How To | Haobin Tan

How to Read Papers Efficiently?

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Efficient paper reading procedure

Do NOT read article from beginning to end!!!

Phase 1: Surveying the article

Feel free to stop reading the article at any point

Read the title and keywords (these are probably what got you look at the paper)
- If these don’t interest you at all ➡️ stop!
Read the abstract (most important part of the paper)
Read the conclusions

Phase 2: Reading the article

Look at the tables and figures (including captions)
- This is really what was done in the work
- It will help you decide, whether you want to dig in or not
Read the introduction carefully
- This is the background needed and why the study was done.
- Introduction in research paper is one of the most important point.
  - It often formulates in words what the paper is about, and what contribution the paper makes. (like a longer abstract)
  - It is informative and help us to understand the paper in a high level.
Read the results and discussion
- This is the real heart of the paper. Here you will spend most of the time
- Keep asking: “Are the authors demonstrating that their proposal/solution work?”
  - Try to prove them wrong or get convinced that solution works
Note: Sometimes Results section is included in Experiments section.
Read the experimental
- This is how they did the work
- You only get to this point if you are really interested and need to understand exactly what was done to better understand the meaning of the data and its interpretation.

Phase 3: Write some notes so you don’t have to re-read the whole paper again

The faintest writing is better than the best memory! 好记性不如烂笔头！

Reference

🔥👍 How to Read a Paper Efficiently (By Prof. Pete Carr): a great tutorial teaching you how to read papers. Strongly recommend!
如何高效读论文？
How I Read a Paper: Facebook’s DETR (Video Tutorial)

Advice on Reading Research Papers (by Prof. Andrew Ng)

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Here we’ll summarize two major recommendations given by Prof. Andrew Ng in his CS230 Deep Learning course:

Reading research papers
Advice for navigating a career in machine learning

Reading research papers

List of papers

Compile a list of papers

Try to create a list of research papers, medium posts and whatever text or learning resource you have
Skip around the list
- Read research papers in a parallel fashion; meaning try to tackle more than one paper at a time
- Concretely, try to quickly skim and understand each of these paper and do not read it all, maybe you read 10–20% of each one and probably that will be enough to give you a high-level understanding of the paper in hand.
- After that, you may decide to eliminate some of these papers or just go over one or two them and read them fully.
Amount of papers
- 5–20 papers
  - Probably enough basic knowledge of the specific domain
  - But maybe not enough to research or be at the cutting-edge.
- 50–100 papers
  - Probably have a very good understanding of the domain application

How do you read ONE paper?

Do NOT start reading the paper from the first to the last word. Instead, take multiple passes through the paper

Read the Title, the abstract and the figures
- By reading the title, abstract, the key network architecture figure, and maybe the experiments section, you will be able to get a general sense of the concepts in the paper.
- In deep learning, there are a lot of research papers where the entire paper is summarized in one or two figures without the need to go hardly through the text.
Read the introduction + conclusions + figures + skim the rest
- The introduction, the conclusions and the abstract are the places where the author(s) try to summarize their work carefully to clarify for the reviewer why their paper should be accepted for publication.
- Skim the related work section (if possible), this section aims to highlight work done by others that somehow ties in with the author(s) work.
Read the paper but skip the math
Read the whole thing but skip the parts that don’t make sense

When reading a paper, try to answer the following questions:

What did the author(s) try to accomplish?
What were the key elements of the approach?
What can you use yourself?
What other references do you want to follow?

If you can answer these questions, hopefully, that will reflect that you have a good understanding of the paper.

It turns out as you read more papers, with practice you get faster. Because a lot of authors use common formats when writing papers.

Deeper understanding

Math

Try to rederive it from scratch. Although, it takes some time but it’s a very good practice.

Code

Lightweight: Download open-source code (if you can find it) and run it.
Deeper: Reimplement from scratch. if you can do this, that’s a strong sign that you have really understood the algorithm in hand.

To keep getting better

The most important thing to keep on learning and getting better is to learn more steadily rather than having a focus-intensive activity.

It’s better to read two papers a week for the next year than cramming everything over a short period of time.

Advice for navigating a career in machine learning

Just focus on doing important work and consider your job as a tactic and a chance to do useful work.

A very common pattern for successful machine learning engineers, strong job candidates, is to develop a T-shaped knowledge base

have a broad understanding of many different topics in AI and
very deep understanding in at least one area.

