Notes on Scientifc Writing and Presentation
Identifying Venues
- Software engineering conferences in the CORE Ranking
Writing
Overall guidelines
- How to Write a Great Research Paper by Simon Peyton Jones: Video, Presentation slides
- Comments by Prof. Eelco Visser.
- How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily by Michael A. Covington
Style guidelines and tools
- APA Style
- Chicago Manual of Style
- Elements of Style
- Merriam Webster Dictionary
- The Hemingway Tool can help writing less complicated sentences
Figures
- Illustrations are suitable for b/w printing
- No undesired oblique lines
- ISW template used
- Captions: in complete sentences end with period, in incomplete sentences end without period
- Captions use Sentence style
Abbreviations
- All abbreviations introduced
- Only abbreviations introduced that have been used at least five times
- The full form is written in lower case in most cases:
- For instance “transmission-control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP)” is correct
Phrasing and wording
- Correct use of “enable” and “allow”:
- Semantically: allow vs enable
- Grammatically
Spelling
- Consistently used american english?
- Capitalization correct and consistent
- Capitalize proper nouns only
- Oxford comma used consistently
- Proper dashes used
- Correct hyphens used
- Captions use Heading Style
Numbering
- Numbers between 0 and 10 represented as proper number words
- Words used with index numbers (e.g., “Section 1”, “Figure 2”, “Table 3”) are captitalized
Latex
- Use \autoref{} instead of \ref{} consistently
Reviewing
Academic Presenting
ICSE 2919 Presentation 101 Guidelines in a Nutshell
- No bullet pointing
- Few nesting levels only
- No weird color schemes
- No powerpoint default template
- Don’t put things on the slide that no sane person understands in a few seconds
- No font craze
- Communication message is 38% in voice, tone; 55% in body language; 7% in spoken word when it comes to people liking each other. Not the same for presentations.
- Form without content is meaningless; content without form goes unnoticed
- A good presentation goes under; a decent presentation is decent; a good presentation can change your life
- Tailor to your audience!
- Respect the golden ratio in your layout
- 80% of your material will be on 20% of your slides
- Aesthetic-Usability effect: „if it looks cool, it’s easier to use”
- Alignment! Creates an sense of unity and cohesion, leads to invisible cues to aid understanding
- Gestalt principles: preference for simplify over complexity, pattern over randomness
- Ockham’s Razor: Remove unneccessary stuff: page numbers, title, name, university logo
- Use Grid lines & powerpoints. Rule of thirds. Ca. golden ratio
- Serial positon effect improves recall: first list item (primacy), last item (recency)
- Good fonts: Helvetica Neue, Calibri, Gill Sans Light, Menlo, Optima, Times New Roman Italic, Frutiger, Fira Sans, Proxima Nova Condensed.
- Design principles are CRAP: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity.
- You can make your slides detailed, or you can make them effective. Not all details are important, because not all of them will fit anyway, so be as effective as possible
- Giving presentations at academic conferences is mostly about selling yourself. This is the main thing that matters. Stand out. Make yourself be remembered. This is what you want to reach
Researcher
- Guide2Research Ranking for Computer Science in Germany
Selected German Software Engineering Researchers
- Sven Apel - Universität des Saarlandes
- Uwe Aßmann - Dresden
- Manfred Broy - TUM
- Jürgen Ebert - Universität Koblenz-Landau
- Gregor Engels - Universität Paderborn
- Peter Fettke - DFKI - Universität des Saarlandes
- Holger Giese - Hasso Plattner Universität Potsdam
- Sabine Glesner - TU Berlin
- Lars Grunske - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Wilhelm Hasselbring - Universität Kiel
- Jan Jürjens - Universität Koblenz-Landau
- Rainer Koschke - Universität Bremen
- Agnes Koschmider - Universität Kiel
- Anne Koziolek - KIT
- Daniel Méndez - TU München
- Barbara Paech - Universität Heidelberg
- Klaus Pohl - Universität Duisburg-Essen
- Anne Remke - Universität Münster
- Matthias Riebisch - Hamburg
- Gunter Saake - Universität Magdeburg
- Stefan Sauer - Software Innovation Campus Paderborn
- Ina Schaefer - TU Braunschweig
- Ina Schieferdecker - Freie Universität Berlin
- Klaus Schmid - Universität Hildesheim
- Andy Schürr - TU Darmstadt
- Gabriele Taentzer - Philipps-Universität Marburg
- Bernhard Thalheim - Universität Kiel
- Matthias Tichy - Universität Ulm
- Stefan Wagner - Universität Stuttgart
- Heinz Züllighoven - Universität Hamburg