View article

Writing for Computer Science is an introduction to doing and describing research. For the most part the book is a discussion of good writing style and effective research strategies, with a focus on the skills required of graduate research students. Some of the material is accepted wisdom, some is controversial, and some are my opinions. The book is intended to be comprehensive; it is broad rather than deep, but, while some readers may be interested in exploring topics further, for most readers this book should be sufficient.

The first edition of this book was almost entirely about writing. The second edition, in response to reader feedback, and in response to issues that arose in my own experiences as an advisor, researcher, and referee, was additionally about research methods. Indeed, the two topics—writing about and doing research—are not clearly separated: it is a small step from asking how do I write? to asking what