Science writing What is “scientific writing”?

Scientific Writing for Scientists

Definition of genre

Scientific writing frames a problem in the context of current work in the field and explicates the
author(s)’s research using a format that is easy to skim for major findings and conclusions.
Examples of scientific writing include articles for peer reviewed journals, grant proposals, and
theses/dissertations in the sciences. Related genres include Laboratory Reports, Research and
Grant Proposals, and Literature Reviews.
Format
Scientific writing usually follows a standard formal structure, frequently abbreviated IMRD (for
Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion):
• Abstract: A brief summary of the other sections, typically 100-200 words. Includes
motivation, question, hypothesis, method, and major conclusions. (See our Abstract guide
for more detail.)
• Introduction: Motivation for the research, literature review of previous relevant studies
(background), question(s) addressed by the present research, and hypotheses to be tested.
• Materials and Methods: Summary of the technical information necessary to repeat the
experiments. Includes experimental design, materials, and protocols.
• Results: An objective review of the experimental results. In other words, what happened
when the methods were performed? Frequently includes figures/tables/etc. to present the
data.
• Discussion/Conclusions (sometimes included at the end of Results section): addresses the
question: “do the results support the hypothesis?” Evaluates the strengths and weaknesses
of the experiment, summarizes the implications of the results, and proposes further
research that might clarify or supplement the findings.
• Works cited: APA format is acceptable in most classroom settings. Every journal has its
own formatting style; refer to specific journals for models.
Actions to take
• Choose a concise, clear, and precise style.
• Favor active voice. Many students and some faculty believe that passive voice is the only
mode for a scientific paper. This attitude, thankfully, is changing. Current editors
encourage the use of active voice when appropriate. (Note that active constructions are
often possible without necessarily resorting to the increasingly accepted pronouns
“I/we.”) To encourage a tone of objectivity, personal pronouns should not dominate the
writing.
• Use present tense for established fact (e.g. previously published in a peer reviewed
journal) and past tense for the work and findings you are presenting. For example, the
statement, “Sea urchin embryos disassociate under low salt conditions (McClay 1978),”
would be appropriate in an introduction; whereas the statement, “The embryos
disassociated when placed in the chamber. This could be due to low salt conditions
(McClay 1978),” would be appropriate in your discussion section.
• Include captions, and refer to the figures in your narrative text. Figures don’t speak for
themselves.
• Cite your sources. Each fact presented that is not common knowledge must be easily
traceable. When several experiments support a claim, cite all of them so the degree of
experimental support for that claim is apparent.

Science writing

What is “scientific writing”?

A distinction needs to be made, I think, between “scientific writing” and “science writing.” With scientific writing,

The authors are professional scientists who make their living doing research; it also includes scientists-in-training, i.e., graduate students, who may need to have a paper published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal as a prerequisite for graduation.

Scientific writing encompasses types or genres such as peer-reviewed articles, technical reports, and grant proposals, each of which serves a specific purpose and is intended for a particular audience.

Scientific writing can thus be defined as “experts communicating through the written word with other experts or as experts to a non-technical or non-scientific audience.”

This definition eliminates science journalists, technical writers, and scientific amateurs, all of whom may be highly intelligent and gifted writers but who are not scientists by profession.

This definition emphasizes communication through the written word, as opposed to video presentations, online lectures, or verbal exchanges that take place between colleagues in the hallways.

 Lastly, there is room in this definition both for scientists communicating with other scientists and for scientists communicating with non-scientists such as Congressional committees (reports and formal testimony), foundation directors (grant proposals), company managers (technical reports), or the general public (popular science).

Definition:

(1)   Writing about scientific subject matter, often in a non-technical manner for an audience of non-scientists (a form of journalism or creative nonfiction).

(2)   Writing that reports scientific observations and results in a manner governed by specific conventions (a form of technical writing). Also known as scientific writing.

On Explaining Science

• The question is not "should" you explain a concept or process, but "how" can you do so in a way that is clear and so readable that it is simply part of the story?

·         Use explanatory strategies such as . . .

·         - Active-voice verbs
- Analogies and metaphors
- Backing into an explanation, that is, explaining before labeling
- Selecting critical features of a process and being willing to set aside the others, as too much explanatory detail will hurt rather than help.

• People who study what makes an explanation successful have found that while giving examples is helpful, giving non examples is even better.
  
  Non examples are examples of what something is not. Often, that kind of example will help clarify what the thing is. If you were trying to explain groundwater, for instance, you might say that, while the term seems to suggest an actual body of water, such as a lake or an underground river that would be an inaccurate image. Groundwater is not a body of water in the traditional sense; rather, as Katherine Rowan, communications professor, points out, it is water moving slowly but relentlessly through cracks and crevices in the ground below us. . . .
• Be acutely aware of your readers' beliefs. You might write that chance is the best explanation of a disease cluster; but this could be counterproductive if your readers reject chance as an explanation for anything. If you are aware that readers' beliefs may collide with an explanation you give, you may be able to write in a way that doesn't cause these readers to block their minds to the science you explain.

 Using tenses in scientific writing

Tense considerations for science writing

When you write an experimental report, or draft a thesis chapter, you need to choose which tense, or tenses, to use.

