style in writing a scientific article
TRANSCRIPT
1Professor Tarek Tawfik Amin
Scientific writing I
Professor Tarek Tawfik Amin
Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University
Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Training
Asian Pacific Organization for Cancer Prevention
International Osteoporosis Foundation Wiley Innovative Panel
[email protected] [email protected]
MEDC April 2016
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ILOs • To explore motives/drives for scientific writing.• To define requirements of the three main domain
of scientific writing of an original contribution: components, language and style
• To identify the functionality of the different components of an article.
• To criticize the published literature (the writing component) and suggesting solutions.
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Contents and plan Session title Duration Methods Activities Authors and
readers perspectives
9:00-9:30
Interactive session
Components of scientific writing
Writing a text
9:30-11:00
Interactive Individual/group work
Activity IActivity II
Break 1 11:00-11:30
Article structure The methods
section
11:30-12:30
Interactive Individual/group work
Activity III
Introduction 1:00: 1:30
Interactive Hands-on
Activity IV
Break 2 1:30-1:45
Title and abstract 1:45-3:00
Interactive Individual/group work
Activity V, VI
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Scientific writing : general rules
Why writing a scientific paper?
Give three reasons.
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Background: Author’s Perspective
Motivation to publish:– Dissemination (54% 1st choice)– Career prospects (20% 1st choice)– Improved funding (13% 1st choice)– Ego (9% 1st choice)– Patent protection (4% 1st choice)– Other (5% 1st choice)
Bryan Coles (ed.) The STM Information System in the UK, BL Report 6123, Royal
Society, BL, ALPSP, 1993
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Author versus Reader Behaviour
• Author behaviour– Want to publish more– Peer review essential– Other journal functions
crucial– Wider dissemination
• Reader behaviour– Want integrated
system– Browsing is crucial– Quality information
important– Want to read less
Elsevier study of 36,000 authors (1999-2002) presented by Michael Mabe at ALPSP Seminar on “Learning from users” 2003; www.alpsp.org
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Reader’s priorities• Authoritative quality articles• Ease of access• Rapid delivery• Convenient format• Linking of information - clustering• Low or no cost• Up-to-date information
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Answer (modest) • Science is the orderly collection of
observations about the natural world made via well-defined procedures, and modern science is an archive of scientific papers.
• A research project has not contributed to science until its results have been reported in a paper.9/27/20153
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Contents
Style Language
Components of writing
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The writing approach
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In writing a scientific paper: Where to start?
• Writing a good scientific paper takes time. • Writing will seem endless if you begin with the title and slog straight through to the last reference. • This approach is difficult, wearing, and inefficient.
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The inside-out approach Important recipes
• Materials the core
• Methods
Data collected
• Analysis the core
• Results
Discussion • Of the results your
skills • Here comes the conclusion
Historical context
• The introduction The
perspective
• The title and the abstract the fore front
Time /research
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Scientific writing Writing a manuscript should be
initiated:A- after completion of the projectB- concurrent with project
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I- Setting a standard • AIMRaD• Predicable to the readers
Stereotyped format
• Clean• Clear• Unemotional (impartial)• No colorful words or ambiguity
Precise language
• Single theme throughout (from the title to the conclusion)
Single clear directionReviewed
and available
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II-Words and Text in Scientific writing
Exactness and clarity
• Straight forward message
• Remove vagaries, emotions, indirectness and redundancy
• Clean forward sentence, no hedging or hinting
Write with
precision • Each
sentence must present an idea in an unequivocal vocabulary
Numbers
• The natural words of science
• Define critical adjectives (tall/ >3 cm)
• Use scales for subjective adjective (pain)
Objective words • Define
your words
Intrinsically vague terms
• Avoid subjective terms
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Define your words: Don't use• Expressions with no clear limits: a
lot, fairly, long term, quite, really, short term, slightly, somewhat, sort of, very
• Words of personal judgment: assuredly, beautiful, certainly, disappointing, disturbing, exquisite, fortuitous, hopefully, inconvenient, intriguing, luckily, miraculously, nice, obviously, of course, regrettable, remarkable, sadly, surely, unfortunately.
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Continue • Words that are only fillers: alright,
basically, in a sense, indeed, in effect, in fact, in terms of, it goes without saying, one of the things, with regard to
• Casual colorful catch-words and phrases: agree to disagree, bottom line, brute force, cutting edge, easier said than done, fell through the cracks, few and far between, food for thought, leaps and bounds, no nonsense, okay, quibble, seat of the pants, sketchy, snafu, tad, tidbit, tip of the iceberg
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Group work I• Group work : these
paragraphs are short, clear, logical, complete, and directed to a single point.
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III-Use of Tenses: helps scientific readers • The general case:
statements already known
• General knowledge, standards, widely accepted statements and facts
Present
• Referring to specific events already happened [Historical]
• Your research is history [methods and results sections]
Past
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IV- Active and Passive Voice
Dr Roy wrote the abstract:
Active voice gives a sense of : strength, energy, vitality and
motion.
