system tracks objects through occlusions and Kalman filtering predicts next frame positions.



Introduction part: present

‘What we did’ part: past

Steps in our procedure: present (this is what happens if you repeat the work)Steps in our procedure: past OK

(this is what we did in our experiments)

Technical English WorkshopNext topic - Noun phrases

I will be in Singapore and Sattahip next week!Preparing a yacht for sailing from Singapore to Thailand!There will be no class on November 29.Next workshop will be December 6.

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Technical English: Fewer is better!