Untitled

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC BÁCH KHOA HÀ NỘI
HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Voice techniques
Technical Writing and Presentation
SOICT - 2020
Voice (vocal) techniques
• What you say is actually as important as than how
you say
• For scientific presentations, only 17 percent of

impression from words
• Deliver in a boring, monotone way  value of your

presentation comes to nothing
Voice (vocal) techniques: Aims
• Add color, expressiveness, and power to your

speech.
• Make deepest impressions upon listeners rather
than slides and curious facts.
• Create suspense, enthusiasm, and excitement
• Complete the drama of the plot
• Make the story much more vivid and easier for
listeners to follow.
Vocal delivery
1. Tempo and Chunking

2. Pitch and Intonation
3. Volume
4. Articulation
5. Sentence length and style
6. Language mistakes and accent
Tempo and Chunking
• Tempo: speed
• Never rush.
• Vary the speed — don’t talk at the same speed all
the time.
• Chunking: separating information into small groups

• Pause from time to time
• A few seconds of silence are sometimes just as
effective as words
• A well-placed pause makes your speech more
dramatic
• Pausing in the wrong place sounds like a
hesitation.
Pitch and Intonation
Pitch: high pitch = soprano, low pitch = bass
Intonation: how the voice rises and falls in speech
• Vary the pitch

• To prove you not only give information but
interpret it
• To show your listeners exactly what it means for
you all.
• Introduce question into your presentation to force
you to raise the pitch a little.
• Be very careful with high pitch
• Don’t vary your pitch too often and too dramatically
Volume
• Adjust your voice to the size of your audience, to the
room you’re presenting in.
• Everybody must hear you clearly.
• Vary the volume
• Quieter part vs louder part

Articulation
• The sounds will be clearer if you don’t rush your
words.
• If you anticipate difficulty in pronouncing certain

key words, practice them beforehand.
• Usually the problem is the syllable stress.

Sentence length and style
• It’s hard to aurally comprehend complex

sentences and difficult words.
• Avoid reading your text — this should keep the

sentences fairly short.
• You should always sound natural.

Language mistakes and accent
• Before presenting, check thoroughly all the
problematic words
• If you pronounce the same word in a wrong way over
and over again, that would be very bad.
• Our mother tongue being not English, we are
naturally allowed to have foreign accent.
• Practicing and trying to sound as close to native
speaker as possible is good,
• Do not overemphasize the impact of a minor
foreign accent.
Important Voice techniques
1. Stress
2. Pacing
3. Emphasizing
Stress
By stressing particular words (or parts of words) in a
sentence you can subtly change its meaning.
Try reading out each of the following examples with

different stress.
 We all know that this is an extremely difficult market.
(it’s more than just difficult)
(you and I agree on this)
(but they don’t)
(but we do little about it)
Pacing
• Use pauses to slow your pace down and make your sentences
easier to understand and more effective sounding.
• Group words into phrases according to their meaning and make
pauses between the phrases.
 In my opinion we should go into other markets.
In my opinion // we should go // into other markets.
 On the other hand, the figures prove that we are on the right track.
On the other hand, // the figures prove // that we are on the right
track.
• Slow down to make your most important pints.

• This gives your message time to sink in.
Emphasizing
• To get your message across persuasively
• To change the significance of what you say dramatically
• Various ways to emphasize some ideas in a speech.

Stress words
Stress words which are normally unstressed or contracted.
These are mainly auxiliary verbs (be, have, can, etc.) and
negatives.
Practice: Read out the following sentences, stressing the
underlined words:
Neutral Remark Emphatic Remark
 It’s our best chance of success.  It is our best chance of success.
 We were hoping for a better deal.  We were hoping for a better deal.
 We are doing the best we can.  We are doing the best we can.
 We have tried to limit the damage.  We have tried to limit the damage.
 We can’t go ahead with this.  We cannot go ahead with this.
 I see what you mean.  I do see what you mean.
 They promised completion by June.  They did promise completion by June.
 It isn’t cost-effective.  It’s not cost-effective.
 Do we or don’t we believe in service?  Do we or do we not believe in service?
Particular words and phrases.
Place emphasis on particular words and phrases.
Practice: Look at the following and notice how the effect

is changed by a change of emphasis:
 This was successful.
 This was very sucCESSful.
 This was VEry successful.
Intensifiers
Use so-called intensifiers to emphasize your points.
 I’m afraid it just isn’t good enough — the entire system
needs updating.
 We really need to rethink our whole recruitment
procedure.
 Paying off such a substantial loan is going to be extremely
difficult.
 We have done much better than we expected — even
better than we did last year.
 That’s absolutely no chance at all of going into profit in the
first two years.
Adverbs
Adverbs are especially often used as intensifiers.
Intensifier adverbs can be total, very strong, or moderate.
Total Very strong Moderate
absolutely (fantastic) extremely (good) fairly (safe)
completely (awful) very (bad) reasonably (expensive)
entirely (depressing) quite (cheap)
In more formal speech some verbs and intensifier adverbs form

fixed expressions. A typical pattern is:
Subject Intensifier Main Verb Complement

I completely agree with everything you’ve said so far.
We firmly oppose any suggestion that the company
be sold.
'What... is ...’ pattern
Focus key points so that everyone knows you want
them to listen to what you have to say next.
Compare:
 We can’t expect too much.
What we can’t do is expect too much too soon.
 I’d like to approach this question from two different angles.
What I’d like to do is approach this question from two
different angles.
Verbs
Use the verbs to stress, emphasize, etc.

 I’d like to stress the following point.
 I’d like to draw your attention to the latest
figures.
 I’d like to emphasize that our market position is
excellent.
Key points of voice technique
General advice:
1. Articulate.
2. Keep your sentences short.
3. Check the spelling of difficult words.
To create rich delivery:
1. Vary the speed, volume intonation.
2. Use various Stress, Pacing and Emphasis techniques.
Sound natural. Be eloquent and vivid

Nonverbal Communication
SoICT - 2020
Content
1. What is nonverbal communication?

2. Difference between verbal & nonverbal communication.
3. Importance & Power of nonverbal communication.
4. Types of nonverbal communication.
5. Forms of nonverbal communication.
6. Nonverbal Communication Around the World.
7. Nonverbal communication must be understandable.
What is nonverbal communication?
Nonverbal Communication = Communication without words

Nonverbal communication is a process of communication
through sending and receiving wordless messages.
What is body language?
 Little attachment to
consciousness, unconscious
expression.
 Expressed through gestures,
smile, gesture.
 Exchange of attitude between
people, sometimes using words
instead.
 Is a communication art used in
everyday life.
Verbal & Nonverbal communication
 Before moving forward, let’s keep in your mind that

verbal communication and nonverbal communication
are interconnected and they operate together in
communication.
 Verbal and nonverbal are all types of communication.
But the difference between them is that we use our
voice in verbal communication and we use body signs in
non-verbal communication.
Importance of Nonverbal Communication
Verbal & nonverbal Communication plays an important role in

how people interact with one another. People are using
around 35% verbal communication and 65% nonverbal
communication in daily life. Nonverbal communication has
also cultural meaning.
“The most important thing

in communication is to
hear what isn’t being said.”
Peter F. Drucker
Power of nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication is
the most powerful form of
communication. More than
voice or even words, nonverbal
communication helps to create
your image in others mind and
even you can express your
emotions and feelings in front
of others, which you are unable
to express in words.
What does the body reveal?
 Combined with speech to increase communication efficiency
 As in other languages, there are forms, functions and meanings
 Faces, movements, eyes, smile, distance and posture are very
important.
 Decoding the cues will help each person improve his or her speech
What does the body reveal?
Types of Nonverbal Communication
There are two types of nonverbal communication:
 Intentional nonverbal communication

Example: Pointing out the finger, giving smile and
clapping.
 Unintentional nonverbal communication

Example:...................?
This may be intentional or

unintentional nonverbal communication
message?
Form of nonverbal communication
1. Eye Contact
2. Facial Expressions
3. Posture
4. Haptics or Touch
5. Gestures
6. Personal Space
Eye Contact
Eye contact, a key

characteristic of
nonverbal
communication,
expresses much without
using a single word. In
American culture,
maintaining eye contact
shows respect and
indicates interest.
Eye contact also
establish the nature of
a relationship.
The language of the eye
 Eyes to the right then down to yourself: trying to capture your own emotions.
 Eyes left and down: in monologue.
 Look up, then left: Imagining something.
 Glance to the left: Try to memorize sounds.
 Glance right: Try to recall the sound
 Raised eyebrows.
 Eyes wide open: Showing surprise
Facial Expressions
Facial expressions are the

key characteristics of
nonverbal communication.
Your facial expression can
communicate happiness,
sadness, anger or fear.
Effect of smile
 A smile with 10 ton tonic / Contribute to build immune system /
Protect body against disease / heal wounds / prolong life / Nothing
helps us cheaper smile.
Posture
Posture and how you
carry your self tells a
lot about you. How you
walk, sit, stand or hold
your head not only
indicates your current
mood, but also your
personality in general.
For example, if you cross your

arms while standing, you
indicate that you may be
closed off and defensive.
Meanwhile, walking with your
head down and avoiding eye
contact with others may
indicate shyness.
Costume
 Social status, economic ability
 Academic level
 Ethical standards
 Better than a listener
Haptic or Touch
Haptic communication
is communicating by
touch. Touch or Haptic
is the characteristic of
nonverbal
communication and
used when we come
into physical contact
with other people.
For example: We use
handshakes to gain trust and
introduce ourselves.
Shake hands properly
 Look at the enemy's eyes / Smile
 Sloping forward about 20 degrees, hands forward
 Moderate effort from the elbow. Hold arm steady / shake hands
Gestures
A gesture is a
characteristic of
nonverbal
communication in which
visible body actions
communicate particular
message.
Gestures include
movement of the hands,
face, or other parts of the
body.
Gestures
 Symbol
 Illustrative
 Regulatory
 Is a double-edged sword
Let see some most common gestures
OK
Australia, USA, UK, Canada
Expressing satisfaction
Brazil
The inverted OK icon is viewed as
a rude gesture. Similar to greeting
with one finger
Horn-shaped finger
- Mỹ
Các rocker biểu đạt
sự chấp thuận, bản
chất là khuấy động
sân khấu
- Italy, Brazil,
Colombia, Tây Ba
Nha, Bồ Đào Nha
Thông báo với ai đó
rằng họ đã bị vợ “cắm
sừng”
Thumb up
Australia, USA, UK,

Canada Expression
of consent
Iran, Iraq
An insult to others
Greek
Nuts
V-shaped finger
America
Rockers express
approval, in essence
stirring up the stage
Australia, UK, Ireland,

NZ
Rude acts that disdain or
challenge authorities
Finger wagging
Australia, USA,
UK, Canada
Call someone
Philippines
Often used to call
dogs, offensive
when used with
people
Finger wagging
STOP
Australia, USA, UK,

Canada
The sign just stopped
Greek
Rude gestures.
Understand as "Go
die"
Personal space
Personal space is your

"bubble" - the space you
place between yourself
and others. This invisible
boundary becomes
apparent only when
someone bumps or tries
to enter your bubble.
Personal space
Distance
 Friendly <1m
 Private <1.5m
 Social <4m
 Public> 4m
Nonverbal Communication Around the World
Nonverbal
Communication in
Pakistan
Expressing
happiness,
respect and
love for others.
Nonverbal Around the
Communication World
Around the World
Nonverbal Communication in
China
The Chinese don't like being
touched by strangers. Therefore
don’t make any body contact.
Nonverbal AroundAround
Communication the World
the World
Nonverbal Communication in
Argentina
A handshake and nod show
respect when greeting someone.
Nonverbal Around Around
Communication the World
the World
in India
Greeting with 'namaste' -

placing both hands together
with a slight bow is a very
common nonverbal
communication and shows
respect.
NonverbalNonverbal
Communication Around the
Communication Worldthe World
Around
Nonverbal
Communication in the
U.S.A
Quite Informal way of
nonverbal communication
- A handshake, a smile,
and 'hello'.
“EAT, PRAY, LOVE”
Body language on speech
 https://www.facebook.com/ThienDuy5397/videos/2684257891841
539/UzpfSTEyNDgwODM3NjE5MjU5NDM6MzI4MjMwNTIwODUwM
zc3OA/
Thank you for
your attentions!
1
Visual Aids
SoICT - 2020
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Look and find messages
• What do you see ?

