Guidelines for Effective Academic Writing

 Here are some guidelines for effective academic writing. It is based on my own experience writing for computer science journals and conferences. 

1. Don't use 'the' with an abbreviation.
2. Use active tenses unless a passive is extremely necessary.
3. Use the same form of the verb (present/past) when describing related work and be consistent with it throughout the manuscript.
4. Don't use the before plurals.
5. Don't use etc when including a list of items.
6. Never use the word 'suggest' when referring to the previous work. The word 'report' could be a better option. 
7. Don't use 's with an abbreviation, for example, SDN's capability could be written as SDN capability.
8. Don't use the word "paradigm" use only when it makes sense.
9. Always use "," after then, however, thus, etc.
10. Be consistent, use the same form of "TENSE, i.e., PAST or PRESENT" in the whole section.
11. Do not use "the", "a" ...in front of single abbreviations; for example state "the TCP  is .." rather we write "TCP is ..".
12. Do not use "doesn't, don't, didn't" use formal writing style write "does not, do not, did not".