Some things I learnt about paper writing

Start writing sections with Experiments, work backwards till intro, then write conclusion, and then abstract and title.

- make it crisp!
- Abstract, Contributions, Conclusion.

• State the exact work done in these sections. All three must be in sync.

• Contributions: only what we have done, what is new (not how good it is); at the end, add a paragraph about paper organization.

- Experiments

• First describe data, then the method, then the results.
  

- Highlighting

• give names for systems you have built
• make sure you highlight the good stuff (in boxes, by putting them in headings, etc.)
• section headings should be informative; reader shoud be able to flip thru the paper and zero in on the crux of the paper
  

- Checks

• double check notation - should be introduced properly, be simple, and consistent
• Diagrams should stand on their own (reader should not have to go through the text to understand
• give the right keywords and categories (will determine who will review the paper)
• for categories, refer to ACM’S COMPUTING CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

- Others

• inline equations to save space
• take the reader smoothly thru the paper; she should never get confused.
• the first page is very important