• A cold winter
• A poor baby in a Northern
province without jeans and
shoes
• What are the messages ?

• Poverty
• Need help
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/vn/thoi-su/xot-long-tre-vung-cao-tran-truong-trong-ret-am-do-286291.html
3
• What do you see ?

• A cool spring with colorful
flowers
• Happy children with
beautiful traditional dress
• What are the messages ?

• Happiness
• Welcomes to Northern
provinces
Source: https://haiquanonline.com.vn/5-diem-den-noi-danh-vung-tay-bac-101506.html
4
Source: https://truyentran.github.io/covid19.html
5
Contents
1. Introduction
2. What are visual aids?
3. Why should we use visual aids?
4. Types of visual aids
5. Tips for using visual aids
6. Conclusion
6
Contents
1. Introduction
6. Conclusion
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What are visual aids ?
• Visual aids = Visual + Aids
• Visual aids are items of a visual manner, such as key
words, tables, graphs, photos, videos, charts and
others, which are used in addition to spoken
information.
8
Contents
1. Introduction
6. Conclusion
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Presentation objectives
10
Listening video clip (Audio only)
Source: https://vnexpress.net/tai-sao-ha-lan-khong-bi-chim-duoi-nuoc-4137032.html
11
Watching video clip
Source: https://vnexpress.net/tai-sao-ha-lan-khong-bi-chim-duoi-nuoc-4137032.html
12
Why visual aids ?
13
Why visual aids ?
Source: http://www.gen.tcd.ie
14
Objectives of visual aids
• Make presentation/communication more interesting,
attractively and clearly
• Help speaker show information more systematically
• Help audience understand

targeted messages
• Reinforce and add impact

to information
15
Aims of visual aids
• Illustrate relationships between
ideas/objects
• Show information comparisons,
patterns
• Present figures, graphs or charts
• Summarize key points
• Emphasis key words, key
messages
16
Choice of visual aids depends on
• Size of audience group

• Resources at your presentation
• Cost for your presentation
• Time window available for preparation
• Yourself and preferences of others
• Presentation environment
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Contents
1. Introduction
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Types of visual aids used in Presentation
• Handouts
• Posters
• White/black boards
• Video clips
• Flip charts
• PowerPoint Slides
19
Handouts
• Why use handouts?
• Audience can concentrate better (instead of writing)
• Provide more detailed information
• Summarizing or including the main points of a
presentation (take away messages)
• Useful if your presentation is highly technical or complex
20
Handouts
• When to provide handouts?
• Before or after presentation?
• What to include in your handout?
• Expand on bullet points and graphics to allow a more
complete explanation.
• May include related information that further supports or
explains what is in your presentation
21
Handouts: Pros & Cons
Pros Cons
• Making notes directly on the • Printing and photocopying
handout costs money
• Giving out a handout at the • Not environmentally
start of the talk and friendly – but you could
capturing the audience’s create and distribute
attention verbally, without digital versions to save
physical interaction paper
• Supplementing other visual
• Need of anticipating
aids, for example by putting
numbers and ensure
your references on the
having enough handouts
handout
• Distracting the
• To be interactive
audience
Source: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au 22
Posters
• Used at the precise

moment to illustrate point
• Visible throughout
presentation
• Consider how it should be
displayed
• May need a pointer
23
Posters: Pros & Cons
Pros Cons
• Targeted (locations and • Can easily get lost in the visual noise
spread) of locations
• Mass impact (especially • Needs a good design (and not too

good for product launches) much information) to have impact
• Not easy to modify or edit

• Flexible in scale (A5 to A0)
• Can raise awareness

• Location restrictions
quickly and be cumulative
• Brevity (good for simple • Brevity (difficult to communicate lots

messages) of detail)
Source: //https://www.linkedin.com
24
White/black boards
• Flexible and interactive • Can’t store information
• Suit a small group • Can scratch
• Writing clearly can be slow • Need chalk
• Back to the audience • Easy to use
25
White/black boards
• Clean the board well before starting and after use
• Write large letters
• Stand to side as write
• Don’t face the board while talking to audience
• Divide the board into columns
• Keep contents which you may want to refer to again
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Video clips
• Can show clips of specific examples discussed
• Add another dimension to presentation
• Possible technical problem
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Video clips
Source: www.vnexpress.net
28
Video clips: pros & cons
Pros Cons
• Easily capture an • It is hard and time consuming to

audiences attention find/produce quality videos.
• The video could be a distraction if

• Visual Learning is the structure of the video is not
Powerful aligned to what needs to be
taught
29
Flip charts
• Flip charts are quick, inexpensive

visual aids for briefing small groups.
• Each sheet of paper should contain
one idea, sketch, or theme.
• Use block lettering, since it is easiest to
read. Use all capital letters, and do not
slant or italicize letters.
• Use and vary the color. Also, check
from a distance to make sure the color
works well and is not distracting.
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PowerPoint Slides
• Can look very professional

• Very easy to build up slides
• Easy to update presentations
• Introduce text, line by line
• Use same slide many times
• Colors and multimedia
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PowerPoint Slides
• Suits groups of various sizes
• Hard to keep audience attentive
• Technical problems
• Lighting issues
• Check the computer system/equipment before loading
• Transfer presentation slide to hard disk
• Be familiar with the operation of slide show
• Rehearse presentation
• Keep a printed copy of slides in case of computer
malfunction
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Rule of thumb: One idea per slide
• What idea does this illustrate?

• Does it support key messages?
• Does it highlight key messages?
• How long does it take to
present/show?
• Avoid using too much text
• Avoid using complex
mathematical formulas
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PowerPoint slides: Dos & Don’ts
Dos Dos Don’ts
Ensure design Put everything on
Know your audience
consistency one slide
Overuse transitions,
Create a structure Be smart about colors animations and
sound
Use hard-to-read
Use visual elements to
Use keywords color combinations
illustrate your ideas
and fonts
Organize your End with a summary Put unclear things on
information clearly slide slide
Keep your
Use a legible font presentations well-
organized
Use transitions for a Use animation and
more dramatic impact sound carefully
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Diagrams
• Colors can be very

useful for diagrams
• Use several diagrams
for complex models
• Relevant parts only
• Highlight and masking
• Simple schematics tend
to be most effective
35
Chart
• Title, axis marks, legend, labels
• Choose carefully chart type such as a pie

charts – not unless data sum to 100%
• Good contrast
• Colors (5 max)
• Lines 4 times thicker than for printed work
• Simple schematic
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Example of chart
37
Tables & Equations
• Usually have too much information
• Too many numbers
• Show and highlight insights and conclusion
messages
• Inferential statistics – don’t include unless
directly relevant to your message
• Equations – don’t include unless you intend to
explain them
• Equations should be simple
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Contents
1. Introduction
6. Conclusion
39
Tips for designing visual aids
• COLOUR
• Clear & appropriate
• One color for main idea, two complementary color for
sub points.
• Avoid red-green and pastels
• LAYOUT and SPACE
• Space between words and lines
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• STYLE - Select one style and use consistently

• Suitable for content and context
• TeXt STYLE AND SIZE - Choose carefully

• Consistent
• Suitable for context
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• AVOID GIMMICKS - Computer graphics

(background, patterns, clip art etc.) should be
used to enhance presentation.
• PROOFREAD
• Rule of thumb: at least 3 times
• PLAN AHEAD
• Different scenarios
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Tips for using visual aids
• INTEGRATE visual aids

• REHEARSE with your visual aids
• Maintain EYE CONTACT
• DO NOT READ from your visual aid
• STOP SPEAKING while audience read
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Tips for using visual aids
• DO NOT PASS OUT items while presenting

• REVEAL AIDS only when NEEDED
• USE THEM, don’t just display them!
• CHECK ROOM & EQUIPMENT in advance
• CHECK visual is VISIBLE to audience
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Contents
1. Introduction
6. Conclusion
45
Conclusion
• Visual aids can be a very powerful tool to enhance
the impact of your presentations
• Design an impressive visual items is not easy
• Keep your visual aids simple for maximum impact.
• Practice using the visual aids in your presentation

so you know exactly what to do and when to do
46
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Introduction to Research Writing
SoICT - 2020
Contents
1. What is research?
2. Publication
3. Structure of a scientific paper
4. Coherence and cohesion
5. Variety and clarity
6. Common grammar and punctuation errors
7. Editing and proofreading
3
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
4
What is research?
“All truths are easy to understand once

they are discovered;
the point is to discover them”
“And yet it moves”

Galileo Galilei
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What is research?
“The best way to predict the future

is to invent it”
Alan Kay
Computer Scientist
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What is research
• Cambridge dictionary
a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover
(new) information or reach a (new) understanding
• Research Whisperer
Research is defined as the creation of new knowledge and/or the
use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way to generate
new concepts, methodologies and understandings
7
PUBLICATION
8
Publication in Computer Science
• You need publish your work to the world
• If people don’t know about it, they won’t use it
• Increase probability of adoption
• Requirements of writing
• Standard form, structure
• Good content, style, organisation
• Requirements of quality
• a valid publication, published in the right place like in
peer-reviewed journals, conferences
• contain results with sufficient information to enable (i)
assess, (ii) repeat experiments
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Number of publications
Source: DBLP
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• Kinds of scientific publication: book, dissertation,
conference proceedings, journal article, etc.
conference proceedings
book
dissertation journal
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• Book: most often a monograph written by specialist(s),
reviewed by experts, focuses on a specific topic
• Dissertation: scientific work of Phd students
• Conference proceedings: a collection of papers, posters
presented at a conference
• Journal article: final “extened version” of a conference
paper
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Conference paper Journal article
• Published in collections • Published in an issue of a
called “proceedings” journal
• Have page limits • Unlimited/longer page limits
• Review process: fixed, • Review process: unfixed,
several weeks one month – one year
• High requirement of novelty • Require 30% content to be
new, compared to eariler
conference version
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• Ranked publications
• Scimago - Journals:
https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?area=1700
• CORE - Conferences: http://portal.core.edu.au/conf-ranks/
• List of Call for papers: http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/
• Researchers’ publications: https://dblp.uni-trier.de/pers,
https://scholar.google.com/
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STRUCTURE OF A SCIENTIFIC PAPER
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Structure of a scientific paper
• Three core parts in a paper: introduction, body, and
discussion
• Introduction: general motivations and research problems
• Body: research methods and results in detail
• Discussion: general conclusions and implications from
the results
• Additional parts: title, abstract, references,
appendix, acknowledgment
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Structure of a scientific paper
Parts in a paper
Source: Michael Derntl, Basics of research paper writing and publishing,
Int. J. Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol 6, No. 2, 2014
17
Title
• read first and most often

