18/10/2018

It is time to discuss…

About
writing

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Before getting started…

• Just do it!

• Warm up: free writing!

– Pick a starting theme (e.g. how do I feel now?)
– No stopping
– Stream of consciousness
– No editing or checking
– Mistakes are OK!
– Must be full sentences

Writing:

• Your writing is a work in progress

• Don’t be harsh on your self!
• Write in layers
• Don’t edit now!
– Dreamer
– Realist
– Critic

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word."

(Margaret Atwood)

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Structure and content of sentences:

• Sentences should have a topic position at the beginning

(theme) and a stress position at the end (theme)
• Place the person or thing whose ‘story’ a sentence is telling
in the topic position (theme)
• Always provide context before presenting something new
– Place ‘old information’ in the topic position for linkage backward and
contextualization forward (silver)
– Place ‘new information’ in the stress position for emphasis (gold)

• A-B. B-C.
– E.g. I was born in Recife. Recife is the fifth-largest city in Brazil. This is
important because…
• A-B. A-C.
– E.g. Recife is the fifth-largest city in Brazil. It has ~1.6 m inhabitants.

Structure and content of sentences:

• Longer (good) example:

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Structure and content of sentences:

• Longer (good) example:

• “Constructing a wedding cake is a complicated process…”

• Argument or example #1
• Argument or example #2
• Argument or example #n
• These delicate touches individualize the wedding cake and
transform it from merely a cake into a culinary work of art.”

Idea in the paragraph:

• If the story is about pollen, keep talking about pollen across

the paragraph!
• One paragraph = one story = one idea!
• One paragraph ~7 sentences
• 1 sentence ~no more than 2.5 lines long (single column)

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Structure and content of sentences:

• Follow the subject with its verb as soon as possible

(avoid too much description in between!)
• Chose a good, strong and effective verb as to make the
action in the sentence clear
• Focus on actors and actions!
– E.g. There was uncertainty in Clinton’s mind about the intention of the
Russians to disarm their nuclear weapons
– E.g. Clinton remained unconvinced that the Russians intended to
disarm their nuclear weapons
• Transform ‘negatives’ into ‘affirmatives whenever possible
– E.g. It does not foster creativity
– E.g. It hinders creativity

Structure and content of sentences:

• Aim for S – V – O
– E.g. She Values Objectivity

• Short and concrete Subject

• Vigorous and strong Verb
• “Otever” it is the Object…

• Remember to keep the distance between S and V short!

– E.g. “The suggestion by plaintiff’s counsel that plaintiffs should be
allowed to question the defendant to determine whether tax reform
measures were passed in the mid-1980s and whether this country has
experienced a collapse of the real estate market or national recession
is simply bizarre.”

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Structure and content of sentences (write it simply!):

• The reason why / cause of / explanation for… is / is not…

vs
• Someone DID something because someone DID something

• The cause of our school’s failure at teaching basic skills is not

understanding the influence of cultural background on
learning
vs
• Our schools have failed to teach basic skills because they do
not understand how cultural background influences the way a
child learns

Structure and content of sentences:

• Repeat of vary?
– It is surprising how often repeating a noun works better than
substituting a pronoun such as ‘it’, ‘this’, ‘them, ‘ones’, etc., and it is
surprising how seldom a repeated noun jars on the reader

• Good scientific writing uses more repetition and less

variation than the writer thinks
• Writers can’t really understand what it is like to encounter a
sentence only once (repetition tends to bore the writer,
especially after many readings of a draft sentence)

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About long sentences:

• Although long sentences should be avoided, they are OK in

many cases

• They need not be difficult to read; they are only difficult to

write

Research into inspiration and fixation has produced a complex web of

questions, methods, and findings, making it difficult to know more
exactly what has already been investigated and learnt, and what to
investigate next and how. The phenomena that are being studied
potentially lie at the heart of creative design activities, thus a better
understanding of them will allow the field to improve design practice and
education, to better develop design methods and tools, and to structure
further research efforts and experiments.

