Thank you Dilla for this lovely blogger award, although I am not an active blogger, hehee..
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Lovely Award
Thank you Dilla for this lovely blogger award, although I am not an active blogger, hehee..
Saturday, 20 February 2010
The strategy in making a paper looks good to the reviewer(s)
Here are some writing strategies that I would like to share with my friends and readers of this blog. These are perhaps more relevant to a paper of empirical content, but I guess these are somewhat general to be applicable in other domains.
1) Before you start writing, read a lot of studies in your research area as well as other related areas. This will give you good grasps in the topic and it is also important that your reading cover as much related areas as possible.
2) Write, write and write. Practice makes perfect! Think about what your paper is all about. Focus your thinking on the purpose of the paper, and then organize your writing into relevant Sections. Typical Sections for writing up an empirical paper are as follows:
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Motivation and Related Work
Section 3: Methods
Section 4: Results
Section 5: Discussion
Section 6: Conclusions and Future Work
I usually start writing on the motivation and the related work Section. It’s because I would like to start my writing with a review of previous work and how those studies related to the present study. The missing part should be highlighted and therefore our work is expected to fulfill the gap. That serves as a motivation to our study. An excellent review usually gives a clear picture of where our work fits in the problem domain and a brief explanation of how we are going to tackle the issue/problem.
Upon completion of the Related work, I usually continue with explaining the setting of the study (e.g. hypotheses, procedures/methods, research design etc). This is a pretty straightforward Section where we should describe clearly the research methodology we used in our study (e.g. explain the formulation of hypotheses, the instruments used (if any), the samples, the procedures, and the type of analysis employed).
In the Results Section, we should report the results or findings obtained from our analysis. There are many styles one can use in reporting results. For empirical studies, we can describe the demographics data (or subject we used in the study); results of correlation of variables (to show relationships among variables); describe the distribution of data; results of statistical analysis and whether or not they support our hypothesis. (Note to remember: do not intertwine results with interpretation or our own speculation. The Results Section is the part where we should report our findings and left the interpretation in the Discussion Section).
The discussion Section is the part where you provide justification of the results. This is the hardest and the most important Section where you should interpret your findings (i.e. why the result is such and such, why, why, why???). A well articulated paper usually consists of a clear interpretation of results and makes a connection with existing evidence/literature (if available and applicable). A good discussion usually gives a clear justification of the findings and then leads to recommendation for future work.
Next, write up the remaining Sections: Introduction, Conclusions and the abstract.
Don’t forget to highlight the contribution(s) in the Introduction Section, so the reviewers can see the intention of our work. Introduction should not be too long; it should be precise enough to describe the aim of the study, the importance of the research and brief background of the work). The Conclusions Section is where you conclude the work (as its name implies), so highlight the major findings here. Do not put any new idea in the Conclusion as this is the part where we sum up the whole work and put our flags on the future work.
p/s: Organization of ideas is very important so that you are able to deliver your writing in a consistent, and coherent manner. What the reviewers expect from a paper is a piece of work that is written clearly (or concise), and justifiable in all aspects. I remember my colleague in KICT (Dr Shariza) once said “any research lend itself to a publication if it is written clearly”. I completely agreed with her statement.
3) Ask your supervisor(s) to read and review your paper. Usually when I complete a write up, I will immediately email my supervisors and ask for their feedback/comments. The more feedback you gain the better. It helps improve your writing because other people might be able to see something that you might have overlooked. For those studying in the Univ. of Auckland, the Student Learning Center (SLC) provides a DEAL support group that can help us in proof reading the paper. For details, refer to this website: http://cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=deal
4) Never take comments personally. Remember that the reviewers are criticizing the work, not criticizing about you. For beginner, it can be hard to receive harsh comments (which I do experienced when I submitted my first paper to an international conference two years ago) but I admit that I have learned a lot from the reviewers’ comments. Looking at the bright side, they taught me that I should avoid from repeating the same mistakes, and making me more conscious in every single piece of thought that I want to convey in a paper. Yes, it takes a while to realize and understand that, but trust me, every clouds has its silverlining. So, never give up.
