Word Choice

2. Word Choice

3. A Few Questions… • Is scientific writing the same as literary writing (like Shakespeare)? • Do you write it like you would write a novel? • Is elaboration necessary? • Is it necessary to put a lot of details? • What is the goal for Scientific Writing?

4. The ultimate goal for scientific writing is.. To win the Nobel price of Medicine but not Nobel price of Literature

5. There are two kinds of scientific writing: that which is intended to be read, and that which is intended merely to show figures.

6. Some Curious Facts • Science is hard to read! • the complicated science and graphs/figures is hard to understand already • The difficulty in reading science reduces when authors start using clear language! • It is possible to produce clarity without oversimplifying scientific issues/facts

7. Core Values • Precision: ambiguities in writing cause confusion and may prevent a reader from grasping crucial aspects of the methodology and synthesis. • Clarity: concepts and methods in the sciences can often be complex; writing that is difficult to follow greatly amplifies any confusion on the part of the reader. • Objectivity: any claims that you make need to be based on facts, not intuition or emotion.

8. Words in scientific research paper should be …. • Precise • Simple • Necessary • Use few (if any) abbreviations

9. Precise • Use your dictionary to find examples • Don’t just check the Chinese definitions • Precise words evoke a mental image • Abstractions make reading difficult

10. Word and Phrasing choice • Often several words may convey similar meaning, but usually only one word is most appropriate in a given context. For example: • BAD: The population density is associated with SARS transmission rate. • GOOD: The population density is positivelycorrelatedwith SARS transmission rate (p<0.05, see Fig. 1). • In scientific writing, "correlated" conveys a precise statistical relationship between two variables.

11. Precise Style • It’s OK to makes your writing interesting, but not imprecise. • BAD: “Arctic mutation: at the peak of amyloid iceberg“ • GOOD: “Aggressive amyloidosis in mice expressing human amyloid peptides with the Arctic mutation” • Makes your writing more objective and less is left to the imagination of the reader. • Exclude similes and metaphors from your scientific writing. • Whenever possible, use quantitative rather than qualitative descriptions. • BAD: "experimental subjects were assaulted with a wall of sound“ • GOOD: "experimental subjects were presented with 20 second pulses of conspecific mating calls.”

12. reduced by 80% 4 increase incubated in Mice blocked offset inhibited

13. cause accompanied by During Induce bv reaching Heparin containing plasma

14. Simple • If an idea is simple, do not make it complex. If an idea is complex, write it as simple as possible. • All the technical or scientific words are already big, fancy, and heavy. Therefore, choose simple words for the rest of the sentence. • The more difficult words you use, the higher chance you’ll get something wrong.

15. Making Style More Clear • When you're writing about complex ideas and concepts, it's easy to get sucked into complex writing. • Transforming complicated ideas into simple explanations is probably the most difficult task in scientific writing.

16. Clear Style • Language Use: • When given a choice between a familiar and technical or obscure term, the more familiar term is preferred only if it does not reduce precision. • The reader has complicated material to learn, so there should not be any distraction with complex terms that may be confusing.

17. Use simple, direct language

18. girls boys after beginning start a first before discontinous

19. increase pain pain subtypes heats cell body toward the live

20. a majority of = most • at the present time = now • give rise to = cause • in some cases = sometimes • is defined as = is • it is believed that = We believe • on the basis of = by • pooled together = pooled • subsequent to = after • with the result that = so that

21. Necessary • Use the fewest words possible. • The more noise, the less message • The point is to be as brief as possible consistent with clarity • If it takes more words to be clear, use more words!!!

22. in the cytoplasm of these changes

24. Abbreviations • How many abbreviations should be used in a scientific paper? • How should you decide when to use an abbreviation?

25. Abbreviation

26. When to use? • To replace a term that is long or unwieldy and that appears a great many times in the paper. • An abbreviation should be used often enough that reader does not forget the meaning (>10 times) • Exceptions: • Really long term, Ex: HFIP (1,1,1,3,3,3-Hexafluoro-2-propanol) • Some abbreviation that more familiar to reader than the term is. Ex: DNA

27. How to avoid abbreviations • Instead of an abbreviation, one word from a long term can be used. • Ex: “isometric handgrip exercise” can be called “exercise” instead of “IHE” (if only one type of exercise in the paper) • To avoid “group A”, use “treated group”

39. Which vs that • that identifies the object about which you are speaking • which provides further info about the object GOOD: The car that is speeding down the road is about to crash into a pole. OK: The car, which is speeding down the road, is about to crash into a pole.

40. Semicolon • Connects two sentences that are closely related to each other • Use a semicolon when what follows constitutes a complete sentence • When what follows is a fragment, you must use a comma or an em dash

41. Semicolon CAREFUL: Max’s head was throbbing; Lyn’s heart was sinking. The semicolon implies that there is a connection between Max’s head throb and Lyn’s sinking heart!! BAD: Holly wanted to live on a farm with plenty of chickens; and to have a stellar career as well. GOOD: This machine is difficult to use; for example, it crashes whenever you turn it on.

42. Colon • The colon signifies that what follows it expands on or explains what precedes it: this sentence is an example. • Use at the end of a sentence, followed by a list GOOD: This talk does not assume that you know the basics: how to form a sentence, how to use words and how to laugh at your mistakes.

43. Grant writing

44. The difference between grant and paper writing • Here is an interesting problem (Introduction; specific aims) • Here is my idea and approach (Method; Research design) • My idea works (Preliminary data; Result) • Here’s how my idea compares to other people’s approaches (Background; Discussion)

45. Remember- Reviewers are busy!!!! Make sure they got your idea the first time (even they read it on the road or when feeding baby)

46. Key Points of Your Proposal Whatis your question Why is your study important How are you going to do it

47. The grant should consist of …. Chinese and English title and abstracts  overview Hypothesis and Specific aims  What is your question Background  What people need to know about this field Significance  Why it is an important question Preliminary data  evidence you have so far Research design and methods  how you going to test Anticipated results  potential answer to your question References  you ideas are not from nowhere 40% 40%

48. Title • Title of a project = face of a girl • Attractive, easy to understand, reflect the central theme • Concise: avoid non-informative words like “ A study of---” • The shorter, the better (< 100 characters) • Word choice • Quantitative: increase, decrease, reduced • Qualitative: improved, impaired

49. Example • Role of calcium in pharmacological studies. (worst) • Role of calcium in pharmacological studies on PC12 cells. (at lease have information on cell type) • Role of calcium in effects of drug X on PC12 cells. (better) • Role of calcium in apoptotic effects of drug X on PC12 cells. (best)

50. Abstract • Concisely describe every part of your paper • Write it last, following the logic of the proposal • English and Chinese title and abstracts should be consistent but not word-to-word translation