Course pages 2014–15
Writing
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The notes relating to the writing lectures are Chapters 2, 3, 8 and 9 of Writing for Computer Science.
Lecture 4 (Writing 1)
In preparation for this lecture, please read Chapter 2 of the course textbook and watch the first two of the videos listed below.Lecture 5 (Writing 2)
In preparation for this lecture, please read Chapter 3 of the course textbook and watch the third and fourth of the videos listed below.Lecture 6 (Writing 3)
In preparation for this lecture, please read Chapters 8 and 9 of the course textbook.Lecture 7 (Writing 4)
This is a guest lecture by Prof. Simon Peyton Jones from Microsoft Research Cambridge.
Videos of the 2012 lectures
You can view
the 2012 versions of the lectures on the University of Cambridge
streaming media service:
Who are you writing for? Writing style. (40 minutes).
Finishing the discussion in the previous video, then looking at how to avoid over-qualification, over-emphasis, pretension, pomposity, and obfuscation (20 minutes).
Two ways to write the first draft of a document. Advice on editing and advice on getting other people to comment on your document. (12 minutes).
Authorship (and acknowledgements) (6 minutes). Who should be an author on your paper?
Professor Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, gives a guest lecture on writing (35 minutes). Seven simple suggestions: don't wait - write, identify your key idea, tell a story, nail your contributions, put related work at the end, put your readers first, listen to your readers.
Resources
These resources give a variety of views on the writing process.
- Prof Peyton Jones' notes are available from his website.
- Rules to Write a Good Research Paper — Daniel Lemire
- How to Read, Write, Present Papers — Nitin Vaidya, Carleton, Canada
- How To Write A Dissertation — Douglas Comer, Purdue University, USA
- Common errors in technical writing — John Owens, AProf in ECS at UCDavis.