• good title “the fewest
possible words that
adequately describe the
contents of the paper”
• identify the main issue of the
paper
• accurate, unambiguos,
specific, and complete
• do not contain abbreviations
unless they are well known
e.g., HTML, CPU
ways to attract Vietnamese news readers • attract readers
J4F
18
Title – Different types
• Descriptive titles: describe what the paper is about
• Investigating the role of academic conferences on
shaping the research agenda
• Declarative titles: make a statement about the
results presented in the paper
• Academic conferences shape the short-term research
agenda
• Interrogative titles: pose a question
• Do academic conferences shape the research agenda?
• Compound titles: combined approach
• Do academic conferences shape the research agenda? An
empirical investigation
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Title – Examples
• Review some examples belows:
• ‘Educational Technology and Culture: The Influence of
Ethnic and Professional Culture on Learners’ Technology
Acceptance’
• ‘HT06, tagging paper, taxonomy, Flickr, academic
article, to read’
• ‘A New Framework for Dynamic Adaptations and
Actions’
• ‘Go To Statement Considered Harmful’
20
Abstract
• One-paragraph summary of the whole paper
• Two types of abtract
• Informative abstract: extracts everything relevant from
the paper, an aggregated substitute for the full paper
• Descriptive abstract: describe outline of the paper
• Checklist
• Motivation: why do we care the problem and results?
• Problem: what problem that the paper is trying to solve
• Solution: what was done
• Results: what is the answer to the problem
• Implications: what does the answer imply?
21
Abstract - Example
Paper interfaces for learning Unsupervised auto-tagging for

geometry learning object enrichment
• Motivation • Motivation
• Problem • Problem
• Solution • Solution
• Results • Results
• Implications • Implications
22
Abstract - Example
Paper interfaces for learning geometry Unsupervised auto-tagging for learning object
enrichment
Motivation - Paper interfaces offer tremendous - Online presence is becoming an essential
possibilities for geometry education in part of learning
primary schools - Large porition of learning meterial is
availabe
Problem - Existing computer interfaces do not consider - Challenge to ensure accessibility, support
the integration of school tools retrieval and comsumption of learning
- Tools disregard classroom-level objects
Solution - Augmented reality-based tabletop system - Automatically annotate specific learning

with interface elements made of paper resources using method 𝛼-TaggingLDA
- Conduct an exploratory user study based on
three learning activities.
Results - - Automatically generated tages were

preferred 35% more than the original
authors’ annotations, 17.7% more relevant
in terms of recall
Implication - Easily adopted into the traditional classroom - Automatic tagging facilitates effective
practices. information access to relevant learning
objects
23
Introduction
• Leads the reader from a general subject area to a
particular field of research
• Three phrases
• Establish a territory: point out the importance of the
subject, present an overview on current research
• Establish a niche: oppose an existing assumption or
reveal a research gap or formulate a problem
• Occupy the niche: sketch the intent of own work and/or
outline important characteristics of the work, important
results
24
Body
• Answers two questions:
• How was the research question addressed?
• What was found?
• Comprise serveral sections, subsections
• Example
• Empirical paper: describes material, data used for the
study, methodology and results obtained
• Case study paper: describles the application of existing
methods, theory, or tools.
• Theory paper: describes principles, concepts, models on
which work is based
25
Discussion
• Other terms: Discussion and Conclusion,
Conclusion, etc.
• Contains
• Background information of the research aim
• Brief summary of the results
• Comparision of results with previously published work
• Conclusions or hypothesis drawn from the results
• Outlook on future work
26
References
• Cite related work at the end of the paper
• Many formats/styles for citing a paper, and listing
references
• Some common styles
• Name and year system: e.g., Chuck and Norris (2003)
define...
• Alphabet-number system: As reported in [4],...
• Citation order system: similar to the alphabet-number
system with one difference, i.e., references in the order of
apperance in the text
• Two rules
• Every cited sources must be listed
• Every listed sources must be cited
27
COHERENCE AND COHESION
28
Coherence and Cohesion
• Vital feature of writing in order to enhance reader’s
understanding of text
• Coherence
• Connection of ideas at the idea level
• Refers “rhetorical” aspect of writing which includes
developing arguments, organizing and clarifying ideas
• Cohesion
• Connection of ideas at the sentence level
• Focuses on “grammatical” aspect of writing
Source: British coucil - IELTS

29
Cohesion - Approaches
• Repetition: use a particular word/phrase arcross
different sentences
• E.g.
Of course, materials development or adaptation is not the only
priority for the professions in South Africa. However, the focus
on materials development is appealing because it provides a
very tangible and practical focus for speech and language
therapists (Pascoe et al., 2013).
30
• Synonyms: use a word/phrase which has a similar
meaning to a keyword in the first sentence
• E.g.
The purpose of population genetics is to quantify and explain
the processes generating variation in natural populations
(Vargo & Husseneder, 2011). Sociogenetic studies of eusocial
insects are generally based on the approach that the colony
functions as a discrete entity within the population (Thorne et
al., 1999).
31
• Pronous: use a pronoun to refer back to a
word/phrase already used
• E.g.
When scientific experiments do not work out as expected, they
are often considered failures until some other scientist tries
them again. Those that work out better the second time around
are the ones that promise the most rewards.
32
Cohesion – Cohesive
Words/Phares
1. Additive words: Also, and, as well as, at the same time
as, besides, equally important, further, furthermore, in
addition, likewise, moreover, too, not only... but also.
2. Amplification words: As, for example, for instance, in
fact, specifically, such as, that is, to illustrate
3. Repetitive words: Again, in other words, that is, to
repeat
4. Contrast words: But, conversely, despite, even though,
however, in contrast, notwithstanding, on the one hand /
on the other hand, still, although, though, whereas, yet,
nevertheless, on the contrary, in spite of this
33
Words/Phares
5. Cause and effect words: Accordingly, as a result,
because, consequently, for this reason, since, as, so,
then, therefore, thus
6. Qualifying words: Although, if, even, therefore, unless
7. Example: For example, for instance
8. Emphasizing words: Above all, more/most importantly
9. Reason words: For this reason, therefore
34
Words/Phares
10. Order words: At the same time, firstly, secondly,
lastly, next, today/yesterday/next year, then, until,
while, in the end, eventually
11. Explanation: in other words, that is to day
12. Attitude: Of course, fortunately, unfortunately,
certainly
13. Summary: finally, in conclusion, in short, to
summaries
35
Cohesion - Example
• The hotel is famous. It is one of the most well-known hotels in the country. The
latest international dancing competition was held at the hotel. The hotel spent a
lot of money to advertise the event. Because the hotel wanted to gain
international reputation. But not many people attended the event.
• The hotel, which is one of the most well-known hotels in this region, wanted to
promote its image around the world by hosting the latest international dancing
competition. Although the event was widely advertised, not many people
participated in the competition.
• The latest international dancing competition was held at the hotel, which is one
of the most well-known hotels in this region. The hotel spent a lot of money on
advertising the event since it wanted to enhance its international reputation;
however, it failed to attract many people.
36
Coherence
• Combincation of every paragraph, every sentence,
and every phrase to contribute to the meaning of the
whole text
• Two factors: paragraph unity and sentence cohesion
• Paragraph unity:
• Paragraph must have a topic sentence
• Every other sentence in the body (i) contains more
specific information than the topic sentence and (ii)
maintains the same focus of attention as the topic sentence
37
Coherence - Example
• Paragraph:
As a reminder, please promptly return the lecture notes you
borrowed. Slide the notes under my door if I am not there. I may
become agitated if you are late, much like my Uncle Chester
after several eggnogs on Christmas Eve. Most Christmases I
liked to stay up and open my stockings after midnight. Staying
up late was exciting and would be repeated a week later at New
Year’s. So would Uncle Chester’s disgraceful behavior.
• Cohesion: ?
• Coherence: ?
38
VARIETY AND CLARITY
39
Variety and Clarity
• Paper containing sentences of one short patterns
bores both reader and writer
• Repetition of simple sentence pattern draws attention to
itself, not the ideas
• Simple or short sentences cannot show many
relationships among the ideas
• Should revise the sentences to express the ideas
more clearly and add variety to the paper
40
Variety and Clarity
1. Do adjacent sentences contain the same
subject and/or the same verb? If yes, combine
them in a single, concise sentence
• Join sentences by omitting a repeated subject (1)
• Original: Radio advertisements are broadcast daily or
weekly. Radio advertisements reach a wide audience.
• Revision: Radio advertisements are broadcast daily or
weekly and reach a wide audience.
41
Variety and Clarity
1. Do adjacent sentences contain the same subject and/or the
same verb? If yes, combine them in a single, concise
sentence
• Join the sentences by omitting repeated subjects and verbs
and by using adjectives (2)
• Original: The city council conducted a study of public
transportation. The study was lengthy. The study was detailed.
• Revision: The city council conducted a lengthy, detailed study of
public transportation.
42
Variety and Clarity
1. Do adjacent sentences contain the same subject
and/or the same verb? If yes, combine them in a
single, concise sentence
• Join the sentences by omitting repeated subjects and
verbs and by using adverbs (3)
• Original: the negotiators worked to gain approval for the
contract. The negotiators worked at a steady pace.
However, they worked slowly.
• Revision: The negotiators worked steadily but slowly to
gain approval for the contract.
43
Variety and Clarity
2. Do adjacent sentences contain ideas of equal
importance? If yes, use coordination
• Using comma: combines with seven types of
conjunctions
• and/in addition/along with shows addition: The strike
divided the town, and it strained labor-management
relations.
• but/however/except/on the other hand shows contrast:
Negotiators resolved the strike, but the town remained
divided.
• for/because/the reason shows reason: Coping with
environmental issues is a necessary part of industrial
studies, for industries affect the environment.
44
Variety and Clarity
• so/as a result/therefore shows logical consequence: Industries
affect the environment, so coping with environmental issues is
a necessary part of industrial studies.
• nor shows addition of a negative point: The environment
cannot sustain constant resource depletion, nor can it recover
quickly from wide-scale resource extraction.
• or shows choice: Businesses can design their own programs
for recording statistical data, or they can use purchased, pre-
designed programs.
• yet shows contrast: More secondary schools are implementing
programs designed to increase teenagers' awareness of the
dangers of drinking and driving, yet alcohol-related traffic
accidents continue to be one of the leading causes of death for
people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two
45
Variety and Clarity
2. Do adjacent sentences contain ideas of equal
importance? If yes, use coordination
• Using semicolon: when you want to keep two
closely related ideas in one sentence
• however/but: The actress's performance electrified the
audience; however, lighting and sound problems
diminished the play's overall impact.
• furthermore: The project required extensive
research; furthermore, budget cuts reduced the available
funds.
46
Variety and Clarity
• instead/rather: Neither bold colors nor heavy lines made
the painting striking; instead, the sheer size of the canvas
drew attention.
• consequently/as a result: The speech required preparation
and an in-depth analysis of the situation; consequently
the student surveyed the population on the issue.
• nevertheless/however: The recently established bio-
social theory helps us see the evolution of human
behavior with a new perspective; nevertheless, few
scientists endorse it.
47
Variety and Clarity
3. Do adjacent sentences contain ideas of unequal
importance? If yes, use subordination
• when, until, after, as soon as, before, ever since, as, while show a
relation that indicates time:
• Original: The two countries reached an agreement on trade
policies. They then were able to complete their peace treaty.
• Revision: After the two countries reached an agreement on
trade policies, they were able to complete their peace treaty.
• because, since show a relation that indicates causality
• Original: The statistics in the proposal were inaccurate. It was
this that made the proposal fail.
• Revision: The proposal failed because its statistics were
inaccurate.
48
Variety and Clarity
• though, although, even though, while express concession and contrast of
ideas
• Original: Equipment failures and labor strikes delayed the
submarine's completion. Naval engineers continued the project.
• Revision: Although equipment failures and labor strikes delayed the
submarine's completion, naval engineers continued the project.
• of, as if, provided that, unless, as though show condition
• Original: Video game manufacturers plan to impose a rating system
to indicate violence. The ratings system will be ineffectual without
an accompanying plan for reinforcement.
• Revision: Unless video game manufacturers issue an accompanying
plan for enforcement, their ratings system will be ineffectual.
49
Variety and Clarity
• where indicates place
• Original: The male hornbill builds a nest for his mate. He
chooses a nest site that will protect her and her chicks from
predators.
• Revision: The male hornbill builds a nest for his
mate where she and her chicks will be protected from
predators.
• so that shows result
• Original: The author wanted people of all income levels to be
able to read her book. To achieve this, she stipulated that the
book be sold for under five dollars.
• Revision: So that people of all income levels would be able to
read her book, the author stipulated that the book be sold for
under five dollars.
50
Variety and Clarity
• whichever, whenever, wherever, whoever indicate general
possibility
• Original: The program's format allows individual users to
make changes. This can be done each time users
encounter problems in implementing the program.
• Revision: The program's format allows individual users
to make changes whenever they encounter problems
implementing the problem.
• more, less than shows comparison of ideas
• Original: The beginner's manual contains few technical
terms. However, the advanced manual contains several.
• Revision: The advanced manual contains more technical
terms than the beginner’s manual.
51
Variety and Clarity
• who, whom, whose, that: persons
• Original: Peter Tchaikowsky, a Russian composer, lived
from 1840 to 1893. He composed Peter and the Wolf.
• Revision: Peter Tchaikowsky, a Russian
composer who lived from 1840 to 1893, composed Peter
and the Wolf.
52
Variety and Clarity
• that, which: things
• Original: Peter and the Wolf is often performed for
audiences of children. The composition uses different
instruments to represent different characters.
• Revision: Peter and the Wolf, which uses different
instruments to represent different characters, is often
performed for audiences of children
53
Variety and Clarity
• which: explanatory clause
• Original: The judges scored the performances using a
new set of standards. This different method of scoring
resulted in unanticipated victories for several new
competitors.
• Revision: The judges scored the performance using a
new set of standards, which resulted in unanticipated
victories for several new competitors.
54
Variety and Clarity
• where: place; when: time
• Original: A press conference is an ideal place to find out
information. Many journalists meet, discuss, and
question current political issues at a press conference.
• Revision: a press conference where many journalists
meet, discuss, and question current issues, is an ideal
place to find out information.
55
COMMON GRAMMAR AND
PUNCTUATION ERRORS
56
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
1. Subject – Verb agreement errors
• Example 1:
• Incorrect: An important part of my life have been the people
who stood by me
• Correct: An important part of my life has been the people who
stood by me.
• Example 2
• Incorrect: A huge number has been asked here
• Correct: A huge number have been asked here
• The number: singular, a number: plural
• Example 3
• Incorrect: Each of the women in the class were nurses
• Correct: Each of the women in the class was nurse
57
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
2. Miss comma after introductory element
• Example 1:
• Incorrect: In case you haven’t noticed my real name
doesn’t appear in the article.
• Correct: In case you haven’t noticed, my real name
doesn’t appear in the article.
• Example 2
• Incorrect: Before she had time to think about it Sharon
jumped into the icy pool.
• Correct: Before she had time to think about it, Sharon
jumped into the icy pool.
58
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
3. Misusing its and it’s
• Example 1:
• Incorrect: I don’t believe its finally Friday
• Correct: I don’t believe it’s (it is) finally Friday.
• Example 2
• Incorrect: The cat was licking it’s tail.
• Correct: The cat was licking its tail.
59
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
4. Ambiguous pronoun reference
• Example 1:
• Incorrect: When Jonathan finally found his dog, he was so
happy. (The dog or Jonathan?)
• Correct: Jonathan was so happy when he finally found his
dog.
• Example 2
• Incorrect: Don felt a lot of anger and bitterness as a result of
Marie’s decision. This is what ended everything. (What ended
everything? Don’s anger and bitterness or Marie’s decision?)
• Correct: Don felt a lot of anger and bitterness as a result of
Marie’s decision. Her choice ended everything.
60
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
5. Lack of parallel structure
• Example 1:
• Incorrect: He wanted to learn more about careers in programming,
engineering, biochemist, and research scientist.
• Correct: He wanted to learn more about careers in programming,
engineering, biochemist, and researching scientist.
• Example 2
• Incorrect: The key directives of his boss were clear:
• Meet monthly sales quotas.
• Aggressive marketing techniques.
• Reporting in every day.
• Correct: The key directives of his boss were clear:
• Meet monthly sales quotas.
• Aggressive marketing techniques.
• Report in every day.
61
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
6. Dangling modifier: the intented subject or the modifier
is missing from the sentence, an instead another subject
appears in its place
• Example 1:
• Incorrect: While driving to work, a car accident was witnessed
on the highway.
• Correct: While driving to work, Jane witnessed a car accident
on the highway.
• Example 2:
• Incorrect: Having finished the assignment, the TV was turned
on
• Correct: Having finished the assignment, Jill turned on the TV.
62
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
6. Dangling modifier – Revise the following
sentences:
• Having arrived late for practice, a written
excuse was needed.
• Without knowing his name, it was difficult to
introduce him.
• To improve his results, the experiment was done
again.
63
Common grammar and
punctuation errors
7. The Oxford comma
• The comma before the final item in a list: standard in
Bristish writing
• US writing: skip the last comma, especially in
journalism
• It’s a matter of preference, no right or wrong when it
comes to the Oxford comma
• Example:
• Oxford comma: My favorite foods are pizza, spaghetti, and
steak
• without Oxford comma: My favorite foods are pizza, spaghetti
and steak
64
EDITING & PROOFREADING
65
Editing and proofreading
strategies
• Same: both demands close and careful reading
• Different: two different stages of the revision stage,
using different techniques
• General strategies
• Get some distance from the text
• Find a quiet place to work
• Try chaning the look of the document
• Use ruler or page, card to read line by line
66
Editing
• Begin as soon as you finish the first draft
• Reread the draft to see whether the paper is well
organized, the tranistion between paragraphs are
smooth, etc.
• Edit on several levels
• Content:
• Have you done everything the assignment/goal requires?
• Are the claims make accurate?
• Is all information in your paper relevant to the assignment/goal?
• Have you supported each point with adequate evidence?
67
Editing
• Overall structure:
• Does your paper have an appropriate intro and conclusion?
• Is it clear how each paragraph in the body is related to the goal?
• Are the paragraphs arraged in a logical sequence?
• Have you made clear transitions between paragraphs?
• Structure within paragraphs?
• Does each paragraph have a clear topic sentence?
• Does each paragraph stick to one main idea?
• Are there any extraneous or missing sentences in any
paragraphs?
68
Editing
• Clarity
• Is the meaning of each sentence clear?
• Is it clear what each pronoun (he, she, it, they, etc.) refers to?
• Have you chosen the proper words to express your ideas?
• Have you defined any important terms that might be unclear to
reader?
• Style
• Have you used an appropriated tone (formal, informal, etc.)?
• Have you varied the length and structure of sentences?
• Do you tends to use the passive voice too much?
69
Editing
• Citations
• Have you appropriately cited quoted, paragraphs, ideas you got
from sources?
• Are your citations in the correct format?
• After editing at all levels, you make significant
revisions to the content and wording of the paper
• Check pattern of error you tend to have for
correcting future instances
70
Proofreading
• The final stage of the editing process
• Only after you have finished all of your other
editing revisions
• Focus on surface errors such as misspelling,
mistakes in grammar and punctuation
71
Proofreading
• Don’t rely entirely on spelling checkers because they
are far from foolproof.
• Proofread for only one kind of error at a time
• Read slow, and read every word
• Separate the text into individual sentences
• Circle every punctuation mark
• Read the paper backwards: useful for checking spelling
• Ignorance may be bliss, but it won’t make you a better
proofreader. If you’re not sure about something, look it
up.
72
Research Ethics
SOICT - 2020
Contents
1. Introduction to Research ethics