To build the horizontal piece

A very efficient way to build foundational skills in these domains is through courses and reading research papers.

To build the vertical piece

You can build it by doing related projects, open-source contributions, research and internships.

General advice

Learn the most

tend to choose things to work on that allow you to learn the most.
Do important work

work on worthy projects that moves the world forward.
Try to take machine learning to traditional industries

Reference

Career advice/reading research papers lecture in the CS230 Deep learning course by Stanford University
Advice on building a machine learning career and reading research papers by Prof. Andrew Ng - A summary for Prof. Andrew Ng’s lecture

How to Write Papers Efficiently?

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Preliminaries

Review and renew your literature search
Determine who your audience is
- What kind of paper is it? Research, review, tutorial?
- What journal is it intended for?
- Undergraduates, researchers, but always the reviewers!

The “Algorithm”

💡 Just get started. Do NOT procrastinate! 💪

First draft

Writing the initial draft is the creative part of the job. Your job now is to produce a complete first draft, NOT a perfect first draft. Editing is a second stage of the work. It is the critical thinking, analytical part of the job. Editing before you’ve completed your first draft is a waste of time!

So just write, don’t stop and edit!

Create an outline and always work from it
- If you have to stop, you can easily pick up the writing later.
- How?
  - Make a list of your figures and tables
  - Put them in order of presenation, arrange them in some logical sequence, as they may appear in the results and discussion
Begin with the Experimental section
- The easiest part to write, because this is the part you’re most familiar with (You’ve done the experiment, you know how is it done)
- Getting it done will give you a feeling of progress
Write the Results and Discussion, following the outline (list of figures and tables)

Critical editting

The critical part is when you convert that into concise and coherent English and make sure that the science that you’ve written is correct.

Complete the paper

Write the Conclusions (in a numbered format)
Write the Abstracts and Acknowledgements
Write the Introduction (the hardest part of the paper)
- Why was the study done? what is its purpose?
- You need to collect the relenant essential background information and put that together in the introduction. You need to give the readers a sufficient background to understand what you did

Reference

🔥👍 How to Write a Paper in a Weekend (By Prof. Pete Carr)
🔥👍 如何快速写作论文初稿？

Tools for Writing Paper

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Papers Management

Mendeley

Scientific/Academic Writing Aids

Academic Phrasebank - a general resource for academic writers. 🔥👍
ESODA 易搜达 - English Essay Writing Assistant 🔥👍
Wordhippo: Thesaurus and word tools 🔥👍
Linggle - English grammar and linguistic search engine 🔥👍
- Find suitable word(s): _ (single word), * (zero or more words)
- Synonyms: add ~ before the word
- Check if a word is needed: add ? before the word
- Select alternative words: add / between the alternative words
- Find collocations
Usage guide check: https://libguides.lb.polyu.edu.hk/online-tools-for-assignment/linggle#sthash.u143sHTt.dpbs
Synonym
- power thesaurus
- Thesaurus
Grammar
- Writefull - corrects grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation aiming specifially at academic writing (integrated with Overleaf)
- Grammarly
DeepL - professional translator

Phrasebank

Latex

Editor: Overleaf
Math
- Mathpix Snip - screenshot equations and get LaTex code
- MathType demo - Type equations by selecting symbols and get LaTex code
- Detexify - Draw symbol and get LaTex code
Tables: Tables Generator

Figures

draw.io

Scientific Paper Structure

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Sections of the Paper

Most journal-style scientific papers are subdivided into the following sections: Title, Authors and Affiliation, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and Literature Cited, which parallel the experimental process.

Section of Paper	Experimental process
Abstract	What did I do in a nutshell?
Introduction	What is the problem?
Materials and Methods	How did I solve the problem?
Results	What did I find out?
Discussion	What does it mean?
Acknowledgements (optional)	Who helped me out?
Literature Cited	Whose work did I refer to?
Appendices (optional)	Extra Information

Styles

Main section headings

should be capitalized, centered at the beginning of the section
Should be double spaced from the lines above and below
Do NOT underline the section heading OR put a colon at the end.

Subheadings

Should be capitalized (first letter in each word), left justified, and either bold italics OR underlined.

Example of a subheading

Effects of Light Intensity on the Rate of Electron Transport

Acknowledgements

If, in your experiment, you received any significant help in thinking up, designing, or carrying out the work, or received materials from someone who did you a favor by supplying them, you must acknowledge their assistance and the service or material provided.
Authors always acknowledge outside reviewers of their drafts
Place the Acknowledgments between the Discussion and the Literature Cited.