About long sentences:

• Although long sentences should be avoided, they are OK in

many cases

• They need not be difficult to read; they are only difficult to

write

Research into inspiration and fixation has produced a complex web of

questions, methods, and findings, making it difficult to know more
36 exactly what has already been investigated and learnt, and what to
investigate next and how. The phenomena that are being studied
potentially lie at the heart of creative design activities, thus a better
46 understanding of them will allow the field to improve design practice and
education, to better develop design methods and tools, and to structure
further research efforts and experiments.

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About long sentences:

• However, take care with long ‘onion’ sentences!

– The hypothesis of Smith (1967), which the experiment that Jones
(1971) proposed tested, was found to be incorrect

– Jones (1971) proposed an experiment to test the hypothesis of Smith

(1967) and found it to be incorrect
– Jones (1971) found that the hypothesis of Smith (1967) was incorrect

Using passive voice:

• Be sparing with it! But…

• It is OK if the story is about pollen, not about bees

– E.g. Pollen is dispersed by bees vs. bees disperse pollen
• Or perhaps to hide the guilt
– E.g. Errors have been made
• Or for procedures in which it doesn’t matter who did it
– E.g. The water was heated to 100 °C

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Nominalisations:

• A noun phrase generated from another word class, usually

a verb

• They usually require ‘there is’… because they get rid of the
actor/subject in the sentence

Nominalisations:

• Turn nominalizations into verbs whenever possible

– E.g. To do an observation is the same as to observe!
• They are often longer…
– Effective in disseminating information about…
– Effective in the dissemination of information about…
• However, it is OK to make AB-BC easier
– E.g. We observed X. This observation resulted in Y
– Help writers to pack things; but now readers should unpack them
• Or to change the focus from the actor to the action
(when the latter is more important)
– E.g. Paraphrase someone 

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Hedging:

• The use of cautious language to make noncommittal or

vague statements, i.e. to evade the risk of commitment,
especially by leaving open a way of retreat

• Why?
– to report the limits of your findings
– to protect yourself from the risk of error
– to convey modesty
– to reduce the risk of opposition
– to be more precise in the reporting of results

Hedging:

How to hedge:
• Modal auxiliary verbs: may, might, can, could…
• Modal lexical verbs: to seem, to appear, to indicate...
• Probability adjectives: possible, probable…
• Nouns: assumption, claim…
• Adverbs: perhaps, possibly, presumably…
• Approximators of degree: about, generally, somewhat…
• Introductory phrases: to our knowledge, believe to…
• ‘If’ clauses: if anything, if true…
• Compound hedges: looks probable, seems reasonable…

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General tips:

• Avoid using adverbs such as basically, generally,

considerably; they are either empty or subjective
• Take extra care with words like ISSUE or MEANINGFUL
• Avoid ‘performing an analysis’: just analyse!
• Get rid of too many ‘there is’ and ‘there are’
• Take care with “more” and “less”:
they often need a referent and we often forget it
• Find a good text and reverse-engineer it!

Academese:

Definition:
• A style of writing held to be characteristic of academic
people
• Language typical of academies or the world of learning;
pedantic language.
• The learned and often dry style and diction of an academic
or scholar
• Pedantic, pretentious, and often confusing academic
jargon

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It’s okay to be yourself!

• The best way to deal with verbs far from subjects, long
sentences, nominalisations, academese and so on…
• Be yourself, stay present, talk simply: use pronouns
• ‘I’ and ‘We’ are perfectly fine!
• ‘Our’ is okay... ‘my’ not so much

“Based on the creativity literature, we provide several explanations for the 
differences in results found across studies. Our findings and explanations 
have implications for the interpretation of creativity experiments reported to 
date and for the design of future studies. This will help us design better 
controlled experiments that yield more reliable data, from which we could 
more confidently develop tools and methods to mitigate the effects of 
fixation and thus support creative design.”