2. Plagiarism
3
Introduction
• Science is built on trust
• Researchers are expected to be honest and research is
undertaken ethically
• Be honest, trustworthy, fair
• Repect privacy: prevent re-identification of anonymized data,
protect data from unauthorized access, inform users what data
is being collected, etc.
• ...
• No international academic police force, rule of law,
investigative agency 
4
Code of Ethics - Examples
Ethics:
Papers that (1) describe experiments with users and/or deployed
systems (e.g., websites or apps), or that (2) rely on sensitive user
data (e.g., social network information), must follow basic precepts
of ethical research and subscribe to community norms. These
include: respect for privacy, secure storage of sensitive data,
voluntary and informed consent if users are placed at risk,
avoiding deceptive practices when not essential, beneficence
(maximizing the benefits to an individual or to society while
minimizing harm to the individual), risk mitigation, and post-hoc
disclosure of audits. When appropriate, authors are encouraged to
include a subsection describing these issues. Authors may want to
consult the Menlo Report for further information on ethical
principles, the Allman/Paxson IMC ‘07 paper for guidance on
ethical data sharing, and the Sandvig et al. ‘14 paper on the ethics
of algorithm audits (CFP 2020).
5
Code of Ethics - Examples
6
Code of Ethics - Copyright
• Copyright: Ownership of ideas and description of

them in form of:
• concepts
• inventations
• codes
• documents (text, images, videos, etc.), etc.
• A publication
• Content: made by author
• Copyright: author assigns copyright to publisher
• Publisher owns the text, figures, diagrams, etc.
7
Main types of fraud
• Plagiarism: the use of a colleague’s work without

clear attribution and citation
• Falsification of data: to obtain required outcome

that differs from the actual results
• Fabrication: the experiments, data or entire study

are made up
8
Frauds - Examples
Falsifying stem cell research
Haruko Obokata, a researcher in
Japan, was found guilty of falsifying
data in a paper she wrote for the
prestigious journal Nature in 2014.
Her fraud rocked the stem cell
research community.
https://slate.com/technology/2014/08/fraud-in-stem-cell-research-japanese-
biologist-yoshiki-sasai-commits-suicide-at-riken.html
Frauds - Examples
• How did the international science
community react?
‘[This is] one of the biggest science scandals in
recent history…[The papers] were retracted in July
after Nature discovered that the papers
included plagiarized writing, misidentified images,
and misreported data.’
Hu. Jane, C. 2014 ‘Why Do Scientists Commit
Fraud?’ Slate.
1. Why did Obokata falsify and
plagiarise her research? https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tearful+a
pology+from+japanse+scientist&&view=detail&mi
2. If you were her colleague, what d=420F5934B5544476C2B1420F5934B5544476C2
B1&&FORM=VRDGAR
advice would you give to Obokata?
Frauds - Examples
11
Frauds - Examples
12
Reasons of Fraud
Competition Top-tier publications
REASONS
Publish or perish Benefits of money
Societal expectations
13
Facts
• 1.97% of scientists admitted to have fabricated,

falsified or modified data or results at least once
• 33.7% admitted other questionable research practices
14
Plagiarism
• Present someone else’s work in any format as your own
original work without appropriate acknowledgement of
the author or its source.
• Ideas, text, images, illustrations
• Even whole paper
• It can also be deliberate cheating or copying and pasting

from sources without correct acknowledgement.
• Scientists’ reputations are built on their papers: both the
work and how it is reported
15
Example
• Original text (Barlman and Trey, 2001):
• The impact of viruses has become a major issue in many large
organizations, but most still rely on individual users maintaining
virus definitions, with no internal firewalls to protect one user
from another. However, any structure is only as strong as its
weakest link; these organizations are highly vulnerable.
• Plagiarism
• Viruses have become a major issue in many large organizations,
but most organizations still rely on users maintaining virus
definitions on their individual computers, with no internal
firewalls to protect one computer from another. However, any
structure is only as strong as its weakest link; these
organizations are highly vulnerable to infection (Barlman and
Trey 2001).
16
Example
• The impact of viruses has become a major issue in many large
organizations, but most still rely on individual users
maintaining virus definitions, with no internal firewalls to
protect one user from another. However, any structure is only
as strong as its weakest link; these organizations are highly
vulnerable.
• Appropriate text
• As discussed by Barlman and Trey (2001), who investigated
the impact of viruses in large organizations, “most still rely on
individual users maintaining virus definitions, with no internal
firewalls to protect one user from another. However, any
structure is only as strong as its weakest link; these
organizations are highly vulnerable.”
17
Example
• The impact of viruses has become a major issue in many
large organizations, but most still rely on individual users
maintaining virus definitions, with no internal firewalls to
protect one user from another. However, any structure is only
as strong as its weakest link; these organizations are highly
vulnerable.
• Appropriate text
• Barlman and Trey (2001) investigated the impact of viruses
in large organizations. They found that organizations are
vulnerable if individuals fail to keep virus definitions up to
date, as internal firewalls are rare.
18
Avoid Plagiarism
• When using the ideas of others (except for common
knowledge): quote, paraphrase or summaries +
reference the sources
• https://vccs.libguides.com/c.php?g=647106&p=4536818
• https://integrity.mit.edu/handbook/academic-writing/incorporating-words-and-ideas-others
Quoting
When should I quote?
• When language is particularly vivid or expressive.
• When exact wording is needed for technical accuracy.
• When the words of an important authority lend weight to an
argument.
How do I show I am quoting?

