Scientific
Writing
Andreas Kämper
SS 2010
2. Standard Structure
Div. for Simulation of Biological Systems
WSI/ZBIT, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Recapitulation
What is Scientific Writing?
• Reporting of original research in
scientific journals
– Scientific paper
• In a broader sense it also includes
papers summarizing and integrating
previously published research
– Review paper, book chapter, book
• Other types of publications
– Grant proposals, oral presentations,
poster presentations
1
Key Characteristic: Clarity
• The key characteristic of scientific
writing is clarity
– Clearly state the problem
– Clearly state conclusions
– Clearly state how these conclusions were
obtained
– Clear to scientists reading outside their
narrow discipline, to undergraduate
students, and to readers whose native
language is other than English
Outline of the Course
Research
Internal
Review
Revision
Galley
Proofs
Idea for a
Publication
Final
Manuscript
Select
Medium
Submission
Revised
Manuscript
Rebuttal
Initial
Manuscript
Peer
Review
Editorial
Decision
Published
Paper
Outline
• Historical Development of Scientific
Writing
• Standard Structure of a Scientific Paper
–
–
–
–
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion and Conclusion
• Grammar and Style
– Online reference books
– Expand your vocabulary: “A word a day”
2
Historical Development
Standard Structure of a Scientific Paper
Style and Grammar Corner
Early historical development (I)
• Prehistoric times
– Knowledge was passed by oral tradition.
• 30,000 BC – 10,000 BC (Upper Paleolithic)
– Cave paintings and petroglyphs
“Horse”,
“H
”
cave painting,
Lascaux, France
“Running priest”,
petroglyph,
Val Camonica, Italy
• Since around 9000 BC (Neolithic)
– Pictographs used as labels
Figures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux2.jpg (public domain),
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arte_Rupestre_Valcamonica_Sacerdote.jpg (GNU FDL).
Early historical development (II)
• Around 7000 BC (Neolithic)
– Proto-writing
Kish tablet
(limestone, around 3500 BC)
Transition between proto
protowriting and writing
• Around 3500 BC (Neolithic – Bronze Age)
– Writing systems developed independently in
Mesopotamia, Egypt (possibly influenced by
Mesopotamia), and China
Figure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LimestoneKishTablet.jpg (public domain);
the original is in the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom.
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Early historical development (III)
• Since around 3500 BC
– Mesopotamian peoples began to write
down observations on clay tablets.
– Example: Mathematics
The p
partial clayy tablet “Plimpton
p
322” (around 1800 BC) in
cuneiform writing.
Interpretation as “reciprocal
pairs” (Robson, 2001)
– Example: Astronomy – we still today use
the 7-day-week, the lunar month, and the
solar year
E. Robson, Historia Math. 2001, 28, 167-206. Figure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plimpton_322.jpg
(public domain); original in the G.A. Plimpton Collection at Columbia University, New York City, United States.
Early historical development (IV)
• Around 2700 BC
– First scientific writings on papyri in Egypt.
– Example: Mathematics
Moscow mathematical
papyrus, problem 14.
Correct calculation of the volume of a
truncated square pyramid using the
equation
Figures: top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mpap.JPG (public domain); original in the Pushkin Museum of Fine
Arts, Moscow, Russia; bottom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Usech_kvadrat_piramid.png (public domain).
Early historical development (V)
• Around 300 BC
– Euclid collects the mathematical knowledge
of his time in a logically coherent
framework: the Elements (in 13 volumes).
– Most influential
textbook of all
times (Boyer, 1991).
– First printed in
1482; over 1000
editions, second
Fragment of Euclid’s Elements
only to the Bible.
(Papyrus, around 100 BC)
C. B. Boyer, A History of Mathematics, 2nd Ed. Revised by U. C. Merzbach, Wiley, 1991;
Figure: http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/Euclid/papyrus/papyrus.html (public domain).
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Early Historical Development (VI)
• Fall of the Roman Empire
– 395 A.D.: Partition of the Roman Empire
– till 476 A.D.: Decline of the Western Roman
Empire
– Sometime between 42 BC and A.D. 642:
• Royal Library of Alexandria – largest library of the
antique world – destroyed
Early Historical Development (VII)
• Early Middle Ages (Islamic Golden Age)
– around 1000 A.D.: Scientific method
developed as systematic approach to theory
and experiments by Arab and Persian
polymaths:
• Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), Book of Optics
(Kitab al-Manazir), published 1021.
• Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Book of Precious Stones
(Kitab al-Jawahir), published about 1030.
• Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Book of Healing (Al-Shefa),
published 1027.
Modern Historical Development (I)
• Renaissance of the 12th century
– Increased contact with the Islamic world (in
Spain and Italy, Crusades)
– Translation of works of Greek and Islamic
philosophers and scientists
• “Scientific Renaissance”
– Phrase coined by M. B. Hall
– Assimilation of Greek and Roman knowledge
after Fall of Constantinople (1453)
– Invention of printing by Gutenberg (1455:
Gutenberg Bible)
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Modern Historical Development (II)
• “The Scientific Revolution”
– Phrase coined by Alexandre Koyré in 1939
– A.D. 1543:
Nicolaus Copernicus,
De revolutionibus
orbium
orbi m coelestium
coelesti m
(On the revolutions of
the heavenly spheres)
Andreas Vesalius,
De humani corporis
fabrica (On the fabric
of the human body)
Figures: N. Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, Libri VI, Nuremberg, 1543 (public
domain); A. Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Basel, 1543 (public domain).
