Writing a Science or Engineering Paper: It is just a story

1. Writing a Science or Engineering Paper:It is just a story Frank Shipman Department of Computer Science Texas A&M University

2. Scientific Writing as Storytelling • What is the goal of science / engineering? • To answer questions of what, where, when how, and who. • To convey these answers to others. • But how do we convince others of our results?

3. Convincing Results • Different fields use different (primary) methods for generating and evaluating the validity of results. • Proofs in mathematics • Statistics in psychology • Grounded observation in anthropology • Precise argument in the humanities

4. But it all comes down to … • Why do we care about the proof? • Why do we believe the interpretation of the statistics or observations? • Why do we believe the humanities argument? Storytelling

5. Not a Derogatory Term • Storytelling frequently is used as a derogatory term indicating the presentation of untruths. • But in the end it is the story that you tell about the proof, the statistics, the observations, or the argument that will make your results convincing.

6. Telling a Good Scientific Story • Have a protagonist • a user trying to accomplish something, something your audience cares about • in some cases the protagonist is implicit • Examples • the person using the network or computer to make decisions (scheduling deliveries, deciding on investments) • the person performing a task with computer support (landing a broken airplane, teaching a class, etc.)

7. Telling a Good Scientific Story • Have a villain • the problem that threatens to keep the protagonist from accomplishing their goals • the problem should be real in order to keep your reader’s attention • Examples • an insurmountable amount of information • an unpredictable communication channel • a limited amount of human attention, etc.

8. Telling a Good Scientific Story • Have a plot • an approach for the protagonist to win out over the villain (solving the problem) • this is the hypothesis and contribution • it can be very focused or very big • Examples • an algorithm for dealing with more data • a new flight-control system for pilots

9. Telling a Good Scientific Story • Have a full and rich backdrop • stories must happen in “believable” settings – consistency is a must • stories are rarely simple, there are other stories that interact with the main one • Examples • Related work and prior results • Details of the setting • Interactions with other systems and solutions that the protagonist may be using

10. Telling a Good Scientific Story • Have a strong finale • have an answer about the outcome of the story (is the protagonist’s problem solved?) • good stories do not always have happy endings • Examples • The algorithm locates (or not) information that lets the decision be made • The system makes (or not) the person’s task more efficient, more accurate, or more satisfying.

11. The (Idealized) Outline • Introduction and Problem Statement • The protagonist and antagonist • Approach • The plot • Related and prior work, design and implementation • The setting • Evaluation results and interpretation • The finale

12. Finale • When writing reports, don’t just describe what you did. • Describe why you did it. • Describe how it compared to other options. • Describe what did and did not work.

13. My Finale • Computer science is a new field, relative to other disciplines like physics, that answers a variety of questions: • What can be computed using what resources? • What problems can be solved using computers? • To answer these questions, methods are borrowed from a number of disciplines. • It needs researchers that can author and recognize good stories regardless of the particular methodology.