My points here were…

• Aim for linear writing and with all words

• Always look for intro>body>conclusion (sent/para/sect/text)
• Known information comes first, new information comes last
• Subject>verb>object: she values objectivity!
• Repeat more; vary less: keep it simple
• Long sentences are OK, but short ones are even better
• Get rid of nominalisations
• Hedging here and there
• Don’t ‘academese’
• We did it!

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About
writing a
paper

The writing process
The 6Ps process!

• Ponder
• Prepare
• Produce
• Polish
• Publish
• Proofread

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The writing process

• Ponder
• Prepare
• Produce
• Polish
• Publish
• Proofread

Coming up with ideas

• Have an easy way to record your thoughts always close to

you
• Keep a summary of the papers you read and your
comments about them
• Make notes about the talks you attend
• Don’t imagine you are the only one researching that topic,
so try to keep open minded about possible collaborations
around you

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Template for taking notes

– Reference; URL; date accessed

– Key Words
– General subject
– Specific subject
– Authors' Hypothesis or Claim
– Methodology
– Result(s)
– Evidence
– Summary of key points
– Context and relationships (how this article relates to other work in the
field; how it ties in with key issues and findings by others, including
yourself)
– Significance (to the field; in relation to your own work)
– Important Figures and/or Tables (brief description; page number)
– Cited References to follow up on: (cite those obviously related to your
topic AND any papers frequently cited by others because those works
may well prove to be essential as you develop your own work)
– Your evaluative comments on the work

Hewitt, J.L. (2008). Template for Taking Notes on Research Articles: Easy access for
later use. http://cnx.org/content/m15913/1.1/

The writing process

• Ponder
• Prepare
• Produce
• Polish
• Publish
• Proofread

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Choosing your collaborators

• Who is going to write the paper with you?

• Why is it important to have them on board?
• What are each of you doing?
• When do you need the material from them?

Choosing your collaborators

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Knowing your audience

Your supervisor The editor of The chair of  That educated

that journal that conference person you care about

Adjusting your writing to your audience

What are Who will How will they use it? What do you want
you writing? read it? from them?
Thesis or Supervisor and To judge, mark and rank your To believe you are able
project Examiners work to do research (pass)
Research Funding bodies To judge aims, originality, quality, To see the relevance on
proposal and referees promise of the proposed work what you want to do
and believe you will do
it (pay)
Original paper Reviewers and To judge originality, quality, To be convinced by your
or report for Scientifically suitability, but also to extract info results and use it
publication literate public and learn (accept)
Literature Reviewers and To judge quality, completeness, To be impressed with
review Scientifically info presentation, but also to learn your hard work and use
literate public or to be introduced to the field it (accept and citations)
Popular Intelligent but To be introduced to a new field or To be riveted to your
article uniformed to be entertained text and discuss
public it(propagation)
Letter to Editor of that To judge the relevance of your To be convinced that
editor journal work your work is important
(accept)
… … … …

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Writing your first draft

• Brown’s eight questions:

– Who are the intended readers? List three to five by name
– What did you do? (50 words)
– Why did you do it? (50 words)
– What happened when you did that? (50 words)
– What do the results mean in theory? (50 words)
– What do the results mean in practice? (50 words)
– What is the key benefit for the readers? (25 words)
– What remains unsolved? (no word limit)

Murray, R. (2005), Writing for academic journals, Open University Press.

Writing drafts: organising your paragraphs

• Designers look for inspiration and this is something

interesting to look at

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Writing drafts: organising your paragraphs

• Designers look for inspiration

• It can be like this and like that
• It might happen like this and like that
• There must be a difference there
• We should look at it

Writing drafts: expanding your paragraphs

• Designers often look for inspiration in external sources

when generating ideas. They might encounter these
sources in different ways, such as purposely consulting
them or noticing them in the environment. Additionally, the
inspiration sources might take different forms, including
representations of concrete examples (such as competitive
products and biological analogues) or more abstract design
principles (such as design heuristics and patterns).
Regardless of how the external inspiration sources might be
encountered and what form they might take, these stimuli
may have different effects on designers’ creativity. For
those seeking to improve the idea generation process in
design, it is helpful to know what form of inspiration
sources to provide to designers.