Appendices

Function

Contains information that is
- non-essential to understanding of the paper
- but may present information that further clarifies a point without burdening the body of the presentation
Optional part of the paper, and is only rarely found in published papers.

Style

Headings

Each Appendix should be identified by a Roman numeral in sequence, e.g., Appendix I, Appendix II, etc.
Each appendix should contain different material.

What could be put in appendix? (not an exhaustive list)

raw data
maps (foldout type especially)
extra photographs
explanation of formulas, either already known ones, or especially if you have “invented” some statistical or other mathematical procedures for data analysis.
specialized computer programs for a particular procedure

Reference

The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper

Abstract

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Function

Summaries the major aspects of the entire paper in one paragraph
- The question(s) you investigated (or purpose) (from introduction)
  - State the purpose very clearly in the first or second sentence.
- The experimental design and methods used (from Methods)
  - Clearly express the basic design of the study.
  - Name or briefly describe the basic methodology used without going into excessive detail. Be sure to indicate the key techniques used.
- The major findings including key quantitative results, or trends (from Results)
  - Report those results which answer the questions you were asking
  - Identify trends, relative change or differences, etc.
- A brief summary of your interpetations and conclusions (from Discussion)
  - Clearly state the implications of the answers your results gave you.
Length: 200-300 words maximum
Try to limit your statements concerning each segment of the paper (i.e. purpose, methods, results, etc.) to two or three sentences
Abstract is extremly important!
- It helps readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper
- It may be the only part they can obtain via electronic literature searches or in published abstracts.
$\rightarrow$ Enough key information (e.g., summary results, observations, trends, etc.) must be included!

How do you know when you have enough information in your Abstract?

Imagine that you are another researcher doing an study similar to the one you are reporting. If your Abstract was the only part of the paper you could access, would you be happy with the information presented there?

Style

Use the active voice when possible, but much of it may require passive constructions.
Write your Abstract using concise, but complete, sentences, and get to the point quickly.
Use past tense.
Maximum length should be 200-300 words, usually in a single paragraph.
❌ Should NOT contain
- lengthy background information,
- references to other literature,
- elliptical (i.e., ending with …) or incomplete sentences,
- abbreviations or terms that may be confusing to readers,
- any sort of illustration, figure, or table, or references to them.

Strategy

💡 Must be written last since it will summarize the paper

Take whole sentences or key phrases from each section and put them in a sequence which summarizes the paper.
Set about revising or adding words to make it all cohesive and clear.
Double check
- Check to make sure that the information in the abstract completely agrees with what is written in the paper.
- Confirm that all the information appearing the abstract actually appears in the body of the paper.

Introduction

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Function

Establish the context of the work being reported
- Discuss the relevant primary research literature (with citations) and
- Summarizing our current understanding of the problem you are investigating
State the purpose of the work in the form of the hypothesis, question, or problem you investigated
Briefly explain your rationale and approach and, whenever possible, the possible outcomes your study can reveal.

The Introduction must answer the questions

“What was I studying?”
“Why was it an important question?”
“What did we know about it before I did this study?”
“How will this study advance our knowledge?”

Style

Use the active voice as much as possible.
Some use of first person is okay, but do not overdo it.

Structure

The structure of the Introduction can be thought of as an inverted triangle

The broadest part at the top representing the most general information
Focusing down to the specific problem you studied.

Organize the information to present the more general aspects of the topic early in the Introduction, then narrow toward the more specific topical information that provides context, finally arriving at your statement of purpose and rationale.

Information flow:

Begin your Introduction by clearly identifying the subject area of interest.
- Use keywords from your title in the first few sentences of the Introduction to get it focused directly on topic at the appropriate level.
Establish the context by providing a brief and balanced review of the pertinent published literature that is available on the subject.
- Summarize (for the reader) what we knew about the specific problem before you did your experiments or studies.
- A general review of the primary research literature (with citations) but should not include very specific, lengthy explanations that you will probably discuss in greater detail later in the Discussion.
Be sure to clearly state the purpose and /or hypothesis that you investigated.
- Use a pat statement, e.g
  - “The purpose of this study was to….”
  - “We investigated three possible mechanisms to explain the…”
- It is most usual to place the statement of purpose near the end of the Introduction, often as the topic sentence of the final paragraph.
Provide a clear statement of the rationale for your approach to the problem studied.
- State briefly how you approached the problem. This will usually follow your statement of purpose in the last paragraph of the Introduction.
- Do NOT discuss here the actual techniques or protocols used in your study (this will be done in the Materials and Methods)
- If you are using a novel (new, revolutionary, never used before) technique or methodology, the merits of the new technique/method versus the previously used methods should be presented in the Introduction.

