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29 ESTEVE FOUNDATION NOTEBOOKS Nº29
Developing skills
in scientific writing
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M John Giba
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esteve founDation NOTEBOOKS Nº 29
Developing skills
in scientific writing
John Giba
the sole responsibility of the contents
of this book lies with the author.
Copyright © 2014 by the esteve foundation.
Llobet i vall-Llosera 2, e-08032 Barcelona, spain
+34 934335320
[email protected]
http://www.esteve.org
Printed in spain by Lenoir ediciones
Legal Deposit: Gi. 1293-2013
isBn: 978-84-942571-0-0
the esteve foundation was founded in 1983 with the aim of stimulating progress in pharmacotherapy
through scientific communication and discussion.
to promote international cooperation in pharmacotherapy research, the foundation organizes international
multidisciplinary meetings where small groups of researchers discuss their work. these proceedings are
published in various formats.
the foundation also organizes local meetings about more issues. these proceedings are published as
monographs or notebooks, or as journal articles. the foundation helps organize conferences, seminars,
courses, and other activities to support the advancement of biomedical science. the foundation presents a
biennial Research award for the best paper published in the field of pharmacotherapy by a spanish author.
the foundation is involved in numerous publications, including the Pharmacotherapy Revisited series of
books, which compile the seminal articles that have helped set the course of progress in specific disciplines.
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To my mother, Peg Kiraly, for the gifts of life and love.
To my wife, Núria Fernàndez Bayó, and to my daughter, Júlia Giba Fernàndez,
for being there to share these gifts with me.
John Giba
sentmenat, october 2013
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FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................... iX
PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................... Xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................ Xiii
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ Xv
LIST OF EXERCISES ................................................................................................................... Xvii
1. STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION ........................................................................................... 1
IMRaD structure for research papers ..................................................................................... 3
the introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3
the methods ......................................................................................................................... 4
the results ............................................................................................................................. 5
the discussion ....................................................................................................................... 6
2. SCIENTIFIC STYLE .................................................................................................................... 11
2.1. Principles ................................................................................................................................. 13
2.2. Clarity ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Precision: Avoiding ambiguity ............................................................................................... 19
Choosing the right words ..................................................................................................... 19
Being specific ................................................................................................................ 20
Being correct ................................................................................................................ 21
using the right register .................................................................................................. 28
Grammar ............................................................................................................................. 28
articles .......................................................................................................................... 28
subject-verb agreement ................................................................................................ 29
Prepositions .................................................................................................................. 34
Relative clauses ............................................................................................................ 39
Word order .................................................................................................................... 41
Participle clauses .......................................................................................................... 42
verb patterns ................................................................................................................ 44
using Google as a concordancer .................................................................................. 47
Punctuation ......................................................................................................................... 49
Commas ....................................................................................................................... 49
Connecting two independent clauses ............................................................................ 54
Hyphenation .................................................................................................................. 55
Capitalization ................................................................................................................. 59
apostrophes ................................................................................................................. 62
Writing numbers .................................................................................................................. 64
spelling ................................................................................................................................ 66
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table of contents
Simplicity: Avoiding unnecessary complexity ...................................................................... 69
unnecessarily complex words .............................................................................................. 70
unnecessary nominalization ................................................................................................. 70
Double negatives ................................................................................................................. 71
the passive voice ................................................................................................................ 72
Long sentences ................................................................................................................... 75
stacked modifiers ................................................................................................................ 76
Concision: Making every word count .................................................................................... 79
avoiding redundancy ........................................................................................................... 79
eliminating empty words and phrases .................................................................................. 80
Replacing wordy expressions .............................................................................................. 81
Fluidity: Keeping the thread .................................................................................................. 85
Cohesion and coherence ..................................................................................................... 85
familiar-before-new principle ............................................................................................... 87
Parallel constructions ........................................................................................................... 89
Consistent terminology ........................................................................................................ 92
uK vs us english ................................................................................................................. 92
abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... 94
3. THE OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................................... 97
Titles ......................................................................................................................................... 99
Abstracts ................................................................................................................................ 103
Summary statements and conclusions .............................................................................. 109
4. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: ADDITIONAL EXERCISES .................................................... 113
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................... 123
i. the seven Cs of scientific writing ........................................................................................... 125
ii. Words that are often confused ............................................................................................... 127
iii. false friends .......................................................................................................................... 141
iv. Guidelines for forming plurals in words from classical languages ............................................ 147
v. some common dependent prepositions ................................................................................ 149
vi. unnecessarily complex words ............................................................................................... 151
vii. nominalization ....................................................................................................................... 153
viii. empty expressions that can be eliminated ............................................................................. 155
iX. Redundant expressions ......................................................................................................... 157
X. Wordy expressions ................................................................................................................ 159
Xi. transition markers ................................................................................................................. 165
Xii. us vs. uK english ................................................................................................................. 167
Xiii. useful websites ..................................................................................................................... 173
Xiv. selected books and articles ................................................................................................... 175
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effective communication is essential in science, communication. too many authors try to impress
yet many scientists have little or no formal train- readers with flowery language using big words
ing in scientific writing. unfortunately, the rigor- in long, convoluted sentences, obscuring their
ous demands of the curricula for scientific studies message and placing an unnecessary burden on
leave little time or energy for specific training in the reader.
communication skills. fortunately, more and more writers are com-
scientists from countries where english is ing to realize that complex ideas can be ex-
usually confined to the language classroom face pressed in plain simple language. Likewise, a
the additional challenge of writing in a language in broad consensus about the importance of good
which they rarely feel confident. Courses in eng- writing is developing among journal editors;
lish as a foreign language focus on the essentials many journals’ instructions remind authors of
for everyday communication. advanced courses general precepts like clarity and concision, and
on english for academic purposes tend to fo- some even provide more specific advice about
cus on the arts, including only a few token texts style.
about “science” in its most general conception. this book explains the principles of good writ-
so, scientists are left to struggle with the specif- ing in the biomedical sciences, showing us the
ics of english in their own fields, gleaning what paths to clear communication and pointing out
they can from the articles and books they need pitfalls along the way. More importantly, it pro-
to read for their daily work. vides ample opportunities to assimilate these
However, the scientific literature abounds principles through controlled practice. “for the
with poor writing, and it is sometimes difficult to things we have to learn before we can do them,
find articles that could serve as models for clear we learn by doing them.” (aristotle, ii.1103a33)
Dr. Ramon Brugada
Dean of the School of Medicine
Universitat de Girona
Girona, March 2014
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