• Name the source in an introductory phrase.
• Use quotation marks or indent long quotations.
• Cite the source appropriately.
https://integrity.mit.edu/handbook/academic-writing/incorporating-words-and-ideas-others
Quoting example
Original Accurate quoting Plagiarism
Because of their unique Economist Lester Thurow (1993) The American view of
perspective, Americans has asserted that the American globalization is unlike that of the
fear globalization less reaction to globalization is rest of the world. Because of
than anyone else, and different from that of the rest of their unique perspective,
as a consequence they the world in that "American's Americans fear globalization
think about it less than fear globalization less than less than anyone else, and
anyone else. When anyone else, and as a therefore think about it less
Americans do think consequence . . . think about it than anyone else (Thurow,
about globalization, they less than anyone else" (p. 6). 1993).
think of the global
economy as an enlarged Why is this accurate? Why is this plagiarism?
version of the American  The writer has introduced the quotation  The writer has identified the
with his/her own words. source but has not put quotation
economy.  S/he has also named the source in an
(Source: Thurow, L. marks around the words.
introduction phrase.
 Lack of quotation marks allows the
(1993). Fortune Favors  S/he has indicated where exact words
reader to think the words are the
of the source begin and end by using
the Bold (p. 6). New quotation marks. writer's, not Thurow's.
York: Harper Collins.)  (Complete Thurow reference appears
in bibliography)
Paraphrase
• Take the words of another source and restating them, using
your own vocabulary. In this way, you keep the meaning of
the original text, but do not copy its exact wording
• What strategies can I use to paraphrase?
• Use synonyms for all words that are not generic. Words
like world, food, or science are so basic to our vocabulary
that is difficult to find a synonym.
• Change the structure of the sentence.
• Change the voice from active to passive and vice versa.
• Change clauses to phrases and vice versa.
• Change parts of speech.
22
Paraphrase example
23
Paraphrase example
24
Paraphrase example
25
Quote and Paraphrase
• Quote only if the language is particularly expressive and/or
adds weight to your argument.
• Good use of quotation:
After the Challenger disaster of 1986, it was learned that NASA was
so anxious to launch the shuttle that it had overlooked certain safety
measures. Nobel physicist Richard Feynman later observed that "for a
successful technology, reality must take precedence over public
relations, for nature cannot be fooled" (Feynman, 1986).
Feynman's credentials and fine wording of his comment deserve
quotation here.
Quote and Paraphrase
• In January 2012, the World Health Organization published a set of
recommendations for policy-makers regarding marketing food and
beverages to children. The report noted that “In Norway, the
Broadcasting Act bans advertising directed at children and advertising in
connection with children’s programming on television and radio. The
ban applies to the advertising of any products, including food and
beverages.” (p. 22)
Good use of paraphrasing
• In January 2012, the World Health Organization published a set of
recommendations for policy-makers regarding marketing food and
beverages to children. The report noted that the country of Norway has
enacted a law that prohibits all advertising to children, including
advertisements for drinks or food. (p. 22)
Summarising
• A good summary:
• Identifies the writer of the original text.
• Synthesizes the writer’s key ideas.
• Presents the information neutrally.
• Summarizing and paraphrasing are somewhat
different.
• A paraphrase is about the same length as the original source,
while a summary is much shorter. Nevertheless, when you
summarize, you must be careful not to copy the exact
wording of the original source. Follow the same rules as you
would for paraphrase.
Referencing
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10eg_GB_A9E

How to write scientific texts in English
SOICT - 2020
Contents
Simple rules for writing

Parts of a sentence
Sentence
Combining clauses
Punctuation
© SoICT 2020 Technical Writing and Presentation 2

Simple rules for writing
Have one idea per sentence or paragraph and one

topic per section.
Have a straightforward, logical organization.
Use short words.
Use short sentences with simple structure.
Keep paragraphs short.
Avoid buzzwords, clichés, and slang.
Avoid excess, in length or style.
Omit unnecessary material.
Be specific, not vague or abstract.

Parts of a sentence
Skeleton
verbs
nouns
pronouns
numerals
adjectives
Additional stuff
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions.

Verbs
Two important rules

The number of subject determines the number of
verb
Do not mix inconsistent tenses
Uses of verbs
Number and person
Active or passive voice, which person?
Tenses
Noun syndrom
Irregular verbs
Notes
Number and person
When the subject is singular third

person (she/he/it), the verb needs suffix
-s
The auxiliary verbs have their own
special forms (is, can, has, does).
When the subject is composed of a
singular and a plural noun by ”or” or
”nor”, the verb agrees with the noun
that is closer.

Notes
Be careful with special phrases:

”A number of new experiments were done” (plural)
”Plenty of time was spent...” (singular)
”A few data points belong to cluster X” (plural)
If the number of the subject changes, retain

the verb in each clause.
The positions in a sequence were changed

and the test rerun
The positions in the sequence were changed,

and the test was rerun.
Tenses
Default: the present

It is possible to combine perf ect (has been)
(and future, will be) if needed, but not the
other tenses
Past or present prefect (but not both) when
you describe previous research (literature
review)
Past tense to describe the experiments and
their results
Notice: Use ”would” with care! It expresses a
conditional action.
E.g.”it would appear” → ”it appears”

Active voice vs passive voice
It is often recommended to use active voice,

In scientific writing passive voice is
sometimes convenient.
Passive voice allows us to draw the reader’s
attention to the phenomenon or the event,
instead of the actor.
E.g.
”The probabilities are updated by Bayes rule”,
”The score is assessed on the basis of the training
data.”
Often the purpose determines the voice.
© SoICT 2020 9
Passive voice
Usually we want to begin with a familiar

word and put the new information in the
end.
E.g. before an equation or a definition, we can
say ”The model is defined as follows”
Do not overuse passive, and do not chain
passive expressions.
Use only one passive per sentence

Passive expressions
”It is”
E.g. ”It is often recommended [reference]
that...”
Typical verbs in this expression are: say,
suppose, consider, expect.
“We” can be used as passive.
E.g. ”In Chapter X, we define the basic concepts.”
should be replaced with
”The basic concepts are defined in Chapter X.”

Other expressions
”You” is sometimes used as passive, especially in

manuals. Don’t use it in scientific text!
”People” when you refer generally to people.
Quite a vague expression, not recommendable!
”There is/are” is used when the real subject (what

is somewhere) comes later and we haven’t
mentioned it before.
E.g. ”There was only one outlier in the data set 1” v.s.
”The outlier was in the data set 1.
”The verb is nearly always ”be” (sometimes ”exist”
or something else)

Person
Basic rule: avoid the first person.

Referring to yourself: you can talk about ”the
author”.
E.g. ”All programs have been implemented by the author”
Gender-neutral language: when you refer to an
unknown user, student, etc. try to use gender-
neutral language.
– The most common way is to say ”she/he” or ”he or she
– ”One” is neutral, but sounds often awkward.
E.g. ”The learner can define one’s own learning goals”
Sometimes you can avoid the problem by using
plural

Notes
Do not use short forms ”isn’t, can’t, doesn’t”, but ”is

not, cannot, does not”.
Use ”be verb+ing” form when something is currently
happening or takes some time.
E.g. ”Thread 2 can be started in the same time when
thread is still running”
Some verbs require that the following verb is in -ing
form
E.g.”Continue splitting until criterion X has been reached.”
”Noun syndrom” = use of common verbs {be, do,
have, make, ...} + a noun ⇒ Prefer illustrative verbs!
E.g. ”We can get better understanding...” ⇒ “We can
understand better”
Nouns
Plural forms
Countable and uncountable nouns
Differences between British and American
English

Plural Forms
Irregular plural forms

Singular form Plural form Singular form Plural form
half halves analysis analyses

life lives thesis theses
axis axes parenthesis parentheses

matrix matrices basis bases
child children emphasis emphases
automaton automata series series

vertex vertices medium media
index Indices (indexes) criterion criteria
appendix appendices phenomenon phenomena

(appendixes)
Special cases
Data is originally the plural form of datum,

but nowadays it is frequently used as a
singular word.
The same holds for hypermedia.
E.g.
”The data is biassed”,
”Hypermedia offers a new way to implement
learning environments”

Notes
If the suffix is {-s,-ss,-sh,-ch,-x,-z} in singular → -es in

plural,
E.g. research – researches, approach – approaches,
quiz – quizzes
The same happens with most words which have suffix
-o, unless the word is abbreviated or of foreign origin.
E.g.cargo – cargoes,
but photo – photos, dynamo – dynamos
After consonant -y changes to -ies in plural.
E.g. floppy – floppies.
Singular words which look like plural forms
The names of disciplines: mathematics, statistics,
physics.
”Statistics is the precessor of data mining.”

Uncountable nouns
Words expressing material: water, air,

wood, ...
Abstract words: life, time, work, strength,
...
Exceptional: advice, information, news,
equipment, money (Plural meaning)

Compound words
The practices vary, possibly words are written together, with a

hyphen -, or separately.
If the words have become one concept, they are usually written
together, e.g. ”software”, ”keyboard”, ”database”
If the independent meaning of words is emphasized, they are
hyphened,
e.g. ”non-connected”
Hyphen is often used when the concept consists of more than two
words:
”depth-first search”, ”between-cluster variation”, ”feed-forward
neural network”, ”first-order logic”
Multiple word adjectives are usually hyphened, e.g. ”data-driven”,
”model-based”, ”class-conditional”
If the first part is a symbol or an abbreviation, the word is
hyphened,
e.g. ”NP-complete”, ”k-nearest neighbour method”, ”3-dimensional”
Articles
Position
Definite and indefinite concepts
Basic rules of using articles

Position
Basic rule: before the noun phrase

Exceptions:
{what, such, quite, rather, half} + a/an + noun
phrase
E.g. ”Too great a distance”, ”so long a time”
{too, as, so, how, however} + adj. + a/an +
noun
E.g. ”as big a difference”
{all, both, double, twice, half} + the + noun
E.g. ”All the methods”

Definite and indefinite concepts
A concept is indefinite, when you mention it

first time, and it is not clear from the context
E.g.”There was a time delay between processes A
and B.”
It is definite, when
you mention it again
the context defines what you mean
the concept is familiar to everybody
Usually this kind of expressions are defining: ”The
delay between two processes P1 and P2 is
tend(P1) - tstart(P2).”
Basic rules of using articles

Refer to an indefinite concept
a singular countable noun → a/an

a plural countable noun + positive clause →
some
a plural countable noun + negative or
interrogative clause → any
a uncountable noun + pos. clause → some
a uncountable noun + neg. or interr. clause
→ any

Notes
When you refer to something generally
a plural countable noun or a uncountable noun →
no article
”Students need time to process new inforsmation”
When you refer to the whole class
a singular countable noun → a/an
”The computer cannot solve all problems”
Exceptional expressions
Sometimes you can use a/an article with an abstract
word:
when the word is proceeded by a describing relative
clause ”There is a danger that the model overfits”
expressions ”a /short/long time”, ”a while”

“the” article with ordinal numbers and some adjectives
Definite article ”the” is used

when the noun is preceded by an ordinal number
”The first attribute describes...”
when the noun is preceded by an adjective expressing
order
”the next attribute”, ”in the following chapter”
with adjectives same, only, right, wrong
”The results were the same”, ”The only model which has this
property is X”
Notice: ”the” is not used with ordinal numbers or
adjective ”last”, when you refer to the
performance in a competition
”Program X came first and program Y was last when
the programs were compared by the Z test.
Decision tree for articles

Notes
A noun can be used as a countable or an uncountable
concept
”It takes time...”, ”all the time”, ”one at a time”, ”many
times”
any or some before the noun, → indefinite” ,
E.g.”The disk contains (some) space for back-up files”
Don’t use pronouns!”This x” → ”the x” (where x is a noun)
∃x ∈ C such that P(x), use article a/an. ”
∀x ∈ C,P(x), use article the. (only for countable concepts!
A name without any modifying word → no article,
E.g.”X is independent from Y “
A modifying word like ”set”, vector”, ”model” etc. stands
before the name → Two habits:
1. No article when you mention the entity for the first time. After
that use definite article ”the”, or
2. Never any articles.
Pronouns
Two important rules when you use pronouns:
1. When a pronoun refers to a noun in the

preceding sentence, make sure that the referred is
obvious!
2. Each pronoun should agree with the referent in
number and gender.