Methods

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This section is variously called Methods or Methods and Materials.

Function

🎯 Explain clearly how you carried out your study

Describe your experimental design clearly
Describe the procedures for your study in sufficient detail that other scientists could repeat your work to verify your findings
Describe how the data were summarized and analyzed

Style

The style in this section should read as if you were verbally describing the conduct of the experiment.

Requires more use of third person, passive constructions than other sections
Use the past tense throughout
Avoid use of the first person

Results

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Function

🎯 Objectively present your key results, without interpretation, in an orderly and logical sequence using both text and illustrative materials (Tables and Figures)

Always begins with text, reporting the key results and referring to your figures and tables as you proceed.
Summaries of the statistical analyses may appear
- either in the text (usually parenthetically) or
- in the relevant Tables or Figures (in the legend or as footnotes to the Table or Figure).
The Results section should be organized around Tables and/or Figures that should be sequenced to present your key findings in a logical order. The text of the Results section should be crafted to follow this sequence and highlight the evidence needed to answer the questions/hypotheses you investigated.
Important negative results should be reported, too.

Style

Write the text of the Results section concisely and objectively
The passive voice will likely dominate here, but use the active voice as much as possible
Use the past tense
Avoid repetitive paragraph structures
Do not interpret the data here

Things to consider for Result section

What are the “results”?

When you pose a testable hypothesis that can be answered experimentally, or ask a question that can be answered by collecting samples, you accumulate observations about those organisms or phenomena. Those observations are then analyzed to yield an answer to the question. In general, the answer is the “key result”.

Notice that the outcome of a statistical analysis is not a key result, but rather an analytical tool that helps us understand what is our key result.

Differences, directionality, and magnitude

Report your results so as to provide as much information as possible to the reader about the nature of differences or relationships. Report the direction of differences (greater, larger, smaller, etc) and the magnitude of differences (% difference, how many times, etc.) whenever possible.

Example

if you testing for differences among groups, and you find a significant difference, it is not sufficient to simply report that "groups A and B were significantly different". How are they different? How much are they different? It is much more informative to say something like, "Group A individuals were 23% larger than those in Group B", or, "Group B pups gained weight at twice the rate of Group A pups."

Organize the results section based on the sequence of Table and Figures you’ll include

Prepare the Tables and Figures as soon as all the data are analyzed and arrange them in the sequence that best presents your findings in a logical way.

A good strategy

Note on a draft of each Table or Figure, the one or two key results you want to addess in the text portion of the Results.

Rules to follow

Each Table or Figure must include a brief description of the results being presented and other necessary information in a legend
- Table legends go above the Table; tables are read from top to bottom.
- Figure legends go below the figure; figures are usually viewed from bottom to top.
When referring to a Figure from the text, “Figure” is abbreviated as Fig.,e.g., Fig. 1. Table is never abbreviated, e.g., Table 1.

The body of the Results section is a text-based presentation of the key findings which includes references to each of the Tables and Figures

The text should guide the reader through your results stressing the key results which provide the answers to the question(s) investigated.
You must refer to each Table and/or Figure individually and in sequence, and clearly indicate for the reader the key results that each conveys.
Key results depend on your questions, they might include obvious trends, important differences, similarities, correlations, maximums, minimums, etc.

Problems to Avoid

❌ Do NOT reiterate each value from a Figure or Table

✅ only the key result or trends that each conveys.
❌ Do NOT present the same data in both a Table and Figure - this is considered redundant and a waste of space and energy.

✅ Decide which format best shows the result and go with it.
❌ Do not report raw data values when they can be summarized as means, percents, etc.

Report negative results - they are important!

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that results contrary to what you expected are necessarily “bad data”. If you carried out the work well, they are simply your results and need interpretation.

Always enter the appropriate units when reporting data or summary statistics.

