2008 年 4 月 10日Word choice/Grant writing
2008 年 4 月 17日Sentence structure
2008 年 4 月 24日Paragraph structure
2008 年 5 月 1日Figures, tables and reference2008 年 5 月 8日Result I
2008 年 5 月 15日校慶
2008 年 5 月 22日Result/Discussion
2008 年 5 月 29日Discussion
2008 年 6 月 5日Slide and poster making
2008 年 6 月 12日Submission and rebuttal letters
Word Choice
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?
The ultimate goal for scientific writing is..
To win the Nobel price of Medicine but not Nobel price of Literature
There are two kinds of scientific writing: that which is intended to be read, and that which is intended merely to show figures.
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
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.
Words in scientific research paper should be ….
• Precise
• Simple
• Necessary
• Use few (if any) abbreviations
Precise
• Use your dictionary to find examples– Don’t just check the Chinese definitions
• Precise words evoke a mental image
• Abstractions make reading difficult
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 positively correlated with SARS transmission rate (p<0.05, see Fig. 1).
– In scientific writing, "correlated" conveys a precise statistical relationship between two variables.
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.”
reduced by 80%
4
increase
incubated in
Mice
blocked
offset
inhibited
cause
accompanied by
During
Induce bv
reaching
Heparin containing plasma
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.
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.
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.
Complex Simple
efficacious effective
utilize usage
elucidate clarify
proximal close
Use simple, direct language
NO YES
The object under study was displaced horizontally
The ball moved sideways
On an annual basis Yearly
Endeavour to ascertain Find out
It could be considered that the speed of storage reclamation left
something to be desired
The garbage collector was really slow
girls boys
afterbeginning
start
a first
before
discontinous
increase pain
cell body
toward the live
painsubtypes
heats
a majority of = mostat the present time = nowgive rise to = causein some cases = sometimesis defined as = isit is believed that = We believeon the basis of = bypooled together = pooledsubsequent to = afterwith the result that = so that
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!!!
in the cytoplasm
of these changes
Abbreviations
• How many abbreviations should be used in a scientific paper?
• How should you decide when to use an abbreviation?
Abbreviation
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
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”
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.
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
Semicolon
CAREFUL: Max’s head was throbbing; Lyn’s heart was sinking.
The semicolon implies that there is a connection between Max’shead 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.
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.
Grant writing
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)
Remember-
Reviewers are busy!!!!
Make sure they got your idea the first time (even they read it on the road or when feeding baby)
What is your question
Why is your study important
How are you going to do it
Key Points of Your Proposal
The grant should consist of ….
Chinese and English title and abstracts overview Hypothesis and Specific aims What is your questionBackground What people need to know about this fieldSignificance Why it is an important questionPreliminary data evidence you have so far Research design and methods how you going to testAnticipated results potential answer to your questionReferences you ideas are not from nowhere
40%
40%
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
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)
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
.
Early onset breast cancer has been the unique and major health problem in Taiwan with annual increase-----
The etiology and mechanisms of breast cancer in young women is unknown. It has been suggested that carcinogenesis in utero may account for the early-onset of this cancer-------------
To test this hypothesis, we have used fed pregnant mice with fatty diet and found increase in incidence of mammary tumors in the new born mice.----------------------
In this proposal, we will examine the alteration of mammary gland differentiation pathway in the mammary tumors derived from the new born mice using microarray, SAGE (serial analysis of gene expression) as well real-time PCR techniques -------------
This study of alterations in mammary gland differentiation in the mammary tumor of new born mice will allow us to identify the genetic and molecular mechanisms involved in the early-onset breast cancer.
This information could be useful for diagnosis/treatment of early-onset breast cancer in Taiwan---------------------------
Importance
Outstanding problems
Hypothesis
Experimental approaches
Summary
Answers
Significance
Background and preliminary data
Hypothesis and Specific Aims
Hypothesis and Specific AimsObjective, rationale, and hypothesis
Specific aim 1
Specific aim 2
Specific aim 3
Potential outcomes + significance
Hypothesis and Specific AimsObjective, rationale, and hypothesis
Specific aim 1
Specific aim 2
Specific aim 3
Potential outcomes + significance
•Usually 1-2 pages
•List your long-term objectives
•State the hypothesis to be tested.
