Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Who is the readership? How deep or thorough will the background need to be to
ensure that the readers fully appreciate the work?
Do you and your co-authors have an agreed methodology for sharing the work of
completing the write-up?
Are the roles of the participants clear? What are your responsibilities? What activ-
ities will the others undertake?
Regarding
how the write-up is organized and presented
,
What form will your write-up take? What other paper or thesis should your write-
up resemble?
Are youwriting to awell-defined structure and organization?What are the sections,
and how do they relate to each other?
Do the title, abstract, and introduction appropriately set the context for the work?
Have you identified a structure for the argument? A format for the results?
Have you established a connection between the question, background, methods,
and results? That is, have you identified the shape that the narrative will take?
Is there anything unusual about the organization of the write-up, and, if so, is there
a reason for this organization and how will it be explained to the reader?
If you are writing a paper, are you working to defined length limits or a specified
format?
If you are writing a thesis, are there formatting requirements?
Regarding
your approach to the work
,
Are you maintaining a log and notebook?
Do you work to an explicit schedule with dates and targets?
Do the deadlines leave enough time for your advisor to provide feedback on your
drafts, or for your colleagues to contribute to the material?
Do you have an effective approach to writing that lets you quickly generate text?
How are results being selected for presentation? How do these results relate to
your original aims? How do the selected results relate to the complete body of
evidence you are gathering?
Have the results been critically analyzed?
In a thesis with multiple contributions, are they explicitly linked by an overarching
goal?
For a thesis, do you know how it will be examined? How is that knowledge shaping
your writing?
