Questions tagged [writing]
For questions on the process of writing. For questions on the content of writing, use [writing-style].
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How are academic writing conventions decided?
Suppose one would like to propose a new way of performing a specific task in academic writing, for example, a different/new way of citing. I realise this example is vague, but the example is not the ...
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Referencing in a paper
When referencing in a paper or a thesis, is there a convention to put a reference immediately after the word or separate them by a space? So for example do you have '... FTIR-spectroscopy[1]' or '... ...
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What level of audience should one aim for in the introduction of a STEM thesis?
I am writing my STEM thesis, 90% percent of which is about mathematical modeling. However, I am unsure at what level I should write for the introduction.
Should I write it so it is accessible for ...
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Organization of a paper -- completely treat simple case first, remark on harder case after, or unify presentation?
I have a question about how to organize a paper, and completely disagree with the way my advisor wants it done. The field is operations research, and involves mostly a bunch of mathematical theorems. ...
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What if I made a mistake in a paper and now I got a minor revision?
I have received a minor revision after a major revision for a paper.
I discovered that I made a mistake in the calculations. Fixing it will result in changing a lot of the results, but the final ...
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Where to put proofs in a thesis?
When writing mathematically oriented thesis, e.g., math, cs, engineering, I am wondering where would be the most appropriate place to put your proofs.
There are several ideas:
put them right after ...
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Team member has done the work but won't write it up - what to do?
One of the people in my group does very good work and is very productive. This person generates publishable results but, instead of writing them up, jumps to the next problem. I have been encouraging ...
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What is the point of an academic monograph / peer-reviewed book?
I'm currently co-authoring a book-chapter with another scientist. We're writing a review of sea ice variability and trends in an "AGU Physical Monograph" (published by Wiley) on Earth's ...
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What is the best way to improve English vocabulary for academic writing?
As a non-native English speaker, I struggle sometimes during my academic writing because of lack of some academic vocabulary.
I have bought many books for academic vocabulary, but I found them to be ...
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Filling the page limit with proofs Vs Neat smaller paper with dense appendix?
So I am trying to submit to a top-tier conference in AI. It is focused towards theoretical work. I have a couple of theorems which are the main results and I prove some other completely unrelated ...
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Allowing flexibility in term paper topic
I could use some advice from more experienced instructors.
My social science course culminates in a term paper based on independent research.
However, in some cases students end up changing the topic ...
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Do I have to do what my senior project advisor tells me to do? [closed]
I'm an undergraduate writing my senior project paper. Had a good advisor who approved my topic and just let me write, we talked once every other week and he'd just share useful articles, give feedback ...
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In general, are research articles entirely written by the PhD student?
I'm thinking of pursuing a PhD (in France) and I would like to know if the process of writing is merely done by the PhD candidate, or it is helped by their advisor?
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Speech to text software/dictation program thats worthwhile for researchers? [closed]
I tend to be glacially slow in writing up my publications, and I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to invest in a speech-to-text program to dictate my rough drafts. Has anyone had a positive ...
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Is it self-plagiarism, new paper using the original paper as a template
I am writing a new paper based on my old paper. They are very similar, but different in three 1) They study the different problems. 2) The method changed 50%. 3) They have totally different ...
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Which software is appropriate for drawing complicated block diagrams in academic papers?
What sort of software can I use to make block diagrams, such as those used in machine learning papers? For example, this graph:
From the paper: https://aclanthology.org/2020.emnlp-main.676.pdf
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How to learn writing a scientific publication? [duplicate]
I'm halfway through my PhD in theoretical physics and so far, I have never written a paper on my own. At best I wrote short parts for an article published with my advisor. I am currently taking part ...
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Do you worry about using certain words too frequently in your research paper?
I'm working on a paper and found myself using certain words very frequently. For instance, the word "condition" or "study" or "group" or "participants" or "...
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What's a good tool to help students perform peer review as a graded assignment?
I am teaching an academic writing course for grad students and part of the course content involves peer review activities on one another's writings. These peer reviews will receive a letter grade.
Do ...
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Is 2500 words an appropriate length for Statement of Purpose?
Usually, for Statement of Purpose (Ph.D. application), the standard length is 1000 words or 2 pages. However, the University of California, San Diego asked for a 2500 words limit. Does this mean I am ...
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Who are good readers to ask for opinions regarding the "readability" of papers?
Who are good readers to ask for opinions regarding the "readability" of papers?
https://typeset.io/resources/how-to-become-good-at-academic-research-writing/
Share your paper with your ...
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Past or present tense, when reporting results?
There are several questions about tense use in paper writing. My question is specific to the results section. What tense should it be used when reporting the results of the paper itself?
"Two ...
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I left a PhD program to take a permanent position that offered full funding for my education. How to explain this when re-applying for PhD programs?
I am an international STEM major graduate. Immediately after I obtained my BS degree in the spring semester, I went on a funded Ph.D. program in the following Fall semester. However, 2 months into the ...
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What questions should be answered in a paper by sections?
I am trying to find a way to "systematize" the writing process of a paper by answering questions in each section of the paper. I am thinking of an example with the following sections (which ...
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What are some examples of research papers that are very generally viewed as "well-written"? [closed]
What are some examples of research papers that are very generally viewed as "well-written"?
And by "generally" I refer to something which is not dependent so much on "...