•List specific aims: one by one
•What the specific research proposed to finish.
•Potential outcomes + significance
Hypothesis non fingo!
Aim 1: To evaluate the protective effect of collagen VI under multiple types of lesions in vitro and in vivo.
Aim 2: To identify the mediators for the protective effect of collagen VI.
Aim 3: To determine the transcription machinery regulating A-induced COL6A1 expression
Aim 1: To explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling apoE expression in CNS neurons.
Aim 2: To determine if inhibiting apoE4 proteolysis by mutating the primary cleavage sites reduces or abolishes apoE4-related neuronal and behavioral deficits in transgenic mice.
Specific Aim 3: To explore the cellular mechanisms underlying the selective vulnerability of different CNS neurons to apoE4 and its fragments in vitro and in vivo.
Example for model figure and specific aims
Specific Aim 1. Determine if the impairment of vulnerable neurons in the dentate gyrus of hAPP mice depends on the production of hAPP/A by these cells.
Specific Aim 2. Determine if modulation of specific excitotoxicity-related neuronal or glial proteins will normalize neuronal activity and cognitive functions in hAPP mice.
Specific Aim 3. Determine if reducing the level of endogenous, soluble tau protects against diverse proteinopathies.
Specific Aim 1. Determine the age- and time dependence of the requirement for tau in APP/Aβ-induced neuronal dysfunction.
Specific Aim 2. Examine the role of specific tau phosphorylation sites in enabling APP/Aβ-induced neuronal dysfunction.
Specific Aim 3. Identify the downstreammechanisms by which tau enables APP/Aβ-induced neuronal dysfunction.
Specific Aims
Specific Aim #1. Identification of downstream genes involved in ----.
This purpose of this aim will test the hypothesis that-------. This study will be able to allow us to identify -----
Subaim 1a: Yeast two-hybrid technique will be used to ----- Subaim 1b: Deletion analysis will be used to -----
Title
Hypothesis
Approaches
Importance
Background
• To establish the significance of the current work: Why was there a need to conduct the study?– What people have done?– What’s missing?
• Clearly state the scope and objectives• Do not write any conclusions, methods, or
results
Significance
• State concisely and clearly the importance of your study.
• Emphasize the novelty or innovation.– So what?
– I’m the best person to do it
• Convey the significance of your research to– 1) scientific contribution
– 2) improving public health
– 3) make big money
Preliminary Results
• Provide the unpublished results indicating progress toward their achievement
• Show only the relevant experiments supporting your hypothesis
• The results should not be ambiguous• Assessing the chance of the success of the proposed
project tell reviewer “this idea is working”
Research Design and Methods
List as specific aims
Aim1 Subaim1a exp1Subaim1b exp2
Aim2
List as specific aims
Aim1 Subaim1a exp1Subaim1b exp2
Aim2
The design should follow the specific aims and test the hypothesis
Research Design
• Do NOT write as protocol or operation manual• Design the experiments to solve the problems posed in the
specific aims in logical order• Be realistic and logical. • Provide information on statistical analysis whenever
applicable• Control! Control! Control!
Write in the future tense and active voiceBAD: Western blot will be used to identify XXX protein.GOOD: We will identify XXX protein by Western blot.
Anticipated Results
• Why good results will be expected • Reasonable time table for achieving results• Alternative Interpretations critically evaluated• How the results will support your hypothesis• Potential difficulties and limitations of the
experiment, and alternative approaches to achieve the aims.
• How your results would be important for a group project
Time table
Problems with Writing
• Too long sentences and paragraphs• No logical connection among paragraphs• Explain things unclearly (reviewers probably are not in
your field)• Beware of acronyms and jargons • Misspelling and grammar error; check with Word
program• Chaotic format
Problems with EnglishThe result of all the molecular events and regulatory processes
in the cells are reflected in the phenotypes of the organism
After extraction RNA precipitate with alcohol.
The extracted RNA will be precipitated with alcohol.
After separated in the gel electrophorsis the scientist eluted the proteins by electroporation.
The protein will be separated by gel electrophorsis and eluted by electroporation.
is
