Notes on Paper Writing

Collected Wisdoms for Writing Scientific Papers

Andrew Gelman:
Nearly Always Avoid:

  • Note that . . .
  • Interestingly . . .
  • Obviously . . .
  • It is clear that . . .
  • It is interesting to note that . . .
  • very . . .
  • quite . . .
  • of course . . .
  • Notice that . . .
Dave Patterson:

  • Read Strunk and White.
  • Make paragraphs about a single idea, with a good topic sentence.
  • Use active voice.
  • Make sure the word “this” points unambiguously.
  • Don’t use “while” if you mean “although.”
  • Never have a section with a single subsection
  • Captialize in-paper references, e.g. “Chapter 1″ and “Figure 3.”
Jonathan Shewchuk:

  • Don’t waste space in the introduction with obvious things. Get to the point.
  • Don’t include a “table of contents” paragraph in the introduction.
  • Don’t write a conclusion section unless you actually have a conclusion.