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Should I say "I" in a paper, as the sole author? [duplicate]
I am the sole author of a paper which I would like to publish in a journal.
Is it better to use "I" for example "In this paper, I present xyz"
Or is better to avoid "I" ...
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NSERC (canadian institution) asks for Times New roman, can I use another font? [closed]
I need to write an outline of my research for a grant. The orginization I am applying to, NSERC asks for:
"Body text in a minimum 12 pt Times New Roman font"
Well here's a little problem, I ...
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Change of tense in paper by editor
I received my paper back from the editor of a journal. They changed the present tense in the abstract in my paper into past tense. So they changed: "Something is shown/developed/proposed" ...
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How to address group member's poor writing skills
I am a STEM undergrad. Many of my upper division assignments are group reports with a lot of writing (literature reviews, lab reports). A lot of my cohort does not seem to have college level writing ...
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Good way to present long questionnaires in methods?
I'm writing a paper (my first one) in a standard article form. I must use A4 pages and a single text column.
In Methods and Materials, I must present a 23-Likert item long questionnaire that was used ...
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What is the need for a "related work" section in state-of-the-art papers?
The process of paper writing is intended to communicate our proposed model to a peer. The peer is assumed to have solid knowledge of the particular topic.
If one comes up with a state-of-the-art model ...
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Referencing a table and figure in same sentence
Currently editing a report written by someone else, and one of the bullet points references a table and a figure in the previous page. Here's how it's written:
The ten most frequently reported ...
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Should we capitalize the initials of an acronym in scientific papers?
Suppose we define an acronym in a scientific paper.
Should we do it like this?
(...) We call this approach the First Output Once (FOO) (...)
Or like this?
(...) We call this approach the first ...
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Should 'Equation' as a word start with a capital letter if it is not starting a sentence?
I am writing a mathematical seminar, in it, I reference equation numbers a lot. Should I write something like “see Equation 1” or “see equation 1”? It is now normal for me to write like “...see Table ...
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Would it be acceptable to write a paper in dark mode? [closed]
To those who don't know what dark mode is, it's basically using a black background, and for a paper it would mean that the background is black while the words are white. I noticed that most papers ...
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Could I use colors to distinguish variables in a paper?
Often when distinguishing one variable from another we use different characters or if using the same character different subscripts. For instance we might use x for one variable, and y for another, ...
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Should I send a critical position paper or an empirical study as my PhD writing sample?
For PhD programs in educational sciences/studies, which is a better writing sample? A critical position paper which applies a theory to other researchers' published data and comes up with an ...
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Is a painting a text? [closed]
Can any piece of media be described as a text to be discussed in academic research?
I have found several conflicting definitions online. Those that disagree seem to be working on a different ...
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World-famous Eastern European (and non-Western) academics not educated in the West who published one or more well-read text in English after year 2000 [closed]
For a study, I want to analyse the writing style of (contemporary) world-famous academics who were not educated in the West, yet I can find few examples. My focus is on Eastern Europe, but I will be ...
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Co-author keeps rewriting the article in poor English
I am writing an article with a senior colleague. Although English is not their first language, they keep re-writing the entire article in their own words.
I would not normally care, but the way he re-...
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What should an academic disclosure statement look like [duplicate]
Nowadays journals require people to disclose conflicts of interest by submitting a disclosure statement. I wonder how this statement should be written. I found a lot of examples of disclosure ...
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What online writing software is used in your country for academic papers? [duplicate]
I am looking for ideas to understand what is out there. I am familiar with overleaf, word online and google docs. I understand this is not really scientific but if you are familiar with general habits ...
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Is it okay to mention my country's situation in PhD applications?
I am applying for some PhD programs, and I don't know if I should mention my country's situation in those letters, like the difficulty in being a female scientist without having a friend at court or ...
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Ways to improve writing, so that one needs less time spent on proof reading?
Ways to improve writing, so that one needs less time spent on proof reading?
I've been a bit annoyed, because it seems that using a "write, then proof read" -approach seems ineffective, ...
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Explaining an observation in thesis having no reasoning
During my machine learning master thesis, I came across some observation which increased accuracy of my result. For the observation, I am unable to find the theoretical justification. How to approach ...
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Acknowledgements chapter of master's thesis
Hi due to the pandemic and my supervisor not using skype or zoom etc, I ended up writing my master's dissertation by myself. I had 2 meetings with him and we exchanged about 6-7 emails in total. I'd ...
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What to put in the Discussion section of a paper in this case? [closed]
From what I know in the Discussion section, it is recommended to establish a comparison between one's proposal with what other authors have done. For example, in the CS field, I have seen that this is ...
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One-sided vs two-sided hypothesis testing - Should the hypothesis reflect this? [closed]
I had written a hypothesis that we expect x outcome variable to increase when y treatment is applied. A reviewer commented that based off of the hypothesis, we should be doing a one-sided test.
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What is the conventional way of presenting combinations of things in a table?
For a paper I am writing, I need to name several combinations of things (specifically, certain combinations of mathematical equations/inequalities that impose specific constraints on certain variables)...
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Part of my MA thesis or empirical paper for PhD writing sample? None seem to fit the criteria
I am applying to PhD programs in educational sciences and they sometimes ask for a writing sample. I am undecided about sending part of my MA thesis or an empirical paper that is in preparation. Each ...
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