A gentle introduction to writing research papersAlistair Edwards

…but drawing heavily on slides from Chris Power

Objectives

To give a brief introduction to scientific writing in general

To help you prepare for the specific writing task for the assessment of this module

Exercise and assessment

ExerciseNow to Monday, Week 8 (18 November)Small groupsWrite a literature review on one of 4 topics

AssessmentWeek 7 Spring Term to Week 1 SummerIndividualWrite a literature review on a topic of your choice, related to one or more ADVT classes

Why do we publish?

‘Publish or perish’

Organizing your research (paper)

Organizing your research (paper)

Choosing a topic

Choosing your audience

What is your hypothesis?

What is your story?

Doing your literature review

Finding your evidence

Choosing a topic

One key to success is – What are you going to research?

…but in the context of this assessmentYour group must choose one of the given topics

1. Formal methods in HCI2. Designing for trust3. Motivations of people in crowdsourcing4. Effects of font size and line spacing of text on webpages - what should we be recommending to web developers use to make the web easiest for people to read?

Choosing a topic

One key to success is – What are you going to research?

…but in the context of the later assessment

must be related to one or more of the classesmust have a significant literaturemust be of the right sizemust require no original research

Choosing your audience

For the formative exercise think of your colleagues

on the HCIT programmebut have not read as much as you

Choosing your audience

For the assessment think of the second marker

is an HCI expertbut has not been to the classes

What is your hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a proposition

Your objective is to prove – or falsify – that hypothesis

(QUAN)

Example hypotheses

Animation makes web advertising more effective

Fast-tempo music increases game players’ sense of immersion

Perceived ease-of-use is positively related to flow experience of playing of an on-line game

Data entry by older users is easier when the pocket computer has a keyboard, albeit a small one

The null hypothesis

The negation of the hypothesis

Seek to prove itFail and you have proved the hypothesis

e.g. Perceived ease-of-use is not positively related to flow experience of playing an on-line game

Even a review paper should have a

hypothesisFind a point to argue

and do so with reference to the literature

What is your story?

Every paper has a story

Finding it can be hardbut once you are clear you can write a clearer paper

‘No tale is so good that it can’t be spoiled in the telling’ (Proverb)

Example stories

‘This is my hypothesis and here is the evidence to prove or disprove it’

A history

Sellingan ideaa product

Teachstart from what the reader knowsand lead them to new knowledge

Doing your literature review

There is always a literature review

Your assessment paper will be mostly a literature review

Doing your literature review

Doing your literature review

Look for those references that have titles and keywords that seem to match the problem you are solving

If available, read the abstract

Collect papers – either digital or go to *gasp* the library!

Do this early because if you need to see a paper and we don’t have it in the University you can order through inter-library loans (ILL)

Doing your literature survey

Read the abstract, introduction and conclusions

If they are well written these will tell you what the paper is about and whether it is useful

Discard those that are not useful – may want to keep a file of interesting things to look at for another time

Keep those that are applicable and read methods and results

Doing your literature survey

Read the abstract, introduction and conclusions

These will also be most important in the paper you write

and are often poor

Doing your literature review

Make notes as you go along

Organize the papers cleverly – use good tools to store and organize papers

Desktop – Bibtex, Endnote, RefManCloud – Mendeley, Citeulike

Do not keep them in a word document or other basic file type – you will drown

With the above tools you can then generate bibliographies for your own paper in whatever format you want

What’s your story?

Structuring your paper

You then have to communicate all of the above to your reader

Build constructs of language – sentence to paragraph, paragraphs to sections, sections to papers

All constructs of our paper will have the same structure:

Introduction – orienting the readerContribution – the point of the constructConclusion – sending the reader off

Structuring your paper

Introduction

ContributionGenerally

MethodResultsDiscussion

Conclusion

Structuring your paper

Introduction

ContributionFor the assessment mainly discussion

Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract:State the contribution you are makingState the motivation as to why it is interestingState the methodology you followedState the resultsState the conclusions

You get about 1-2 sentences for each of these

The abstract will keep people reading your paper

Extended abstracts – short paper – you get 1 or 2 paragraphs for each of these

Abstract

Abstract:State the contribution you are makingState the motivation as to why it is interestingState the methodology you followedState the resultsState the conclusions

You get about 1-2 sentences for each of these

The abstract will keep people reading your paper

Extended abstracts – short paper – you get 1 or 2 paragraphs for each of these

Abstract

The abstract and paper should be capable of being read independently

Don’t assume that the reader reading one of them has read the other

Introduction

Introduce the topic‘This paper is about…’ very early on‘No one reads the second paragraph’

Journalists’ dogma

Introduce the background

Introduce the paper

Literature review

In this section you will convince the reader that what you are doing is new and interesting

Hit on major themes within the research community

Look for problem areas such as common disagreements or ‘dogma’ that is in the field so that you reference them clearly

This is particularly important in your assessmentYou have not simply read the literature, you have analysed it criticallyDiscussion section?

Conclusions

Simple ruleIntroduce nothing new in the conclusionsIt is a distillation of what has gone before

Conclusions

State – or re-iterate – succinctly:The contribution you have madeThe motivation as to why it is interesting to your audience and how it applies to themThe methodology you already describedThe key resultsWhat the findings mean to the field and how it is original and important

Sources of information

Zobel Writing for Computer Sciencehttp://www.amazon.com/Writing-Computer-Science-Justin-Zobel/dp/1852338024

Strunk and White - Elements of Style

For the specifics of constructions etc (if you are not confident) - Fowler’s Modern English Usage

Mander K. (1994) Writing for Humanshttp://www.cs.york.ac.uk/tutorials/writingforhumans.html

Sources of information

How to Write a Great Research Paperhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3dkRsTqdDA

Video (34:25) by Simon Peyton Jones

Thimbleby, H (2008) Write now!, (in) Cairns. P & Cox, A. (eds.) Research Methods for Human-Computer Interaction, Cambridge University press, pp.196-211

Read literature critically for style - re-read papers, chapters that you found easy to read

Exercise

Instructions

Groups of 2 – 3 Consult your tutor

Exercise

Instructions

Groups of 2 – 3 My group

April, RichardSophia, TraceyHanieh, LeonardoYingzhu, Anqi

Formative exercise topics

1. Formal methods in HCI

2. Designing for trust

3. Motivations of people in crowdsourcing

4. Effects of font size and line spacing of text on webpages - what should we be recommending to web developers use to make the web easiest for people to read?

1. Formal methods in HCI

Harrison, M., Campos, J. C. & Loer, (2008) Formal analysis of interactive systems: opportunities and weaknesses. (in) P. Cairns & A. L. Cox (Eds), Research Methods for Human-Computer Interaction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 88-111.

2. Designing for trust

Shneiderman, B. (2000) Designing trust into online experiences, Communications of the ACM, 43 (12) pp.57-59.

3. Motivations of people in

crowdsourcingNov, O. (2007). What motivates

Wikipedians? Communications of the ACM, 50(11), 60-64.

4. Effects of font size and line spacing of text on webpages - what should we be recommending to

web developers use to make the web

easiest for people to read?Ling, J. and van Schaik, P. (2007). The influence

of line spacing and text alignment on visual search of web pages. Displays, 28(2), 60-67.