Paper, How to write
Karem Rodriguez
This guide is in English because it is intented for you to use in the future as well.
GENERAL GUIDANCE
Organization of your project
I recommend the Scopus, you can access from the
Mario Carvajal data basis: electronic books, journals and
reviews, using the remote access link (red arrow). You
can also use apps.webofknowledge.com but you need
to go to the virtual Library anyway in order to download
the papers.
You can find all the papers by a given author, identify
highly cited papers, find recent works that cite a founda-
tion paper, and find related references (these cite the
same papers as a given paper, and thus are probably on
the same topic.). Google Scholar offers some of this as
well.
On the other hand if there is no access to a given review
or journal, you can find the online-free version in the
arXive arxiv.org.
Study your basic references early, and dont commit
yourself to an over ambitious scope. Anticipate the un-
planned needing to reduce the scope of the paper, figure
out something difficult, or locate additional references
which is awkward to do on the last possible night.
Large scale organization:
What are the one or two interesting results to make
the goals of your paper: question(s) you want to decide/
quantities you want to calculate? Find the path of rea-
soning which leads up to these results. Cut out the rest,
or move it to an appendix.
Small scale organization
Some bad writing just sounds awkward, but I am most
concerned about bad writing which obscures the mean-
ing. The commonest way this occurs is the loose an-
tecedent. Remember that your readers, ignorant of the
big picture, may be thrown off track if they are unable
to identify what a sentence was talking about. These
omissions, most often, are more subtle than violations
of a grammatical rule: many words common in scientific
writing denote relations between two ideas, but (in En-
glish) carry no grammar rule that forces you to specify
both ideas. Examples which can be ambiguous:
higher order terms
Higher order when expanding in what variable?
The approximation gives excellent agreement with
experiment.
Which predicted quantity agrees with which mea-
sured one?
degenerate
Degenerate with respect to which Hamiltonian?
evidence of nonlinear behavior at the phase
boundary
What is nonlinear as a function of what?
The X is symmetrical.
What about the X is invariant under what symme-
try operations?
Use of Also at the beginning of sentences suggests
that you havent thought out the relation of the
previous sentence to this one. Maybe you mean
one of these:
because, consequently, on the other hand,
for example, in fact, however.
For more sensitivity training about writing, seach in
google, you will find several tools that help you to im-
prove your writing skills.
MODELS
The best model Ive found is the Colloquia section
in Reviews of Modern Physics. The longer expository ar-
ticles in Physics Today can also serve as decent models,
and they are at about the right level. The amount of ma-
terial that could be covered in an hour or two of lecturing
is about right for this length. But your writing should
be a bit more like a review paper in paying attention to
the references.
CRITERIA FOR GRADING
Difficulty of topic
How ambitious is it in what it is trying to explain? Is
it a topic not covered in course? Are well-written expo-
sitions available in books?
 2

Depth and content rienced with wordprocessing and arent experienced at

writing papers, I would advise against learning both at
Does the paper say the most important things about the same time.
this topic? Does it innecessary for understanding the way
to the main results? I would suggest just typing the paper first, paing all
Does it have detail: some physical reasoning, some sim- the atention in the wordprocessing part.
ple explanations of why something happens?
Then, you can concentrate in the form so you can use
Give facts and equations, dont just talk about how
a given template using LaTEX.
they were discovered or whatthe New York Times Science
Section wrote!
Does it (at least) mention some experimental applica-
tions?

Digestion
INTEGRITY
Understanding: is it right?
Originality: did author reorganize and synthesize what
they read? Last but not least: code rules of academic integrity
Variety of sources: does the reference list include more apply. You are not to pass off other works as your own.
than one viewpoint? Do not copy, or even paraphrase, large blocks of text from
any source, even if you are citing the source. (If you copy
small blocks, use quotes.)
Presentation/Style
Its not a reportable violation of academic integrity to
summarize a source, by presenting the same ideas in the
Choice: does it avoid the unnecessary or tangential
same order, but it is a failure at carrying out the term
(both in equations and words)
paper project. Self-plagiarism recycling large blocks of
Large-scale organization:
text you wrote somewhere else is dangerous too, though
Is there a clear purpose/goal?
people practice it in the real world (e.g. conference pub-
Are the different parts of the story put in a sensible order?
lications).
Does it use figures well?
Small-scale organization Most temptations to these violations or shortcuts come
Clarity: does it define all notations used and avoid vague from over ambitious topics if you really cant under-
antecedents in the wrirting? stand the source, dont try to hide it by quoting verbatim
Does it use equations in a balanced way? and/or from relying on too few sources.

TYPING

The final paper must be typed; it is strongly recom- Based on the Basic Training module at Cornell Univer-
mended that the draft be typed. If you arent expe- sity.