How to Write A Technical Paper.

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Technical Paper

General
Great technical papers contain important information and are well written. Both are
equally important. Seek to tell an important story that others can learn from.

The essence of engineering is the application of theory to produce tangible results. When
technical papers contain both theory and measured results, and show how the theory and
results are new and can be broadly applied, the paper should generally be submitted to an
archival peer-reviewed journal for publication. Papers that contain only theory (including
simulation) or only results (including experimentation results) should generally be
submitted to a peer-reviewed conference for publication. An excellent procedure is to
submit partial work to peer-reviewed conferences to receive feedback and sharpen the
clarity of presentation, and then submit the full body of work to a peer-reviewed journal.

Strive to write with exceptional clarity and conciseness. Include sufficient information so
that your methodology is clearly understood and your results demonstrate and support
your argument. At the same time, remove every extraneous or repetitive word. The
paper should be so concise, that no word, table or figure could be removed without losing
important information or changing the intended meaning.

Spend time developing data graphics that convey important results and show
relationships between multiple variables. Remove all extraneous information from the
graphics and construct the graphic so that no information is lost when reproduced in
black and white. Refer to all tables and figures by number in the text before the figure or
table appears in the paper. Label figures and tables sequentially, using the following
format.

Figure 1. Figure title. Additional information to enhance interpretation.

Format
The format for a technical paper is:

Title
Author(s)
Affiliation(s)
Abstract
Introduction
Methodology
Results
Summary, Conclusion and Future Work
References
Acknowledgements

Title
Challenge yourself to find the most concise and accurate title possible.
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Author(s)
Include everyone who made a significant contribution to the work as an author.
List authors in descending levels of contribution to the work. First author makes final
decisions regarding editing.

Affiliation(s)
List the affiliation of each author. If multiple authors have the same affiliation, list that
affiliation only once. If the authors are from academia, list academic department,
university, city of university and state of university. If the authors are from outside
academia, use an analogous affiliation such as group, company, city and state.

Abstract
The abstract should be the last section written. Try to include key words that would help
identify the paper to search engines that search abstracts for key words. The abstract
should be no longer than 250 words. In general, use one sentence to summarize the
introduction, four sentences to summarize the methodology and results, and one sentence
to summarize the significance of the findings.

Introduction
The introduction begins broadly and funnels down to the transition to the rest of the
paper. It begins by identifying an important problem in society. Next it frames the
question analyzed in the paper. Next it summarizes previous work and describes why
this research is different from previous work; this is a brief literature review. Finally, it
summarizes exactly what will follow in the paper; generally using one sentence to
summarize each of the sections that follow.

Methodology
Methodology is exceedingly important. No one cares about your results until they clearly
understand your methodology. The methodology section frequently contains a series of
numbered equations containing variables. Define all variables. Do not use numeric
values, numeric examples or include results in this section. Do not repeat equations; refer
to equations by equation number. List all assumptions. Identify the limitations of the
methodology. Use as many sections and subsections as needed to organize the
methodology.

Results
Apply the methodology to generate numeric results. If measured data are available,
compare the numeric results to measured results. Comment on agreement between
theoretical and measured results.

Summary, Conclusion and Future Work
The summary, conclusion and future work are all different and are all important. First
summarize the paper. The summary should be similar to the last section of the
Introduction, but should usually contain important numeric results Next, state explicitly
what the reader should conclude from the work. Describe how the work should be
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interpreted and why it is important. Do not assume that the reader will figure this out on
his/her own. Finally, describe what steps you would take to improve the work.

References


Acknowledgements
Acknowledge all contributors to and supporters of the work.


Filenames and Peer Review
Make sure draft version is within the page length requirements. Dont submit a paper
which will have to be shortened in the future. Name the draft version title_draft.doc.
Make sure the draft document has page numbers so reviewers can clearly indicate where
to make changes. Save the file and submit it for review. Clear your directory of previous
versions of the paper so you can clearly identify the version you sent to the editor.

Treat review comments with great respect. Reviewers are generally experts in the field.
Collect all reviewer comments into a MS Word Document. After each reviewer
comment that suggests a change, make an entry entitled Author Response: and state
how and where you revised the paper to respond to the reviewers suggestions. If you
absolutely dont agree with a reviewers suggestion, courteously explain your reason for
not revising the paper in accordance with the reviewers suggestion. Name this document
Authors Response to Reviewers Comments and return it to the editor with your revised
paper.

Before revising the paper, rename the paper title_revision1.doc. Send
title_revision1.doc to editor with revisions. If paper is accepted, rename this file
title_final.doc.