For an individual value, just place the unit after the number
- E.g., “the mean length was 10 m”
When including a measure of variability, place the unit after the error value
- E.g., "…was 10 ± 2.3 m"
Likewise place the unit after the last in a series of numbers all having the same unit.
- E.g., “lengths of 5, 10, 15, and 20 m” , “no differences were observed after 2, 4, 6, or 8 min. of incubation”

Discussion

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Function

Interpret your results in light of what was already known about the subject of the investigation
Explain our new understanding of the problem after taking your results into consideration.
It tells how your study has moved us forward from the place you left us at the end of the Introduction.

Fundamental questions to answer

Do your results provide answers to your testable hypotheses? If so, how do you interpret your findings?
Do your findings agree with what others have shown? If not, do they suggest an alternative explanation or perhaps a unforseen design flaw in your experiment (or theirs?)
Given your conclusions, what is our new understanding of the problem you investigated and outlined in the Introduction?
If warranted, what would be the next step in your study, e.g., what experiments would you do next?

Style

Use the active voice whenever possible
Watch out for wordy phrases; be concise and make your points clearly.
Use of the first person is okay, but too much use of the first person may actually distract the reader from the main points.

Approach

Organize the Discussion to address each of the experiments or studies for which you presented results
Discuss each in the same sequence as presented in the Results, providing your interpretation of what they mean in the larger context of the problem.
Do NOT waste entire sentences restating your results
If you need to remind the reader of the result to be discussed, use “bridge sentences” that relate the result to the interpretation
Do NOT introduce new results in the Discussion.

Transition Terms in Academic Papers

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What do transitions do?

A transition is a change from one idea to another idea in writing or speaking and can be achieved using transition terms or phrases.
These are most often placed at the beginning of sentences, independent clauses, and paragraphs and thus establish a specific relationship between ideas or groups of ideas.
Transitions are used to create “flow” in your paper and make its logical development clearer to readers.

Categories of Transitions

We can divide all transitions into four basic categories:

Additive transitions

signal to the reader that you are adding or referencing information
Adversative transitions

indicate conflict or disagreement between pieces of information
Causal transitions

point to consequences and show cause-and-effect relationships
Sequential transitions

clarify order and sequence of information and the overall structure of the paper

Additive Transitions

signal that new information is being added (between both sentences and paragraphs)
introduce or highlight information
refer to something that was just mentioned
add similar situation
identify certain information as important

Purpose	Common Terms	Common Phrases	Examples in Research Writing
Adding Information	Also; Additionally; Furthermore; Moreover	In addition to; As well as; In fact; Not only…but also; As a matter of fact	“Furthermore, the data shows that X is a significant factor.” “In addition to the above-mentioned study, Rogers also presents…”
Introducing/Highlighting	Particularly; Notably; Especially	For example/instance; To illustrate; In particular; One example (of this is)	“Notably, only two species of this fish survive.”“One example of this phenomenon is X.”
Referencing	Considering (this); Concerning (this); Regarding (this)	As for (this); The fact that; With regards to (this); On the subject of (this); Looking at (this information)	“Considering the amount of research in this area, little evidence has been found.” “With regards to the Blue Whale, its teeth are also the largest of any mammal.”
Showing Similarity	Similarly; Likewise; Equally	By the same token; In the same way; In a similar way	“Likewise, the algorithm was applied to Y.” “By the same token, this principle can be applied to Z.”
Clarifying/Identifying Important Information	Specifically; Namely	That is (to say); In other words; (To) put (it) another way; What this means is; This means (that)	“There are two factors: namely, X and Y.” “In other words, the fall of the Empire was caused by over-expansion.”

Adversative Transitions

These terms and phrases distinguish facts, arguments, and other information, by

contrasting and showing differences
conceding points or making counterarguments
dismissing the importance of a fact or argument
replacing and suggesting alternatives

Purpose	Common Terms	Common Phrases	Examples in Research Writing
Contrasting/ Showing conflict	But; Still; However; While; Whereas; Conversely; (and) yet	In contrast; On the contrary; On the other hand; …when in fact; By way of contrast	“However, there is still more research needed.”“On the other hand, the 1997 study does not recognize these outcomes.”
Distinguishing/ Emphasizing	Indeed; Besides; Significantly; Primarily	Even more; Above all; More/Most importantly	“Indeed, a placebo is essential to any pharmaceutical study.”“Most importantly, the X enzyme increased.”
Conceding a point	Nevertheless; Nonetheless; Although; Despite (this); However; Regardless (of this); Admittedly	Even so; Even though; In spite of (this); Notwithstanding (this); Be that as it may	“Nevertheless, X is still an important factor.”“In spite of this fact, New York still has a high standard of living.”“Although this may be true, there are still other factors to consider.”
Dismissing an argument or assertion	Regardless (of)	Either way; In any case; In any event; Whatever happens; All the same; At any rate	“Regardless of the result, this fact is true.”“Either way, the effect is the same.”“In any event, this will not change the public’s view.”
Replacing/ Indicating an Alternative	Instead (of); (or) rather;	(or) at least	“Instead of using X, the scientists used Z.”“Or rather, why not implement a brand new policy?”

