Chapter 3: “Writing” Written Presentations, Writing Papers Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2004 No...
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Transcript of Chapter 3: “Writing” Written Presentations, Writing Papers Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2004 No...
Chapter 3: “Writing”
Written Presentations, Writing Papers
Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2004
No parts of this file may be copied or stored without written permission.
Chapter 2: “Speaking”
Oral Presentations, Giving Talks
Contents:
• The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
• The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
• Structure of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
Situations for Presentations:
• a seminar paper with talk
• an interview at a company
• explaining your parents what you are doing
• a master’s thesis
• a paper for a journal
• a paper for a conference with talk
• writing a proposal for a fellowship
• meeting a politician
• a radio interview
The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
Presen-tation
Lotsof Work
LittleWork
• Reading (listening) should be less work than re-invention.
• Good work is lost by bad presentation.
• Bad presentation is also bad for the author: The readers will prefer to re-invent rather than to read!
The Golden Rule for Presentations:
Spend your time as an author for saving the time of the reader!
The Myth on Mathematical Intelligence:
“He has got the right ideabut he is just not able to express it.”
Contents:
The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
• The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
• Structur of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities
The Parameters on which Presentations Depend
A Common Misunderstanding:
A “topic”
The presentation
oral / written
Rather:
A “Topic”
The presentation
The addressees
Sizeconstraints
Chosenmedia
Also: The Process of Presentation is a Spiral
The presentation
A “topic”
Also: The Presentation Spiral is the Crucial Method of Research
A “topic”
“Ideas do not come from Kami but from Kami”
Some Consequences:
Never give the same talk twice!
Don’t present a paper by presenting the paper!
Much of your writing is only for yourself.
Rather:
A “topic”
The presentation
The addressees
Sizeconstraints
Chosenmedia
- contents (the “topic”)- goals- point of emphasis
- profession- training- motivation- age- relationship
- no media- paper- blackboard- slides- interactive media
- space- time
Some Consequences:
Learn to express one content for
• many different addressees
• using arbitrary media
• under arbitrary constraints
Force yourself to adjust to the addressee,don’t force the addressee to adjust to you.
Goals:
• Goal /= “topic”
• Same topic, different goals different presentation !
• Goals should be “operational”.
• Clear goals are the best motivation for the addressees.
An operational specification of a goal:
• Describes the operation the reader / listener should be able to perform after reading / hearing the presentation.
• Non-operational: The reader should “understand”.
• Of course, all this has to be taken “cum grano salis” !!
Example: Paper by T.Kutsia on “Equations … with Sequence Variables”
• The “topic” is clear.
• However, many different operational goals possible: The reader should be able
– to explain the main idea in examples write a “tutorial”
– to develop all details of the algorithm so that he can program it write a “program specification”
– to fill in all the details of the proofwrite a “mathematical foundations paper”
– to use the program and apply it as a black boxwrite a “user’s manual”
– to change the program write a “documentation”
Exercise: What are (should be / could be) the operational goals behind Kutsia’ paper?
The point(s) of emphasis:
• One or very few points of emphasis.
• Should be clear to the author, should be clear to the addressee.
• Napoleon: “Only chase one rabbit at a time!”
Exercise: What is (should be / could be) the point of emphasis in Kutsia’s paper?
Contents:
The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
• Structur of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
The Structure of Presentations
• Some structural considerations are common to oral and written presentations (talks and papers).
• Some other structural considerations depend on the “media” used.
Three psychologic facts behind the art of presentation:
- Good motivation facilitates understanding.
- Well associated contents can more easily be kept in brain.
- Consecutive learning blocks may disturb each other.
As a consequence, the following “presentation curve” is fundamental.
Motivation Presentation Association
Problem
Beyond the capabilities of addressee !
Solution Method Solution
Now withinthe capabilities of addressee!
The most natural wayof presenting mathematics:
For many mathematical papers and talks,a well chosen example can / should be the center of the paper.