Notes
Pronouns which require singular verb

form
{everybody, anybody, nobody, everyone,
anyone, no one}
Every + singular noun
All + singular or plural noun
several < many
several ≈ some

Adjectives
Two notes:
1. Avoid vague adjectives!
2. How to derive and use comparative and
superlative forms?

use the comparative
Basic structure:
X is as efficient as Y (X and Y are equally
efficient)
X is more efficient than Y
Exceptional expressions:
X is different from Y
X is similar to Y
X is the same as Y
X is inferior/superior to Y
X is equal to Y

Adverbs
Use as few adverbs/prepositional phrases as
possible!
→ expressive verbs and nouns
Use introductory adverbs like ”fortunately,
similarly, conversely, certainly” carefully
Notice that ”importantly” and ”interestingly” are
not proper adverbs.
E.g.
”More importantly, the accuracy can actually
increse when the complexity is reduced”
→ ”More important, the accuracy can actually
increase when the complexity is reduced.”
”Interestingly, we found that...”
→ ”An interesting finding was that...”
Special cases of adverbs
still and yet
Still: before the main verb, but after be-verb.
”These enlargements are still unimplemented”
Yet: at the end.
”These enlargements have not been implemented yet.
so and such
So: before adjectives or adverbs which are not
succeeded by nouns
E.g. ”The time complexity is not so hard”
Such: when an adjective is succeeded by a noun.
E.g. ”Such time complexity is infeasible”
Notice the article ”a/an”, if the noun is countable:
”such a system”
”such an algorithm

Prepositions
Be careful with prepositions. A wrong preposition

can give a totally different meaning!
• Hint: When you use a preposition, visualize the
direction it is signaling and ask yourself if it is
appropriate.
• If you are unsure about the use of a preposition,
ask yourself what a cat would do! (Fedor’s sciwri
book)
Cats sit on mats, go into rooms, are part of the
family, roam among the flowers

Expressing location
Usually in, e.g. ”in set X”

If an exact location, then at, e.g. ”at point (x, y)”
If the location can be imagined as a line or a
surface, then on ”on the x-axis”, ”on a time line”
Special cases:
”on page 3”, ”on line 5”, ”on the Internet”
”A file is loaded from the hard disk into main memory.”
”results from the survey suggest...”
over – under/beneath
above – below
”X’s points were below the average points”
”The task is to optimize f under the given constraints”

Expressing time
Exact time: at, e.g. ”at the moment”, ”at

four o’clock”, ”at the same time”
Longer period of time: in, e.g. ”in the
1970’s”, ”in the future”, ”in five minutes”,
Notice: ”In the beginning/end” vs. ”At the
beginning/end” of something

Expressing the target or the receiver
to or for?
Basic rules:
When direct receiver, then to
”The values are assigned to variables”
When the final receiver (for whom something is
meant) then for
”I gave the book for Belinda to Tersia”
”The messages for nodes F and G are transfered to
node D for rerouting”
”A variety of methods have been developed for the
clustering problem.”
• When something is good or bad for something, then
for
”Problem-based learning is good for students”

Expressing the target or the receiver
Some verbs require either for or to:

1. If the verb is {bring, give, take, show, offer}
→ to
2. If the verb is {be, get, keep, make} → for
Sometimes the preposition can be missing,
depending on the word order:
i) verb + receiver + object
ii) verb + object + to/for + receiver
iii) verb + to/for + receiver (no object)

Special phrases
• constraint on something in spite of something (but despite

• independent from something but something)
dependent on something regardless of something
• different from something but similar take into account
to something in relation to something
• difference between something and in contrast with something
something a proportion of something. (”a large
• prefer something to something proportion of data”)
• impact of something on something in proportion to something, proportional to
influence on something something (”The time complexity of f
effect on something (but to affect proportional to n is...”)
something) the ratio of a to b = a/b
focus on something x% of y
perform in some manner under some conditions
generalize to something by default
a discussion about/on something contrary to something
• research on something but a study in contrast
of something by contrast (∼ ”however”)
reason for something on the contrary
• opportunity of/for something at an extreme

Parallel structures
Parallel structure = words, phrases, clauses or

sentences combined by commas and/or conjunctions.
Here we call the combined items as parallel items.
Parallel items are combined by parallel conjunctions
(and, or, but, ...).
lists are also parallel structures!
Often the parallel structure lists alternatives or makes
some kind of comparison: the items belong to the
same or similar classes or to two opposite classes.
E.g. ”Method X has several advantages: it is easy to
implement, it works in polynomial time, and it can use both
numeric and categorial data.”
contains two parallel structures: three advantages (”it is, it
works, it can”) in a list and ”both numeric and categorial
data”

Basic rules for parallel structure
The parallel structure should be consistent in two

ways
Semantically: the concepts referred by parallel
items should be comparable
Syntactically: the items should have similar
grammatic structure. All of them should be either
nouns, noun phrases, verb phrases, or clauses.
Parallel items should be in the same form, e.g.
you cannot combine ”to” + verb and a verb
without ”to”.
E.g. ”The problem is both hard to define and solve”
→ ”The problem is both hard to define and to solve

conjunction pairs
Parallel items combined by conjunction pairs

between...and,
both...and,
either...or,
neither...nor
not only...butL(also)
”X solves the problems of traditional clustering

algorithms. Neither outliers nor missing values
affect the clustering quality.”
”The task is not only easy to solve but it can also
be solved efficiently

The comparative – the comparative
the + comparative + x + comma + the +

comparative + y, where x and y complete
the clauses
”The more complex the model is, the
better it describes the training
data.”

Parallel sentences
The sentences in the list begin by ordinal

numbers ”First, Second, Third”
”X model has three important properties:
First, the model structure is easy to
understand. This is a critical feature in
adaptive learning environments, as we have
noted before. Second, the model can be
learnt efficiently from data. There are feasible
algorithms for both numeric and categorial
data.Third, the model tolerates noise and
missing values.”

Sentences
Terminology
Sentence styles
Types of dependent clauses
Sentence length
Word order
Combining clauses

Terminology
A sentence consist of one or more clauses

A clause contains always a subject and a
predicate, and usually an object
– An independent clause (main clause)
can make a sentence alone.
– A dependent clause (subordinate
clause) needs an independent clause for
support

Sentence types
The sentence type depends on the type of its

main clause. The main types are following:
1. Statement (ends by a full stop: ”x is y.”)
2. Question (ends by a question-mark: Is x y?”)
3. Order (ends by an exclamation mark: ”Be x y!)
In scientific writing the default type is the
statement.
Direct questions and orders are seldom used.
Questions suit best to the introduction where
you state your main research questions clearly
and concretely

Types of dependent clauses
1. Clauses beginning by sub-ordinating conjunctions (when, if,

because,while, ...)
2. Relative clauses (begin by relative pronouns which, who,
that)
3. Indirect questions (begin by question words or if/whether)
Examples:
”The dependency is trivial, because Y = f(X).”

”X and Y are linearly independent, if the correlation coefficient,
corr (X, Y ), is zero”
”Let ci be the cluster which is closest to x.
”We select the first model that fits the data.”
”First we should study what is the relationship between X and Y
.”
”The main problem is whether X can be applied in Z.”
”We analyze the conditions under which X can be applied.”

Sentence length
always less than 30 words, preferably less

than 20 words!
1-3 clauses
expresses one idea
If you tend to write too long sentences, try
the following:
Identify the main subject-predicate-object section
Prune or compress everything else, which is not
needed
Check the verb structures and ask yourself if
they could be shorter
Word order
The order of words has a strong impact on

the meaning!
E.g.
”There is, however, currently no information about
the limitations of quantum computers.” →
”However, there is no current information about the

limitations of analog computers.” →
”However, the limitations of current quantum

computers are not known.”

Word Order
Look at 3 examples:
”There is, however, currently no information
about the limitations of quantum computers.”
”However, there is no current information
about the limitations of analog computers.”
”However, the limitations of current quantum
computers are not known.”

Word order in different languages

Basic Word Order
subject-predicate-object (SVO)
You can add attributes, phrases and
clauses, but don’t deviate too far from the basic
format
Goal: put the most important information to the
beginning of a sentence or begin by a familiar thing
and put the new information to the end
E.g. ”X is a new algorithm for the TS problem”
”The probabilities are updated by the Bayes rule:” +
the equation.
Often the sentence is most informative, if you express
the most important topic by the subject.
This format helps to write clear and compact
sentences

More details about word order
The adverbs and prepositional phrases occur in order: way,

place, time
”The nearest neighbours can be identified efficiently (way) in a
dendrogram (place)”.
”The values can be updated easily (way) in linear time (time)”.
Verb modifiers: in the middle of clause
Adverbs which express frequency: always, ever, never, often,
seldom, sometimes, usually
Adverbs which can begin the clause
If the adverb expresses time, it can be also in the beginning:
”Next, the data is loaded to the main memory.”
This gives more emphasis to the word. It is also used, when
there are other adverbs/prepositional phrases in the end of
the clause.
Introductory adverbs like ”obviously”, ”fortunately”, etc. are
always set to the beginning (if they are needed)

Combining clauses
Say the main message in the independent

clauses! Use dependent clauses only to add
details
Contents
Combining two independent clauses

Combining clauses by sub-ordinating
conjunctions
Relative clauses
Indirect questions

Combining clauses by sub-ordinating conjunctions
The basic form: an independent clause + a sub-ordinating

conjunction + a dependent clause.
The most common sub-ordinating conjunctions express
1. a chronological order: when, as, as soon as, while, after,
before,until, since
”The search can be halted as soon as minfr proportion of data is
checked”
2. a conditional relationship: if, unless. If-clauses can also
begin the sentence
”If the order is fixed, the episode is called serial.”
3. a reason: because (Recommendation: reserve word ”since”
to express chronological order)
”The method is time-efficient, because all the parameters can be
updated in one loop
4. a purpose: so that (You can also use in order to + infinitive
verb)
5. an admission: although, even if

Notes
When you combine

an independent clause + a dependent clause
→ sometimes but not always a comma (e.g.
before but, but not before that).
a dependent clause + an independent clause
→ always a comma

Relative clauses
Relative clauses can be divided into two categories:
Restrictive or Non-restrictive
who refers to a person.whose is the genitive form, it can refer
to things and objects, too!
whom is used as an object and with prepositions,
which refers to things and objects, can be used as a subject
or an object or with prepositions.
In most cases, the genitive form can be either of which or
whose.
that
can be used only in restrictive relative clauses! → never use
comma before it!
can refer to people or things,
can be used both as a subject and an object.
If you need prepositions, they have to be in the end of the
clause!
©what
SoICT 2020 contains also the correlate
Technical Writing and Presentation 60
Combining two independent clauses
A compound sentence= two or more independent clauses

which are combined by co-ordinating conjunctions or
(rarely) by semicolons.
Combine only two main clauses (unless the clauses have
the same subject which is mentioned only once).
The ideas expressed in the clauses must be closely
connected (otherwise separate sentences).
The most common co-ordinating conjunctions are and and
but.
and links one idea to another.
E.g. ”The data is sparse and the model overfits easily.”
but establishes an interesting relationship between the ideas →
a higher level of argument.
E.g. ”The data was sparse, but the model did not overfit.”
(=”Even if the data was sparse, the modeldid not overfit.”)

