English Writing for Academics

1. English Writing for Academics SuchaSmanchat, PhD sucha.smanchat@acm.org

2. Disclaimer This manual is written based on the experience of the author in writing PhD thesis, master theses, and several academic publications in computer science and information technology domains. It only serves as a guideline, not as a set of rules to be followed. Also, it might not be suitable for publications or theses in other domains due to the different nature of research methodologies. SuchaSmanchat, PhD

3. Nature of Academic Publications • You must first recognize that academic writing is different from general and business writing • In ascending order of expected strength • Research proposal • Workshop paper • Conference paper • Academic journal • Thesis

4. Proposal Structure Introduction Related work Objectives Scope Research questions (if any) Methodology Timeframe (Gantt chart format is not really necessary) Contribution or outcome References

5. Paper/Journal Structure Introduction and research objective Related work (can also be placed before conclusion) Scope - not a section, usually stated in related sections Research questions (if necessary) Methodology (do NOT use the word “Methodology” as section title) Timeframe Experiment and result Conclusion and future work References

6. Thesis Structure • Chapter 1: Introduction • Introduction of chapter 1 (not a section) • Research context (try not to use this title): a summary of major literature review leading to research objectives • Research objectives • Research scope • Research questions • Thesis structure • Chapter summary • Summarize the chapter and link to chapter 2

7. Thesis Structure • Chapter 2: Literature review (do NOT use “Literature Review” as chapter title) • Introduction of chapter 2 (not a section) • Continue with the review of each topic going from broader topics to more specific topics • Conclusion and discussion (may also act as chapter summary) • Identify gap • Repeat the statement of research objectives • Link to chapter 3

8. Thesis Structure • Chapter 3: Methodology (do NOT use the word as title) • Introduction of chapter 3 (not a section) • Explain your work in logical order • Begin with basic concept or overview then go into detail • Your work can span multiple chapters! For example, • Chapter 3 for theoretical concept • Chapter 4 for specific detail / extension • Chapter 5 for technical implementation • Chapter summary • Summarize your work and link to the experiment and evaluation in the next chapter

9. Thesis Structure • Chapter 4: Evaluation (name the chapter accordingly) • Introduction of chapter 4 (not a section) • Explain the evaluation of your work. This depends on your field of research • Always discuss the results • In each section or at the end of chapter, use your judgment • Chapter summary • Summarize your result and link to the final chapter

10. Thesis Structure • Chapter 5: Conclusion (name the chapter accordingly) • Short introduction of chapter 5 (not a section) • Research contribution • Summarize your research contribution in response to research objectives. Then generalize your contribution. • Future work • Further conceptual work, not trying to solve trivia obstacles • Do NOT actively discuss your result in this chapter; it should be in the previous chapter • Page count should not exceed 5-10 pages for PhD, 4-5 pages for Master; otherwise it is not a conclusion. • End the thesis with a punch line

11. Writing Chapter 1 • The outline of the thesis / paper, defining theme • The hardest part (perhaps of the whole thesis) is the introduction of chapter 1 • Summary of research context, motivation, objective, and probably a short description of your solution • Use generic words, technical terms should NOT appear here • An advertisement of your work • Research objective • What you want to do, not how to do it and not too detailed • NOT what you must do anyway • Do not put the evaluation of your work as an objective

12. Writing Chapter 1 • Research questions • Depends on your field of study • Research hypotheses • Depends on your field of study • Research scope • What is and is not included in your work • Use this section to make assumptions regarding what you are not concerned with • Scope must not be too small or too large, consult your supervisor • Save yourself from examiner panel

13. Writing Chapter 2 Background technologies and existing work related to your research Begin with general concept then narrow it down Identify 5W 1H of each literature and discuss it in relation to your work. Do not include any unrelated literature. Most often, each literature (paper) will be presented one by one, which is acceptable but is not an ideal way of writing. Ideally, concepts, comparison, and discussion criteria should be identified. Then explain literature based on them.

14. Writing Chapter 2 In the end, all the reviews should lead to the research gap or problem that your research is supposed to address or solve A discussion section is useful for this purpose. A table summarizing the criteria / problems that the reviewed literature address is useful for identifying gap Repeat your research objectives at the end of the chapter to keep readers on track

15. Other Chapters The other chapters depend on your research. You may follow the academic writing guideline in this slide or your own style.

16. Academic Writing • Write as if you are an average person reading your work • A thesis should be necessarily self-contained. Readers should not often have to go elsewhere to find necessary information to understand your work • For conference / journal paper, you can assume smarter readers being in your research field • Arrange the flow of your thesis like writing a novel • Broad to narrow - easy to difficult • Begin lightly, introduce characters (concepts), character development (interactions / timeline of concepts), go into climax, and an ending (or lead to a new chapter)

17. Academic Writing • Usually, if not always, begin with an introduction • Chapter introduction - longer • Section introduction - shorter • Even paragraph introduction – a couple of sentences • Give an overview of what the reader is going to see before going into detail • End with a summary • A summary section for a chapter • A summary paragraph for a section • A sentence at the end of paragraph as necessary • A monotone thesis is a boring book

18. Academic Writing • Be objective when writing • Your own opinion should be clearly separated • Do not over-claim something without proof • Identify clearly what is not yours – avoid plagiarism • Do not write weak sentence • The pitfall is the language used in general/business writing • Avoid glorified wording • Ideally, everything you write must be justifiable.

