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The Craft of Scientific Writingby Michael Alley
Presented byMarta T. Magiera
RET 2007University of Illinois at Chicago
July 12, 2007
Chapters 6-9
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Fluid
Precise
Clear
Forthright
Familiar
Concise
Forthright
Controlling tone of writing
Selecting strong nouns and verbs
Keeping readers moving forward
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Per your request I am facilitating this part of presentation.
Avoid pretentious words Avoid arrogant phrases
Controlling tone of writing
leading to obvious result as shown above
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Choosing Strong Nouns
Concrete vs. Abstract nouns
Should evoke senses
– “The existing nature of Mount St. Helens’ volcanic ash spewage was handled through the applied use of computer modeling capabilities.”
– “With Cray computers, we modeled how much ash spewed from Mount St. Helens.”
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Choosing Strong Verbs
Allow verbs to push paper forward
Use active verbs – eliminate “is” or “to be”
Passive voice usually is unnatural
– “ The feed through was composed of a sapphire optical fiber which was pressed against the pyrotechnic that was used to confine the charge“
– “The feed through contained a sapphire optical fiber, which pressed against the pyrotechnic that contained the charge”
Use first person
“In this paper the author assumed that …”
Keep emphasis on work
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Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. A cloud of hot
rock and gas surged northward from its collapsing slope.
The cloud devastated more than 500 square kilometers of
forests and lakes. The effects of Mount St. Helens were well
documented with geophysical instruments. The origin of the
eruption is not well understood. Volcanic explosions are
driven by a rapid expansion of steam. Some scientists
believe the steam comes from groundwater heated by the
magma.
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FamiliarFluid
Precise
Clear
Forthright
Familiar
ConciseEvery field has a tendency to create it’s own language: specific terms to describe specific ideas
In scientific writing, the writer is responsible bridging the language gap
Introducing an unfamiliar term, requires defining or explaining its meaning
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Defining Terms
To inform your audience, you have to use language that they understand.
Define the term in the sentence.
Use analogy
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transcendental number is a real or complex number which is not algebraic that is, not a solution of a non-zero polynomial equation, with rational coefficients
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If you were standing at arm's length from someone andyou had one percent more electrons than protons, therepelling force would be incredible. How great? Enoughto lift the Empire State Building? No. To lift MountEverest? No. The repulsion would be enoughto lift a weight equal to that of the entire earth.
Numerical analogies make writing unique.
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Concise
Eliminating redundancies
Eliminating writing zeros
Reducing sentences to
simplest form
Cutting waste
Fluid
Precise
Clear
Forthright
Familiar
Concise
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Eliminating Redundancies
• Redundancies are needless repetition of words in a sentence
- repeat the meaning of an earlier expression or else makes implicit a point that has already been stated
• Adjectives often redundant
The aluminum metal cathode became pitted during the glow discharge.
• Adverbs also redundant
• Common examples in Scientific Writing
- (already) existing - (alternative) choices at
- (the) present (time) - (basic) fundamentals
- (completely) eliminate - (continue to) remain
- (currently) being - (currently) underway
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Eliminating Writing Zeros
Zeros are phrases that have no meaning at all.These type of phrases do not offer any information
It is interesting to note that over 90 incidents of satellitefragmentations have produced over 36,000 kilograms of spacedebris.
Vibration measurements made in the course of the missile's flight
Test program were complicated by the presence of intense highfrequency excitation of the vehicle shell structure during the reentry
phase of the flight.”
Common Zero Phrasesas a matter of fact I might add that it is noteworthy that it is significant that it should be pointed out thatthe fact that the presence of
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Reducing sentences to simplest form
Use only the necessary words in whatever sentence structure you choose (simple,
compound, or complex) Many reductions occur within phrases
at this point in time now at that point in time then has the ability to can in light of the fact that because in the event that if
Other ways to reduce to simpler sentence Do not overuse adjectives Do not use a lot of adverbs (ex. very, somewhat) Avoid using the passive voice (makes writing more
efficient)
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Vibration measurements made in the course of the Titan flight test program were complicated by the presence of intense high-frequency excitation of the vehicle shell structure during the re-entry phaseof the flight.
Vibration measurements made in the Titan flight were complicated by intense high-frequency excitation of the vehicle shell during re-entry.
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Eliminating Waste
Looks to eliminate needless paragraphs and sections.
Make sure you consider the target audience.
Keep in mind the purpose for writing
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Fluid
The greatest possible merit of
style is, of course, to make the
words absolutely disappear
into the thought.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Fluid
Precise
Clear
Forthright
Familiar
Concise
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– Rhythm helps determine the energy of the paper; if every sentence begins the same way, the writing becomes dull. Imagine a song with only 2 or 3 different notes. Dull and monotonous, right?
– How do you vary rhythm? Change the positions of the subject and verb, the way sentences begin and end, the lengths of sentences, and/or the lengths of paragraphs.
– Choose transition words, such as , “moreover”, “however”, or “therefore” to begin sentences.
Varying Sentence Rhythm
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Length measured by the number of lines readersees on the page. Many writers go no more than two-thirdsdown a page without displaying a visual break. Generally, aparagraph is between 7 to 14 lines with an occasional longparagraph. Overall paragraph length depends on theformat.
Varying paragraph lengths
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Paragraph Dilemma
We identified 4 reasons that can explain differences between these results
Argument 1
Argument 2
Argument 3
Argument 3
cont.
Argument 4
This argument is further supported by the prevalence of ….
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Use Equations
Electrical conductivity is defined as function ofmaterial's ability to carry electrical current and ismeasured as a product of the reciprocal resistanceto the flow of electricity in a length L of material divided by the cross-sectional area A of the material.
1 L
R A