Indirect questions
The dependent clause begins by a question

word what, why, when, where, how or
if/whether when the corresponding direct
question begins by a verb.
”First we should study what is the relationship
between X and Y .”
”The main problem is whether X can be
applied in Z.”
• The word order is direct!
• No auxiliary word do
• No comma!
• No question mark

Punctuation
Goal: to make the text clearer.

The English punctuation rules do not always
coincide with the rules of your mother
tongue.
Usually you manage with just two marks:
full-stop and comma!
The basic rules for other marks are:
• Use colon ’:’ only when needed.
• Avoid semicolon ’;’ and dash ’–’.
• Avoid unnecessary parantheses ’(’...’)’.

Comma is used
1. To separate introductory phrases and conjunctions
(however, thus, similarly, etc.)
”Despite the high time complexity, X is often used...”
2. When the sentence begins with a dependent clause.
”Since x is a statistic, it is also a random variable.”
3. When a non-restrcitive relative clause is embedded into an
independent clause or ends a sentence.
”X, which is responsible for data preprocessing, initializes Y .”
4. When two phrases with the same meaning are used side
by side.
”One of the most useful statistics is x, the sample mean.”
5. When the sentence begins by an infinitive structure
”To find the lower bound for the confidence interval, we
isolate...”
6. To separate items in a list of three or more items.
7. To avoid ambiguity.
”Instead of hundreds, thousands rows of data is required”
No comma is used
When an independent clause is followed by a

restrictive relative clause or is embedded with a
restrictive rel. clause (especially before that).
Exception: ”It must be remembered, however, that...”
Between two independent clauses (in British English).
Before an indirect question.
When you begin by a prepositional phrase expressing
the place.
”In this section we discuss...” ”In Chapter 3 we
defined...”

Writing Technical Reports/Theses
SOICT - 2020
Contents
• Differences between a report and a thesis
• Writing a technical report
• Writing a thesis
• Mapping your ideas to text
• Paragraphs
2
Differences between a Report and a Thesis
Report Thesis
• describe a simple format used to  to be produced in order to obtain a
present data and analyses, and then to higher academic degree.
come to some conclusion about that  represents a work of greater depth and
data, including recommendations if academic inclination
appropriate  evidence of the candidate’s
capacity to carry out
independent research, to analyze
and communicate the significant
results of the work.
• is written for several people who  a public document that may be read
know the topic very well by many people
• length of 30-60 pages  length of 60-120 pages
3
Writing a technical report
• Genre of a technical report
• Structure of a technical report
• Planning the report
• Writing the first draft
• Revising
• Finalizing
• Proof reading
4
Genre (style) of Technical Report
• A technical report is a formal report designed to
convey technical information in a clear and easily
accessible format
• It is divided into sections which allow different
readers to access different levels of information.
5
Structure of a technical report
• Title page
• Summary
• Contents
• Introduction
• Body of the report
• Conclusions
• References
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Appendixes (if appropriate)
6
Details of components
• Title page: The page includes the title of the report.
• Summary: includes important features, results and
conclusions
• Contents: Numbers and lists all section and
subsection headings with page numbers
7
• Introduction : The objectives of the report and
comments on the way the topic of the report is to be
treated.
• The sections which make up the body of the report:
• Divided into numbered and headed sections.
• Separate the different main ideas in a logical order
• Conclusions: A short, logical summing up of the
theme(s) developed in the main text
8
• References: Details of published sources of material referred
to or quoted in the text
• Bibliography: Other published sources of material, not
referred to in the text but useful for background or further
reading. Only comprehensive technical reports, such as some
theses, have a bibliography
• Acknowledgements: List of people who helped you research
or prepare the report,
• Appendices: further materials which are essential for full
understanding of your report (e.g. large scale diagrams,
computer code, raw data, specifications) but not required by a
casual reader.
9
Planning the report
• Collect your information: laboratory handouts, lecture notes, the
reference books and journals
• Creative phase of planning.
• Write down topics and ideas from your researched material in random
order.
• Arrange them into logical groups.
• Keep note of topics that do not fit into groups in case they come in useful
later.
• Put the groups into a logical sequence which covers the topic of your
report.
• Structuring the report: Using your logical sequence of grouped
ideas, write out a rough outline of the report with headings and
subheadings.
10
Writing the first draft
• Who is going to read the report? The answer will affect
the content and technical level, and is a major
consideration in the level of detail required in the
introduction.
• Begin writing with the main text, not the introduction
• Make rough sketches of diagrams or graphs.
• Keep a numbered list of references as they are included
in your writing and put any quoted material inside
quotation marks
• Write the Conclusion next, followed by the Introduction.
Do not write the Summary at this stage.
11
Revising the first draft
• The essence of a successful technical report lies
in how accurately and concisely it conveys the
intended information to the intended readership
• Ask yourself these questions;
• Does that sentence/paragraph/section say what I
want and mean it to say?
If not, write it in a different way.
• Are there any words/sentences/paragraphs which
could be removed without affecting the information
which I am trying to convey?
If so, remove them.
12
Finalizing the report and proofreading
• Your report should now be nearly complete

• An introduction, main text in sections, conclusions,
properly formatted references and bibliography and
any appendixes are completed.
• It is the time to add the page numbers, contents and
title pages and write the summary.
13
Summary (Abstract)
• A summary (abstract) provides an overview of the
purpose, scope and findings contained in the report.
• Purpose: identifies the issue, need or reason for the
investigation
• Scope: review the main points, extent and limits of
the investigation
• Findings: includes condensed conclusions and
recommendations
14
The Summary (Abstract)
• The summary, with the title,
• indicate the scope of the report and give the main results and
conclusions.
• must be intelligible without the rest of the report, because
many people may read, and refer to, a report summary but
only a few read the full report
• Purpose - a short version of the report and a guide to the
report.
• Length - short, typically not more than 100-300 words
• Content - provide information, not just a description of the
report.
15
The summary (Abstract)
• provides an “in a nutshell” description without
providing underlying details
• contains no undefined symbol, abbreviations,
acronyms
• makes no reference by number to any references or
illustrative material
• Provides no background information.
16
The Summary (Abstract)
• Every word is important. Limit the use of words that
do not convey important information to a minimum
• The summary is usually the last part of the report to
be written.
• Include in the summary the keywords that someone
may use to search for the
report in a literature database.
17
Proofreading
• Check every aspect of a piece of written work from the content to
the layout
• Never send or submit any piece of written work, from email to
course work, without proofreading.
• Before stapling your report, you must check it very carefully
yourself.
• Give your report to someone else to read carefully and check for
any errors in content, style, structure and layout.
• Do not forget to record the name of the proofreader in your
acknowledgements.
18
Word processing / desktop publishing
Advantages Disadvantages
Word processing and desktop publishing
Word processing and desktop publishing
packages offer great scope for endless
packages never make up for poor or
revision of a document. This includes
inaccurate content
words, word order, style and layout.
They can waste a lot of time by slowing
They allow for the incremental production
down writing and distracting the writer
of a long document in portions which are
with the mechanics of text and graphics
stored and combined later
manipulation.
They can be used to make a document look Excessive use of 'cut and paste' leads to
stylish and professional. tedious repetition and sloppy writing.
If the first draft is word processed, it can
They make the process of proofreading and look so stylish that the writer is fooled into
revision extremely straightforward thinking that it does not need
proofreading and revision!
19
Tips
• Do not bother with style and formatting of a
document until the penultimate or final draft.
• Do not try to get graphics finalized until the text
content is complete.
20
Front Matter
• Cover*
• Label*
• Title Page
• Summary
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
* May be an optional element
21
Cover and Label
• A cover is used if the report is over 10 pages long
• A label is placed on the cover to identify
• Report title and subtitle (if a subtitle is appropriate)
• Author’s name
• Publisher
• Date of publication
22
Title page
• The title page duplicates the information found on
the front cover (if the cover is used)
• The title page also provides descriptive information
that is used by organizations that provide access to
information resources.
23
Select a title
• Think about the reader’s first impression.
• Include important and distinguishing key words, for
example the words that
somebody will use in a literature search.
• Leave out any words that are not essential. Avoid
meaningless expressions or longwinded
descriptions. Every word must count.
24
Table of Contents
• Numbers and lists all section and subsection
headings with page numbers
• The page number is the beginning page number of
each major section within the report (excluding the
title page and the table of contents)
25
List of Tables and Figures*
• A list of figures and tables helps the reader to locate
illustrations, drawings, photographs, graphs, charts,
and tables of information contained in the report.
• A figure is any drawing, photograph or chart is used
to explain and support the technical information in
the text
• The figure number and title will appear below the
image
*May be an optional element
26
List of Tables and Figures*
• A table is an arrangement of detailed facts or statistics
that are arranged in a row and column format
• The table number and tittle appear above the table
27
Text
• The text is the part of technical report in
which the author
• describes the methods, assumptions, and
procedures
• presents and discusses the results
• draws conclusions
• recommend actions based on the results
28
Text
• Summary
• Introduction
• Methods, assumption and procedures
• Results and discussion
• Conclusion
• Recommendation
• References
29
Introduction
• The Introduction prepares the reader to read the main
body of the report.
• This page focuses on the subject, purpose, and scope of
the report
• Subject: defines the topic and associated terminology;
may include theory, historical background, and its
significance
• Purpose: indicates the reason for the investigation
• Scope: indicates the extent and limits of the
investigation
30
Methods, Assumptions, Procedures
• The methods, assumptions, and procedures used in the

