Notes on Academic Writing
Published:
After several rounds of paper submissions, rejections, and revisions, I’ve started keeping a list of writing lessons. Here are some that I return to often.
Clarity Over Cleverness
It’s tempting to use sophisticated vocabulary or complex sentence structures to sound more “academic.” But the best papers I’ve read — the ones that changed how I think — are almost always written in plain, direct prose.
A good rule of thumb: if a sentence requires re-reading, it needs rewriting.
The Introduction Formula
Most strong introductions in NLP papers follow a pattern:
- Motivate the problem — why should the reader care?
- State what’s missing — what gap exists in current work?
- Present your contribution — what do you bring to the table?
- Preview the results — give the reader a reason to keep reading.
Simple, but surprisingly hard to execute well.
On Receiving Reviews
Reviewer 2 will always exist. The sooner you accept this, the happier you’ll be. My approach:
- Wait 24 hours before responding emotionally.
- Read each criticism as a gift — even harsh ones point to something unclear in your writing.
- Separate “I disagree with this point” from “I failed to communicate this point.” The latter is far more common.
Write Early, Write Often
The biggest mistake I made early on was treating writing as the last step. Now I start writing the paper skeleton before experiments are done. It clarifies thinking and often reveals gaps in the experimental design.