Scientific Writing Scientific Writing SkillsSkills

Presented byPresented by

Prof. Leon de StadlerProf. Leon de Stadler

US Writing CentreUS Writing Centre

But in science the credit goes to the man (or woman) who convinces the world, not to the man (or woman) to whom the idea first occurs

Sir Francis Darwin

Topics for Topics for discussiondiscussion

The writing task and the writing process

What makes it “scientific”? Scientific writing = Structured writing Kinds of structure

Topics for Topics for discussiondiscussion

Problem statements and hypotheses Coherence Scientific style The US Writing Centre

Task vs. processTask vs. process

How do you go about the writing task?

Why the process is important It is about organisation, avoiding

frustration, finding your focus, productive writing and …

… a final product to be proud of

Steps in the processSteps in the process

Invention: Coming up with a topic and a clear focus on the topic

Collecting the data Organising the document: the outline Drafting - writing, writing and

writing again ...

Steps in the processSteps in the process

Revising: Focusing on higher-order concerns

Proofreading: Focusing on the lower-order concerns

Scientific WritingScientific Writing

… is as much about science as it is about writing ...

… but for some reason we tend to forget about the latter

That’s why our goal should be

to change the mindset about writing

““Scientific”?Scientific”?

Contributing to the world of knowledge

Originality

Critical thinking and insight

A clear focus … but on what?

““Scientific”?Scientific”?

Insights, theories, assumptions, jargon, etc. of the field

No unnecessary baggage

Relevant ...

… to the defense of a view point

““Scientific”?Scientific”?

Coherent

Structured

Scientific style

No mistakes

Scientific = StructuredScientific = Structured

Content structure External structure

Content structureContent structure Content organisation Content hierarchy The role of a good introduction A clear topic A well-focused problem statement Well-defined hypotheses Clear aims and objectives

Writing an Writing an introductionintroduction

An important structuring mechanism Anouncing the topic Motivation to undertake the study Most important findings in the

published literature Research problem and hypotheses Brief review of following chapters

Problem statementProblem statement

Specific Highly focused, clear As concrete as possible Preferably one problem statement;

may be broken up into a number of subproblems

Problem statementProblem statement

Discussion of the problem statement in the example text:

Can you find a single sentence denoting the problem statement?

Where exactly is the focal element in the section?

Another example on the overhead ...

HypothesisHypothesis

The answer to your problem statement

Should be refutable Should not be negative

Other componentsOther components

Theoretical framework Literature review Research design:

Problem statement(s), hypotheses,pilot study, sample taking, sample size, measuring instruments, statistical techniques, etc.

Other componentsOther components

Presentation of findings Discussion of findings Conclusions

External structureExternal structure

The so-called “entry structures” for the reader

Divisions into chapters, sections and paragraphs

The importance of headings

CoherenceCoherence

Logical build-up of ideas Paragraph structure Coherence relationships Markers of coherence Problems with coherence

Paragraph structureParagraph structure

A unit of thought One (sub)theme described in the

theme sentence Supported by other sentences

Paragraph problemsParagraph problems

Paragraphs that do not link properly Too long: more than one theme Too short: one theme dealt with in

more than one paragraph

CoherenceCoherence

Between paragraphs and between sentences

Logical flow of thought One thought following from or

building upon another: conceptual links; relevance

Different kinds of relationships

Markers of coherenceMarkers of coherence

Words and frases that signal the existence of a coherence relationship

Pronouns, conjunctions, repeated thematic elements, related words, etc.

Examples in the example text

Scientific styleScientific style

Formality: creating distance between writer and reader

Goal: objectivity But style and formulation should not

make the reading task impossible In this section: a few problems

related to style and formulation

Style: ProblemsStyle: Problems

Passive voice Referring to the writer? Difficult sentences Short sentences Nominalisations Dangling constructions

Style: ProblemsStyle: Problems

Unnecessary qualifiers Pronouns and their antecedents

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Thank you for your attention!