Identification and Analysis of Appropriate Literary
Practices in the Discipline of Computer Science
Mikey Curtis❑1
1 Point Loma High School, San Diego CA, currently studying computer science at UCSB, Santa Barbara CA
Abstract The discipline of computer
science is focused on solving societal
problems through research and computation
in a wide variety of fields. With computer
science being a discipline that is vital to
problem solving of the future, it is necessary
for researchers and professionals in the field
to be able to effectively communicate their
findings and ideas. After analyzing
academic articles in this discipline and
observing the way information was
conveyed in my own computer science
class, I have deduced that the citation
method, the overall structure, and the use of
figures and data sets for evidence are the
defining literary practices of computer
science. In this paper, I will be using these
literary practices in order to give a visual
understanding of what articles in this
discipline might look like as well as going in
depth as to why these practices are effective
in the field of computer science.
1 Introduction
As new problemsissues continue to arise
around the globe, humans are relying more
on computational power in order to find
tangible solutions. to these problems.
Computer science, in particular, is a wide-
spread discipline that is used in all different
types of fields in order to pave a path to a
better future[1]. The goals of computer
science are to improve everyday life and
make technological advancements by
researching algorithms and data structures,
modelling data, and using artificial
intelligence. The methodology applied in the
discipline of Computer Science can be used
to improve almost any field, which is what
makes this discipline important in
developing the future.
Given that computer science is such
a wide-spread discipline, it is important for
communication, whether it be through
presentations or research articles, to be
accurate, concise, and backed up by strong
evidence. If papers in this discipline fail to
effectively demonstrate that high quality
research has been done, then they will not
make it through the peer-review process and
will not be published.
This paper will address and analyze
the ways literary practices in the discipline
of computer science are used to clearly
communicate computational solutions to
modern issues and prove that the content in
academic articles is valid, original, and
significant. The. Specifically, the citation
method, the overall structure, the use of an
abstract, and the types of evidence are the
conventions that will be analyzed to
determine how they effectively accomplish
the goals of the disciplinefocused on.
The rest of this paper will be
organized in the following way: Section 2
will go over the related works. Section 3
will introduce the way evidence is used so
that the same methodology can be used in
the remainder of the paper. Section 4 will
discuss the citation method used and the
related works section. In sections 5 and 6,
the abstract and overall structure will be
analyzed respectively, and finally, section 7
will conclude the paper.
2 Related WorksWork
For understanding the literary practices used
in the field of computer science, it proved
extremely helpful to analyze peer-reviewed
research articles in the discipline. One of
these articles is about abnormal event
detection in cameras, and it has an easy to
follow structure that is used in computer
science papers[2]. Another article used is
about a deep learning network that predicts
epileptic seizures, and it hashad an
abundance of data sets and figures to back
its claims[3]. Another paper covers a deep
learning method for traffic control systems,
in which the same conventions can be
found[4].
3 Evidence
In the discipline of computer science,
evidence is extremely important. Most
research and solutions to problems in this
field use figures and datasets as means of
evidence for their claims.
AnFigure 1 shows an example of a
figure that is used in this discipline can be
seen below. It representsto explain the
process of an autoencoder network that
tracks abnormal events[2].
Fig. 1 An example of a figure used as evidence
For the sake of this paper, an understanding
of what the actual figure is displaying is
unnecessary, as it just serves to show how
figures could be used. An advantage to using
this type of evidence is that it provides
readers with a clear and concise layout of
whatever the author might be trying to
argue. For example, in the above figure, a
long, complex process is organized into a
visual that shows the basic steps and
methodology of the process. This type of
display allows for readers to quickly get an
understanding of the composers’ process
while also being able to refer back to the
figure if necessary. This is important in
accomplishing the goals of the discipline
because it clearly presents the research and
process that has been done, and it allows for
other professionals in the field to determine
if the work is valuable or if it needs to be
tweaked in order to be effective in real
world situations. Peer-reviewed, after all,
means that other experts in the field read the
article, so if the authors of the article want to
get it published, it is important to provide an
abundance of organized evidence.
When displaying large amounts of
information in order to explain a solution, it
is vital to have a paper that is organized
effectively. That is why figures, like Fig.
1the one above, are usefuleffective in the
discipline of computer science. They- they
simplify and organize complex processes
into easy to read visuals.
In addition to the clean presentation
of material that figures provide, data sets can
be used as a means of organizing all factual
evidence for arguments. An example of this
type of evidence can be seen in figure 2.
This particular data set is from an article
about a deep learning network that predicts
epileptic seizures[3].The], but again an
understanding of what the data is about is
unneeded. Rather, the example serves to
show how an organized data set establishes
credibility for the authors’ claim because it
shows that ample research has been
recorded.

Fig. 2 An example of a dataset used as evidence
In considering the rhetorical
situations of academic articles, while the
subject matter can vary greatly within the
discipline of computer science, one aspect
remains the same- the intended audience is
always professionals of the specific field.
