The four-question summary

After I read a paper, I like to write down the answer to four questions:

  • Why is this work imporant?
    • This gives me a sense of the application of the paper & why it is important. It helps me put things into context & understand the rest of the content of the paper better.
  • Why is this work different?
    • The answer to this question tells me what is new or different about the method proposed by the authors, when comparing against the rest of the current literature.
  • How does it work?
    • This answer delves into some of the technical details of the paper, although it still tries to avoid the nitty-gritty and still gives the big picture idea.
  • What are the results?
    • This provides any interesting or significant results that are particularly important. Any additional comments or thoughts I have would be written as well.