Modern Historical Development (III)
• The first scientific journals appeared in
A.D. 1665
Journal
des
Sçavans
Philosophical
Transactions
of the Royal
Society
Figures: Title pages of the first issues (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:1665_journal_des_scavans_title.jpg,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1665_phil_trans_vol_i_title.png, both public domain).
Modern Historical Development (IV)
• In the early days papers were written in
a descriptive fashion
– Straightforward style of reporting
– Results often in chronological order, like
“First,, I saw this,, and then I saw that”
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Modern Historical Development (V)
• From the 1850s it became increasingly
important to describe the methodology
of experiments
– For instance, Louis Pasteur had to describe
his experiments in great detail to allow his
many critics to reproduce experiments
• Separate Methods section
Modern Historical Development (VI)
• After World War II and after Sputnik
billions of dollars were spent for
science, resulting in many papers
• Journal space became precious
– Reduction of verbosity and of redundancy
– Organization of manuscripts in a standard
form
• The Introduction, Methods, Results, and
Discussion (IMRAD) format became
standard
Historical Development
Standard Structure of a Scientific Paper
Style and Grammar Corner
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Standard Structure
• Introduction
– What is this all about? Why was this work
done? Why do you write this paper?
• Materials and Methods
– How was the evidence obtained?
• Results
– What are the facts? What was found?
• Discussion and Conclusion
– What do your findings mean?
Purpose of the Introduction
• Supply sufficient background
information
– Allow the reader to understand and
evaluate the results of your study
– Do this in a wayy that the reader does not
need to refer to previous publications on
the topic
• Provide the rationale of the study
– State the purpose of writing the paper
Structure of the Introduction (I)
1) What is it all about?
Why is it interesting, exciting, and
important to address this issue?
State the nature and scope of the
problem.
problem
2) What is the state of the art?
Briefly review the relevant literature.
Select only the most important
references, unless you are writing a
review or thesis.
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Structure of the Introduction (II)
3) What did you set out to do?
What were your goals?
State the aims/goals of your study.
4) What is your approach to the
problems?
bl
?
What new methods or ideas did you
develop or implement?
State the method and, if necessary,
state why you chose this method over
competing methods.
Structure of the Introduction (III)
5) What were your principal results?
How do they compare to previous
results?
Summarize the most important findings.
Structure of the Introduction (IV)
6) What were your principal conclusions?
Let the reader follow the development
of the evidence.
Reading a scientific article isn’t the same as
reading a detective story. We want to know
from the start that the butler did it.
O. G. Ratnoff, 1981
O. G. Radnoff, How to read a paper. In: K. S. Warren (Ed.)
Coping with the biomedical literature, pp. 95, Praeger, New York,1981.
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Purpose of Materials & Methods
• Describe and, if necessary, defend the
experimental design.
• Provide sufficient detail such that a
competent colleague can repeat the
experiments.
• Allow readers to judge the
appropriateness of the methods
– Judge the validity of the findings.
– Judge the extent to which results can be
generalized.
Purpose of Results
• Core of the paper:
the data that constitutes new
knowledge
• Short, without verboseness. State facts
as clearly and simply as possible.
possible
• Although the Results are the most
important part of the paper, this
section if often the shortest
Structure of Results
1) Provide the “big picture”
Overall description of the experiments
without repeating the experimental
details from Materials and Methods.
2) Present the data.
data
Select representative data for
presentation.
Choose appropriate representations for
your data.
10
Purpose of Discussion/Conclusion
• Interpretation of your results against
the state of the art
– Results: facts only.
– Discussion: here is the place for opinions.
• Show the relationships among observed
facts.
• Answer (some of) the questions from
the Introduction.
• Discuss, do not recapitulate results.
Structure of Discussion/Conclusion
1) A general discussion of the addressed
problem as a whole
2) A discussion and interpretation of your
results against the state of the art
–
–
Principles,
relationships, and
Principles relationships
generalizations shown by the results
Comparison with the work of others
(agreement and contrast)
3) Point out exceptions or lack of
correlation
Structure of Discussion/Conclusion
4) A general discussion of the methods
used
– What are possible errors or limitations of
the methods and assumptions?
– What could have been done alternatively?
y
5) A critical discussion whether you
reached the goals outlined in the
introduction.
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Structure of Discussion/Conclusion
6) A discussion of still open or new
problems and an outlook of further
possible developments.
7) A conclusion about the significance of
the results
– What are theoretical implications?
– Is there a practical application?
– Avoid readers asking “so what?”
Historical Development
Standard Structure of a Scientific Paper
Style and Grammar Corner
Get Reference Books
• Online English-English dictionary
– Merriam-Webster Online
• http://www.m-w.com/
– The Compact Oxford English Dictionary
• http://www.askoxford.com/dictionaries/
• Online thesaurus
– Thesaurus means “treasury” of synonyms
– Merriam-Webster Online
• http://www.m-w.com/
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Expand Your Vocabulary
• A Word a Day / Word of Today
– Every day a new word with explanation
– Wordsmith
• Today’s word: “Babylon”
• http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html
– AskOxford
• Today’s word: “grike”
• http://www.askoxford.com/
• Similar services with “A Phrase a Day”
available online
Online Grammar References
• Dr. Grammar – FAQ
– http://www.drgrammar.org/faqs/
• AskOxford – Ask the Experts
– http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/
htt //
k f d
/ kth
t /
• Guide to Grammar & Writing
– http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
German-English Dictionary
• Standard online dictionary for German
to English and vice versa is LEO:
– http://dict.leo.org
• Warning:
– Do not thoughtlessly use English words
from a German-English dictionary because
they sound nice.
– Always check their meaning in an EnglishEnglish dictionary!
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