Technical Writing and Research Methods (2011, 3 credits)

Instructor: Prof. Shou-de Lin (sdlin@csie.ntu.edu.tw)

Classroom: CSIE 310

Meeting Time: Tu 2:20-5:20 pm (note that this course is for Ph.D. students only)

Office Hour:  Tu after class or by appointment

Guest Lecturer: 
TA & Grader:

Course Description:

This course discussion the principles of composing decent pieces of technical writings and conducting high quality computer science research. We will discussion strategies for different types of writing, including academic papers, presentation slides, resume/CV, statement of purpose, and popular science articles. In addition, advanced knowledge and principles about research will be introduced.

In this course, the students will run through the whole process of researching, which includes the selection of topics, literature review, experiment design and evaluation, technical paper writing and popular science paper writing. The course will lay emphasis more on research and writing than on language. However, students are expected to use English for most of the writing assignments and the lecturer will provide necessary assistance in language when opportunity presents itself. The course will be divided evenly into lecture and discussion sections. The discussion section will focus mainly on improving the writing and research skill of each individual student through editing and commenting on the submitted homework.

The enrollment will be limited to maintain the quality of the discussion and editing, and priority will be given to Ph.D. and higher-level MS students. Students are expected to investigate a decent amount of efforts in learning.

Grading:

 Homework assignments and presentations (100%)

Recommend Readings:

(1) How To Write & Publish a Scientific Paper, Robert Day, 5th Edition, Oryx Press/Greenwood Publishing, ISBN: 1573561657.

(2) Writing for Computer Science, Justin Zobel, 2nd Edition, Springer-Verlag, ISBN: 1852338024

(3) The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, 4th Edition, Pearson Allyn & Bacon/Longman Publishers, ISBN: 0205313426

(4) Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills: A Course for Nonnative Speakers of English. John M. Swales, Christine B. Feak University of Michigan Press/ESL, ISBN: 0472082639

(5) Handbook of Technical Writing, 8th edition Gerald J. Alred (Author), Charles T. Brusaw (Author), Walter E. Oliu (Author) , ISBN: 0312352670

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(6) Graduate Research: A Guide for Students in the Sciences, Robert V. Smith

(7) The Ph.D. process : a student's guide to graduate school in the sciences , Dale F. Bloom, Jonathan D. Karp, Nicholas Cohen

(8) Advice for a Young Investigator, Santiago Ram Ãn y Cajal (Chinese translation ¬ã¨s¬ì¾Çªº²Ä¤@¨B : µ¹¦~»´±´¯ÁªÌªº«Øij)

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Syllabus:

Research Methods	First section (2:20-3:20)	Second section (3:40-5:20)
13-Sep	Introduction	Choosing (research area, topic, advisor...)
20-Sep	literature survey, Proposal Writing	CV writing, Methodology
27-Sep	Discussion: Proposal	¡@
4-Oct	Experiment	Discussion: CV
11-Oct	Discussion: literature	¡@
18-Oct	How to get your paper accepted	¡@
25-Oct	Discussing: Methodology	¡@
Technical Writing	First section (2:20-3:20)	Second section (3:40-5:20)
1-Nov	General tips for paper writing	Paper (Introduction)
8-Nov	Paper (Content, bibliograph,methods)	Editing and reviewing papers (flaw), Ethics
22-Nov	Discussing: Experiment and results	¡@
29-Nov	Paper (Experiment and Results)	Dis: Into
6-Dec	Paper (Abstract and Conclusion)	Dis: Methods
13-Dec	Slides and Presentation	How to get your paper accepted (II)
20-Dec	Statement of Purpose, manual, email	Dis: Experiment
27-Dec	Language Issues	Dis: Conclusions
3-Jan	Final Presentation	¡@