Wednesday, May 19, 2010

How to Discuss Related Work in Your Papers


For many technical reports, especially those in cutting-edge industries, including related works in your papers is a mandatory requirement. Even in brief, you will need to discuss them, in order to demonstrate how your work stands in relation to the current state of the field.


How long should they be? My personal preference is to devote at least one short paragraph for them. You don't need to go into heavy detail. More often than not, short summaries will suffice. What's more important is to write them in such a way that they sufficiently inform your target audience of recent developments.


Where should you put them? There are two schools of thought here. One decrees that they're best found at the start, since they help you set the context for your main topic. Others, however, believe they work best in the end, where they will not interfere with the main body of the piece (which is why readers are looking at your paper in the first place).


My take is that both styles can work, although one should be better suited than the other based on various factors. If the related work can be discussed in a short enough manner to not to draw too much attention, they could work well as a paragraph right after the introduction (or a separate section right before the body). You also want to put it at the beginning if it's important to take a strong stance right away. On the other hand, if the related works will require the technical content of your paper for clarity, then it should appear at the end. Be sure to add one or two sentences of summary in the introduction, though, so as not to help establish the context.


Like all parts of your report, you should write this section with the most clarity you can manage using the help of an English correcting software.

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