Three Unexpected Tips for Writing Better Technical Papers

Writing a technical paper is difficult. If you are in the middle of writing one now, hang in there. Seeing it published brings a tremendous sense of accomplishment. The internet is full of tips for how to get started writing a technical paper. Many of those are great. Follow them. In this article, I share three tips for refining your writing that you won’t find anywhere else, but that I am sure will make your writing more readable and trustworthy.

Some background

I have reviewed and edited hundreds of technical papers as an associate editor and expert reviewer for top-tier technical journals. I have also seen more than 150 of my own technical papers evolve from their first words to their final published form.

Published papers pass through many – many – iterations before their final version is complete. The process of evolving a paper is not easy. Aside from the obvious difficulty of discovering/developing something novel worth publishing, there are two major structural challenges associated with getting the right words well-situated on the paper. They are (i) outline-level challenges, and (ii) paragraph-level challenges.

Outline-Level Tips

There are a plethora of outline-level tips and guidelines online for writing technical papers. Do a Google or YouTube search for ‘how to write a technical paper’ and you’ll see what I mean. For example, start with a research question worth answering [1]. Once you have that, break down the paper structure into its expected pieces [2] and begin fleshing them out:

1. Paper Title

2. The Abstract

3. The Introduction

4. Review of Related Work

5. The Theoretical Development/Contribution

6. Performance Experiments

7. The Conclusions

8. Future Work

9. References

These kinds of outline-level tips are especially helpful if you have not yet written a technical paper, and are unsure of what is expected.

Paragraph-Level Tips

Once you have a good research question and the basic structure of a paper, you’ll find yourself at the critical role of writing the manuscript – getting the right words well-situated on the paper. There are various reasons why this is not easy, which are often complicated when dealing with multiple co-author style preferences and expectations. To produce readable, trustworthy writing that will minimize coauthor/editor/reader frustration with your writing follow this tip:

While editing your own work, ask yourself these questions about every sentence and every paragraph you’ve written:

1. Is it true?

2. Is it logical?

3. Is it eloquent?

Edit your writing so that each question is answered affirmatively. This will make the reader’s job easier, and will expand the audience of people willing to engage in your writing and benefit from your work.

It’s worth saying that these three questions emerged as themes after I had read dozens of paper manuscripts and found my editorial comments centered almost exclusively on deficiencies in the manuscript relative to these three questions.

Is it true?

After you write a sentence, ask yourself if it is true. All the way true. Precise and specific. If it is not 100% true, rewrite it so that it is. If it cannot be stated as a truth, make sure it is clear that it is your own opinion, feeling, or belief. Understand, however, that technical papers rarely tolerate more than subtle amount of unsubstantiated opinion, feeling, or belief. Such work is an editorial, not a technical paper. Editorials have their place, but technical papers are not editorials. If even one part of your writing is untrue, readers will be less likely to trust the true things that you have written in the paper.

Is it logical?

After you write a sentence, you should ask yourself if it is logical, meaning is it logically ordered? Has the proper information been given in the preceding sentences to be able to clearly understand the present sentence? Did the sentences before it naturally lead to the present sentence, and does the present sentence lead to the next sentence appropriately?  

Be careful with words such as this, that, they, those, and the like. They can sometimes leave the reader not quite knowing what you are referring to. Make sure when they are used, they cannot be confused for anything else. Generally accept that if your writing can be misinterpreted, it will be misinterpreted. If it is not logical, the reader will not be able to piece together your message without excessive work.

Is it eloquent?

After you write a sentence or paragraph, ask yourself if it is eloquent, meaning is it fluent and persuasive. When people read your paper, they want to discover the cadence of your words. Once they find it, they expect that cadence to be present throughout. If they can easily pick up on your cadence, your paper will have a fluency that makes your paper easier to read.

To be more eloquent, write a paragraph and read it aloud and improve the cadence. After you believe the cadence is good, have someone else read it aloud to you. Wherever they stumble, hesitate, or pause to have their brain catch up, you’ll know the cadence/eloquence of your paper can be improved in that area.

It helps to avoid unnecessarily long sentences, or paragraphs. Don’t use the same word or a derivative of it twice in the same sentence, this is awkward. Be thoughtful in the use of abbreviations and acronyms. Those are likely very familiar to you thus making the reading seamless in your own mind, but difficult for someone who has to continuously translate your abbreviations into actual words while reading.

Closing

After you have done good technical work such as discovering something new, or developing a new technology, your goal in a technical paper is to share those findings with other people. People who begin reading your work will most likely consume the entire paper if what you have written is true and factual, and if it is easy to read. Of all the paragraph-level refinements that could be done to improve a manuscript, my experience is that asking those three questions will produce the greatest results: is it true, is it logical, and is it eloquent?

References:

[1] S. McCombes, “Developing Strong Research Questions; Criteria and Examples,” Scribbr, March 2021, https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/research-questions/, accessed 21 Feb 2022.

[2] J. Widom, “Tips for Writing Technical Papers,” Stanford University, 2006, https://cs.stanford.edu/people/widom/paper-writing.html, accessed 21 Feb 2022.