Tuesday 14 June 2022

23 tips on how to become proficient in technical writing for a better presentation of your research contribution

 

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mounib-khanafer-732a35135_towards-proficiency-in-technical-writing-activity-6942153143233183744-VIFE

 

23 tips on how to become proficient in technical writing for a better presentation of your research contribution

 

By: Dr. Mounib Khanafer  

Associate Professor, PhD, SMIEEE at the American University of Kuwait (AUK).

 

Motivation:

After reading, writing, and reviewing thousands of technical reports, project documents, research proposals, articles and research papers in the field of electrical and computer engineering, I can really convey this message to those considering a career in research and academia: work hard on your technical writing skills since the early days of your undergrad studies 📒📔👨🎓
I will be posting more on this matter in the coming days. Stay tuned if interested and drop me your thoughts in a comment📝

Here we go!
Tip 1
💡:

Your basic calculus🧮, physics🔭, and chemistry 🧪courses are highly helpful in developing the skill of describing systems of equations, models, algorithms, flowcharts, diagrams, graphs, schematics, and designs. They help you recognize how to refer to figures, tables, plots, paragraphs, sections, and chapters and how to compare designs, models, and systems. Most importantly, they help you enrich your pool of technical/scientific vocabulary and language you need in your field of interest in engineering. These basic skills are the nuts and bolts of any technical document you will write.
Always remember the golden rule🏆: read the textbooks of these courses and don’t confine yourself to summaries, handouts, or slides.

 

Tip 2💡:

As you move to major courses in engineering👷‍♂️, building the habit of reading engineering textbooks 📚 is essential towards improving your technical language and writing. These textbooks shine in introducing complex systems ️ in a friendly language; trust me, you need that skill! Remember that at a later point in your major (and eventually in your career) you will need to communicate 📡 your ideas clearly and effectively; your engineering textbooks just help you achieve that gradually. The good news 📰 is that after some patience and persistency in reading those textbooks 📖 you will be amazed to see how frequent the typical technical phrases get repeated👌! You will get to know them by heart and find yourself using them automatically  . As a full-time undergraduate student you have the luxury of time ️that you may not (and probably will not) have later in your graduate studies or while working! The ease of finding enough time to read your textbooks in depth with minimum distractions 💥is one of the blessings during your undergraduate studies. Use that time wisely⏳!
Always remember the golden rule🏆: read the textbooks of these courses and don’t confine yourself to summaries, handouts, or slides.

 

Tip 3💡:

You will need the interaction🧐 in the classroom, so never skip classes! Your course/lab instructors 🧑‍🏫 will be using the technical language typical in your field of interest🤔; you need to hear them and interact with them. This will finetune 🛠 your technical language skills and improve your confidence in using them. You will start to get used to the nomenclature of your field. Even if you are one of those who are able to ace 🧞‍️ all assignments, projects, and exams while skipping all classes (if your instructor allows it 😅); you will be missing a lot in your journey towards shaping your technical language if you think that you don’t need your instructors! Since learning at college/university should be taken as a complete package 📦(attend, read, review, practice, interact), each aspect of this package will be adding to your technical language skills, trust me!
Remember the golden rule🏆: interaction with the experts in your field is a major factor in improving your technical language skills.

 

 

Tip 4💡:


Always remember that patience ️is an essential virtue when it comes to building your foundation for effective technical ️. Becoming comfortable with producing well-written articles will never happen over night🎆. Be patient while reading your college textbooks📚. Be patient in collecting and memorizing those technical terms to create your own database 💿of them. This database will be your sign of how good you are doing👌: in your first couple of years at college it will grow in size fast📈, and that growth must slow down as you progress in your studies👨💻; otherwise, you are not inching up🤔!!! But this patience will be highly rewarding 🏅 at a later point in your career. When you find yourself crafting 👨🎨top-class reports and holding captivating technical talks💬, you can’t imagine the feeling of confidence that will instill in yourself. That feeling will be shaping your whole career😎!
Another golden rule🏆: Be patient 😉

 

Tip 5💡:


When you reach your capstone project🛠, it’s the time that you will learn the power of your words️. No matter what system your school follows for capstone, there will be requirements on reporting📝and presentation🎤, and that’s where most students lose marks😔!!! You may design and deliver the best capstone project that is technically sound💪.You may even deliver a groundbreaking, innovative product🧞. However, failure to convey the details of your design and the contribution you have made in a clear, well-written report is a major loss😩!!! Also, the lack of communication skills using good technical language will backfire️ big time. Beside the preparatory steps I mentioned in my previous tips, one winning way🎖 to circumvent such a situation is through preparing a sound literature review🤓. The latter is usually the first step in your capstone; benefit from it. Don’t hesitate to read tens of articles 📚 that tackle the same area you are working on. See how others present their work and describe their designs👷‍♂️. Reading the literature and preparing literature reviews is one essential step towards shining in technical writing.
Another takeaway🏆: make it a habit to read the literature in your field; don’t miss the wealth of vocabulary and phrases available there!

 

 

Tip 6 💡:

Your masters studies 📜 is the point where you will delve into extensive, deep dive readings 👓into the track of interest to you. Several masters courses will have a weight on preparing a term paper📝 . Usually, the style of this paper requires selecting a research topic and writing a comprehensive review about it📄. This is a twofold chance️:
🥇building knowledge, and
🥈improving your technical language.
Never get tired of these readings💪; the more, the merrier. This is a golden opportunity 👑to build a strong foundation for your language skills that will flourish and pay off later in your PhD🚀.
A takeaway🏆: at the masters level start building the attitude of a voracious reader😋

 

Tip 7💡:


During your masters and PhD studies👨🎓, you will be part of a lab 🧑‍💻of graduate students and researchers that conduct weekly or monthly series of seminars🗣. Attending, and actively holding, these seminars is a must🧐. Not only you will learn hot topics of research️, but you will also enrich your vocabulary and learn how to communicate your ideas effectively and with confidence👌. These seminars teach you how to use clear language to:
🏅describe your research problem
🎖set your motivation
🏅define your objectives
🎖introduce your system
🏅highlight your results and conclusions, and
🎖identify your future directions
Each of these items will be just a section or chapter in your next report or paper 📝 .
Takeaway🏆: to flourish 💪in technical writing, join the crowd of researchers 🤩 and be involved in the technical talks happening in your lab and school 🏫 .
#research #engineering #writing

 

Tip 8💡:

Be selective 🥸 in what journals and conference proceedings you read. Focus on well-reputed 🌟journals in your field of interest; they go through a rigorous 🧐 peer-review process and publish well-written works. Read top-tier 🥇conference proceedings; they are serious about selecting well-written papers📝. Know the top contributors 👨🏫 in your field and read their publications; you will learn a lot from them. As you go through these quality works, get to learn how to:
🎖Format your paper/report
🏅Present your ideas clearly
🎖Achieve a smooth reading of your work
🏅Ensure the coherence in your paper/report
Takeaway🏆: the reader must enjoy reading your paper/report🤩. Otherwise, you’re in trouble!🧐
#publications #writing #research #engineering

 

Tip 9💡:


Use simplified language👌!You need to develop the skill of presenting your work in the clearest, user-friendly language🤝. When you use complex😓, less-popular language you lose the interest of your readers🤨! This means that you will need to spend some time in structuring 👷‍♂️your paragraphs 📝to remove any vague or less-direct 🔄 phrases. Of course, this is a skill that you don’t acquire overnight and comes after intensive readings🏅, but you need to keep it in mind 🤔 and make it an essential component in your style 👨🎨of writing.
The golden rule for today🏆: keep it simple and clear; readers don’t like to spend time in deciphering 🔐 what you mean!

#writing #research #engineering

 

Tip 10💡:


Some essentials:
1. When referring to a specific equation, figure, table, section, chapter, and appendix, you should capitalize🔠 (Equation 1.1, Figure 3.2, Table 4.1, Section 3, Chapter 5, Appendix A).
2. When you state an equation, you must define 📝each term appearing in the equation and what the equation measures.
3. When you refer to a figure, you must describe ️everything that appears in the figure.
4. When you refer to a table, you must explain its content.
5. When you present a system model 📳 through a schematic, an architecture, a flow chart, or a block diagram, you must describe to the reader what you are showing.
6. Even if the equation, table, figure, or system model seem to be quite simple to you, never️ assume they are self-explanatory. You must describe them to the reader 🤝.
The takeaway 🏆: respect the etiquette🧐 of technical writing and be generous 👍in your descriptions🖌. Help the reader to understand you️!

