Fourteen Steps to a Clearly Written Technical Paperby R. T. Compton, Jr.A technical paper will usually have four sections. The purpose of each of these sections is as follows:Section I: IntroductionThe introduction should do the following: 1. Open up the subject. (The subject will be electromagnetic fields in cylindrical dielectric geometrics, adaptive arrays in packet radio, or whatever.)2. Survey past work relevant to this paper.3. Describe the problem addressed in this paper, and show how this work relates to, or augments, previous work.4. Describe the assumptions made in general terms, and state what results have been obtained. (This gives the reader an initial overview of what problem is addressed in the paper and what has been achieved.)5. Overview the contents of the paper. (“Section II contains our formulation of the problem. Section III contains the experimental data...”)Section II: Formulation of the Problem This section should do three things:1. Define the problem to be considered in detail. Typically this section might begin with something like: “Consider a packet radio system consisting of a single central repeater surrounded by user terminals. Each user transmits packets to the central repeater using a slotted ALOHA protocol [1]. The transmissions from all users are assumed to be on the same frequency...”The discussion should proceed in this way until the problem is completely defined.2. Define all terminology and notation used. Usually the terminology and notation are defined along with the problem itself.3. Develop the equations on which your results will be based and/or describe any experimental systems.Section III: ResultsThis section presents the detailed results you have obtained. If the paper is theoretical, you will probably show curves obtained from your equations. If the paper is experimental, you will be presenting curves showing the measurement results. In order to choose the proper curves to present, you must first be clear what point you are trying to convey to the reader. The curves can then be chosen to illustrate this point. Whether your paper is theoretical or experimental, you must provide a careful interpretation of what your results mean and why they behave as they do.Section IV: ConclusionThis section should summarize what has been accomplished in the paper. Many readers will read only the Introduction andConclusion of your paper. The Conclusionshould be written so they can beunderstood by someone who has not readthe main work of the paper.This is the common format for anengineering paper. Of course, the names ofthe sections may differ slightly from thoseabove, but the purpose of each section willusually be as described. Some papersinclude additional sections or differ fromthe above outline in one way or another.However, the outline just presented is agood starting point for writing a technicalpaper.To write your paper, you should proceedas follows:Step 1: Start by writing a complete firstdraft of your paper, except for theIntroduction and Conclusion. (It is easiestto leave the Introduction and Conclusionuntil after the main body of the paper iswritten.) In writing your paper, keep thefollowing in mind:1. You must always present the big picturefirst and then work towards the details.The other way around will not work. Thisis especially true in the beginning ofSection II, where you are explaining theproblem you are studying.2. If you get stuck and cannot figure outhow to explain something, a useful trick isto imagine that you are telling a very goodfriend what you are working on: just putdown the words as you would say them toyour friend.In writing your first draft, do not worry ifthe wording is not perfect. Polishing thedocument comes later. When you arefinished with your first draft, put it awayfor a couple of days before you begin Step2.Step 2: Make sure the ideas in the paperare in the right order. If not, move blocksof the paper around with your text editoruntil they are. Ask yourself: “Can thereader understand every passage strictlyfrom the material up to that point?” If not,add material or move ideas around. Makesure there are not gaps in your logicalarguments, and make sure you are notimplicitly assuming that the readerunderstands something needed to followyour arguments, even though you have notstated it. The reader probably understandsless than you think.Step 3: Work on the transitions betweenideas. Make sure that at each stage thereader has a roadmap of where he or she isgoing. The reader must be able to see thebig picture. At the beginning of eachsection, make clear to the reader inadvance what the purpose of that sectionwill be and how that section relates to thepreceding material. At the end of eachsection, you may also want to remind thereader that you have now completed whatyou set out to do in that section. Thenpoint out what the purpose of the nextsection will be, and so forth. Theseconnecting statements are calledtransitions. The reader must always beable to see where you are going and whyand how far you have progressed.Step 4: Check each paragraph for unity.Each paragraph should have one mainpoint. Usually the central point of eachparagraph is stated in a topical sentence atthe beginning of the paragraph, but notalways. You should not mix different ideastogether in the same paragraph. If you arehaving trouble getting a certain section ofyour paper to sound right, go through thatsection one paragraph at a time and askyourself what the main point of eachparagraph is. Foggy writing is often due tomixed-up paragraphs.Step 5: Work on the sentences to reducethe fog index. The Fog Index F is definedas F = 0.4(L + P), where L is the averagenumber of words per sentence and P is theaverage number of polysyllables per 100words of text [1]. (A polysyllable is a wordwith three or more syllables.) To evaluatethe Fog Index for your paper, count thenumber of words per sentence and thenumber of polysyllables per 100 words fora representative portion of your paper fiveor six hundred words long. Ideally, youshould strive for a fog index less than 10.In technical writing, it is sometimesdifficult to get the Fog Index below 10, buta Fog Index above 15 is a warning thatyour material will be very hard for a readerto follow.Consider the following examples takenfrom typical office memos. 