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The writing process

• Ponder
• Prepare
• Produce
• Polish
• Publish
• Proofread

Writing tools LaTeX (MiKTeX + LEd)

• You ‘code’ the text (similar to

using HTML)
Microsoft Word • References (.bibtex)

• WYSIWYG • Import format

• Easy to edit • Robust to large files

• Text revision feature • Great for formulae

• Compatibility with others

• Templates available
• Spelling errors,
suggestions, etc.
Google Docs
• It’s free and browser based
• Great for parallel writing +
editing
• Spelling erros, suggestions,
etc.

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Writing freely

• Remember it is not time to criticise yet!

• Follow the order:
– Dreamer (follow your heart and write what you know)
– Realist (but remember you need people to believe you – references?)
– Critic (more than that, you need to be bulletproof – technical quality)

Structuring your work
Typical structure of papers,
dissertations, theses, etc.
Real world, things 
we all care or relate 
to

Hardcore stuff,
detailed info,
from geek to geek

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Structuring your work

• Introduction (2-5 paragraphs)

– Attention / hook
– Overview of topic / general context
– Introduction of main themes (not a review!)
– Thesis statement / purpose and relevance
– Structure of the paper? Maybe…

Structuring your work

• Literature review (3-8 paragraphs if it’s not a review paper)

– Hook from intro: there’s some literature on our thesis statement
– A more general view of the literature: state the themes to be covered
– Expanding on the related work without “reading” them to your reader
– Focus on their results if you produce results / their methods if you
propose a new method / etc.
– Highlight their main strengths and weaknesses
– Start shifting to how their work is different – state and open the gap
– Summarise the weaknesses and differences and connect back to your
thesis – you will close the gap

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Structuring your work

• Intro + Literature review

– Show that what you are doing is important and that other people have
already stated the relevance of your subject
– Show that what you are doing is relatively common e and there are
other people working on that subject
– Show that what you are doing is different, because other people have
been doing something and you won’t be doing the same
– Show that what you are doing is necessary and other people will like it
very much when you finish it!

SCOPE

Creativity and design are topics that are studied from a variety of 
perspectives, and before proceeding further it is worth clarifying our 
particular frame of reference and the scope of the arguments we will 
explore. First, because our interest is in design rather than technology, 
emphasis is placed on the activities that occur within particular design 
projects rather than historical design developments across different 
product generations. We are also only interested here in the structure of 
creative progress, and not in assessing the degree of creativity attained 
or in the efficacy of creative methods. It follows that our focus is on 
descriptive accounts of creative design as it occurs, rather than 
normative models of design as it should be. Finally, we shall be 
restricted to considering the production and acceptance of ideas that 
are somehow new to the individuals and groups involved in a design 
project; we are unconcerned with whether such ideas are also new to 
the world because it is psychological rather than historical phenomena 
that are of relevance.

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LITERATURE GAP

Although concepts like the design stance have excited those disciplines 
concerned with the interpretation of artefacts, this emphasis on 
interpretation disguises a lack of attention given to the design stance in 
studies of interaction. Because of its emphasis on man‐machine 
relations, a natural place to look for such work is the field of human‐
computer interaction (HCI). However, Dennett’s stances—and especially 
his design stance—have attracted much less attention in the HCI field 
than might be expected. For example, there are only a few general HCI 
texts in which Dennett is mentioned, and in those texts it is typically 
his intentional stance which is emphasized. Dennett’s three stances are 
distinguished from each other in some more specific theoretical 
discussions, where they are related to alternative categorizations of 
reasoning offered by Rasmussen, Pylyshyn, and Zuboff. However, in 
none of these works is a concept like the design stance offered as a 
challenge to conventional ways of understanding how users might 
appraise or interact with systems. 

