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