Causal Transitions

Signal the reasons, conditions, purposes, circumstances, and cause-and-effect relationships
Often come after an important point in the paper has been established or to explore hypothetical relationships or circumstances.

Purpose	Common Terms	Common Phrases	Examples in Research Writing
Showing Cause or Reason	Since; For; As; Because (of the fact that)	Due to (the fact that); For the reason that; Owing to (the fact); Inasmuch as	“Since the original sample group was too small, researchers called for more participants.”“Due to budgetary demands, funding will be cut in half.”
Explaining the Conditions	If…then; Unless; Granting (that); Granted (that); Provided (that)	In the event that; As/So long as; Only if	“Unless these conditions change, more will need to be done.”“As long as there is oxygen, there will be oxygenation.”
Showing the Effects/Results	Consequently; Therefore; Thus; Accordingly; Because (of this)	As a result (of this); For this reason; As a consequence; So much (so) that	“Therefore, we can conclude that this was an asymmetric catalysis.”“As a consequence, many consumers began to demand safer products.”
Showing the Purpose		For the purpose(s) of; With (this fact) in mind; In the hope that; In order that/to; So as to	“For the purpose of following standards, X rule was observed.”“With the current state of pandas in mind, this study focused on preservation.”
Highlighting the Importance of Circumstances	Otherwise	Under those circumstances; That being the case; In that case; If so; All else being equal	“Otherwise, this effect will continue into the future.”“All else being equal, the economic impact of this law seems positive.”

Sequential Transitions

These transition terms and phrases organize your paper by

numerical sequence
showing continuation in thought or action
referring to previously-mentioned information
indicating digressions
concluding and summing up your paper

Sequential transitions are essential to creating structure and helping the reader understand the logical development through your paper’s methods, results, and analysis.

Purpose	Common Terms	Common Phrases	Examples in Research Writing
Organizing by Number	Initially; Secondly; Thirdly; (First/Second/Third); Last	First of all; To start with; In the (first/second/third) place	“Initially, subjects were asked to write their names.”“First of all, dolphins are the smartest creatures in the sea.”
Showing Continuation	Subsequently; Previously; Afterwards; Eventually; Next; After (this)		“Subsequently, subjects were taken to their rooms.”“Afterwards, they were asked about their experiences.”
Summarizing/ Repeating Information	(Once) again; Summarizing (this)	To repeat; As (was) stated before; As (was) mentioned earlier/above	“Summarizing this data, it becomes evident that there is a pattern.”“As mentioned earlier, pollution has become an increasing problem.”
Digression/Resumption	Incidentally; Coincidentally; Anyway	By the way; to resume; Returning to the subject; At any rate	“Coincidentally, the methods used in the two studies were similar.”“Returning to the subject, this section will analyze the results.”
Concluding/ Summarizing	Thus; Hence; Ultimately; Finally; Therefore; Altogether; Overall; Consequently	To conclude; As a final point; In conclusion; Given these points; In summary; To sum up	“Ultimately, these results will be valuable to the study of X.”“In conclusion, there are three things to keep in mind—A, B, and C.”

How to Choose Transitions?

Here are some ways to ensure you are using transitions effectively.

Check for overused, awkward, or absent transitions when you are editing and proofreading your paper. Don’t spend too much time trying to find the “perfect” transition while writing the paper.
When you at place where a transition could connect ideas, establish relationships, and make it easier for the reader to understand your point, use the list to find a suitable transition term or phrase.
Similarly, if you have repeat some terms again and again, find a substitute transition from the list and use that instead. This will help vary your writing and enhance communication of ideas.
Read the beginning of each paragraph. Did you include a transition? If not, look at the information in that paragraph and of the preceding paragraph and ask yourself: “How does this information connect?” Then locate the best transition from the list.
Check the structure of your paper—are your ideas clearly laid out in order? You should be able to locate sequence terms such as “first,” “second,” “following this,” “another,” “in addition,” “finally,” “in conclusion,” etc. These terms will help outline your paper for the reader.