STRUCTURE

The article is divided into several sections, intended not just to develop 
a Kuhnian perspective on creative design, but also to more generally 
explore the many issues that surround such a perspective. We begin by 
reviewing different accounts of creative design progress, and by then 
reviewing Kuhn’s account of scientific advance. To explain how the 
latter relates to the former, it is argued that processes of scientific 
discovery mirror activities of creative design. The influence of Kuhn’s 
work is then discussed, looking for precedents in which his concepts 
have been used to illuminate the way in which design projects move 
forward. Having done this, we are able to read Kuhn’s work as though 
he is describing observed design behaviour, and nine key propositions 
are derived that collectively describe the structure of creative progress 
in design projects. Finally, opportunities for further theoretical and 
empirical work are discussed as we consider the broader implications
of relating scientific discovery to creative design.

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Structuring your abstract

• Abstract

Designers often look for inspiration in external sources.  Background
However, some people say this is good,
Question/problem
some people say this is bad.
We decided to see who is right. Opportunity
We did an experiment with all Approach
professional designers in the world.
We found that everyone was right, depending
Results
on the design stage in which designers are.
So, designers can benefit from external sources Conclusion
if they know when to look for. 
This may put and end to the old Implication
inspiration X fixation dilemma:
Designers should design first, Recommendation
then look for inspiration later.

Structuring your abstract

• Abstract

Designers often look for inspiration in external sources.  Background
However, some people say this is good,
Question/problem
some people say this is bad.
We decided to see who is right. Opportunity
We did an experiment with all Approach
professional designers in the world.
We found that everyone was right, depending
Results
on the design stage in which designers are.
So, designers can benefit from external sources Conclusion
if they know when to look for. 
This may put and end to the old Implication
inspiration X fixation dilemma:
Designers should design first, Recommendation
then look for inspiration later.

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Citing someone

• According to Zack (2000), most of the ideas come from

analogies
– High precision and focus on the author (social sciences)
• In his paper, Zack (2000) says that most of the ideas come
from analogies
– High precision and focus on the work (social sciences)
• Most of the ideas come from analogies (Zack, 2000)
– Low precision and focus on the finding (natural sciences)

• (Zack, 2000) vs (see Zack, 2000) vs (e.g. Zack, 2000)

– Most of the ideas come from analogies (Zack, 2000)
– Other studies suggest most of the ideas come from analogies
(see Zack, 2000) > paper where you can find these other studies
– Other studies suggest most of the ideas come from analogies
(e.g. Zack, 2000) > an example of such studies

‘Common knowledge’

• If the same information is available in at least 5 safe

sources

• If the same information is highly likely to be already know

by the readers and reviewers of that type of work

• If the information is easily accessible in several different

public locations

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Referring to…

• Trusting your references

– Talk, class, website, digital article, etc.
– Papers from local conferences, national conferences, and international
ones
– Not very well-known books
– Local journals (e.g. University), national journals, and international
ones
– Well-known books
– Non-indexed journals, indexed journals, and those with high impact
factor, immediacy index, CiteScore, etc.

• Tips:
– Citing Wikipedia is not a good idea 
– Always try citing some of the work done where you’re intending to
publishing your work
– Don’t cite what you don’t trust! See Beall’s list later ;)

Reference management software

• Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, etc.

• Software that helps store and organise documents

• Usually integrated with MSWord, browsers, etc.
• Most offer some cloud storage service
• Easily import styles from journals, conferences, etc.

• Easy and unambiguous way to add citations within text

• Automatically create a reference list
• Automatically change styles for resubmitting work

• Choose one and stick to it!

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The writing process

• Ponder
• Prepare
• Produce
• Polish
• Publish
• Proofread

Getting it right

• Plagiarism

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Getting it right

• Plagiarism
– Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV
program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement,
or any other medium
– Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another
person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing
– When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase of someone else
– When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other
visual materials
– When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including
images, audio, video, or other media

• Generally speaking, you can regard something as common

knowledge if you find the same information undocumented
in at least five credible sources.

GO!

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