The standard outline presented here, in different forms, is a tool to assist you in writing technical papers (especially in computer science). It is relevant for a wide range of, but not every single, type of technical paper. It is certainly appropriate for Master's and Ph.D. theses, for conference and journal papers, and for technical reports. It is also appropriate for proposals, although the speculative nature of a project or thesis proposal requires some adaptation of the form. It is less appropriate for user documentation, but still explicitly represents a number of important issues that must be handled when writing product manuals. These outlines were first created by Douglas Niehaus<niehaus@eecs.ukans.edu> and then modified by Steve Goddard<goddard@cse.unl.edu>.
Many students do not know how to review a technical paper. It is important to learn for (at least) two reasons. First, you may be asked to review a confernce or journal paper. Second, you should always know your audience. Knowing what reviewers are looking for makes it easier to write a paper that they will understand (and like).
Prof. John Ousterhout (Berkeley) has a writeup on
reviewing papers (available through Prof. Fox's page).
The English department at UNL, through the Writing Assitance Center, provides a technical writing service. Someone will read and comment on your paper and help you improve your technical writing skills.