5) Use thesaurus a lot. Otherwise, do google or refer to the British National Corpus and check out whether or not the prepositions/grammar we used makes sense. If something does not make sense, we should feel weird about it. Don’t you think so? So, make sure you have lots of common sense. Ha ha...:-)).
6) Oh yeah, finally (last but not least), make sure you provide a proper justification and appropriate reference(s) in every single claims you made in the paper. Never let the reviewers struggling reading your paper, so, always try to justify things clearly and wherever possible and applicable relate your findings with findings from existing studies.
p/s: cewah…cewah..cakap mcm la terrer sgt tulih paper. No, I am not terror or terrorist in writing up a paper (heehe..I am just happy to share the knowledge I gained from my own experience in writing up papers during my PhD studies. I really hope my friends can benefit from this experience. Morale of the story is: Never give up! Never Quit! When the road ahead seems more complicated, never quit, but stay persistent and keep moving. Also, never forget to make a lot (A LOT – I do mean it) a lot of prayers. Remember that ALLAH listens to all our prayers. May Allah SWT bless us all, and make our endeavor towards this PhD a successful journey insyaAllah. Ameen.Ameen.Ya Rabbal ‘alameen.
1) Before you start writing, read a lot of studies in your research area as well as other related areas. This will give you good grasps in the topic and it is also important that your reading cover as much related areas as possible.
2) Write, write and write. Practice makes perfect! Think about what your paper is all about. Focus your thinking on the purpose of the paper, and then organize your writing into relevant Sections. Typical Sections for writing up an empirical paper are as follows:
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Motivation and Related Work
Section 3: Methods
Section 4: Results
Section 5: Discussion
Section 6: Conclusions and Future Work
I usually start writing on the motivation and the related work Section. It’s because I would like to start my writing with a review of previous work and how those studies related to the present study. The missing part should be highlighted and therefore our work is expected to fulfill the gap. That serves as a motivation to our study. An excellent review usually gives a clear picture of where our work fits in the problem domain and a brief explanation of how we are going to tackle the issue/problem.
Upon completion of the Related work, I usually continue with explaining the setting of the study (e.g. hypotheses, procedures/methods, research design etc). This is a pretty straightforward Section where we should describe clearly the research methodology we used in our study (e.g. explain the formulation of hypotheses, the instruments used (if any), the samples, the procedures, and the type of analysis employed).
In the Results Section, we should report the results or findings obtained from our analysis. There are many styles one can use in reporting results. For empirical studies, we can describe the demographics data (or subject we used in the study); results of correlation of variables (to show relationships among variables); describe the distribution of data; results of statistical analysis and whether or not they support our hypothesis. (Note to remember: do not intertwine results with interpretation or our own speculation. The Results Section is the part where we should report our findings and left the interpretation in the Discussion Section).
The discussion Section is the part where you provide justification of the results. This is the hardest and the most important Section where you should interpret your findings (i.e. why the result is such and such, why, why, why???). A well articulated paper usually consists of a clear interpretation of results and makes a connection with existing evidence/literature (if available and applicable). A good discussion usually gives a clear justification of the findings and then leads to recommendation for future work.
Next, write up the remaining Sections: Introduction, Conclusions and the abstract.
Don’t forget to highlight the contribution(s) in the Introduction Section, so the reviewers can see the intention of our work. Introduction should not be too long; it should be precise enough to describe the aim of the study, the importance of the research and brief background of the work). The Conclusions Section is where you conclude the work (as its name implies), so highlight the major findings here. Do not put any new idea in the Conclusion as this is the part where we sum up the whole work and put our flags on the future work.
p/s: Organization of ideas is very important so that you are able to deliver your writing in a consistent, and coherent manner. What the reviewers expect from a paper is a piece of work that is written clearly (or concise), and justifiable in all aspects. I remember my colleague in KICT (Dr Shariza) once said “any research lend itself to a publication if it is written clearly”. I completely agreed with her statement.
