A simple (incomplete) check-list for writing papers

Cosmetic..

Did you perform a spell-check?



Are all references correctly formatted? Check for spaces after commas and periods, existence of all info (page #, volume #, date etc. where applicable) on all references.



Have you fixed problems associated with listing references or drawn figures/tables that are never cited in the text?



Have you proofread the manuscript to look for simple errors? ("an" for "and", inadvertent "the the"'s etc.)



Have you been consistent in capitalizing first letters of words in the title, section headings, references, etc.? Be consistent with listing things as either

• The Meaning of Life
  (all important first letters capitalized), or
• The meaning of life
  (only first letter of the sentence captitalized).




Do you have any orphaned headings? An orphaned heading appears when a section heading appears on one page, but the first line of the section is on the next page.



If you're revising a copy that has been marked by your advisor.. have you really paid attention to all of the suggested changes? It's fine to ignore a suggested change for a good reason, but don't ignore suggestions out of sloppiness.

Delving deeper..

• Did you understand the importance of each reference listed? Do not bank on another paper's description of a reference; this often causes misunderstood concepts in that reference to propagate.
  
  
• Do your material and ideas flow logically?
  
  
• Are all terms defined before or just after they have been used?
  
  
• Have you explained the intuition behind your heuristics?
  
  
• Have you explained all tables and figures in the results section? It is not enough to create tables and figures and expect the reader to make sense of them. Highlight the main points and draw attention to what each table or figure shows.
  
  

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