#writing #research #engineering

 

Tip 11 💡:

(one of my students suggested that I be more specific. So, here you go Laila Dallol 👍)

1. ️When referring to a figure, table, or system model and what they are for, write something like ️:
· “This figure shows/illustrates/depicts/describes/demonstrates/highlights/exemplifies/clarifies …”
2. ️When explaining an equation that you have provided, write something like ️:
· “This equation presents/states/introduces/describes/relates/associates/explains/proves …”
· “The first term in this equation reflects/means/states/indicates/shows/refers to/compensates for …”
· “The second coefficient in this equation indicates/results from/is used to/represents the weight of/reduces the impact of the associated term/boosts the impact of the associated term ….”
3. ️When describing your contribution, be specific on whether it is a new “algorithm,” “system,” “model,” “protocol,” “product,” “invention,” “implementation,” “analysis,” “evaluation,” “comparison,” “simulation,” “emulation,” “deployment,” “extension,” “survey,” or “review.”

Takeaway🏆: These tips are based on extensive readings through books, papers, and reports. Keep reading🚀.
#research #engineering #writing #technicalwriting

Tip 12 💡:

(one of my students suggested that I be more specific. So, here you go Laila Dallol 👍)
1. ️When explaining the contribution 🥇 of your work, you must have a clear statement ️ about it in both the “Abstract” and the “Introduction” of your report:
· “In this work we introduce a new algorithm/system/protocol/model/…”
· “In this paper we devise a new algorithm/system/protocol/model/…”
· “Our contribution in this work is …”
· “In this paper we propose a new algorithm/system/protocol/model/…”
· “In this work we describe a new algorithm/system/protocol/model/…”
· “In this work we evaluate/analyze a new algorithm/system/protocol/model/…”
2. ️When describing the performance of your new system write something like:
· “The performance of our new algorithm is superior to algorithm X”
· “The performance of algorithm X is inferior to our algorithm”
· “Our new algorithm boosts up the performance in terms of …”
· “Our proposed protocol increases/decreases the ….”
· “Our product solves the problem of …”
· “The impact of X declines/diminishes by using our proposal”
· “Our invention supports this targeted group in our community”

Takeaway🏆: Once again, these tips are based on extensive readings through books, papers, and reports. Keep reading🚀.

#research #technicalwriting #engineering

Tip 13💡:


Keep in mind that there is a direct relation between how you do research 🧐 and how you report it️. Simply stated, look at the diagram 🗺below: These are the stages 🐾of any research project; each stage corresponds (roughly) to a chapter/section in your report/paper📝.
Takeaway🏆: writing your final report/paper follows the same methodology ️you followed in conducting your research project👌.
#research #project #technicalwriting #research

 

 

Tip 14💡:


It’s essential to let someone else have a look at your work before final submission🧐🤔. Approach those who have published 📝before. Talk to colleagues👨, PhD students👨🎓, postdoctoral fellows🙋‍♂️, and most importantly your supervisor👨🏫. There is always something you will learn from them📖. Never assume that you have it all covered; nobody is perfect🤨. Their recommendations will finetune 🛠😓your work at an early stage. Be ready to hear and accept even the harshest critique😓🧏‍♂️; trust me it will better shape 👨🔧your way of reporting. Even if someone advises you to add clarifications or enhancements that will require couple of weeks of work, it is worth it️. Corrections and amendments at this stage are not costly🤩!!! Keep in mind that after any submission to a conference or journal you will have to wait for few months before receiving the feedback of the reviewers👮‍♂️. In case you haven’t done your homework properly, you may take another couple of months to entertain all reviewers’ requests, and that is the costly part💰💰💰😩😩😩.
Takeaway🏆: take a second opinion
#research #technicalwriting #engineering #publishing

 

Tip 15💡:


Reports/papers should have an abstract📝. The abstract is an executive summary of what your document is about🏁. In a condensed paragraph, you need to educate your reader about the problem you are working on and the solution you are proposing for it️. That is, this is the place in your document where you tell the reader what you are going to talk about📣. I prefer 300’ish-word abstracts designed using the 100/100/100 rule (my invention🤩; see the diagram).

