What makes a good scientific writing? Tips & Tricks

Scientific writing is a specialized, technical style of academic writing. Scientific research is reported in scientific journals and presented at scientific meetings and conferences.

Scientific writing may be concise or expansive because it can include a variety of elements to state a complete thought. Many useful guides to science writing are available from university presses, professional associations, web pages, and interactive sites. The following tips are based on material from Penn State's WorldCampus.

Some tips for scientific writing are as follows:

· Write accurate, clear sentences that follow the guidelines for standard written English (i.e., proper grammar, punctuation, sentence construction).

·      ·When possible, avoid using 'first-person language. For example, use "the experiment" rather than "my experiment" or "this experiment."

·      ·Use the active voice, not the passive voice. For example, use "we performed this experiment" rather than "we performed this experiment." 

·      ·Use metric units when possible (e.g., meters instead of feet). When using inches, feet, yards, etc., including the unit in parentheses. For example, "He is 2.3 meters tall." Be consistent throughout your paper—if you use feet one time, do so every time. 

·       ·Be consistent with the chemistry terminology (e.g., concentration, solvent).

·       ·Use descriptors rather than naming a process or action; for example, "We then heated the solution" instead of "We heated the solution."

·      ·Avoid unnecessary 'big' words, especially in introductions and results sections. 

·      ·Use an easy-to-understand writing style with concrete language when possible (e.g., use "phenol" instead of "the phenolic compound").

·      ·Maintain a logical flow when presenting complex information. It is helpful to think about how readers will process new information.

·      ·Use subheadings to organize large amounts of information into smaller, easier to understand chunks.

·      ·Your reader must know who "you" are or identify the person presenting the experiment. For example, write "We performed these experiments" instead of "The author performed this experiment."

·      ·Schematic diagrams help present complicated processes (e.g., enzymes catalyzing reactions).

·      ·Use graphics to present information; figures, graphs, schematics can help explain your results.

·      ·Use footnotes or endnotes when appropriate. For example, do not include citations within the text of your paper (i.e., parentheses) because you will need to change them if your reference list changes. 

·      ·Use a consistent format throughout your paper—for example, the same format for figure labelling and table formatting. 

·      ·Work back and forth with colleagues or peers (i.e., provide feedback) to ensure content consistency, structure, language, tone, etc. 

·      ·It is helpful to think about how readers will process new information. For example, if you are writing a paper and providing the results of an experiment, present this information as part of your introduction or methods instead of in a separate section at the end of your paper. 

·      ·The most important thing to remember is to be consistent with scientific language and conventions; for example, provide units of measurement, identify abbreviations, etc.

·      ·The writing style should be appropriate for your audience, purpose, and context.

·      ·Students in an academic setting (undergraduate or graduate) typically write for their professors familiar with scientific language and conventions. Publications intended for a general audience may use more "lay" language. Communicating science to the general public (e.g., through science blogs and websites) often requires a different writing style than academic research papers or textbooks.