Paper Writing for Ph.D. Students

Fall 2012

W 10-11am

Instructor Omprakash Gnawali
in collaboration with the
writing center

Overview

In this course, the students will learn to think like a writer. By writing a literature review paper and a research paper in their area of research, the students will learn the basics of writing a computer science paper.

The course will consist of three types of sessions. I will lead a few sessions discussing the research skills and thinking necessary to write a paper. The writing center will lead group sessions during which you will discuss what you have learnt and your sample writing with your peers. In the individual sessions, the writing consultant will offer tips and suggestions customized to strengthen your writing. We will meet for an hour approximately once a week. I expect you to spend another hour or two working on your writing as a part of this course every week. You do not get any official credit for this course. If you need credit, you can do this as an independent study with your Ph.D. advisor.


Schedule

August 29, 2012PGH 563Course Logistics and Writing Philosophies. Slides
September 5, 2012PGH 563Work related to your research and paper.
Guest: Prof. Ioannis Kakadiaris
September 19, 2012Writing
Center		Literature review topic selection.
September 26, 2012Writing
Center		Literature review content collection.
October 3, 2012PGH 232Elements and Style of a conference paper.
Guests: Profs. Jaspal Subhlok and J.F. Paris (Slides)
October 10, 2012Writing
Center		Literature review wrapup.
October 17, 2012PGH 232Experiments for your research and experiments for your paper.
Guests: Profs. Christoph Eick (Slides) and Rong Zheng (Slides)
October 24, 2012Writing
Center		Research paper outlining.
October 31, 2012PGH 232Graphs, illustrations, and visualization. Slides
Guests: Profs. Zhigang Deng (Slides) and Guoning Chen (Slides)
November 14, 2012Writing
Center		Research paper rough draft.
November 28, 2012PGH 232Understanding paper reviewers and reviews.
Guest: Prof. Barbara Chapman

The students meet with a writing center consultant for individual feedback once during October 11 - October 26 and once during November 19 - December 5.


Resources


Tips for Writing Technical Papers by Jennifer Widom.
The Literature Review by unknown at Univ. Huddersfield.
Writing reviews for systems conferences by Timothy Roscoe.
You and Your Research by Richard Hamming (tr. J. F. Kaiser).