STYLISTIC COMMENTS

	I tend to make the same set of comments over and over when I
	proofread, so I thought I'd gather them together into one
	place for easy reference.


1. Avoid empty sections: Some text is needed between a section title
and the first subsection of the section.

2. Capitalize names of sections, equations, figures, tables, like
"Section 3.1".  So, "next section", but "Section 6".  Same goes for
Item 2, Table 3, Assumption 4.

3. Use a comma after "but", "next", "here", "now", "then", adverbs
etc., when starting a sentence.  Then, your text will flow nicely.

4. Pluralize abbreviations using an "s".  So, "MDPs", not "MDP's".

5. Avoid the dangling "this".  So, "this example shows that" not "this
shows that".  This rule is intended to discourage this kind of
behavior.  One hint: Try changing "this" to "it"---usually, doing so
will make it obvious that more context is needed.

6. Hyphenate noun phrases if they defy the natural right-to-left
grouping in English.  So, "relational reinforcement learning" is ok,
but "reinforcement learning algorithm" should be
"reinforcement-learning algorithm".  Noun-phrase hyphenation is needed
to group words in the beginning of a noun phrase, but not when there
are only two words.  [A nice example from The Colbert Report:
"Nazi-treasure hunter" (someone seeking Nazi treasure) vs. "Nazi
treasure hunter" (a Nazi who is seeking treasure).]

7. Use "which" only after a comma, because it is used to add
descriptive features instead of defining features.  So, "the ball
which I threw" should either be "the ball that I threw" (meaning, "of
the many possible balls, I'm talking about the one that I threw") or
"the ball, which I threw" (meaning, "that ball I'm talking about, you
might also like to know that I threw it").  I try to follow this rule,
which I learned from my advisor.

8. affect/effect [rule not yet written]

9. Don't use citations as nouns.  Say "As explained by Kearns and
Singh (2002)" or "As explained elsewhere (Kearns and Singh 2002)"
instead of "As explained by (Kearns and Singh, 2002)".

10. Don't use latin abbreviations.  That is, say "that is" instead of
"ie" or "for example" instead of "eg".  I guess I don't mind Latin if
it's spelled out, for example "ad hoc".  But, no one seems to use
"exempli gratia" (e.g.) and "id est" (i.e.) because they look overly
complicated, that is, there are perfectly good English substitutes.

11. Separate sentence-initial prepositional phrases by a comma.  So,
"From what I've heard, he solved it" instead of "From what I've heard
he solved it".  In case there is confusion, imagine trying to parse
the sentence to mark where the prepositional phrase ends.

12. Use one- vs. two-word phrases correctly.  These phrases should be
one word when used as a noun and two words when used as a verb.  For
example, "We trade off time and energy." and "We strike a careful
tradeoff between time and energy."  Another one: "We set the cutoff to
0.7%, but had to cut off any runs that took too long."  Another: "We
print out the data and pick up the printout later from the pickup
box."  And: "I will write up my experiment and then send the writeup
to my supervisor."  Longer list: follow up, followup; trade off,
tradeoff; speed up, speedup; cut off, cutoff; print out, printout;
write up, writeup; set up, setup; pick up, pickup; in line, inline;
make up, makeup.

13. Master "its" vs. "it's".  "Its" is possessive and "it's" is a
contraction for "it is".  So, we say "It's unfortunate that its nose
fell off."  In my experience with this rule, it's common for people to
forget its proper usage.

14.  Don't begin a sentence with a variable or function name.  It can
help to put "The equation ..." in front of it first.


Updated by Michael L. Littman, 2008.  All rights reserved.