This flyer provides advice intended to help you become more conscious of what the choice of verb tense involves, and to become better able to notice the tense choices that writers in your particular field have made. From your chosen tense, your reader receives two kinds of information. One concerns time: it is about ‘when’ (past, present or future). The other relates to whether an event or process is open or closed.

The examples below illustrate the distinction between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ events: 

How long were you at Melbourne Uni? 

Simple past / closed event: the other person has already graduated.

How long have you been at Melbourne Uni?

Present perfect / open event: the other person is still engaged on his / her course.

What do tenses do?

Verb tenses present a relationship between

• the present moment (now), and,

• another moment or period in time (which may be long or short).

These moments or periods may be in the past, present or future.

Tenses manage time by placing them within particular relationships or ‘time frameworks’.

As a generalisation: in various types of scientific writing, some time frameworks are more commonly used than others. Their frequency varies from one section of a paper or report to another, and they can also vary between one scientific discipline and another.

The next section gives some advice about the various tenses.

Abstract

This usually refers to your unpublished results and uses the past tense.

Introduction

Your introduction needs to include background information which is generally accepted as fact in a

discipline. You also need to explain why the research you are reporting is important. It is usually resented in

the present tense. Example:

Genomics provides crucial information for rational drug design.

You will need to refer to existing research relevant to your work, and you can indicate your opinion of the research you are writing about by careful tense selection.

For example, when you use the present tense you are indicating to the reader that you believe that the research findings are still true and relevant, even though the original research may have been conducted some time ago. Example:

Many of the lakes and wetlands in the region are located in craters or valleys blocked by early Pliocene lava flows (Ollier & Joyce, 1964).

Present perfect tense to report research

If you use present perfect tense in your introduction when you refer to previous research, you communicate ‘recency’ or ‘currency’. Currency may be positive (asserting that previous studies have established a firm research foundation) or negative (asserting that not enough relevant or valid work has yet been done). 

Positive and negative currency can even be asserted in the same sentence, as in the example below (which uses the passive voice): Example:

A great deal of research has been conducted on the basic techniques of nuclear transfer, but few

experiments have been carried out to discover the most appropriate age of the cytoplasm to support nuclear transfer most effectively.

This suggests that you believe that more experiments are necessary. The existence of a ‘research gap’ is further emphasised by the phrase: ‘but few experiments’.

Methods

Past tense to describe what was done

In your methods section it is customary to use a form of the simple past tense to describe what you did in your study. Passive voice is often used. Examples:

Total phosphorous (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) were measured in the laboratory using standard procedures.

The standard protocol was followed for the preparation of the media from stock solutions.

The two previous examples are in the past tense, but in the passive voice. Have a look at the following examples in the past passive and past active voice.

Past passive

Three 2 litre samples were taken at a depth of between 0.1 and 0.5 m at the down-wind end of each wetland.

Past active

Each of the three groups took 2 litre samples at a depth of between 0.1 and 0.5m at the down-wind nd of each wetland.

From your reading, which voice do you think is most often used in your scientific discipline – active, or passive?

Present tense for diagrams and figures

If you use figures or diagrams to help explain what you did, refer to the figure or diagram using the present tense. Examples:

Table 1 above demonstrates the success of cloning in various animal species.

Figure 2 below shows methylation in mouse 2-cell embryos.

Results

Past tense for results obtained

In the results section, use the past tense to detail the results you obtained. Examples:

Overall, more than 70% of the insects collected were non-phytophagous. 

Results indicated that prolonged exposure to ultra-violet radiation had a positive correlation with the

development of melanomas.

Following activation of NT oocytes with strontium, the cell cycle resumed in both groups.

Present tense to refer to figures, tables and graphs

As in the previous sections, use the present tense when you refer to figures, tables and graphs.

Examples: Figure 1 displays the comparative variation in the morphology of donor chromatin in both age groups of oocytes.

Table 1 below shows the stream flows calculated for each stream using Equation 1.

Discussion

Present tense to explain significance of results

In your discussion section, you will explain the significance of the results. The present tense is normally used for this. Example:

Removal of vegetation for agricultural purposes appears to negatively affect the water quality of streams.

Past tense to summarise findings, with present tense to interpret results

Writers may use the past tense to summarise their findings, in combination with the present tense to

explain or interpret what the results mean. Examples:

As the maxima and minima did not correspond to high and low tides, it is possible that the patterns observed may not be the result of mixing of waters with different concentrations.

Leaf carbon and phenolic content did not differ across sites, indicating that the response of secondary plant chemicals such as phenolics to water is complex.

In Example 1, the phrases ‘it is possible that’ and ‘may not be’ are used to indicate that other explanations are possible. This is an example of the use of limiting words to discuss findings in an academically tentative way.

Example 2 is less tentative. If you make a statement such as this, you are completely confident that your results and conclusion are correct.

Conclusion

A combination of tenses to highlight past research and future directions

In the final section of your thesis or report you summarise the main findings and the major implications of the study, point out any limitations, and offer suggestions for future research. To do these things you may use a combination of tenses. Example:

Although the study found evidence of tillage and irrigation within the study area, from the data collected it was not possible to determine if the effects of agriculture upstream cause (or caused) higher levels of total nitrogen downstream. Further studies are therefore necessary to determine the effects of agriculture on the health of Stringybark Creek.