Technical Paper Writing: A Step-by-Step tutorial and Literature Survey

I. Introduction

There are many detailed versions for this answer. I will keep it short and sweet.

1. What are the observations ? (Your Findings)
2. What is the reference or bench mark of your comparison? (Current state-of-the-art)
3. How does is compare to the existing work ? (Literature Survey). It means to find where the current boundary of the work exists ? Does your observation push the boundary forward ? If not, what does it showcase.
4. Is the mathematical model / business model clearly built with strong fundamentals (Work Analysis)?
5. Can you present it in a form that conveys the message clearly. If not, take help.

You can begin with these points. Once you write the above, you can expand it accordingly to suite either a journal or a conference proceeding.

II. How to read the important papers in your area (Root Papers)
There are millions of papers and scores of areas in which people publish work.You could pick an area of your choice, and search the root of a paper which influenced an entire area of research. The primary branch of the tree of innovations and discoveries.

II.a How do you search for the root paper ?
This is an easy and straight-forward method.
AIM: Find the 3–4 papers with the initial idea.

1. Find the recent publication in the area (or research) of your interest.
2. In the references, look for the initial idea. That would be present in another paper or group of papers.
3. Within these papers, repeat step 2.
4. Stop the search when you reach the point, where the initial idea was a major leap in innovation or rediscovery.
5. That would be the closest 3–4 papers. These are your root papers.

II.b How do I read a paper
These are the first few points to note:

1. Read the abstract - what are they talking about ?
2. Read the result - know what they claim about.
3. Look at the system design and the measurement setup and procedure.
4. Finally, read the introduction which explains the application and
5. Then, the literature survey.

III. My paper got selected in a conference for oral presentation. What are the main costs associated with it.
The paper after getting accepted for presentation has two main costs.

1. Registration of the Author.
2. Paper presented at the conference.

The registration can cost anywhere between 2000 - 12ooo for Indian Conference and $300 - $1000 for international conference. Once the registration is complete, the paper has to be presented in the conference to be included in the conference proceedings.
This is the cost without your travel expenses to present the paper at the conference.


Happy paper writing !!

G S Javed

Author's Note: This article first appeared in Quora. Read more here. 

Dr G S Javed founded King Consultants-Education where he coaches Masters and PhD students on Research Methodology and Technical Writing. He inculcates experiential learning and innovation in  his Design Thinking course. He enjoys travelling and meeting people.