Quality of a technical paper/thesis

Following are the qualities expected of a technical writing.

• Level 1: The basic ideas are clearly explained
  • No reviewers (examiners) would accept (pass) a paper that they don’t understand.
  • The onus is on the authors to write clearly. The authors must not expect the reviewers to work unreasonably hard to understand the document.
• Level 2: The ideas must be complete
  • All reasonable questions have asked and answered.
  • Here are some of the common questions asked:
    • What is the subject being studied? (in no more than 10 words)
    • What is your work about?
      • What is the aim of this research?
      • Can you describe it in 20 words?
      • Can you describe it in laymen terms?
      • What motivates your work?
      • Why should anyone read on?
    • What is the background?
      • What are the state-of-the-art researches in the field?
      • What is your research based on?
      • What are your competing work?
    • What is the approach?
      • What is special about this approach?
      • What is new? e.g.
        • Did you prove a proposition?
        • Did you build a new model?
        • Did you invent a new algorithm?
        • Did you implement a piece of software?
        • Did you conduct a big survey?
      • What is the science in it? (This question could mean different things to different people.)
      • What are the results?
      • How did you evaluate your results?
      • What is your criteria for success?
    • What are the contributions claimed?
      • Why are these contributions significant?
      • How does this work compare with others?
      • How significant are your contributions?
• Level 3: The ideas must be sound
  • Is every point justified?
  • Do the conclusions follow the preceding arguments?