The basic rule for good examples:
- as simple as possible
- as complicated as necessary.
This rule also applies to everything else in mathematics:drawings, definitions, proofs, algorithms, …
Set(operational)goal
Work hard Enjoy
The presentation curve is a fractal:
- an entire study- an entire course- a lecture- part of a lecture
Don’t do this:
Another rule for presentations:
The complete contents should be presented
in a couple of rounds of increasing detail.
• in the title • in the abstract • in the introduction• in the technical part for the “user”• in the technical part for the “developer”• (in the conclusions for those who have read the paper)
Note: the addressee changes in the different parts of a paper!
A typical structure of papers:
• Title• Author, affiliation, bibliographic data• Abstract
• Introduction / literature review
• Technical part for the “users”• Technical part for the “developers”
• Conclusion
• References• Appendices
Title:
A good structure: according to
problem type, data type, method type.
data types
method types
problem types
EQUATIONS
BOOLEAN ALGEBRAS
ELIMINATION
SOLUTION OF BOOLEAN EQUATIONSBY ELIMINATION
Mathematics asa 3-D space
Author, Affiliation, Bibliographic Information:
• Should enable the reader to get in contact with the author.
• Should enable the reader to cite the paper or to search for citations.
Abstract:
• Note that the addressees are readers who do not have the paper!
Introduction / Literature Review:
• The place for motivation!
• The place for the main example!
• The place that convinces the referees about
– scope– clarity– importance– difficulty (non-triviality)– originality (difference to other work, “statement of originality”– completeness of literature survey– presentation
• The place for “reading instructions”
The Technical Parts of the Paper:
– The main prerequisite is thorough mastery of the formal aspect of the mathematical methodology, see Chapter “Thinking”.
– Only things that are correct can also be presented well!
– If one masters the formal aspect of mathematics then one can play with “styles” in dependence of the input parameters of the presentation.
Differences between the structure of papers and talks:
• Talks: Interaction with the addressees possible and desirable.
• Talks: A variety of different media is avaiable (blackboards, data projector, speech)
• Talks: Proceed in real-time (with the same speed for all people in the audience)
• Talks need an extra written preparation, which is different from the paper!
Written Preparation for a Talk:
Goal
Psycho Technicalities
The actual text of the presentation
……………...
M
P
A
P
A
Media Time
Blackbd.
DataProj.
Exercise:
• Analyze the structure of Kutsia’s paper.
Contents:
The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
Structur of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
Technicalities
Technicalities of Talks: see lecture notes.
- Blackboards and slides:
- On slides we “present” facts. (Don’t overload!)
- On blackboards we develop ideas.
Technicalities of Writing Papers:
• The interplay between text and formulae: syntactical correctness!
• Easy readability.
• Uniformity in style.
Some Difficulties in English:
• The use of passive, “one”, “we”, “I”.
• “which” and “that”
• “don’t” and “do not”, “it’s” and “its”.
• “the”, “a”, “an” and “ “: The have logical meaning!
“a” …. “existential quantifier”
“the” … instead of a constant
(Advice: collect 100 sample phrases from good papers!)
• British and American English.
Contents:
The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
Structur of Written and Oral Presentations
Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
Exercise:
• Choose (a very limited) topic and prepare 5 versions of a paper and a talk on the topic in dependence on various settings of the “input parameters” for the presentation.
Conclusion (Points of Emphasis of this Lecture)
• The dependence of presentations on the input parameters:
A “Topic”
The presentation
The addressees
Sizeconstraints
Chosenmedia
• The “presentation curve”:
• Formal mastery of mathematics is the basis for good style.
Another Summary:The 5 aspects and criteria for good talks and papers
• „Facto“ (math / comp scie contents): goal oriented
• „ Logo“: mastering the logical aspect of math / comp scie
• „ Socio“: directed to a particular audience / readership
• „ Psycho“: respecting the psychologic fact of learning
• „Techno“: the technicalities of talks and papers