Dos and Donts of Scientific Writing

1
Dos and Donts of Scientific Writing

• Originally prepared by Dr. Johan Groeneveld
• Revised by Anton McLachlan

Write with precision, clarity and economy. Every
sentence should convey the exact truth as simply
as possible. Instructions to Authors from
Ecology 1964
2
Where does writing style fit in?

• After
• Hypotheses developed
• Key questions posed
• Data collection
• Data analyzed
• Paper outline drafted
• Tables and Figures compiled
• But before
• First submission to journal

3
Write with the Reader in Mind

• Who is the reader?
• Editor, reviewers
• Scientists and professionals
• Students
• Assumptions
• They are all busy, with little spare time
• They prefer to read clear and concise articles

4
Try to Avoid

• Long complicated sentences
• Pretentious language
• Repetition
• Meaningless phrases
• Irrelevant material
• Cluttering a paragraph
• Citing too many references

5
Long Complicated Sentences

• A long and complicated example
• Various management strategies, such as the
  development of sanctuaries, closed seasons,
  minimum size-limit for harvesting of 75mm
  carapace length (CL) lobsters, enforcing a
  no-take status on ovigerous females and issuing
  quotas according to a total allowable catch (TAC)
  have been introduced over the years but
  catch-rates have steadily declined since the
  1950s to the present catch of around 2500 tons -
  an effect attributed not only to
  over-exploitation but to decreased lobster
  growth-rates and large-scale environmental
  changes in the BCLME.

6
Long Complicated Sentences

• Can be broken down to three parts
• Various management strategies, such as the
  development of sanctuaries, closed seasons,
  minimum size-limit of harvesting of 75 mm
  carapace length (CL), enforcing a no-take status
  on ovigerous females and issuing quotas according
  to a total allowable catch (TAC), have been
  introduced over the years but catch-rates have
  steadily declined since the 1950s to the present
  catch of around 2500 tons - an effect attributed
  not only to over-exploitation but to decreased
  lobster growth-rates and large-scale
  environmental changes in the BCLME.

7
Much better is

• Management strategies introduced since the 1950s
  include lobster sanctuaries, closed fishing
  seasons, minimum size-limits, no take-of
  ovigerous females, and a quota system.
• Catches have continued to decline, reaching 2500
  tons by 2006.
• The decline is attributed to over-exploitation
  and decreased lobster growth rates resulting from
  large scale environmental changes in the BCLME.
• From 80 words down to 50!

8
Pretentious Language

• Using pretentious language will not make you
  sound more intelligent it will simply make
  you unintelligible
• Commonly used words instead of obscure words
• The study was conducted
• The study was done
• Hint Use the Thesaurus on your word processor!
• Examples hint suggestion (n), clue,
  intimation, mention, indication, tip, advice,
  insinuation, allusion, trace, telltale sign,
  pointer, help

9
Avoid Repetition

• Discussion in the Results section
• Results in the Discussion section
• Information can be in the Introduction OR
  Discussion not in both!
• Repetition of information in Tables and Figures
  in the Text

10
Meaningless Phrases

• The results are given in Figure1, where it is
  shown that temperature was directly
  proportional to metabolic rate
• Rather write
• Temperature was directly proportional to
  metabolic rate (Fig.1)..
• In order to determine... OR to
  determine
• Use parenthesis (brackets) for statistical
  results
• Fruit size was significantly greater in trees
  growing alone (t3.65, df2, plt0.05).

11
Irrelevant Material

• Irrelevant material lengthens a paper without
  adding to its substance
• Focus, focus, focus
• Stick to the facts speculate sparingly
• Dont get side-tracked
• You dont need to include ALL your data or
  analyses!

12
Cluttering a Paragraph

• Dont have more than one main idea or theme in a
  paragraph? It is better in such cases to rather
  write two or more linked paragraphs.
• Dont overkill with too many citations. Just
  cite the most important, most recent or, where
  available, review papers?
• (However, in a review paper it may be
  appropriate to have an extensive/complete list of
  references)

13
The Dos

• Read the Instructions to Authors stick to
  it!
• Maintain the focus of the paper be clear and
  concise
• Use the appropriate tense
• Use passive instead of active voice
• Maintain balance between text length and
  numbers of figures/tables
• Be consistent in format (choice of words, font,
  numbering, punctuation, abbreviation, spacing,
  citation)

14
Use the Appropriate Tense (normally never the
future)

• Abstract
• Past tense when describing and giving results
• Present tense for conclusions
• Introduction
• Past or present tense
• Methods Results
• Past tense (What you did and what you found)
• Discussion
• Past and/or present tense

15
Use Passive not Active Voice

• Active
• We used ANOVA to compare distances moved.
• I sampled 50 sites.
• But better is Passive
• ANOVA was used to compare distances moved.
• Fifty sites were sampled.

16
Other Suggestions

• When you are done and think it is
  perfect.....its not!
• Forget about the article for a week and then
  read it again!
• Give it to an experienced colleague to read and
  ask him/her to be brutal!
• Rememberthere are as many different styles as
  there are researchersbut they all need to get
  past the journal editor and the reviewers!