Writing Resources

You must learn Persian academic writing. All writing you submit to me will become available online. Think about 10-20 years from now when you become an established professional. Do you want a badly written document of yours come up in Google’s search results? Submit a report that you will be proud of it. Although I prefer to give more technical and in-depth comments on your writing, spelling, formating and writing erros are distractive and prevent me from focusing on the technical aspect. So, please learn good writing and practice it. Here are some resources:

• Software
  • Default windows fonts are not appropriate. Download and install Farsi fonts.
  • Which authoring tool should I use? Commenting/Colaborating is easiest in Microsoft Word (I haven’t tried google doc for proper documents. Maybe that’s good too, but I bet it has problems in the corner cases like heading, captions, …). LaTeX is best for consistency. If you are using LaTeX, I prefer collaborating on Overleaf.
  • If you are using Microsoft Word, LEARN how to use it.
  • The university provides a template. You can use it, but you must also fix any issues it has.
  • There is also a LaTeX template on overleaf.
  • If you are writing an internship report Computer Engineering department has a template. It has a lot of formatting problems. Still, it could be useful.
  • Whatever template you use, you must own it. Delete anythings that is not applicable.
• Writing
  • See the university guidline for writing a thesis. The guidline is also applicable to undergraduate students.
  • Use PROPER and MODERN persian spelling and writing guidelines. Here are some resources:
    • Check for proper spelling, word spacing and half-space use here.
    • Some minimal writing guidlines here can also be useful.
    • Use plural/singular properly.
    • Half-Space guidline here.
• Common Issues:
  • Always type/write-in formulas using the formula tool for word or dollar sign in LaTeX. It is never OK to use images instead.
  • You should never have multiple heading follow each other without some text in-between. If you find yourelf doing so, think again about your documents structure. You can often reorganize your headings to better reflect the content you have.
  • In Persian academic writing, sentences/headings should not start with an English/Foreign word. If you find yourself doing so, you can address it by prepending it with a Persian word indicating what that English word/acronym is. For example instead of “RNN”, use “شبکه عصبی RNN”.
  • Make sure all images and tables in the document are properly formated. If you are borrowing an image/table you MUST provide a reference. Make sure you image/table is customized to your document with appropriate number format and font. You must have a caption for every image/table and they must be referenced in you text.
  • All numbers must be Persian-Styled numbers. Except in formulas for English text. In ms-word this can be acheived by setting the numbering system to Hindi in the advanced settings. In LaTeX, if you are using the xeperisan package, it usually does the correct thing. If not, you can often force it with latin, lr or rl environments.
  • There must never be any space added using newlines in ms-office. Spacing should be consistent across the document using paragraph setting for the appropriate style (using space-before and space-after settings in paragraph setting of the corresponding style).
  • In ms-word, you must NEVER EVER change the settings of a piece of text directly. You must ALWAYS, update the setting of the corresponding style instead or create a new style.
  • Heading style must be consistent across all sections.
  • Persian footnotes must be right-aligned and English footnotes must be left-aligned.
  • ALL writing must be YOURS. If not, put them in QUOTES (گیومه) and add reference.
  • Use proper Persian punctuation. English and Persian “comma sign” and “question marks” are different. Use the correct one.
  • Finally, read what you write !!! You don’t want me to be the first person who reads your writing. My reaction won’t be pleasant.