investigation are described so the reader could duplicate the
procedures of the investigation. Information in this section
includes:
• System of measurement
• Types of equipment used and accuracy
• Test methods used
• The sections which make up the body of the report:
• Divided into numbered and headed sections.
• Separate the different main ideas in a logical order
31
Methods, Assumptions, Procedures
• Methods: How did you discover the problem? What
measuring tools were used? What measurement system
was used?
• Assumptions: What do you think, but cannot
substantiate as fact?
• Procedures: How did you gain a better understanding
of the problem?
32
Results and Discussion
• The results and discussion section describes what you
learned about the problem as a result of your research,
identifies the degree of accuracy related to your
findings, and gives the reader your view of the
significance of your findings.
• Results What did you learn about the problem through
your research?
• Discussion How accurate are your findings? What is the
significance of the results of the research?
33
Conclusions
• A short, logical summing up of the theme(s)
developed in the main text
• Restatement of Results
• What are the factual findings that resulted from your
research?
• What are you implying as a result of these findings?
• Concluding Remarks
• What are your opinions based on the findings and
results?
34
Recommendations*
• A section called recommendations is often included in
reports that are the result of tests and experiments, field
trials, specific design problems, and feasibility studies.
• The author may recommend additional areas of study
and suggest a course of action, such as pursuing an
alternate design approach
• Additional Studies Is there information that still needs
to be learned?
• Suggested Actions What does the author want the
reader to do with the information?
35
References
• The references section is the place where the author
cites all of the secondary research sources that were
used to...
• develop an understanding of the problem
• support the information contained in the report
36
Back Matter
• The back matter supplements and clarifies the body
of the report, makes the body easier to understand,
and shows where additional information can be
found.
• The back matter may includes
• Appendixes*
• Bibliography*
• List of Symbols, Abbreviations, and Acronyms
Glossary*
• Index*
• Distribution List*
37
Appendixes*
• Anything that cannot be left out of a report, but is too
large for the main part of the report and would serve to
distract or interrupt the flow belongs in the appendixes
.For example:
• Large tables of data Flowcharts
• Mathematical analysis
• Large illustrations
• Detailed explanations and descriptions of test techniques and
apparatus
• Technical drawings
*Mav be an optional element
38
List of Symbols, Abbreviations,
and Acronyms*
• If more than five symbols , abbreviations , or acronyms
are used in the report, they are to be listed with their
explanation.
*Mav be an optional element
39
Writing a Thesis
• Parts of a thesis
• Thesis examples
• Process of
40
Examples of theses
• A new application or method
• Literature review
• Suitability of existing approaches to a new problem
41
Example1: a new application or method
• The new application (a program) is in central role.
• It has to be related to the existing research and
evaluated.
• Introduction: the problem
• Background theory and main concepts
• Related research (other existing solutions to the same or
similar problems)
• Your own application
• Evaluation: comparison to other methods, empirical tests, or
theoretical analysis
• Conclusions
42
Example 2: Literature review
• Introduction
• Main concepts
• Approaches + their analysis (2-3 chapters)
• Or a chapter for comparison and analysis of all
approaches
• Conclusions
43
Example 3: Suitability of existing
approaches to a new problem
• Introduction
• The new problem + criteria for an ideal solution
method
• Potential solution methods + analysis of their
suitability (2-3 chapters)
• Possibly discussion (comparison, new solution
ideas)
• Conclusions
44
Parts of a thesis
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Main chapters
• Conclusions
• References
• Appendixes
45
Abstract
• Tells compactly the research problem, methods and
results.
• At most 1 page, no literature references.
• Key words.
46
Introduction
• Define the problem clearly
• Give sufficient background information for the
following chapters.
• What is the purpose of the research? Main research
questions?
• What is the scope? Indicate explicitly all limitations and
restricting assumptions!
• Why the topic is important or interesting?
• What methods are used?
47
Introduction (continued)
• Briefly references to related research (just the main
references – more
references in chapter ”Related research” or
throughout the thesis)
• Emphasize your own contribution: what is original
or new?
48
Conclusions
• Just 1-2 pages!
• Summarize the main results in a general level.
• Tell what was your own contribution and what was
based on other sources.
• Possibly also critics (e.g. limitations), alternative
approaches, topics for future research.
• No more new results and seldomly any references
(at most for alternative, unmentioned approaches)
49
Appendixes
• Additional material which is relevant to the research
and is referred in the text.
• No chapter numbers, but enumerate the appendixes
(Appendix A, Appendix B,...).
• If you have only one appendix, then just
“Appendix”.
50
Process of thesis writing
• Reading literature
• Planning
• To get started
51
Reading literature
• Try to find the most relevant articles.
• To get a wider perspective, search papers by different
authors/research groups.
• If there are several approaches to solve or study the
problem, try to study something from all of them.
• Use several digital libraries or bibliographies for
searching – one collection may be biased.
• Plan how much time you can spend for studying
literature! In some point you have to stop collecting new
material and begin to write.
52
Planning
• Begin by brainstorming. Draw concept maps. Discuss
with your friends or supervisors.
• Write down all ideas which come into your mind.
• Collect literature and scan through it. Select the most
important sources.
• Try to write the disposition as early as possible. Process
it with your supervisor until it looks good (logical
structure and order).
• List the main research problems (in the form of
questions) and write the introductory paragraphs for the
chapters
53
To get started
• Arrange a comfortable working place. Reserve time for
writing every day. Try to make writing a routine for
you!
• Set deadlines. Preferably fix them with your supervisor
– it is always more effective.
• Work together with your friends. You can set the
deadlines, discuss your topics, and read each other’s
texts. After good work you can reward yourself by
doing something fun.
• Imagine that you are writing to your friend about your
research topic!
• Summarize articles you have read.
54
To get started
• Begin to write immediately, when your disposition is finished.
• Write down ideas when they come – even in the middle of night
• Invent good examples and write them down
• If some part is difficult to write, beginning from an easier one.
• Write the difficult parts, when you are in a good working mood.
• Draw figures which describe some method or model and write a
description.
• Try to divide the problem or phenomenon into subproblems or parts
and describe them separately.
• Collect main concepts and write definitions for them. Fix the
notations.
55
How to write the beginning of chapters?
• Look at the opening sentences of similar compositions by other
people
• Possibly beginnings are
• a summary,
• a statement of the problem,
• a hypothesis,
• necessary and interesting background information,
• a new idea,
• an accepted procedure (then explain advantages of another procedure),
...
• Don’t spend too much time trying to find an effective
beginning – you can always modify it afterwards.
• Go straight to the point and, if possible, refer to things that
you expect your readers to know (vs. constructivism)
56
Revising
• First of all, admit that the first draft(s) is not perfect!
Ask critics and respect it.
• If possible, ask at least two people to read your thesis.
Preferably one who is an expert on the subject, and
one who is not.
• Have a break when your work is finished. At least,
sleep one night before revising the text yourself
57
Technical hints
• Read text aloud and check if it sounds well
• Check all references. Especially, are names
correctly spelled?
• Save old versions, you may need them afterwards
58
Technical terms
• If there is no widely accepted definition then
1. Tell whose definition you follow and give this definition
with reference,
or
2. Give a definition yourself and tell that in this work the term
is defined as given.
• Technical terms must be defined clearly and then used
with accuracy and precision
59
Symbols
• Don’t use the same symbol for different things!
• Use indexes in a uniform manner.
• If some special notation is widely used in literature,
follow it.
• If different sources use different notations, harmonize
them
• Do not use Greek letters if there is no reason. If there is
a danger of confusion, then Greek letters are justified.
60
Equations
• Avoid listing mathematical equations!
• Try to integrate equations into sentences so that the
results is readable.
• Do not replace words by mathematical symbols
(e.g. ) in the text
61
Mapping your ideas to text
• Map ideas to text
• Writing tree t
62
Map your ideas to text
• Writing w is a mapping from a set of ideas I to a set
of scientific texts S, w : I → S.
• Problem: Given a set of ideas i I, produce f(i) S
63
Instructions
1. Organize your ideas in a hierarchical manner, as a tree
of ideas t (”minimal spanning tree” of idea graph)
2. Write the tree t as text such that

• The root node of t corresponds to your topic (title)
• Its children correspond to chapters
• Their children and grand-children correspond to sections and

subsections
• Leaf nodes correspond to paragraphs (actual text)
64
Writing tree t
• Each node n t contains three fields:
• title(n): the main title or the name of the chapter, section or
subsection. In leaf nodes (paragraphs) NULL
• children(n): n’s children (chapters, sections or subsections). In
leaf
node NULL.
• content(n): description of the idea in n. In non-leaf nodes very
brief, in leaf nodes longer.
65
Properties of a good tree t
• t is balanced: all paths from the root to a leaf are
approximately of equal length, usually ≤ 4 or at most ≤ 5
• Each node in t has a reasonable number of children k:
• k ≤ 2 and typically k ≤ 7 (in maximum k = 10)
• For all leaf nodes n, the sizes of content(n) are balanced:
each paragraph contains at least two sentences, but is not
too long (e.g. ≤ 7 or ≤ 10 sentences)
• For all non-leaf nodes m, the sizes of content(m) are
balanced.
• Exceptionally, in introduction, you can use more than
one paragraph.
66
Alg. 1 WriteTree(t)
Input: tree of ideas t
Output: scientific text s
Method
1 begin
2 Write title(n)
3 if (n is not leaf node)
4 begin
Writing an introductory paragraph:
5 Write content(n)
6 for all u = child(n)
7 Write title(u)
8 for all u = child(n)
9 WriteTree(u)
10 end
11 else
Writing a main paragraph:
12 Write content(n)
13 end
67
Paragraphs
• Topic sentence of a paragraph
• Combining sentences in a paragraph
• Dividing a section into paragraphs
68
Topic sentence of a paragraph
• Helps the reader: tells what the paragraph is about.
• Helps the writer: forces you to organize the material
logically.
• In an ideal case, you get a summary of the whole
section by reading the topic sentences.
• If you cannot write a clear topic sentence, ask
yourself whether the paragraph is needed at all!
69
Combining sentences in a paragraph
1. Use (but do not overuse!) conjunctions or transitional words:
• Time links, when you describe a process: then, next, first-second third, while, ...
• Cause-effect links, when you describe reasons or results: therefore,
as a result, thus, ...•
Addition links, when you add points: in addition, moreover, similarly, ...
• Contrast links, when you describe two sides of one thing: however,
despite (=inspire of sg), ...
Other: For example,...
2. Link the beginning of a sentence to the end of the previous sentence.
E.g. the subject of sentence 2 is the object of sentence 1.
”A model consists of a model structure and model parameters. The
model structure defines...”
3. Repeat the key terms throughout the paragraph. However, do not
repeat the same word twice in one sentence.
70
Dividing a section into paragraphs
• Logically structured disposition (topic outline) is the
most important thing in writing
• An iterative process:
1. The main structure of the whole thesis: the main
chapters and their contents in a couple of sentences or
key words. The order of chapters.
2. For each chapter (or an article), the main sections +
key words, introductory sentences or phrases. The
order of sections.
3. In each section, the subsections or paragraphs. The
introductory sentences, key words, and the order of
paragraphs. List the related tables and figures.
71

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC BÁCH KHOA HÀ NỘI

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Technical Writing and Presentation

• For scientific presentations, only 17 percent of

• Deliver in a boring, monotone way  value of your

• Add color, expressiveness, and power to your

1. Tempo and Chunking

• Chunking: separating information into small groups

• Vary the pitch

• Everybody must hear you clearly.

• Vary the volume

• Quieter part vs louder part

• If you anticipate difficulty in pronouncing certain

• Usually the problem is the syllable stress.

• It’s hard to aurally comprehend complex

• Avoid reading your text — this should keep the

• You should always sound natural.

Try reading out each of the following examples with

• Slow down to make your most important pints.

• To get your message across persuasively

• To change the significance of what you say dramatically

• Various ways to emphasize some ideas in a speech.

Practice: Look at the following and notice how the effect

In more formal speech some verbs and intensifier adverbs form

Subject Intensifier Main Verb Complement

Use the verbs to stress, emphasize, etc.

Sound natural. Be eloquent and vivid

1. What is nonverbal communication?

Nonverbal Communication = Communication without words

 Before moving forward, let’s keep in your mind that

Verbal & nonverbal Communication plays an important role in

“The most important thing

There are two types of nonverbal communication:

 Intentional nonverbal communication

 Unintentional nonverbal communication

This may be intentional or

Eye contact, a key

Facial expressions are the

For example, if you cross your

Australia, USA, UK,

Australia, UK, Ireland,

Australia, USA, UK,

Personal space is your

Greeting with 'namaste' -

Technical Writing and Presentation

• What do you see ?

• What are the messages ?

• What do you see ?

• What are the messages ?

2. What are visual aids?

3. Why should we use visual aids?

4. Types of visual aids

5. Tips for using visual aids

• Help speaker show information more systematically

• Help audience understand

• Reinforce and add impact

• Size of audience group

2. What are visual aids?

3. Why should we use visual aids?

4. Types of visual aids

5. Tips for using visual aids

• Used at the precise

• Mass impact (especially • Needs a good design (and not too

• Not easy to modify or edit