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Writing Style. Stick to conventions Prose writing: Clear, simple, correct, interesting, direct. Economy: example I/III.
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Writing Style • Stick to conventions • Prose writing: • Clear, simple, correct, interesting, direct
Economy: example I/III The volume of information has been rapidly increasing in the past few decades. While computer technology has played a significant role in encouraging the information growth, the latter has also had a great impact on the evolution of computer technology in processing data throughout the years. Historically, many different kinds of databases have been developed to handle information, including the early hierarchical and network models, the relational model, as well as the latest object-oriented and deductive databases. However, no matter how much these databases have improved, they still have their deficiencies. Much information is in textual format. This unstructured style of data, in contrast to the old structured record format data, cannot be managed properly by the traditional database models. Furthermore, since so much information is available, storage and indexing are not the only problem. We need to ensure that relevant information can be obtained upon querying the database.
Economy: example II/III The volume of information has been rapidly increasing in the past few decades.While computer technology has played a significant role in encouraging the information growth, the latter has also had a great impact on the evolution of computer technology in processing data throughout the years.Historically, many different kinds of databases have been developed to handle information, including the early hierarchical and network models, the relational model, as well as the latest object-oriented and deductive databases.However, no matter how much these databases have improved, they still have their deficiencies.Much information is intextualformat. This unstructuredstyle ofdata, in contrast to the old structured record format data,cannot be managed properly by the traditional database models. Furthermore, since so much information is available,storage and indexing are not the only problem. We need to ensure that relevant information can be obtained upon querying the database.
Economy: example III/III Much information is textual. This unstructured data cannot be managed properly by the traditional database models. Furthermore, storage and indexing are not the only problem. We need to ensure that relevant information can be obtained upon querying.
Guidelines • Concepts: precise definition made at a single location. • Frequent revisions in an egoless approach: discard, change, throwaway. • Remove unnecessary words
Tone • Literature: nuance, ambiguity, metaphor, sensuality, vocabulary • Science: direct and simple • Inform, not entertain • Austere, yet lively
Guidelines for tone • One idea per sentence/paragraph • One topic per section • Simple and logical organization • Brevity: words, sentences, paragraphs. • Simplicity: skeleton, sentence structure • Avoid: buzzwords, clichés,excess • Omit unnecessary material • Specific: not vague or abstract
Apologetic, overqualified tone • The results show that, for the given data, less memory is likely to be required by the new structure, depending on the magnitude of the numbers to be stored and the access pattern. • The results show that less memory was required by the new structure. Whether this result holds for other data sets will depend on the magnitude of the numbers and the access pattern, but we expect that the new structure will usually require less structure than the old.
Pompous tone We have already seen, in our consideration of what is, that the usual simplified assumptions lead inexorably to a representation that is desirable, because a solution is always desirable; but repugnant, because it is false. And we have presented what shouldbe, assumptions whose nature is no susceptible to easy analysis but are the only tenable alternative to ignorance (absence of solution) or a false model (and incorrect solution). Our choice is the Hobson’s choice, to make do with what material we have—viable assumptions—and to discover whether the intractable can be teased into a useful form.
Deciphering? We have seen that the usual assumptions lead to a tractable model, but this model is only a poor representation of the real behavior. We therefore propose better assumptions, which however are difficult to analyze. Now we consider whether there is any way in which our assumptions can be usefully applied.
Examples • Examples can elaborate abstract statements. For example: DEFINITION 3.2. A sublist is a non-empty set of consecutive, non-stub list elements. The list in Fig. 5 is partitioned into three sublists, S1, S2 and S3: S1 = {B}, S2 = {C} and S3 = {D,E}. • Examples may introduce more general statements: Consider again the list depicted in Fig. 6. There are in total four intervals whose boundary contain L3 : neighbors(L3) = {I2; I3; I4; I5 }. We see that n insertion into location L must also specify a set N neighbors(L), such that everyinterval in N will contain the element inserted at `. These intervals must be appropriately extended by the transaction. • Use examples whenever possible to clarify your general statements, or leading to them.
Clarity of Organization • To place the reader in context, your paper must have logical structure, and this logical structure must be obvious to reader. • The reader needs to know: • Why you are saying something. • Why you are saying it now. • What you are saying.
Exposing your organization • In the introduction: • Tell the reader what the results are • Tell the reader where in the paper the results may be found • Tell the reader what parts in the paper support the results • Tell the reader what parts in the paper are not as important as others, or have relevance to more specialized topics • Use an Outline section
In each section • Tell the reader how this section is related to others: • It must be clear at beginning of the section what to expect inside. Consider adding a brief introduction: Our dispatching and subtyping techniques are based on a representation of a type hierarchy as one or more linked lists, with the property that the descendants of a type are consecutive. New elements are inserted to the lists as new types are added to the hierarchy. This section develops the machinery for the various list maintenance operations which shall be used as subroutines in the main algorithms. We will discuss and make precise notions such as list locations, sublists, intervals, and even dictionaries over lists. • It must be clear at end of the section, what are the most important points that need to be carried along to following sections. Consider adding a summary: Together these results show that the hypothesis holds for linear coefficients. The difficulties presented by non-linear coefficients are considered in the next section.
