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Scientific Writing Skills

Join Prof. Leon de Stadler as he discusses the writing process and what makes scientific writing different. Learn about the steps in the writing process, the importance of structure and coherence, and tips for improving your scientific writing skills.

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Scientific Writing Skills

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  1. Scientific Writing Skills Presented by Prof. Leon de Stadler US Writing Centre

  2. 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

  3. Topics for discussion The writing task and the writing process What makes it “scientific”? Scientific writing = Structured writing Kinds of structure

  4. Topics for discussion Problem statements and hypotheses Coherence Scientific style The US Writing Centre

  5. Task 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

  6. Steps 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 ...

  7. Steps in the process Revising: Focusing on higher-order concerns Proofreading: Focusing on the lower-order concerns

  8. Scientific 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

  9. “Scientific”? Contributing to the world of knowledge Originality Critical thinking and insight A clear focus … but on what?

  10. “Scientific”? Insights, theories, assumptions, jargon, etc. of the field No unnecessary baggage Relevant ... … to the defense of a view point

  11. “Scientific”? Coherent Structured Scientific style No mistakes

  12. Scientific = Structured Content structure External structure

  13. Content 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

  14. Writing an introduction 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

  15. Problem statement Specific Highly focused, clear As concrete as possible Preferably one problem statement; may be broken up into a number of subproblems

  16. Problem 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 ...

  17. Hypothesis The answer to your problem statement Should be refutable Should not be negative

  18. Other components Theoretical framework Literature review Research design:Problem statement(s), hypotheses,pilot study, sample taking, sample size, measuring instruments, statistical techniques, etc.

  19. Other components Presentation of findings Discussion of findings Conclusions

  20. External structure The so-called “entry structures” for the reader Divisions into chapters, sections and paragraphs The importance of headings

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

  22. Paragraph structure A unit of thought One (sub)theme described in the theme sentence Supported by other sentences

  23. Paragraph problems Paragraphs that do not link properly Too long: more than one theme Too short: one theme dealt with in more than one paragraph

  24. Coherence Between paragraphs and between sentences Logical flow of thought One thought following from or building upon another: conceptual links; relevance Different kinds of relationships

  25. Markers 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

  26. Scientific 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

  27. Style: Problems Passive voice Referring to the writer? Difficult sentences Short sentences Nominalisations Dangling constructions

  28. Style: Problems Unnecessary qualifiers Pronouns and their antecedents

  29. Visit the US Writing Centre! http://www.sun.ac.za/sagus/USWritingCentre.htm

  30. Thank you for your attention!

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