How to write a survey paper

A workshop for CS 190

Pomona College Writing Center
Mike and Pam

Questions? Want to talk to someone about your survey paper?

writing.center@pomona.edu
Where are you in the process
● Annotated bibliography due 11/11(less than 3 weeks away)
● First draft of survey paper due 11/25 (the day before Thanksgiving)
● Final draft of survey paper due 12/9 (last day of Reading Days)
● This workshop intends to build a scaffold for doing this work
What is a survey paper?
● Review of literature
● Pinpointing an important, specific problem
● History, present, and future of a field
Challenges
● It’s hard to move from your initial list to your annotated bibliography.
● It’s even harder to move from your annotated bibliography to your survey
paper.
● Goal of this workshop is to help you develop a scaffold for doing this work
○ Choose your works based on its usefulness to the end goal: your survey
paper.
○ Think about the purpose of each source in your paper - this saves you
time!
○ Remember that the titles that you first submitted don’t have to end up in
your survey paper, use what’s useful.
Survey Paper Overview
Text Simplification Statistical Pattern Recognition

● Sections 2 and 3 (Kauchak) ● Section 1 (Wu)

● Survey paper identifying and ● Survey paper discussing
classifying automated text supervised and unsupervised
simplification research and its classification
applications
Group Work Discussion in 15 minutes!
Text Simplification Statistical Pattern Recognition

A. Abstract A. Abstract
B. Introduction B. Introduction (1.1, 1.2, 1.6)
C. Approach -- lexical simplification C. Approach -- curse of dimensionality
D. Approach -- syntactic simplification D. Approach -- classifier combination
E. Approach -- statistical machine translation E. Approach -- unsupervised classification
F. Research Challenges/Conclusion F. Frontiers of pattern recognition
G. Tables G. Tables
H. Figures H. Figures

Expectations:
● When reviewing your section, think about what, exactly, you need to do to write the section
successfully.
● Be ready to share with the larger group what the goals and expectations of that section are.
● For example, the introduction often pinpoints the timeframe of work studied or the audience,
while the conclusion always suggests specific directions for future research.
Abstract
● Very quick overview of the problem - from reading the abstract, the reader
should know what the paper is about
● Defining the field / topic, explaining the scope of the field
● Explaining way the problem is being addressed
● Roadmapping the paper
● State primary goals of the survey paper
● Mention major approaches for each field
● Quick list of current applications
● Should all be fact!
● (Sometimes) address timeframe under discussion

Always written last!

Introduction
● Define the field and the scope of the paper
● Locating of the problem in a broader field, and how the field is different from
other related fields
● Define the specific problem or issue being examined in the paper
● Define key terms
● Why the field - and the specific problem - matters in a larger context --
establishing the motive for the survey paper
● Can also include:
○ Overview of the field since X year
○ Mentioning the expected audience
Approaches
● Logical order for moving from one method to another
● Each approach defined clearly at the start of each section
● Shares motivation for each method
● Give a high-level overview of each approach, then specific approaches
● Discuss how the approach or technique evolves over time
● How the approach is applied
● Note specific areas of improvement
● Usually is at least one method is visualized in a figure
● (perhaps) the key formatory work’s influence on other works
Research Challenges/Conclusion
● Summarizes the state of the art of the research in the field
● State the need the field has arisen from
● Survey the history of the field from A -> Z
● Broken down into clear parts:
○ review of the approaches
○ what’s missing
○ direction for future research
● Generalize problems that are encountered in current research
● Identify emerging areas and promising methods for future research
● Real world applications of the future approaches (if relevant)
● Applications to the real world
Tables
● Maintain the same schema throughout the article
● Can help provide a very broad overview of the problem and how it’s
approached
● Table must be referenced and connected to the text
● Should convey only key information
● Should do something to forward your argument
● Table can also show key works and how they progress
● When thinking about visually presenting information:
○ Choose either a table or figure - not both
○ Tables can be useful for categorizing information
Figures
● Illustrate key concepts
● Maintain same schema throughout the entire article
● Needs to be referenced in and connected to the text
● Should do something to forward your argument
● When thinking about visually presenting information:
○ Choose either a table or figure - not both
○ Figures can be useful for visually representing a concept or data
■ for instance, flow charts can be great ways to see processes
■ figures can also share useful examples.
Wrapping up
● Read a lot to pin down your list of papers
● Remember that the titles that you first submitted don’t have to end up in your
survey paper, use what’s useful
● Be aware and okay that your topic will evolve as your research leads you to
other places
● It’s a challenge to move from your initial list to your annotated bibliography. It’
s even harder to move from your annotated bibliography to your survey paper.
Choose your works based on its usefulness to the end goal: your survey
paper. This saves you time!
How to write a survey paper
A workshop for CS 190
Pomona College Writing Center
Mike and Pam

Questions? Want to talk to someone about your survey paper?

writing.center@pomona.edu