Task 14. Following the mentioned information in the text name the parts of a scientific article.

Task 15. Study the advice on editing a scientific article. Do you find them useful?

A major part of any writing assignment consists of re-writing.

Write accurately

1. Scientific writing must be accurate. Although writing instructors may tell you not to use the same word twice in a sentence, it's okay for scientific writing, which must be accurate.

2. Make sure you say what you mean.

3. Be careful with commonly confused words:

Temperature has an effect on the reaction.

Temperature affects the reaction.

Write clearly

1. Write at a level that's appropriate for your audience.

2. Use the active voice. It's clearer and more concise than the passive voice.

Instead of: The importance of the phenomena was emphasized by Robert Boyle.

Write: Robert Boyle emphasized the importance of the phenomena.

3. Use the first person.

Instead of: It is thought

Write: I think

Instead of: The samples were analysed

Write: I analyzed the samples

Write succinctly

1. Use verbs instead of abstract nouns

Instead of: take into consideration

Write: consider

2. Use strong verbs instead of "to be"

Instead of: The enzyme was found to be the active agent in catalyzing...

Write: The enzyme catalyzed...

3. Use short words.

Instead of:	Write:
possess sufficient utilize demonstrate assistance terminate	have enough use show help end

 

4. Use concise terms.

Instead of:	Write:
prior to due to the fact that in a considerable number of cases the vast majority of during the time that in close proximity to it has long been known that	before because often most when near I'm too lazy to look up the reference

5. Use short sentences. A sentence made of more than 40 words should probably be rewritten as two sentences.

Task 16. Find a scientific article in the Internet and analyse its parts, and its language. You may analyse your own article.

Task 17. Read the text that follows and single out helpful hints for successful scientific writing.

Guidelines for Synopses and Annotations

How to Summarize

A summary is a shorter version of a longer piece of writing. The summary captures all the most important parts of the original, but expresses them in a shorter space. Summarizing involves putting the main ideas into your own words, including only the main points. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Follow the steps outlined below to write a summary:

1. Read the original carefully in order to understand it completely and accurately.

2. Group the original writing into related paragraphs or sections.

3. Write a one or two sentence summary for each group of related paragraphs. These sentences should reflect the main idea of each section accurately.

4. Write one sentence which gives the main idea of the entire writing.

5. Start with a summary introduction, which includes the name of the article or book, the author and if appropriate the date and name of the journal, magazine or newspaper in which the article appeared. Include in your summary introduction your statement of the overall thesis of the original. Follow this with the sentence you wrote for each group of related paragraphs, keeping them in the order of the original.

6. In your final draft, eliminate repetitions and generally make your summary coherent.

When summarizing, follow the guidelines listed below:

· Include only the main points of the original passage

· Do not worry about following the original order of ideas.

· Keep the length down to no more than half the length of the original.

Here is an example of summarizing provided by the Academic Center, the University of Houston-Victoria:

Original Passage:

Height connotes status in many parts of the world. Executive offices are usually on the top floors; the underlings work below. Even being tall can help a person succeed. Studies have shown that employers are more willing to hire men over 6 feet tall than shorter men with the same credentials. Studies of real-world executives and graduates have shown that taller men make more money. In one study, every extra inch of height brought in an extra $1,300 a year. But being too big can be a disadvantage. A tall, brawny football player complained that people found him intimidating off the field and assumed he "had the brains of a Twinkie."

Let’s first identify the main points in the original passage.

Topic sentence: “Height connotes status in many parts of the world.”

Main point: “Even being tall can help a person succeed.”

Main point: “Executive offices are usually on the top”

Main point: “being too big can be a disadvantage”

Summary:

Though height may connote slowness to some people, in the business world, it is almost universally associated with success. For example, taller men are more likely to be hired and to have greater salaries. Further, those in top positions within a company are more likely to work on the top floors of office buildings.

How to Write Annotations

An annotation is a summary made of information in a book, document, online record, video, software code or other information. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. Creating these comments, usually a few sentences long, establishes a summary for and expresses the relevance of each source prior to writing.

As you read, section by section, chapter by chapter, consider doing the following, if useful or necessary:

· At the end of each chapter or section, briefly summarize the material.

· Title each chapter or section as soon as you finish it, especially if the text does not provide headings for chapters or sections.

· Make a list of vocabulary words on a back page or the inside back cover. Possible ideas for lists include the author's special jargon and new, unknown, or otherwise interesting words. Annotating requires you to think critically about a text.

 

How to Write an Abstract

The purpose of an abstract is to serve as a link between the title of a scientific article (research study) which may be only a few words long and the full article which may be 8-10 or more pages long. The abstract is a useful summary of the article that provides justification for the research. The abstract allows the reader to conclude whether the full article is worth reading.

The abstract should outline the objectives of the research study and its rationale. The materials and methods of the study should be stated with the statistical methods used. The results of the research should be concisely stated. A brief interpretation with the supporting statistics should be provided and a conclusion briefly stated.

There are two main types of abstracts: informative and descriptive ones.

 

An informative abstract summarizes the entire paper, including the key themes and purpose of the paper, major facts bearing on the conclusion, and a summary of key findings. It is short – from a paragraph to a page or two, depending upon the length of the original work being abstracted. Usually informative abstracts are 10% or less of the length of the original piece. This is the most common type of abstract.

 

A descriptive abstract, on the other hand, concentrates on identifying the purpose of the paper, and describing the major areas to be covered in the report, is always very short, usually under 100 words. It would be appropriate, for instance, in a review paper reporting on a survey of literature in a particular field. The descriptive abstract doesn’t say something like this – Problem: Based on and exhaustive review of currently available products, this report concludes that none of the available grammar-checking software products provides any useful functions to writers, (This is the style of summarizing you find in the informative abstract.) Instead, the descriptive abstract says something like this – Revision: this report provides conclusions and recommendations on the grammar-checking software that is currently available.