scientific writing skills presented by prof. leon de stadler us writing centre
Post on 20-Dec-2015
235 views
TRANSCRIPT
Scientific Writing Scientific Writing SkillsSkills
Presented byPresented by
Prof. Leon de StadlerProf. Leon de Stadler
US Writing CentreUS Writing Centre
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
Topics for Topics for discussiondiscussion
The writing task and the writing process
What makes it “scientific”? Scientific writing = Structured writing Kinds of structure
Topics for Topics for discussiondiscussion
Problem statements and hypotheses Coherence Scientific style The US Writing Centre
Task vs. processTask 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
Steps in the processSteps 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 ...
Steps in the processSteps in the process
Revising: Focusing on higher-order concerns
Proofreading: Focusing on the lower-order concerns
Scientific WritingScientific 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
““Scientific”?Scientific”?
Contributing to the world of knowledge
Originality
Critical thinking and insight
A clear focus … but on what?
““Scientific”?Scientific”?
Insights, theories, assumptions, jargon, etc. of the field
No unnecessary baggage
Relevant ...
… to the defense of a view point
““Scientific”?Scientific”?
Coherent
Structured
Scientific style
No mistakes
Scientific = StructuredScientific = Structured
Content structure External structure
Content structureContent 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
Writing an Writing an introductionintroduction
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
Problem statementProblem statement
Specific Highly focused, clear As concrete as possible Preferably one problem statement;
may be broken up into a number of subproblems
Problem statementProblem 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 ...
HypothesisHypothesis
The answer to your problem statement
Should be refutable Should not be negative
Other componentsOther components
Theoretical framework Literature review Research design:
Problem statement(s), hypotheses,pilot study, sample taking, sample size, measuring instruments, statistical techniques, etc.
Other componentsOther components
Presentation of findings Discussion of findings Conclusions
External structureExternal structure
The so-called “entry structures” for the reader
Divisions into chapters, sections and paragraphs
The importance of headings
CoherenceCoherence
Logical build-up of ideas Paragraph structure Coherence relationships Markers of coherence Problems with coherence
Paragraph structureParagraph structure
A unit of thought One (sub)theme described in the
theme sentence Supported by other sentences
Paragraph problemsParagraph problems
Paragraphs that do not link properly Too long: more than one theme Too short: one theme dealt with in
more than one paragraph
CoherenceCoherence
Between paragraphs and between sentences
Logical flow of thought One thought following from or
building upon another: conceptual links; relevance
Different kinds of relationships
Markers of coherenceMarkers 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
Scientific styleScientific 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
Style: ProblemsStyle: Problems
Passive voice Referring to the writer? Difficult sentences Short sentences Nominalisations Dangling constructions
Style: ProblemsStyle: Problems
Unnecessary qualifiers Pronouns and their antecedents
Visit the US Writing Visit the US Writing Centre!Centre!
http://www.sun.ac.za/sagus/USWritingCentre.htm
Thank you for your attention!