The abstract was written by Dr Roy:
Passive voice slows things down, and it’s shorter 9/27/20153
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Active vs. Passive voice • Active: self-promoting and lacking
humility • Passive: not
• Active: Scientist should stay out of the work
• Passive: overuse is confusing, promotes misplaced modifiers
• Passive : makes the writers less
accountable• Active : it does not make you less
accountable
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Factors influencing the choice of an active or passive verb
• First, does the reader need to know who or what carried out the action? If this information is unimportant, use a passive verb.
Example.• The researchers collected data from all sites
weekly.• It is not important who collected the data,
so the sentence may be better in the passive:
• Data* were collected weekly from all sites.
• Second, does it sound repetitive (or immodest) to use a personal pronoun subject?
Example:• We calculated least significant
differences (l.s.d.) to compare means.This may sound more appropriate in the passive:• Least significant differences (l.s.d.)
were calculated to compare means.
Points in relation to active/passive choice• The need to avoid repetition: in the active, the
subject of nearly every sentence would be ‘‘we’’. . • Discipline where single-authored papers are
common, check in whether it is appropriate to use ‘‘I’’; this usage is quite rare in science writing, especially in Methods sections.
• Does it help the information flow to choose either the active or passive voice?
• In English sentences, effective writers generally connect their sentences to each other by putting old information, which the reader already knows something about, before new information (the linking strategy).
• Sometimes writers may choose a passive verb so that they can use this strategy.
Example: Linkage strategy • We used [active] the results of these analyses
to inform the construction of mechanistic candidate functions for the relationship between propagule input, space availability and recruitment. These candidate functions were compared [passive] using differences in the Akaike information criteria (AIC differences; Burnham and Anderson 2002). We then used model averaging [active] .... (Britton-Simmons & Abbott 2008, p. 137)
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V- Long Sentences• Science is complex enough without using
overly complicated sentences to explain it• One enemy to clarity is long sentences• Meaning can get lost because too much is
going on in one sentence• Do not ask your sentences to do more than
they can
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Guidelines
1) Lack of clarity is No.1 problem for editors
2) Wordiness is an obstacle to readers
3) Write to communicate NOT to impress
4) Keep sentences short (> 17 words discourage readers)
5) Avoid colorful/impartial language
6)Use specific words (preferably numbers)
7)Reduce no. of words in a phrase
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Excessive wording
In the near future soon is of the opinion believes a sizable percentage of manyOwing to the fact that since in spite of the fact that although
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Guidelines: more • Don’t repeat words or ideas (a
palliative, non-curative treatment)• Be aware of: who, which, and that
(clutter the sentences) • Avoid the careless use of the word
this• Sharpen your words with precise
meaning (Not infrequently ????)• Get rid of excess words• Limit “To Be” phrases (is lacking
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Writing a text List of ideas, notes
and facts Transform into
sentences
Assemble paragrap
hs
Organize them
Rewriting
Re-assemble
Write fearlessly
Polish
Polish
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The writing: the journey The Skeletal
Outline
Pile in Ideas (lists)
Collect Information from
Outside Resources
Make the Lists into Rough Paragraphs
Arrange the Sentences into
Themes
Form Rough Sentences
Put Things Aside. Clear Your Mind
Put Together One Paragraph for Each
Topic
Shaping a Working Draft
Remove non-essentials
Lists of Simple Sentences
Rearrange Your sentences into a
Natural Sequence
Reassemble Paragraphs
Smooth Transitions
Polishing 10 times
End (none)
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For the non-English Speaking 1- Use simple verbs 2- Turn adjectives into numbers 3- Do not use metaphors 4- Make each sentence short5- Only one idea into each sentence 6- Make paragraphs short7- Consult English speaking editor
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Look at it with a critical editor’s eye
A) Wording precise and clear: “good stain,” replace it by the particular wording “easily visible,” “cell-specific,” “resistant to fading,” “highly reproducible,” “safe to use,” or “easily applied.”
B) Cut non-essential words: “He thoroughly investigated many avenues of staining,” trim it to “He tried many stains.”
C) Simplify: Make your sentences read smoothly, so that the wording does not distract from the content.
D) Focus: Putting too many ideas in one, long paragraph. Keep each paragraph focused on a single point
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Group work II• Replace the tangents and
redundant words.
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Replace With
a considerable amount of many, muchabsolutely essential essentialalmost unique rare, uncommonan order of magnitude more than ten timesas to whether whethercompletely full fullconsidered as consideredconsidering the fact that although, becausedecline decreasedifferent than different from, unlikedue to the fact that becauseeach and every eachend result resultequally as equallyexact same identicalexhibit a tendency tendfinal outcome outcomefirstly firstfirst of all firstforegone conclusion expectedforeseeable future futurehave a tendency tendhaving gotten having gothigher in comparison to higher thanif and when if, whenin close proximity to near
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