Authors, knowingKnowing this and,
authors, in hopes of leaving a lasting
impression on their audience, need to
present their information in an easy-to-
follow way. While just scattering numbers
and steps to solutions throughout large
paragraphs gives readers information,
spreading it out into visually appealing
figures and organized tables proves to be
much more efficient when it comes to
displaying the subject matter. This type of
organization, and allows for the
professionals who are reading the paper to
retain information and refer to different parts
of the paper information easily.
4 Citation and Related Works
A literary practice used in the discipline of
computer science that helps with organizing
the large amount of sources used in research
articles, is the citation style. In this
discipline, endnotes are used along with a
related works section to make it easy for
readers to refer to sources. The related
works section acts to introduce and give a
brief description of the different sources that
were referenced. In addition to this, each
source is numbered in a chronological
manner.
This citation methodology is
effective because it gives readers a basic
understanding of what the sources the article
is referring to are about and allows for easy
reference back to the different citations. The
related works section is an effective
literacyliterary practice in the field of
computer science that strengthens the
authors’ claims by showing readers that
ample research was done as well as giving
the intended audience an understanding of
what the sources are about before reading
the rest of the paper. This allows for an
enhanceda better understanding of the
material when sources are referenced in the
text.
5 Abstract
In the discipline of Computer Science,
abstracts are used in articles in order to give
an overview of what the article is about. It
allows readers to quickly familiarize
themselves with what the paper is about,
which can help them to retain the
information better when reading the actual
material. As seen in the abstract of this
paper, personal pronouns are often used to
explain what the authors’ intentions are in
writing the paper. This use of pronouns in
the abstract is a literary technique that
makes the academic article more inviting
and casually introduces the target
audience(professionals in the specific field)
to the information that will be presented.
While the use of personal pronouns is
effective when it comes to drawing in
potential readers, in the rest of the writing
they are far less common. This is because
the presentation of facts and recorded data to
back whatever claims the authors are
making should be unopinionated and rely on
scientific research.While personal pronouns
can be found throughout the rest of the
writing, they are far less common.
6 Structure
In regards to the actual structure of papers in
this field, single-spaced columns are used
for saving space and making the text more
organized and accessible[5]. In addition to
this, main ideas are broken up into bold,
numbered sections which, again, is a
literacyliterary practice with the purpose of
organization. These section numbers are
used at the end of the introductory section to
explain how the rest of the paper will be
organized.
These organizational techniquesThe
conventions of the overall structure in the
discipline of computer science allow for the
authors, mostly scholars and professionals
researching computational solutions to
problems, to cleanly display their
information. OftentimesOften times, in this
field, the content that is being presented is
complex and is made up of multiple steps.
Therefore, having the paper split into
sections is an effective way of
communicating information, and it allows
for professionals in the field to easily peer-
review the research to determine if it is
worth publishingthe goals of the discipline,
which, again, vary depending on what field
is being focused on to improve with
computer science.
Another important practice in this
discipline relating to the structure of the
article overall, are short lines below the
authors’ names that give the authors
credibility by stating where they received
their education and their academic
backgrounds. With an intended audience
likely of other scholars in the composers’
goal being to get their paper
publisheddiscipline, it is extremely
beneficialimportant for themauthors to
display their academic
backgroundscredentials in order to establish
reliability for professionals whothe
information that they are reviewing the
paper to seepresenting.
7 Conclusion
In this paper, I stated and analyzed
important literary practices in the discipline
of computer science. The use of figures and
data sets as evidence provides strong, fact-
based arguments for papers in this
discipline. In addition to this, the citation
method of having a related works section
and using footnotes allows for an organized
way of giving readers a deeper
understanding of the sources used to write
the paper. These conventions, as well as
havingin addition to using an abstract and an
overall organized structure, allow for
scholars in the discipline of computer
science to effectively communicate their
ideas and research in order to get their
research published andachieve the
overarching goals of the discipline, which
are to improve the quality of life on Earth by
findingand find solutions to modern
problems using computational power[1].
References
1.UCSB Computer Science,
www.cs.ucsb.edu/about/mission.
2.Wang, T., Qiao, M., Zhu, A., Shan, G., Snoussi, H.
(2020). Abnormal event detection via the analysis of
multi-frame optical flow information. Frontiers of
Computer Science, 14(2), 304-313.
3.Tsiouris, K. M., Pezoulas, V. C., Zervakis, M.,
Konitsiotis, S., Koutsouris, D. D., Fotiadis, D. I.,
(2018). A Long Short-Term Memory deep learning
network for the prediction ofepileptic seizures using
EEG signals. Computers in Biology and Medicine,
99, 24-37.
4.Z. Ning et al., "Joint Computing and Caching in
5G-Envisioned Internet of Vehicles: A Deep
Reinforcement Learning-Based Traffic Control
System," in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent
Transportation Systems.

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two Column Format. Why do many research papers
use two-column format?. Retrieved from
https://academicwritingpro.com/blog/why-do-many-
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