Resources for academic writing in HCI

Here’s a few useful resources I’ve come across for learning how to write well.

Academic / technical writing in HCI (many of these cross-reference each other)

• Catchy Titles Are Good: But Avoid Being Cute, by Jake Wobbrock
• How do I write a good research paper, by Amy Ko
• 3 shell scripts to improve your writing, by Matt Might
• How to write a good HCI research paper, by Phillip Guo
• Statistical methods for HCI research, by Koji Yatani (when you are unsure on how to report results from statistical tests)

General writing

• The elements of style, by William Strunk Jr.
• Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. Williams
• The Day You Became a Better Writer, by Scott Adams (also, see my sarcastic adaptation for academic writing for what not to do)
• The Science of Scientific Writing, by George Gopen and Judith Swan (contribution from Dan Epstein)

Sauvik’s thoughts

1. The best way to improve your writing is with deliberate practice. The second best way is to read well-written papers.
2. The upshot of all of these resources? Be clear, concise, and honest.
3. Set aside time for writing every day. Writer’s block is best overcome by routine. 15 minutes will do; the more, the better.
4. Start a blog and write regularly.

• Blog writing shortens the feedback loop and helps you improve faster than writing full papers.
• Don’t perfect your blog posts.
• Your blog does not (only) have to be about your research.
• Your take is unlikely to be unique. Don’t worry about it. Just write.
• Sometimes people will thank you for what you’ve written. That’s neat.

5. On writing academic papers:

• Writing should occur throughout instead of at the “end” of a project. Writing early will help you spot flaws in your thinking before it’s too late to change.
• Draft a short paragraph about your key contributions and motivation before writing the main content of the paper.
• Start with an outline. It’s cheaper to modify.
• If you’re having trouble building momentum writing prose, start with methodology. It’s easy to write about matter-of-fact things, but it’s hard to write about what your work means and why it’s important.
• I end with the introduction, but have it outlined ahead of time. Why? Intros foreshadow the paper. It’s hard to foreshadow something you haven’t written.

Know of other good resources / tips? Let me know on Twitter.