Do’s:
️Include typical keywords in your area
️Highlight how your work is distinguished
️Specify names of algorithms/systems/models/tools that you use in your solution
️Include readings/statistics/results that you have generated

Don’ts:
😑Talk about the details of your implementation
😑Use complicated language

Takeaway🏆: Learn how to describe what you want to say using 300 words only.
#research #engineering #technicalwriting

 

 

Tip 16💡:


As my PhD supervisor (Prof. Hussein Mouftah) one day taught me: “90% of the readers of your thesis will decide to keep on reading till the last page only if the “Introduction” is well-written!”😓😱😰😡
In your “Introduction”, you should cover the following aspects (my supervisor continued):
1️ Background
2️ Motivation
3️ Objectives
4️ Contributions
5️ Thesis (or paper) Outline

The “Outline” subsection, which is the closing section 🎬of your “Introduction”, should be structured 🏛as:
“The rest of this thesis (or paper) is organized as follows. Section 2 covers … etc. Section 3 introduces … etc. Next, in Section 4 we describe … etc. After that, Section 5 provides … etc. Finally, Section 6 concludes this work and sets the future directions.”
Takeaway🏆: Your “Introduction” is the gateway to your work. Make sure it is well-structured and well-written😊.
#research #engineering #technicalwriting #thesis

 

 

 

Tip 17💡:


Writing literature reviews is time-consuming and tiresome, but essential in building your case! 👨💼
At the end, in your paper 📝 you are trying to prove 🤔to the reviewer and the reader that you are presenting something new🤩; something that does not exist in the literature 😎! Therefore, it’s important to spend enough time reading into the work related to your problem 📉. The benefits 🏅of these readings are:
️To keep yourself up-to-date with respect to the solutions proposed to solve your problem of interest
️To discover trendy tools/methods/approaches to tackle this problem
️To learn how performance analysis is conducted to evaluate the efficiency of your solution
️To shape your solution uniquely so that it distinguishes itself from the work of others
️Most importantly: To continue improving your technical language through these intensive readings

Takeaway🏆: Conducting literature review is part of your personality as a successful researcher👨🔬. Keep reading!😊
#research #engineering #technicalwriting

 

 

Tip 18💡:

 


Your literature review must be up to date!
This means that you should cover recent contributions in the field towards solving your problem🧐. An up-to-date literature review means:
1️ You are limiting yourself to the papers that have been published in the recent three to five years🗓. Of course, some fields are so active that you may find a large set of contributions that have happened just over the last year; capture those️.
2️ You are citing the landmark papers 🏁that made a major difference in your field; ignoring those papers undermines the strength of your paper and may discredit your results😰! Landmark papers can be identified through reading survey and tutorial papers.
3️ You are citing landmark papers that are highly influencing 💪in your field even though they are kind of old. Citing these papers reflects that you are aware of the seminal works in your field and that you are standing on solid grounds when you compare your results to what has been published.

Takeaway🏆: A good, up-to-date literature review makes your paper shine. It requires patience in reading the works of others. Keep reading!🌟

#research #engineering #technicalwriting

 

Tip 19💡:


Documenting your contribution is the most important section of your paper️. This is where you need to be:
1️Clear
2️Thorough
3️Readable
4️Coherent
Your abilities of technical writing should shine 🌟exactly here! This is the part that you are proud of👏; be generous in the details. This section can be titled generically as “System Model” or “System Design.” Alternatively🧐, you can be more specific by using the name of your new system/model/algorithm/protocol/design in the title, or even writing something like “A New Model for…” or “The New Proposed System of …”. Size-wise, this section should be the largest in your paper🤔; you can’t have an “Introduction” of two pages and a “System Model” that is barely half a page🤔! In describing your contribution, you need to use schematics, flowcharts, architectures, tables, figures, graphs … etc.; engineers are obsessed 😊 with description tools and hate 😡just viewing long pages of text without an ability of visualizing your proposal. Your ability to make your contribution stand out is essential here👌; the reader should not struggle to understand where your touch is! It is highly recommended that your contribution is pinpointed 👉clearly in bullet form in the beginning of the contribution section. State it as follows:
“Our contribution in this paper is summarized as follows:
1….
2…
3…”

Takeaway🏆: Show pride in your contribution by describing it properly!
#design #engineeing #technicalwriting #research

Tip 20💡:



After you have introduced your proposal in the “System Model” section🧐, you need to focus next on how you will be evaluating the performance of your proposed solution🤔. This happens in a section titled as “Performance Evaluation” or “Performance Analysis”🔬. With a clear language🗣, you should explain to the reader how systems like yours should be evaluated and tested 🧪for performance and efficiency. The performance metrics 📏should be selected in consistency with what your proposal is promising to achieve️. Your ability to introduce these metrics and relate them to your problem of interest in a convincing language is essential in getting your work recognized👍, appreciated👌, and praised🙏.

