INTRODUCTION TO

THE COURSE
ENGLISH 3236
 FIVE PRINCIPLES
OF CLEAR
SCIENTIFIC
WRITING

Quick subject

Get to the subject quickly and follow Action in the verb

the subject as soon as possible with
its verb.
Information where
expected

Cohesive
sentences/coherent ¶

Make words mean

what you want
Most writing that you will do as a researcher can be classified
in one of two ways: writing about research that’s already
complete or writing about research that’s yet to be done.
Writing about work that’s already complete includes primary
papers, conference abstracts, and dissertations.

Similarities between papers and proposals

 Divided into sections
 Tell stories
 Argue that work is exciting and valid

PAPERS V. PROPOSALS
A paper’s results are known and proposal’s results aren’t, so the two documents should set up their
arguments differently
PAPERS PROPOSALS

Papers’ known outcome works against Proposals’ unknown outcome helps

excitement argument make excitement argument
• Explain how outcome couldn’t have • Should argue against uncertainty to
been predicted prior to experiments to convince reviewers that you will get
minimize this
results
• Question instead of hypothesis
• State hypothesis
• Introduction should justify the question,
not the results
• All background supports hypothesis
• Include evidence that suggests other • Make excitement argument on other
outcomes were possible bases: unknown and innovation
 GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE
Use present tense to describe established findings that have passed peer review and
are regarded as fact.
“Resting CD4+T cells are the best-defined reservoir of HIV-1 infection.”
“Establishment of the intricate nervous system of vertebrate animals requires
the specification of diverse neuronal cell types.”
“Translation initiation of some viral and cellular mRNAs occurs by ribosome binding to
an internal ribosome entry site.”
GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE
• Use present tense for the question.
• “We hypothesized that cigarette smoking by young men causes abnormal
metabolism of plasma cholesterol.”
• “We asked whether these fragments arise from the same point of
cleavage as the naturally occurring fragments of B-100 and B-74.”
• “To determine whether four different asthma drugs inhibit the late
asthmatic reaction, we…”
GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE

• Use past tense for methods.

• “We dehydrated the pellets and cleared them with
propylene oxide.”
• “After 30 sec, we centrifuged the samples.”
• “To prepare surface layers for EM, we resuspended the pellets
in…”
GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE

• Use past tense to describe the experiments done.

• “We assessed these variables in 24 sensitized subjects
divided into 4 groups of 6 subjects each.”
• “We used kallikrein to digest LDL from human plasma and
compared the resulting fragments with B-74.”
• “Subjects in each group received one drug for 7 days
according to a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.”
GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE
• Use past tense to describe the results obtained.
• “Slow-release theophylline partially inhibited the increase in FEV1 but had no
effect on airway responsiveness to methacholine.”
• “Sham nucleus tractus solitarius lesions and lesions lateral to the nucleus
produced no changes.”
• “Pulmonary lymph flow doubled within 2 hr.”

• Use present tense for the answer.

• “These results indicate that ceh-22 and nkx2.5 perform similar functions.”
GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE
• Use hypothetical verbs for implications or speculations.
• “These results suggest that the identified EGases may facilitate
intracellular migration through plant roots by partially degrading
the cell wall.”
• “We propose that Zip2 promotes the initiation of chromosome
synapsis.”
• “Our findings could partly explain the high incidence of coronary
artery disease in older male smokers.”
GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE
Use hypothetical verbs for implications or speculations.
“These results suggest that the identified EGases may facilitate
intracellular migration through plant roots by partially degrading
the cell wall.”
“We propose that Zip2 promotes the initiation of chromosome
synapsis.”
“Our findings could partly explain the high incidence of coronary
artery disease in older male smokers.”
GENERAL GUIDELINES ABOUT VERB
TENSE USAGE
• Use future tense for future, planned, or proposed work.
• “We will identify the steps involved in coxsackievirus B uncoating
during entry into polarized epithelial cells.”
• “The temporal production of SarA will be assessed by Western blot of
• S. aureus whole cell extracts with an affinity-purified anti-SarA
antibody.”
• “I will use heat shock-inducible transgenic zebrafish to determine
when BMP signaling is required to specify lim1+ INs.”
REWRITING EXERCISES
• IDENTIFY THE WRITING PRINCIPLE THAT IS IGNORED IN THE
SENTENCE(S)
• REWRITE THE SENTENCE(S) SO THAT IT FOLLOWS THAT PRINCIPLE

• Exercise #1: Prolongation • Exercise #2: A disease that

progresses with few or no symptoms to
of life for uremic patients indicate its gravity is an “insidious”
has been made possible by disease, under this definition.
Asbestosis, neoplasia, mesothelioma,
improved conservative
and bronchogenic carcinoma are all
treatment and hemodialysis. examples of insidious diseases.
Asbestos insulation installers who have
inhaled asbestos fibers over a period of
many years regularly contract these
diseases.
• REWRITING EXERCISES
IDENTIFY THE WRITING PRINCIPLE THAT IS IGNORED IN THE
SENTENCE(S)
• REWRITE THE SENTENCE(S) SO THAT IT FOLLOWS THAT
PRINCIPLE

• Exercise #3: Laboratory • Exercise #4: Propranolol had variable

effects on the hypoxemia-induced
animals are not susceptible changes in regional blood flow. In the
to these diseases, so cerebrum, the increase in blood flow
research on them is caused by hypoxemia was not
significantly altered by propranolol.
hampered.
However, in other organs and in the
peripheral circulation, propranolol
caused a more severe decrease in
blood flow than did hypoxemia alone.
REWRITING EXERCISE

• Exercise #5: The molecular events determining the

developmental lineage of the gonadotrope in the anterior
pituitary, utilizing approaches in transgenic mice including
ectopic expression of regulatory proteins, will be
investigated.
SOURCES

CAMB 695 - Scientific Writing at the University of Pennsylvania | Coursicle

Penn
Self-Paced Scientific Writing Training – Materials | The Office of Biomedical R
esearch Education and Training | Vanderbilt University