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He compares it to the "academic approach" of starting with background etc. But that's not what an academic paper actually starts with - it starts with an abstra
by rkangel 3y ago
He compares it to the "academic approach" of starting with background etc. But that's not what an academic paper actually starts with - it starts with an abstract that very briefly lays out the whole thing.
- a1o 3y agoYeah, that's true, a good abstract is usually similar to an executive summary, it's very short and easy to read.
- sn41 3y agoYup. And in CS papers, we are told to very early on (within the first 2 or 3 paragraphs, never later), to introduce our contribution. It may use some undefined terms and so on, but we should give the reader enough to go on. The "punchline" cannot be 3 pages in. Of course, the rest of the paper is to flesh out the details. There's also the pragmatic advice given to most graduate students: read the abstract, then the conclusion, then the introduction, then the rest of the paper.
- marcosdumay 3y agoFunny, I usually find it best to jump from the abstract to the methodology. Or, maybe pass through the introduction in between if there's any word I do not understand. The only papers I think the conclusion is more useful than the methodology are on the social sciences and software engineering.
- ilyt 3y agoIf your job is to read the paper, sure, but if you're wondering whether it is even relevant to what you're looking for abstract is useful
- karaterobot 3y agoNot in papers, but that is definitely the way a conversation goes when you're speaking with a typical researcher. Ask me how I know. Anyway, the abstract is sort of a metadata element, written precisely because the rest of the paper is not concise or succinct.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Sprocklem 3y agoIn some disciplines, at least, the background also follows a separate introduction that briefly explains the problem and the paper's contribution. This follows an explanation->conclusion order, but only explains enough to understand their contribution, before diving more deeply into prior work in the background.
- dehrmann 3y agoDon't bore us; get to the chorus.