Takeaway🏆: Use careful, convincing language to educate the reader about how to evaluate your system.🌟
#research #engineering #technicalwriting

 

Tip 21💡:



Done with “Performance Evaluation” 🤔? It’s time to generate results and comment on them️ in a section titled “Results and Discussions”. Your results may be generated using several tools:

1️ Simulations🎥
2️ Mathematical modeling🧮
3️ Experimentation🧪
4️ Emulation 🔬
5️ Actual direct implementation

Presenting your data and results is an art👌. Use a proper language in relating your findings to the background you have established in the “Introduction”, “System Model,” and “Performance Evaluation” sections. Coherence is essential here; don’t create conflicts between the promises you have made in previous sections and the way you are interpreting your data.

Takeaway🏆: Your results should be carefully generated and discussed. Craft this section properly🌟.
#research #engineering #technicalwriting #uottawa

 

Tip 22💡:


When preparing your list of references keep in mind:

1️ The number of references:
— Usually, a conference paper shouldn’t have more than 15 quality references while journal papers need a wealth of references (more than 20)
2️ The variety of the references:
— Cite both conference and journals papers. Focus on flagship conferences and high-end journals. You need a variety of conferences, journals, and even authors to show that you have based your research on deep knowledge

3️ How current the references are:
— Try to restrict yourself to what has been published in the past 3 to 5 years. Of course, certain relevant, landmark papers must be cited in your work even if they were old; skipping them may discredit your findings!

Takeaway 🏆: Your references should tell the reader that you know your area. Select them carefully 🧐️.

#research #engineering #technicalwriting #uottawa #iot #wirelessnetworks

 

 

Tip 23💡: (concluding tip)



Writing your technical report or research paper needs:

1️ Planning
2️ Time
3️ Patience
4️ Revision

Never underestimate the importance of any of these factors🧐.
When I generated my final results for my master’s thesis, I thought that I’m done with my master’s since writing is not supposed to take time!!!!
My supervisor asked me: “How long do you think you need to finish writing?”🤔
I replied with full confidence and happiness: “Two weeks”😎
He replied with a smile: ”If you finish writing in two weeks, I will pay you $10000”🤭
I accepted his challenge and started writing️. It turned out that I needed another six weeks to complete the writing🔨🤯🤕.

Final takeaway🏆: Take technical writing seriously and give it all it needs of planning, time, patience, and revision.🚀

#technicalwriting #engineering #uottawa #iot #wirelessnetworks #research

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Motivation: https://lnkd.in/diBAsP9C

Tip 1: https://lnkd.in/dm_CfJvC
Tip 2: https://lnkd.in/dcwZXeTN
Tip 3: https://lnkd.in/dEfHt3Dp
Tip 4: https://lnkd.in/dwEXT_Ux
Tip 5: https://lnkd.in/dfwjt5ju
Tip 6: https://lnkd.in/di6dhtWU
Tip 7: https://lnkd.in/dGu7g-CQ
Tip 8: https://lnkd.in/dMdjJRaW
Tip 9: https://lnkd.in/dqKtmemP
Tip 10: https://lnkd.in/dDvqA4sg
Tip 11: https://lnkd.in/d2h5fcKk
Tip 12: https://lnkd.in/duYnN495
Tip 13: https://lnkd.in/dgdBRJ7R

Tip 14: https://lnkd.in/dkHiq3gR
Tip 15: https://lnkd.in/d5Y5yssy
Tip 16: https://lnkd.in/dkC6b4Xt
Tip 17: https://lnkd.in/d2tmUEPF
Tip 18: https://lnkd.in/dt47qra8
Tip 19: https://lnkd.in/dukQS4Nj
Tip 20: https://lnkd.in/dH5FQTiq
Tip 21: https://lnkd.in/dXPiXPeV
Tip 22: https://lnkd.in/dvk4igmd
Tip 23: https://lnkd.in/d_5q85WE

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