Writing in Computer Science
Ben Hammond
The University of Iowa
Writing in Computer Science
“Computer scientists tend not to focus on writing, but I’d argue that writing is our main output” stated Samantha Kelinberg, an assistant professor of computer science at the Stevens Institute of Technology (Theresa MacPhail, 2015). I, as a computer science major, had no idea the importance of writing in a tech-related field like computer science. I thought all you did was look at your coding software and code away for a couple hours until you got the job done, but after analyzing three academic and three non-academic sources to improve my awareness on writing in this field, I proved myself completely wrong. Writing in computer science can be used for many different things, such as research papers, source code, and documentation for data and software. In computer science, research papers like big data analysis and papers on the subject of in-depth coding plus much more can go into the category of academic writing, on the other hand non-academic writing in computer science can range anywhere from articles on the subject to papers on how to defend yourself from cyber attacks. I learned that writing in Computer Science is something you need to know for achieving a job and becoming a better programmer overall. After research, I learned that academic writing in computer science is in-depth, detailed, and requires much more focus while non-academic writing in computer science is more simplistic, straight to the point, and summed up.
Academic Writing
Academic writing in computer science is mostly aimed and written by scholars and masters of the subject. Most academic writing that computer scientists do has to do with research papers, mathematical proofs, and “comments” which are done around the coding to explain what the actual code is doing. These writers must consider many things while writing academically in this subject such as how they use their language, and the structure of the writing piece so people like me can follow on what they are trying to say. These two points help readers understand what they are trying to put out, overall making it easier and more enjoyable to read.
Language is the first thing a writer in this field must consider to teach their audience. This language is much more advanced and more in-depth to help you know exactly what they are trying to say in their papers. As these papers are aimed towards people in the education of the subject they are written in a almost wise sounding tone as well as advanced language which allows the author to go into a freedom for extreme detail as he is a master in the subject. An example could be Preliminary discussion of the logical design of an electronic computing system this scholarly article goes into how the Inasmuch (the name of the machine) works and operates. The author uses intense language and a sophisticated tone and doesn’t explain what these big words even mean. When talking about how he is going to make this machine, the author states, “We consequently plan on a fully automatic electronic storage facility of about 4,000 numbers of 40 binary digits each. This corresponds to a precision of 2- 40 ~ 0.9 x 10- 12, i.e. of about 12 decimals” (Arthur W. Burks, Herman H. Goldstine, John von Nuemann, pg.1). This is an example of how the author uses his freedom as he knows someone educated in this field will be reading this. He can use mathematically equations such as “2- 40 ~ 0.9 x 10-” and “binary digits”, that computer scientists will understand, but people like me may not. His tone is also straight-forward because his work does not need to be shown in simple terms. These things greatly attribute to the effectiveness of his work because the author can be free about what he says and go in-depth into the subject.
The structure of these papers are also very different and important. In a seminal paper Elastically Deformable Models perfectly shows how Computer Scientists present their research academically. To introduce the information the author provides an Abstract that gives the reader an overview of what they are about to present/write about. After the Abstract it transitions into an introduction into research behind the study. After the introduction the author goes into different topics behind the research like “Physical Models versus Kinematic Models” and “Dynamics of Deformable Models.” This breaks up the paper into different sections which makes it easier for the reader to understand. This paper also includes the formulas they use along with pictures and graphs to further explain their research. Most academic papers of this sort go along with this outline, they start with a Abstract then the introduction and start explaining their information with different section headings. This basic structure is used almost always when it comes to research papers in computer science. Without structure like this it would be hard to follow and understand what the author is trying to say. This makes the authors work much more effective.
Non-Academic Writing
Another very important genre of writing in Computer Science is non-academic writing. This sort of writing can come in many ways, most commonly in news about the subject. The reason there are so many differences between non-academic writing and academic writing is because non-academic writing is meant for anybody while academic writing is meant for people who are highly educated in the subject. Because of this, the way the author uses language, and tone is very different.
The language in non-academic writing of this subject is much different because these authors know the audience reading are average people. In the article “Why are scientists so excited about a recently claimed quantum computing milestone”, the author states, “To understand why quantum computers are a big deal, we need to go back to conventional, or digital, computers… A computer is a device that takes an input, carries out a sequence of instructions, and produces an output” (Christopher Ferrie, 2019, pg.1). The author introduces what he is about to talk about but first explains what it all means before he gets into the topic. He explains what a computer exactly does after he states why you need to understand that information which is extremely effective to a reader who isn’t advanced in the subject. The reader is able to gain knowledge without being boggled by big words.
The structure of the work is also very different when it comes to non-academic writing. Academic works as explained earlier are long, precise, and broken up into many different areas while non-academic pieces are split into short paragraphs and easy to understand. In the article “Hey Alexa.. Sorry I Fooled You” published at MIT is written in many different small paragraphs (Rachel Gordon, 2020). The author does this because it is easier to follow and read which makes it much more effective because it is simple. The author stays talking about the same topic from the same angle to keep it concise unlike in academic writings where the author talks about the topic from many different angles. The use of this mechanism is an effective way for the non-academic platform for writing about Computer Science.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the two main mechanisms of these two kinds of writings is the structure the author is writing in, and the effective use of language. These two mechanisms add to the effectiveness of both kinds of writing. While the author of academically written papers write with confusing terminology and in-depth structure, the author of non-academic papers uses short, and easily readily sentences so that the audience can easily understand the subject. Structure in both these kinds of papers is very different in academic writing and non-academic writing but both are layed out so you can easily manage and follow what the author is saying. Overall, writing in Computer Science is a huge part of learning and adapting in the subject.