3) Ask your supervisor(s) to read and review your paper. Usually when I complete a write up, I will immediately email my supervisors and ask for their feedback/comments. The more feedback you gain the better. It helps improve your writing because other people might be able to see something that you might have overlooked. For those studying in the Univ. of Auckland, the Student Learning Center (SLC) provides a DEAL support group that can help us in proof reading the paper. For details, refer to this website: http://cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=deal
4) Never take comments personally. Remember that the reviewers are criticizing the work, not criticizing about you. For beginner, it can be hard to receive harsh comments (which I do experienced when I submitted my first paper to an international conference two years ago) but I admit that I have learned a lot from the reviewers’ comments. Looking at the bright side, they taught me that I should avoid from repeating the same mistakes, and making me more conscious in every single piece of thought that I want to convey in a paper. Yes, it takes a while to realize and understand that, but trust me, every clouds has its silverlining. So, never give up.
5) Use thesaurus a lot. Otherwise, do google or refer to the British National Corpus and check out whether or not the prepositions/grammar we used makes sense. If something does not make sense, we should feel weird about it. Don’t you think so? So, make sure you have lots of common sense. Ha ha...:-)).
6) Oh yeah, finally (last but not least), make sure you provide a proper justification and appropriate reference(s) in every single claims you made in the paper. Never let the reviewers struggling reading your paper, so, always try to justify things clearly and wherever possible and applicable relate your findings with findings from existing studies.
p/s: cewah…cewah..cakap mcm la terrer sgt tulih paper. No, I am not terror or terrorist in writing up a paper (heehe..I am just happy to share the knowledge I gained from my own experience in writing up papers during my PhD studies. I really hope my friends can benefit from this experience. Morale of the story is: Never give up! Never Quit! When the road ahead seems more complicated, never quit, but stay persistent and keep moving. Also, never forget to make a lot (A LOT – I do mean it) a lot of prayers. Remember that ALLAH listens to all our prayers. May Allah SWT bless us all, and make our endeavor towards this PhD a successful journey insyaAllah. Ameen.Ameen.Ya Rabbal ‘alameen.
Monday, 15 February 2010
Open your eyes..
Look around yourselves
Can't you see this wonder
Spreaded infront of you
The clouds floating by
The skies are clear and blue
Planets in the orbits
The moon and the sun
Such perfect harmony
Let's start question in ourselves
Isn't this proof enough for us
Or are we so blind
To push it all aside..
No..
We just have to
Open our eyes, our hearts, and minds
If we just look bright to see the signs
We can't keep hiding from the truth
Let it take us by surprise
Take us in the best way
(Allah..)
Guide us every single day..
(Allah..)
Keep us close to You
Until the end of time..
Look inside yourselves
Such a perfect order
Hiding in yourselves
Running in your veins
What about anger love and pain
And all the things you're feeling
Can you touch them with your hand?
So are they really there?
Lets start question in ourselves
Isn't this proof enough for us?
Or are we so blind
To push it all aside..?
No..
We just have to
Open our eyes, our hearts, and minds
If we just look bright to see the signs
We can't keep hiding from the truth
Let it take us by surprise
Take us in the best way
(Allah..)
Guide us every single day..
(Allah..)
Keep us close to You
Until the end of time..
When a baby's born
So helpless and weak
And you're watching him growing..
So why deny
Whats in front of your eyes
The biggest miracle of life..
We just have to
Open our eyes, our hearts, and minds
If we just look quiet we'll see the signs
We can't keep hiding from the truth
Let it take us by surprise
Take us in the best way
(Allah..)
Guide us every single day..
(Allah..)
Keep us close to You
Until the end of time..
Open your eyes and hearts and minds
If you just look bright to see the signs
We can't keep hiding from the truth
Let it take us by surprise
Take us in the best way
(Allah..)
Guide us every single day..
(Allah..)
Keep us close to You
Until the end of time..
Allah..
You created everything
We belong to You
Ya Robb we raise our hands
Forever we thank You..
الحمد الله
Alhamdulillah..
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
End of holidays – back to the reality of life & happy new year all!
I have no choice but to stay and to do work at home to avoid exposure to the sun. It was quite annoying dealing with the sunburn after getting back from holidays at Northland. I have visited Northland couple of times before this but failed in our attempt to drive to the
The most amazing scene at
(Hole in the rock)
Finally arrive at the Cape Reinga
(The dark blue ocean is the Pacific Ocean, the light blue is the Tasman Sea)
(The light house)
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