19. Academic Writing • Do not use contraction, spell the full words instead • “don’t” -> “do not” • “gonna” -> “going to” • “isn’t” -> “is not” • “we’ve” -> “we have” • Avoid “etc.” • Do not use the word “essentially” when you do not really mean it. • There is a difference between “such as” and “including” when providing a list of items.

20. Academic Writing • Note the difference between “which” and “that” • “which” • Use “which” when describing the term preceding it. • The term should be independent of the phrase after “which” (i.e. deleting the phrase should not affect the main sentence. A comma is usually necessary. • “that” • Use “that” when it is necessary to describe the term preceding it. • The term itself would not be understood without the phrase after “that”.

21. Academic Writing • Note the difference between “because”, “since”, and “as”. They all can be used for providing reasons but: • “because” is specifically for giving reason • “since” also has a sense of time • “as” also has a sense of things happening at the same time • If it could be ambiguous, use “because” • Some usual words are not academic language, e.g., • “steal” VS “misappropriation” • “enough” VS “sufficient”

22. Academic Writing • Avoid vague words: “someone”, “somebody”, “very” • Avoid personified words: “I”, “you”, “my”, “your” • Use passive form instead • Use “we” or “our” to emphasize your own work, but not too often • Do not use strong words without sufficient support • “must” -> “may” • “problem” -> “issue”, “hindrance”, “consideration” • “best”, “worst”

23. Academic Writing Write concise sentences. Redundant words usually confuse readers. Note for Thais: Thai writing is usually redundant so you have to adjust your thought when writing in English Order the phrases in a sentence so that the part you want to emphasize comes first (to make it stand out). Microsoft Word has a hotkey to find synonyms of a selected word. Try Shift-F7 after highlighting a word. This helps avoid repeating the same word too often.

24. Academic Writing • Using sections • Make a section when it is a necessity • Do not use deep subsection. In most cases, you should not need to go below the 4th level (e.g. 1.1.1.1) • Use paragraphs instead of small subsections and link them nicely to form the flow. This demonstrates your writing skill. • Understand your work and how your content link together!

25. Academic Writing • Using sections • DO NOT write after a section title! Title is title. Do not mix it with a paragraph. Start a new paragraph under the title. • If you do use section title as the beginning of a paragraph, then it is a paragraph and should not be made a section. • There should not be only one subsection in a section (or only one section in a chapter). • A subsection should not start right after the main section title. At least you need to explain what the section is about.

26. Academic Writing • Using abbreviations and jargons (technical terms) • The full form of an abbreviation should be written first before subsequent uses of the abbreviation. • Jargons should be defined at least at the first appearance in the thesis. • Sometimes it helps to repeat the full form of an abbreviation in a later chapter to help remind readers

27. Academic Writing • Using bullet points • Avoid using bullet points • Bullet points can cause discontinuity of the flow • Only use bullet when absolutely necessary, e.g. • Stating research object (it is still possible to write research objectives in a paragraph) • Stating research questions • Do not use bullet point to list the sections in a chapter • If it is possible to rearrange bullet points into a paragraph and link them together to form a flow, do it!

28. Other Tips • It is often suggested to write what comes to mind quickly so your thought is not interrupted by grammar • But make sure you come back to correct any error and rearrange the content to fit the flow • Beginner should start with simple sentences before advancing to complex sentences. • A sentence should not be longer than 3 lines. • No one appreciates a 5-line long sentence with more than 2 conjunctions (e.g. “which” and “that”) • Read your sentences out loud after the writing

29. Other Tips • There are more than one ways to convey the same content or idea. • If a sentence becomes too complex, try explaining it from a different point of view. It could be easier. • Write your thesis in a way that it can be extracted into good journal papers • Leave your work for a few days then read it again. You might think ‘how did I write so badly?’ • Or ask your friend to review it. • Give a name to your work? • No advice, just be creative

30. Finally You cannot be a good writer without having enough experience. So write a lot! Also read a lot. You will see a lot of good writing in (high-quality) research papers. Students use some excuses like “it has been written like this before” or “my senior did it like this” a lot. Don’t trust them entirely! They could be wrong! A thesis is only once in a lifetime (especially a PhD one) so you should be satisfied with nothing but a perfect thesis.

31. Acknowledgement The preparation of this manual is based on experience obtained throughout many years of study and research. During those years, the author had received many good comments (many of which also appear in this manual) from his supervisors, who had to endure the poor writing when the author started out a master thesis. The author would like to thanks his supervisors, whose names are omitted for privacy, for their great supervision. The credit for the making of this manual also goes to Dr. Minh Dinh for additional comments and suggestions. SuchaSmanchat, PhD