Reference

Effective Transition Terms in Academic Papers

Describe Trends

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Source:

Vocabulary

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Better than

Method A significantly surpasses their counterparts
Method A has several merits compared to other methods + List of advantages

Impact

broaden the scope and impact of sth

Synonyms

In other words = namely
adequate = sufficient = enough
consider as = think as = deem as
guess = conjecture
in comparison with = by contrast with
- by contrast 相比之下
use = apply = utilize = employ = exploit
show = reveal
aid = help
try to = attempt to
important = significant = vital = critical = crucial
consist of = be composed of = comprise
likewise = similarly
Therefore = Thus = Accordingly = Consequently = As a result
consider = deem
concretely = formally = specifically = detailedly = in detail
only = solely = merely
achieve = attain
very = considerably
before = prior to
contain = encompass
although = in spite of = despite
much better than A = outperform A by a large margin
reduce = alleviate
same as = coincide with
measure = gauge
common $\approx$ popular = prevalent
outperform = surpass = exceed = excel
affect = effect = impact = influence
wrong = erroneous
good at = adept at
much = considerably = significantly = substantially = greatly = notably
describe sth. in detail = elaborate on sth.
greatly = substantially

Phrases

In brief 简单地说
mitigate issue
stem from 源于
attribute A to B: 把A归因于B
as such: 同样地；本身；就其本身而论

frequently used

1解决: Solve, deal with, cope with, handle, resolve, address, tackle
2损害：Damage, hurt, injure, harm, impair, undermine, jeopardize
3给与：Give, offer, render, impart, provide,supply, afford
4培养：：Develop, cultivate, foster
5优势：Advantage, merit, virtue, benefit, upside, strength
6缺陷：Disadvantage, demerit, drawback, downside, weakness
7使迷惑：Puzzle, bewilder, perplex, baffle
8重要的：Key, crucial, critical, important, significant, vital, substantial, indispensable, imperative
9认为：Think, believe, insist, maintain, assert, conclude, deem, hold, argue, be convinced, be firmly convinced, be fully convinced
10保护：Protect, conserve, preserve
11确保：Assure, ensure, guarantee, pledge
12有害的：Bad, baneful evil, harmful, detrimental
13要求：Request, demand, needs, requisition
14消除：Eliminate, clear, remove, clear up, take away, smooth away
15导致：Lead to, bring about, result in, cause, spark off, conduce to, procure, induce, generate, incur
16因此：So, therefore, thus, hence, consequently, as a consequence, accordingly, as a result, because of this, as a result of this
17增长至：Grow to，rise to，increase to，go up to，climb to，ascend to，jump to，shoot to
18降低至：Dip to，fall to，decline to，decrease to，drop to，go down to，reduce to，slump to，descend to，sink to，slide to
19保持稳定：Level out，do not change，remain stable，remain still，remain steady，be stable，maintain the same level，remain unchanged，be still，remain the same level，stay constant，keep at the same level，level off，stabilize，keep its stability，even out
20急剧地：Dramatically，drastically，sharply，hugely，enormously，steeply，substantially，considerably，significantly，markedly，surprisingly，strikingly，radically，remarkably，vastly，noticeably
21平稳地：Steadily，smoothly，slightly，slowly，marginally，gradually，moderately，mildly
22宣称：Allege, assert, declare, claim
23发生：Happen, occur, take place
24原因：Reason, factor, cause
25发展：Development, advance, progress
26有益的：Useful, helpful, beneficial, profitable, rewarding，advantageous
27影响：Influence, impact, effect
28明显的：Clear, obvious, evident, self-evident, manifest, apparent, crystal-clear
29占：Comprise, take up, account for, constitute, consist of, make up, occupy, hold, compose
30与…相比：Compared with，compared to，in comparison with，in comparison to，by comparison with，by comparison to
31对比而言：By contrast，in contrast，on the other hand，on the contrary，conversely
32展示：Show, reveal, illustrate, demonstrate, depict, present, represent, describe
33大约：Approximately，almost，about，around，nearly，roughly
34波动：Fluctuate，go ups and downs，display a fluctuation，demonstrate a fluctuation
35事实上：Practically，in practice，essentially，in essence，in reality，in effect，in fact，as a matter of fact，it is a fact that
36换言之：Namely，that is to say，in other words，to put it like this，to put it differently，to put it from another way，to put it from another angle