Basic Scientific Writing in English Lecture 2

1
Basic Scientific Writing in English Lecture 2

• Professor Ralph Kirby
• Faculty of Life Sciences
• Extension 7323
• Room B322
• Lectures 1 2 are and others will be available
  at www.dls.ym.edu.tw/

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The Process of Writing

• Know what the questions are
• Have your literature search ready
• Write directly on a word processor
• Print out drafts and correct these as you go
  along
• Know the limitations of your word processor
  package

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Scientific Writing begins with one or more
questions

• Before you begin writing a paper, you must have
  the following available. Usually, you will have
  done most of these for your Professor, but they
  will probably not be in English
• The identification of one or more questions that
  you intend to try and answer
• A outline of where your research is going
• A record of your experimental results
• Periodical assessments of your research in terms
  of its goals
• A literature review that should be continuously
  updated
• A choice of journals where you might want to
  publish
• You need to use these to help structure your paper

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Literature Search

• This is very important as it tells you where your
  paper will fit in.
• There are a number of things you need to keep in
  mind
• Do not limit yourself to database searches
• Read the references in a paper to find new
  references
• Identify the papers you feel are most relevant to
  your work and make an ENGLISH analysis of these.
  This will help you understand and remember them
• Should you have a hard copy of a paper available
• Yes. You can use the hardcopy to help you write
  your paper and you dont need to keep complex
  records of the papers you have read. If you want
  to, you can keep the papers in .pdf format until
  you need them, but it is very difficult to write
  your paper on a computer by flipping between it
  and the paper you need in .pdf. Print it out.

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Using a word processor to write a scientific paper

• Maximize the use you make of your word processing
  package
• Use automatic formatting to make sure your paper
  looks corrects throughout
• Write hidden notes to yourself as you go along so
  you remember why you said something and what you
  need to add
• Always keep page numbering on, so you can find
  places in the text easily
• Save your work as often as possible, but mark
  each version differently, e.g. Draft-1, Draft-2,
  Final 1 etc.
• When you want to revise your paper or do
  corrections, print the paper out and do any
  changes on the hard copy. I find it very
  difficult to read a paper properly on a screen

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Revising and correction a paper

• Do any changes you want to a paper on the hard
  copy using a pencil and an eraser
• This allows you to change your mind without
  making the hardcopy unreadable
• Keep you word processor program running while you
  do the corrections
• You will need the Spellchecker or the Thesaurus
• Do have a good English-Chinese/Chinese-English
  dictionary by your side
• You need to be flexible as to the words you use
• Try to have an English dictionary as well
• You will need to be sure what some words,
  particularly synonyms mean
• Keep the most important references by you
• You can use these to help and guide you as you
  write your paper

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Making the corrections on the Word Processor

• Finish all the corrections on the hard copy,
  dont do the electronic corrections a bit at a
  time
• Using tracking in different colours when you make
  the corrections e.g. red for deletions and blue
  for insertions
• Do not use spell-check unless you need to know
  how to spell a particular word
• Spellchecking can result in the acceptance of
  words that are wrong and it will remember you
  have accepted that word
• Dont use a grammar-check until you think the
  paper is complete
• Grammar-checks need very careful use
• Dont worry about the final look, for example
  paging, until the end.

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Spell-Checker I

• Remember there are a number of different version
  of English
• UK, US, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, India,
  Caribbean, Jamaica, Trinidad, New Zealand,
  Philippines, Belize etc as well as others that
  are not as officially recognised
• My native English is Geordie, a dialect of
  northern English, but I try to use US English
  spelling here, but I sometime forget. Notice any?
• For our purposes, American English is the norm,
  although if you submit to a British journal, they
  might want British English.
• Usage differences
• Car trunk (US) v Car boot (UK) Eraser (US) v
  Rubber (UK)
• Spelling differences
• Analyzed (US) v Analysed (UK) Hybridization (US)
  v Hybridisation (UK)
• New words, usually borrowed
• Lekker (Afrikaans SA) --- nice, pleasant, I
  agree to do this
• Veranda (Indian UK) --- Porch (US) --- Stoep
  (Afrikaans SA)
• Shebeen (Irish SA) --- Illegal drinking
  establishment

