Doing good research

Writing a good paper

A good paper should contain the following sections, in approximately the following order:

1. Abstract

   Write in as few words as possible what problem you are tackling, the ways you have devised to solve the problem, and the results you have achieved. Also make a brief reference to how great your achievements are compared to existing work. A good abstract should not be simply a copy of the first introductory paragraph and final conclusion, but a completely re-written portion that tries to summarize the essence of the paper. Think of it as your 30 second introduction/pitch of your work to a complete stranger in an elevator. Try to captivate the audience, to compel them to read the full paper.

2. Introduction/Motivation

   What is so interesting about your problem? Historical context, with some reference to other people's generally similar work. What other people have done to solve this?

3. Related Work (could be merged with introduction and/or conclusion)

   What have other people proposed that is very similar to your approach?

4. Description of your approach/model/architecture

   You can include mathematical definitions, theories here. For implementation specific topics you can include the architecture and design here.

5. Experimental Results and/or implementation (screen shots)
   • Datasets: describe each dataset clearly and quote its sources
   • Methodology, Algorithms, hardware setup, programmign language used
   • Results/graphs/charts
   • Implementation issues
   • Benchmark against other methods, or against time using various sizes of test data

     For a new proposed approach, you need to compare with at least 2 established approaches to make yours convincing

   • Discussion of Results
6. Discussion

   This section can be merged with the previous or the following section.

7. Conclusion and Future Work

   Mention what future work is needed, or point out future directions. Also describe possible practical applications of your work.

8. Acknowledgements

   If your research was supported by research grants, here is a good place to mention them such as This research was supported partially by XXX research grant no. ####, and YYY, .... Also acknowledge people and reviewers who have helped you in refining your paper or performing your experiments.

9. References

   Please quote all references here using BibTex.

That vs Which

Jack Lynch:

• If you are restricting something by distinguishing it from a larger class of which it is a member, use **“that”**:

       I chose the girl that has the sweetest smile.
  

Note that this implies there were other girls.

• When the general class is unrestricted, then “which” is appropriate:

       He chose two girls, which didn’t turn out quite well.
  

Note that this does not imply there were other girls.

• “which” is normally preceded by a comma, but “that” is not.