Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
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!
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.