Scientific Research Writing

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Introduction πŸ”—

Tense pairs πŸ”—

Present Simple versus Past Simple

  • Present simple: describe facts
  • Past simple: describe findings relating to your own reserach
    • For example, we found that the CHD risk increased as individuals got older.

Present simple sounds stronger than past simple.

Past Simple versus Present Perfect

  • Past simple: describe what happened in the past (a snapshot)
  • Present perfect: describe what happened in the past and the continuing effect
    • Little (virtually none) attention was paid to this issue (sentence 1)
    • Little attention has been paid to this issue (sentence 2)

Sentence 1 means attension was not paid at some point in the past, and that’s it. the issue may has been solved. Sentence 2 emphasizes this issue has not been paied attention to from the past till now.

Sentence connection πŸ”—

Several strategies to glue sentences together

  • overlap: repeat things
    • The pattern of inflammation during an asthma attack is different from that seen in stable asthma. In stable asthma the total number of inflammatory cells does not increase.
  • pronouns (it, they), pro-form (this system, these methods)
  • semicolon (Joining sentences with a semicolon works well when two sentences are very closely related and one of them is quite short), or relative clause(which clause)
    • The procedure for testing whether components are operationally safe usually takes many hours ; this means that tests are rarely repeated.
    • It has received much attention over the past few decades due to its biodegradable properties, which off er important economic benefits.
  • sentence connector signals: however, therefore, etc.
    • Cause： Due to (the fact that); on account of (the fact that); in view of (the fact that); as; because; since.
    • Result: Therefore; Consequently; Hence; As a result (of which); which is why; so.
    • Contrast/Difference: However; whereas; but; on the other hand; while; by contrast. Note: on the contrary and conversely communicate the fact that exactly the opposite is true. not applicable in some circumstance
    • Unexpectedness: Although; even though; though; despite; in spite of; regardless of; notwithstanding; nevertheless; however; yet; nonetheless; even so.
    • Addition: in addiction; moreover; furthermore; apart from that/which; also; secondly; in the second place; what is more. Note:besides sounds more powerful and is better used in more persuasive contexts

Passive versus Active πŸ”—

Summary: In the introduction part, use we to represent your research group (but do not use we to represent people in general, use it is known/thought that…). It is more common to use passive tense in the report session (i.e., methodology and result parts). For a thesis, where you did the work on your own, it is common to use ‘dummy’ subject to take the place of I or we (this article describes/the present paper/in this study)

Paragraghing πŸ”—

Quickly look at the first sentence of each paragraph.

  • Establish the significance of your research topic (tense: present perfect or past simple).
    • PLA has received much attention in recent years due to its biodegradable properties
  • Provide background facts 1-2 sentences.
  • Introduce general problem/ current research focus (many researchers in this field are interested in).
  • Current solutions to the problem (transition sentence to literature review)
  • Describe overview of projects in this field aiming to solve this problem, remember, order matters.
    • chronological
    • differenet approaches/theories/models
    • general/specific
  • Describe research gap (however, although…), or bring up your hypothesis
  • Describe your work.
    • Use present simple to describe the work itself. E.g., this paper is organised as follows, or this study focuses on blabal
    • Use past simple to talk about the aim of the study. (as the aim occurred before the work was carried out).
    • If the aim is only partially achieved, you can then use present simple(the aim of this work is …), indicating the rest of the work will be done and reported on at a later stage.
    • Give details about the methodology.
    • Report findings.

Methodology πŸ”—

Different title names: Procedure, Experiments, Experimental, Simulation, Methodology or Model depending on the disciplines (you can read the guidelines for a journal)

Passives πŸ”—

  • Passive/Active: You can use active if you worked as part of a research team. But for thesis writing, where you did the work alone, it is not normal to wirte I collected. In this case, use XX is/was (present/past simple passive) collected instead; or you can use dummy subject, in this study, data was collected, to indicate what you have done.
  • Present Simple/Past Simple:
    • describe what is normally done(standard procedure): present simple, data is collected (remember to add reference)
    • describe what you have actually done: past simple, data was collected
    • describe what is done by other researchers: past simple, in their work, they collected…

Use of ‘a’ and ’the’ πŸ”—

I had a cheese sandwich and an apple for lunch. The sandwich was fine but the apple had a worm in it.

  • a: introduce new things to listener.
  • the: both the speaker and listener know what the speaker refers to.

Other examples,

I arrived at Heathrow Airport but the check-in was closed I bought a new computer but the keyboard was faulty

  • Though check-in and keyboard appear first time in this sentence, as soon as Heathrow Airport and computer are mentioned, both speaker and listener share the information.

Principles:

  • Use The if there is only one possible referent.
    • Cairo is the capital of Egypt.
  • Use a if it does not matter or you do not know or your reader do not know which thing/person you are referring to.
    • A 35 ml brown glass bottle was used to store the liquid.
  • a, the, two can all be used generically when expressing a general truth.
    • The electroencephalograph is a machine for measuring brain waves.
    • An electroencephalograph is a machine for measuring brain waves.
    • Electroencephalograph are machines for measuring brain waves.

Adverbs and adverb location πŸ”—

general steps πŸ”—

  • One sentence to summarize your methodology
  • Describe your method in detail and justify why this particular method is applied
  • If you are not sure how much details should be provided, give too much info is better than to little.
  • Indicate the method is conducted with care
  • Indicate where problems occurred

Results πŸ”—

time sequence πŸ”—

  • Before the beginning: beforehand; earlier; formerly; in advance; originally; previously; prior to.
  • At the beginning/first step: at first; at the beginning; at the start; firstly; in the beginning; initially; to begin with; to start with.
  • Steps/order: after, afterwards,earlier; next; once; previously; prior to; secondly; subsequently; then.
  • After a short while: before long; shortly after; soon.
  • At a late/later stage; after a while/longer period: eventually; in time; later; later on; subsequently; towards the end.
  • One point/period occurring almost or exactly at the same time as another: as; as soon as; at that point; at the same time; immediately; in the meantime; just then; meanwhile; simultaneously; straight away; upon+ing; when; while.
  • At the end/last step: at the end; eventually; finally; lastly.
  • After the end: afterwards; eventually; in the end; later; later on.

Frequency πŸ”—

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