Day 25 – 28 November 2006
Wassn10 Due
CS Reading, Writing, and Research
I. Reading
How? Silly question? How do you?
Read much, read widely, read well
Develop a professional library
II. Writing Process
Not just for reader – writing is for the writer also; to collect and
organize thoughts
I really learned something when I had to teach it
Zobel, Justin, Writing for Computer Science: The Art of Effective
Communication, Singapore, MA: Springer-Verlag, 1997
see: http://goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au/~jz/writing.html
“A scientific article is a description of new ideas and a demonstration
of their correctness.” p. xi
“Another important aspect of it [writing] is that the discipline of stating
ideas as organized text forces authors to formulate and codify their
thoughts.” … “Taking another perspective, scientific papers are a way
of communicating ideas, of copying thoughts between minds.
Communication is at its most effective when the medium is as free as
possible from distortion, which in this case is bad writing of any kind.
Such distortion can be reduced by writing with clarity and simplicity,
and by making effective use of stylistic conventions.” p. xii
Writing Style: General Guidelines
Economy – “Text should be taut.” p. 12
Tone – “Science writing should be objective and accurate.” p. 13
Examples – “A small example often means the difference between
communication and confusion.” p. 16
Motivation – “Not only should the parts of a paper be ordered in a
logical way, but this logic should be clearly communicated.” p. 16
CSC 490 Course Notes and Outline, © Dr. Gary Locklair, Fall 2006