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We suggest each Division Planning Office set up a file of time cards showing all authorized project numbers. Then all charges should be checked each day before sending time sheets to the Accounting Department.” (3 sentences. 48 words, 5 polysyllables)To reduce the fog index, you must do two things: (1) reduce the length of your sentences (by breaking long sentences into shorter ones), and (2) get rid of as many complicated words as possible (by using simpler words instead).Step 6: Get rid of as many passive verbs as possible. Always check your paper for passive verbs. (“The data were measured and the results were correlated.”) Change as many verbs as possible into the active form. (“We measured the data and correlated the results.”) Using too many passive verbs makes your writing boring. Editor’s comment: At their worst, passive verbs can make writing incomprehensible. The reader always needs to know who is doing what to whom, and a passive verb often obscures both the agent and the recipient of an action. In Ted’s example, the passive form obscures who it was that measured the data and correlated the results.Step 7: Use verbs more than nouns. Do not bury the main action of your sentences in nouns or adjectives. Instead, let the verbs carry the action. Consider these examples:Example: “The annual report produced a disappointed reaction from the sponsor.”Revision: “The annual report disappointed the sponsor.Example: “It is our expectation that we will see radiation pattern improvement when the antenna is elevated.”Revision: “We expect to improve the radiation pattern by elevating the antenna.”Your writing will sound better if you move the action into the verbs.Step 8: Get rid of as many abstract words as possible. Your paper will practically always sound better if you use specific words instead of abstract words. For example, instead of “We determined the conditions for performance improvement,” say “We measured the noise variance necessary to increase the bit error probability by 5 percent.” The problem is that abstract words oftenconvey a different meaning to the readerthan the one you intended.Step 9: Check for consistent use of verbtense. Many technical professionalschange verb tense frequently between thefuture and present tense for no reason. Youshould check that your verb tense isconsistent throughout the paper. Usually itis simplest just to stick to the presenttense: “We present our results in SectionIII,” instead of “We shall present ourresults in Section III.” (Note that thecorrect future tense for the first person (Ior we) is “shall”, not will.”Step 10: Do not use “this” as a pronoun.Avoid sentences such as “This is...” and“This gives...” When “this” is used as apronoun, its antecedent is often missing orpoorly defined, and the resulting writingusually looks amateurish. A typicalexample in engineering writing is, “Byincreasing the impedance, the radiationlevel is increased and the electric fieldbecomes stronger. This means that...”What specifically does “this” refer to?(Moreover, who did the “increasing”?)The solution to this problem is to change“this” to an adjective by inserting asuitable noun. For example, use “Thisresult is...” “This difficulty is due to...” andso forth.Step 11: Check your entire document forsubtle grammatical mistakes. We are nottalking here about elementary grammarproblems. Presumably you do not writeegregious sentences such as “He don’t gotno potatoes.” Rather, the idea is to watchout for more subtle problems, which arevery common in engineering writing [2]Step 12: Polish and polish. Check that thesentence rhythm and timing are pleasing,and that the ideas flow clearly and simply.If some section does not quite sound right,work on it some more. Eventually you willget the right wording. You are looking forsubtle changes that will improve the waythe paper “flows.” The main tools youshould use for thisstep are: (1) reducing the Fog Index byshortening sentences and eliminating bigwords, as discussed in Step 5, and (2)checking each paragraph to make sure ithas one main point, as described in Step 4.You will get better at this step over time,as you develop a “feel” for clear writing.Step 13: Write the Conclusion. ThisConclusion section should simplysummarize for the reader what has beenpresented in the paper.Step 14: Write the Introduction. TheIntroduction is frequently the hardest partof the paper to write. It must be smoothlywritten. The Introduction should addresseach of the items mentioned in the outlineon Page 1. Moreover, the points discussedin Steps 1-13 should all be used to polishyour Introduction until it is as smooth aspossible.NotesThe Fog Index was first suggested by Mr.Robert Gunning, an early advocate of clearwriting. According to him, the factor 0.4 inthe definition makes the Fog Indexcorrespond approximately to the numberof years of education a reader must have toread a document easily.Reprinted by IEEE Circuits & DevicesMagazine, September, 1992。
