Writing for Science Students

209 Pages·2023·32.968 MB·English

by  Jennifer Boyle, Scott Ramsay

Writing for Science Students
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Writing for
Science
Students
2nd edition
Jennifer Boyle and Scott Ramsay
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2017
This edition published 2023
Copyright © Jennifer Boyle and Scott Ramsay, 2023
The author have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party
websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the
time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses
have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Boyle, Jennifer (Postgraduate research writing adviser), author. | Ramsay, Scott
(Effective learning advisor), author.
Title: Writing for science students / Jennifer Boyle and Scott Ramsay.
Description: 2nd edition. | London, UK ; New York, NY, USA : Bloomsbury Academic,
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2023. | Series: Bloomsbury study skills |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “There are plenty of writing guides for the university audience, but most of them cater to
students who spend their whole lives writing essays: students in the arts and the humanities. Scientific
degrees don’t work that way, and scientific writing doesn’t look the same as theirs. This award-winning
guide equips students of all scientific disciplines with the skills they need to communicate effectively
in written assignments. It offers clear and highly practical guidance on every stage of the writing process,
from understanding the assignment they’ve been set, to researching and planning, right through to drafting
and editing”– Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022032354 (print) | LCCN 2022032355 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350932661
(HB) | ISBN 9781350932678 (PB) | ISBN 9781350932692 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781350932685 (eBook)
| ISBN 9781350932753
Subjects: LCSH: Technical writing. | Academic writing. | Communication in science.
Classification: LCC T11 .B673 2023 (print) | LCC T11 (ebook) | DDC 808.06/66–dc23/eng/20221024
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022032354
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022032355
ISBN: PB: 978-1-3509-3267-8
ePDF: 978-1-3509-3269-2
eBook: 978-1-3509-3268-5
Series: Bloomsbury Study Skills
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Why you’ll enjoy scientific writing 2
What makes it different 3
Rules, conventions, and why we have them 5
How these skills will help your future career 6
Conclusion 6
Part 1 Understanding Different Types Of
Scientific Writing 7
Chapter 2 The Lab / Fieldwork Report 9
Audience, purpose, and the standard report format 9
Introductions 12
Materials and methods 13
Results 14
Chronology, consistency, and flow 14
Level of detail 16
Tone 16
Discussion 17
References 20
Appendices 20
Chapter 3 The Essay 21
Interpreting the question 22
Command words 22
Introductions 23
The main body 25
Concluding 26
Worked example: planning an essay 28
Revising your plan as you go 32
Chapter 4 The Dissertation 34
The document itself 35
Introduction 36
Materials and methods 36
Chapters 37
v
vvii Table of Contents
General discussion 38
Appendices 39
References 39
Chapter 5 The Poster 40
The format and layout 41
Attracting your audience 41
Images and figures 41
Chapter 6 The Abstract 42
The purpose 42
The content 43
Common errors 44
Part 2 Preparing to Write 45
Chapter 7 Researching the Topic and Evaluating
Your Materials 47
Books 48
Journal articles 49
Searching via library websites 52
Searching via academic databases 52
Keeping track of all your sources 54
Evaluating and refining your materials 54
Categorizing your reading list 57
Selecting material generated from your own scientific research 58
Chapter 8 Incorporating and Referencing Other
People’s Work 60
Why incorporate the work of others at all? 60
Commonly used referencing terms and their meanings 62
Incorporating other people’s work into your writing 64
Phrases to use when incorporating someone else’s work 70
Major referencing styles in science 71
Citations – the parts within your text 72
References – the list at the end 73
Conclusion 77
Chapter 9 Working with Data 78
Why data presentation is important 78
Graphs 79
Images and illustrations 79
Tables 79
Principles of data presentation 79
Table of Contents vviiii
Different types of data, and how to present them 88
Establishing good habits with your data 95
Conclusion 97
Chapter 10 Being Critical 98
Being critical: what, why, when, and how? 98
Worked example: smoking and cardiorespiratory disease 103
Critiquing a whole research paper 105
Valid criticisms you can make 106
Worked example: testing the effectiveness of different stretching methods 108
Writing critically 109
Dealing with conflicting information 110
Hierarchies of evidence 110
Conclusion 114
Part 3 Getting Down to Writing 115
Chapter 11 Producing a Draft and Building Your Argument 117
Getting ready to write 117
Drafting 118
Process and product drafts 119
Developing your own writing practice: when, where, and for how long? 120
Refining your structure and clarifying your argument 125
Structural techniques 134
Structure within paragraphs 135
Worked example: building an argument 137
Conclusion 144
Chapter 12 Sounding Like a Scientist 145
Specificity in word choice 146
Objectivity and the passive voice 149
Conclusion 152
Chapter 13 How to Say Exactly What You Mean 153
Punctuation 154
Most common mistakes in student writing 160
Sentence types 162
In practice 165
Conclusion 167
Chapter 14 Editing and Proofreading Your Work 168
What is editing? 168
What is proofreading? 174
Conclusion 176
vviiiiii Table of Contents
Chapter 15 Making the Most of Feedback 177
Why is feedback important? 177
Peer review 180
Conclusion 182
Chapter 16 Conclusion 183
Quiz answers 184
Bibliography 186
Index 188
Figures
2.1 Staff perceptions of the purposes of lab reports 11
8.1 Example notes made from a source 67
8.2 Components of an in-text citation 73
8.3 Components of a reference for a book 74
8.4 Components of a reference for a chapter in a book with editors 75
8.5 Components of a reference for a journal article 75
9.1 Centrally aligned numbers in a column – same order of magnitude 81
9.2 Centrally aligned numbers in a column – different orders of magnitude 81
9.3 Right-aligned numbers in a column – different orders of magnitude 82
9.4 Components of a well-constructed figure (a graph) 82
9.5 Components of a well-constructed figure (in this case,
consisting of images) 83
9.6 Components of a well-constructed figure (in this case, consisting of a
micrograph) 84
9.7 Use of colours in a figure 85
9.8 A multi-panel figure (incorporating two graphs and one illustration) 86
9.9 Scatter plot with free spread of dependent variable values 89
9.10 Scatter plot with values of dependent variable restricted to whole
numbers, measured in triplicate 90
9.11 Scatter plot with dependent variable tested in triplicate, observations
averaged, and plotted with error bars 90
9.12 Bar chart without organization 91
9.13 Bar chart with organization … but still not a good graph 92
9.14 Histogram 93
9.15 Pie chart – values do not total 100% 93
9.16 Pie chart – values not part of the same whole 94
9.17 Pie chart with 3D effect 94
9.18 Pie chart without 3D effect 95
10.1 Example data from a population study 103
ix