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Spell-Checker II

• Because many words in English differ by only one
  letter, the program will make errors when you
  have made typing mistakes
• She went into a comma
• She went into a coma
• The doctor believed the operation would leave her
  with a scare
• The doctor believed the operation would leave her
  with a scar
• The doctor checked the wards and his spelling
• The doctor checked the words and his spelling
• Note that the 1st error does not make sense but
  that with the 2nd and 3rd errors, both versions
  make some degree of sense

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Spell-Checker III

• Word processor dictionaries do not contain rare
  or scientific words. So when you run a
  spell-check on a scientific paper, you have many
  more hits than if this was a normal document
• So when you go through them, be sure you know
  that what you accept is correct
• Use can use sub-dictionaries to contain these
  words, but make sure you enter them correctly and
  use them consistently
• E.g. hybridization and hybridisation

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Grammar-Checker I

• Grammar-checks are important but even less
  reliable than spell-checking. However, they both
  tend to run together in many programs
• Only use both spell-checking and grammar-checking
  when you have do all your other correction and
  reached a final version
• Try and run spell-checking and grammar checking
  separately if possible and do any corrections
  separately too
• Think carefully before changing something that
  seems correct but has been highlighted in the
  grammar-check

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What are the problems with the following
sentences that will not be picked up by a
Spell-Checking Program

• The imported trees are so profligate that they
  are crowding out the naïve species
• The client has a congenial hip disease
• He has been a prostrate patient for many years
• The young of a certain South American bird have
  clawed fingers on their wings, allowing them to
  climb trees like quadruplets

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Grammar-Checker II

• Useful functions
• Identifies overlong and over-complex sentences
• Picks out common usage mistakes
• affect versus effect
• Picks out many common punctuation mistakes
• The experiment which was carried out at 4oC was
  ..
• The experiment, which was carried out at 4oC, was
  ..

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Grammar-Checker III

• Problems
• Will question the use of the passive tense even
  when it is correct. All scientific papers use the
  passive in places
• Tend to question many sentence constructions that
  are common in scientific papers but not used
  generally
• When we examine papers later, this will become
  much more obvious

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What are the problems with the following
sentences that will not be picked up by a
Grammar-Checking Program

• Migraines strike twice as many women as men
• The patient was referred to a psychiatrist with a
  severe emotional problem
• About two years ago, a wart appeared on his left
  hand, which he wanted removed
• People who use birth control methods that smoke
  are in danger of having retarded children

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JargonScientific writing has created its own
jargon or specialized word use, which grows
because scientists think they should sound
scientific

• Because As a consequence of
• Based on the fact that
• Because of the fact that
• Due to the fact that
• In light of the fact that
• In view of the fact that
• On account of
• On the grounds that
• Owing to the fact that
• The reason is because

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• Our attention has been drawn to the fact that
• We have only recently discovered that
• This result would seem to indicate
• This results shows
• It is clear that much additional work will be
  required before a complete understanding
• We dont understand (and we want more grant
  funds)
• It is worth pointing out that
• Note that
• It is not an unjustifiable assumption that
• The authors think
• An example of this is the fact that
• For example or e.g.
• Has been engaged in a study of
• Has studied

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Some phrases can just be left out, they add
nothing

• As a matter of fact
• In a very real sense
• In a sense
• It is interesting to note that
• It should be noted that
• Let us make it clear that
• Needless to say

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And sometimes people just mean something totally
different

• Amniocentesis written by a group of prenatal
  experts
• Real meaning
• Amniocentesis, a book written by people who
  were experts in the field before they were born
• What they are trying to say
• Amniocentesis, a book written by experts in the
  field of prenatal child care