The presentation offers an insight into the systematic procedure to be followed for writing a technical paper.

1. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Writing Technical Paper
Dr. Krishna Chandramouli,
Associate Professor,
Division of Enterprise and Cloud Computing,
School of Information Technology and Engineering,
VIT University
Ph. No: +91 99435 16621
Email: krishna.c@vit.ac.in

2. Session Objectives
Agenda
Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014

3. Agenda
Conference
Technical Writing
Essentials of Communications
English vs Academic English
Documentation
Tools for Technical Writing
MS Word
LaTEX
Conclusion

4. Conference
Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014

5. Conference
A conference is a meeting of people who "confer" about a topic.
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers
(not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their work.
Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an
important channel for exchange of information between researchers.

6. Conference
Conferences are usually composed of various presentations.
They tend to be short and concise, with a time span of about 10 to 30
minutes; presentations are usually followed by a discussion.
The work may be bundled in written form as academic papers and
published as the conference proceedings.

7. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Technical Writing

8. Technical Writing
Overview of technical Writing
Supporting Pillars
Knowledge vs Skill
Problem definition/identification
Hypothesis formulation
Implementation
Result Analysis

9. Supporting Pillars
Supported by strong
mathematics

10. Knowledge vs Skill
Two words that describe a person’s competence “knowledge and skill”
Knowledge refers to learning concepts, principles and information regarding
a particular subject(s) by a person through books, media, encyclopedias,
academic institutions and other sources
Skill refers to the ability of using that information and applying it in a context.
In other words, knowledge refers to theory and skill refers to successfully
applying that theory in practice and getting expected results.

11. Knowledge vs Skill
Knowledge is intangible but skills can be made tangible by applying
those skills to a context and getting the desired result
Theoretical knowledge can be shared with other people. Some skills can
never be transferred to other people.

12. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Problem Definition/Identification
Research by Definition
The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order
to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
Research and experimental development (R&D) comprise creative work
undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of
knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of
this stock of knowledge to devise new applications*
A research problem is an issue or a concern that an investigator
presents and justifies in a research study

13. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Problem Definition/Identification
A problem that someone would like to research
Anything that a person find unsatisfactory or unsettling, a difficulty of some sort, a
state of affairs that needs to be changed
A problem involves areas of concern to researchers, for condition they want to
improve, difficulties they want to eliminate, questions for which they want to seek
answers
How to identify a Research Problem
Search for a problem
Read more about your problem
Take notes or keep research journal
Seek professional advice
Keep the topic interesting

14. Look for inspiration from everyday problems
Any potential problem is solvable
Innovative solutions doesn’t mean complicated, make things simple
Contribution – the key word in publications
Domain selection of the project with long-term vision is advisable
Potential Problems the world will address in future
http://vimeo.com/14968828
http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/11/07/virtual-reality-allows-users-to-face-up?
videoId=221253667
Many many more…
26-08-2014
Problem Definition/Identification

15. Nothing new under the sun
Get hands on experience on tools/libraries for a particular domain
Never stop with using API’s
Find a fault in existing products/solutions
Ask yourself, how can my life be better?
What can I do to make it better?
26-08-2014
Problem Definition/Identification

16. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Hypothesis Formulation
For the chosen problem, hypothesize a solution.
The hypothesize could range from an application of a mathematical
concept to the usage of existing functions altered.
Hypotheses are testable explanations of a problem, phenomenon, or
observation.
From your reading, which may include articles, books and/or cases, you
should gain sufficient information about your topic that will enable you to
narrow or limit it and express it as a research question.

17. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Hypothesis Formulation
The research question flows from the topic that you are considering. The
research question, when stated as one sentence, is your Research
Hypothesis
Be sure to read on the topic to familiarize yourself with it before making
a final decision
Be sure that each term in your hypothesis is clearly understood and
defined

18. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Implementation
The previous steps mentioned involved the use of “knowledge”
Implementation or hypothesis testing relates to the execution of ideas to
solve the problem identified.
This stage involves translation of knowledge into skill with the help of
software development.
The implementation stage evaluates the hypothesis and offers an insight
into the effectiveness of the solution.

19. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Implementation
Project
An individual or collaborative enterprise planned and designed to achieve an aim.
A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative
enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to
achieve a particular aim.
Domain Expertise vs SDK Usage
Speech Processing
HD Video Processing
Search Engine (Ranking/Indexing Algorithms)
Database connectivity
Networking
Statistical Data Analysis

20. Implementation Characteristics
Robustness
Misguided – One solution fits all
Evaluation of the implementation
Benchmarking the prototype
Global events in the area of Multimedia and Computer Vision
TRECVid
MediaEval
ImageCLEF
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Implementation

21. Popular Open-source Software
FFMPEG
OpenRDF Sesame
Apache Solr
Apache Cassandra/MongoDB
OpenCV
ImageMagick
R Statistical Tool
26-08-2014
Implementation

22. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Result Analysis
The outcome of implementation phase leads to the result analysis stage.
To obtain quantitative results, use standard datasets relevant to the
problem.
Compare the results with the literature survey.
Use graphs and standard metrics to present comparison
Write critical analysis on the performance of the results (for both
good/bad results)

23. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Essentials for Communication

24. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Types of Writing
Class tutorials (slides/materials)
Course curriculum
Reports
Project related
Research oriented

25. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Research Oriented
Workshops
Special Sessions
Conference
Journals
Invited Paper
Bottom-up approach to writing!!

26. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Elements of Research Publications
Title
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Literature Review
Proposed Framework (or contribution)
Technical contribution (algorithms)
Evaluation and analysis
Conclusion and Framework

27. 26-08-2014
Academic Writing and Plagiarism

28. 26-08-2014
Academic Writing and Plagiarism

29. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Keywords to highlight contribution
Judicious use of Adjectives
Examples: innovative, novel, new, discover
Evaluation: performance enhancement, outperform, etc

30. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Structure of Introduction
The big idea, the problem statement, the fact
Key reference to the problem from recent past
Penultimate paragraph – “In this paper […]”
Last paragraph – “The remainder of the paper is organised as […]”

31. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Citations and References
Why
What
How

32. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Plagiarism
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th Ed.) defines
plagiarism as "a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is
presented as being your own work"
The American Heritage Dictionary (2nd College Ed.) defines plagiarize as "to
take and use as one's own the writings or ideas of another"
IEEE defines plagiarism as the reuse of someone else's prior ideas, processes,
results, or words without explicitly acknowledging the original author and
source
It should also be noted that certain corrective actions might apply to the un-credited
reuse of someone else's ideas

33. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Level One pertains to the un-credited verbatim copying of a full paper, or the
verbatim copying of a major portion (> 50%), or verbatim copying within more than
one paper by the same author
Level Two pertains to the un-credited verbatim copying of large portion (between 20
and 50%) or verbatim copying within more than one paper by the same author.
Level Three pertains to the un-credited verbatim copying of individual elements
(Paragraph, Sentence, Illustration, etc.) resulting in a significant portion (up to 20%)
within a paper
Level Four pertains to un-credited improper paraphrasing of pages or paragraphs
Level Five pertains to the credited verbatim copying of a major portion of a paper
without clear delineation (e.g., quotes or indents)

34. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Plagiarism – ACM Code of Conduct
Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of
another author's paper
Copying elements of another author's paper, such as equations or illustrations
that are not common knowledge, or copying or purposely paraphrasing
sentences without citing the source
Verbatim copying of portions of another author's paper with citing but not
clearly differentiating what text has been copied (e.g., not applying quotation
marks correctly) and/or not citing the source correctly

35. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Why It’s Not Okay To plagiarize
The person who is plagiarizing is stealing intellectual property that rightfully
belongs to someone else and passing it off as his or her own
Yes, it is as bad as that!!!

36. Academic Writing and Plagiarism
Demystify Plagiarism
Refer to the author and give appropriate credit
Distinguish technical contribution from the literature and proposed contribution
Citations are good and is often a criteria for evaluation

37. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Tools for Technical Writing

38. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
MS - Word
A simple and effective tool if used effectively.
Learn the use of different tabs
Stick with the template offered.
Take care in writing equations, use equation editor

39. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
LaTEX
A professional environment for writing papers
Used popularly among researchers
Offers high-quality reproducability

40. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Conclusion & Take Away Message

41. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014
Conclusion
Paper publication is integral to academic quality
Exchange of information is welcomed by academic community
Certifies your knowledge in the chosen field.
Acts as a benchmark for your skill.

42. Writing Technical Paper 26/08/2014

43. References
http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-knowledge-
and-skill/
http://www.units.miamioh.edu/aisorg/syllabi/tayler4.pdf