- A few of this comments are marked as [ENGLISH], [ITALIAN] because they are specific to a particular language. All the others are valid for both Italian and English.
- When you define a new term for the first time, use \emph{} (italics). After that, do not use italics any more.
- [ITALIAN] Il plurale di una parola inglese usata in una frase in italiano non vuole la s.
- “Un database può essere diviso orizzontalmente in uno o più shard.” (non “shards”)
- Pushare, deliverare, mergiare, etc. danno origine ad una punizione corporale
- When you refer to chapters, sections, etc., you need to mention what you are referring to, not just writing down a number.
- “6 concludes the thesis” -> “Chapter 6 concludes the thesis”
- “The architecture is shown in 2.1” -> “The architecture is shown in Figure 2.1”
- Use capital letters when you refer to a specific chapter/section/figure/whatever, use non-capital letter in other cases
- “In Chapter 6”
- “In the next chapter”
- Do not start a chapter with a section title; there should be some text between the two. This applies also to section and subsections. For example:
Chapter 1: A proof that P=NP
1.1 Definitions
1.1.1 Class P
is wrong. You should write for example:
Chapter 1: A proof that P=NP
The quest of proving that P=NP is over! In the next sections, we provide some definitions and then…
1.1 Definitions
There are two main complexity classes involved in this proof, P and NP
1.1.1 Class P - [ENGLISH] Do not use colloquial abbreviations:
- “doesn’t” -> “does not”
- “can’t” -> “cannot”
- “let’s define” -> “let us define”
- As a general rule, small numbers, such as whole numbers smaller than ten, should be spelled out. If you do not spell numbers out it will look like you’re sending an instant message. But: if you are referring to a constant in an algorithm, than it is ok to use the number:
- “There are 3 options” -> “There are three options”
- “In the base case, the result is equal to 1”
- If you are using latex, $this$ is not the right way to make the word “this” in italics. $this$ means variable t, h, i, s multiplied together, and latex use odd spacing between the letters because of that. Use $\mathit{this}$ instead.
If you are lazy, use $\This$ but define:
\usepackage{xspace}
\newcommand{\This}{\mathit{this}\xspace} - [ENGLISH] Whenever you combine two words to make an adjective, you should use a dash between them. If the two words are not used as an adjective, the dash is not needed.
- A fault-tolerant protocol
- Fault tolerance is important
- Do not use the future tense to discuss about the following chapters/sections/whatever: maybe when you write, the next chapter has not been written yet, so it make sense to talk about it in the future. But when the reader reads your thesis, the chapter is already there, so you should refer to it in present tense
- “Chapter 5 will provide the conclusions” -> “Chapter 5 provides the conclusions”
- Very important: bibliographic references are parenthetic, so they should not be used as part of the sentence. They should just appear in their square brackets at the end.
- “In [1] it is shown that” -> Tizio et al. have shown that.… [1]
- “[1] suggests that ” -> In 2008, Caio and Sempronio have suggested that… [1]”
- The idea is that you want to make the life of the reader simple: if [1] is used as a subject without any additional information, the reader needs to interrupt the reading, go to the bibliography, figure out who is the author of [1], when the paper has been published, etc.
- Latex-nazi:
- “blah blah \cite{citation}” -> “blah blah~\cite{citation}”
- “blah blah \ref{reference}” -> “blah blah~\ref{reference}”
- Simplify, simplify, simplify: avoid complex sentences, avoid secondary, tertiary etc sentences. Do not think in Italian and translate in English — Italian is much more verbose.
- Simplify more! Look at every single sentence and think: is there a way to convey the same information in less space?
- In the following chapters there are going to be presented some methods…” -> “The following chapters present some methods.…”