Scientific Writing for Computer Science Students - FTP Directory ...

6 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION5. Final work: Check language and spelling, missing or incomplete references.Check that the structure is coherent. Write an abstract.Note: In practice it is easier to write other chapters, if you have an introduction,which defines the problem. However, often you have to write theintroduction again in the end, when everything else is ready. Conclusions arealso written in the end.1.4 Scientific writing styleMain goal: exact, clear, and compact.• Compact is usally clear!• Other desirable properties: smooth and objective1.4.1 Exact• Word choice: make certain that every word means exactly what youwant to express. Choose synonyms with care. Be not afraid of repetition.• Avoid vague expressions which are typical for the spoken language.E.g. the interpretation of words which approximate quantities (”quitelarge”, ”practically all”, ”very few”) depends on the reader and thecontext. Avoid them especially if you describe empirical observations.• Make clear what the pronouns refer to. The reader shouldn’t have tosearch the previous text to determine their meaning. Simple pronounslike this, that, these, those are often the most probematic, especiallywhen they refer to the previous sentence. Hint: mention the noun, e.g.”this test”.→ See Section 4.5 Pronouns.• Avoid ambiguous and illogical comparisons. These are often due tomissing words or nonparallel structures. E.g. ”Female students drawconcept maps more often than male students.””The students’ points were lower than the average computer sciencestudents.”→ See Section 4.8 Parallel constructions.