Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing in the Sciences

Undergraduate's Guide to Writing in the Sciences

Version 0.9, pre-print

Binyomin Abrams Department of Chemistry

Boston University

Contributing editor: Kathryn Spilios

Department of Biology Boston University

Copyright c 2021 by Binyomin Abrams This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit:

or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

You can reach the author at: Binyomin Abrams Department of Chemistry, Boston University Boston, MA 02215, USA

Table of Contents

Preface

v

I Tools of the Trade ? Writing isn't just writing

vii

1 Introduction to Scientific Writing

1

2 Preparing Appropriate Exhibits

9

3 Reading and Referencing scientific papers

21

4 Finding and collecting authoritative sources

29

5 Making Claims and Building an Argument

39

II Journal Articles ? The primary vehicle of scientific communication 49

6 Structure of Abridged Scholarly Papers

51

7 Conventions of Scientific Writing

63

8 Adding Motivation ? Introduction Sections

75

9 Sharing your Process ? The Methods Section

81

III Modes of scientific communication

89

10 Getting your Work Funded ? Research Proposals

91

11 Making and Delivering Effective Research Presentations

95

iii

PREFACE

Origin of this writing guide

This writing guide began in 2009 as a series of handouts designed for the Intensive General and Quantitative Analytical Chemistry courses at Boston University. The goal was to present students beginning college with all of the guidance and support that they would need to start developing as scientific writers, without too much excess information.

Over the course of the decade that followed, the scope and material in those handouts was expanded until they evolved into a full writing guide. Fast forward to 2018, the writing guide helps support all of the chemistry majors at the university as they work through their major. Most of the chapters remain designed to stand alone for use in specific courses; as a result, there are places in this guide where information is repeated by design. In each of those cases, the content being repeated is of particular importance and relevance.

Philosophy of writing instruction

Good science writing means good writing. While there are many discipline-specific nuances and conventions unique in the sciences, the principles of formal, technical writing do not differ so greatly between any of the academic disciplines. In the end, a foundation in strong research and argumentation is the necessary pre-requisite to effective science communication.

Developing your style as a technical writer is something that will happen over a long period of time. Throughout your years as an undergraduate student you will investigate the skills at the core of good scientific communication: research, argumentation, visual display of information, and more. As you progress from course to course as an undergraduate student, and as you matriculate into graduate programs and careers, these principles will remain at the core of the work that you do to evolve your communication and writing ability.

Branching out into other disciplines

While there are structural and stylistic differences in the writing among the science disciplines, the vast majority of STEM communication is based on a common set of broad principles and skills. In 2019, Dr. Kathryn Spilios of the Biology department joined the project with the goal of extending the guide from a chemistry writing to guide to one that would meet the needs of all undergraduate science students at Boston University.

Throughout the guide, we remain focused primarily on the overarching principles that are common to all scientific communication. In cases where distinctive, discipline-specific differences are important, specific mention is made to the ways in which the different fields approach the subject and the reasons behind the differences. You should view this guide as a tool to help you be a better scientific

v

vi ? Undergraduate's Guide to Writing in the Sciences

writer in general, rather than an expert in your specific field ? after all, the goal of writing is effective communication, regardless of discipline.

Examples of good (and bad) writing are brought from several scientific disciplines throughout the writing guide. While the chemistry examples are highlighted in purple and the biology examples are highlighted in red, we encourage you to focus on context of the examples rather than content.

Example 0.1: Chemistry examples

Boxes outlined in purple will highlight examples and general considerations related to chemistry.

Example 0.2: Biology examples

Boxes outlined in red will highlight examples and general considerations related to biology.

General Considerations

Green boxes will present general ideas about writing, especially when differences between scientific disciplines or agencies vary.

Using this writing guide

There are three main parts to this guide. Important background skills related to scientific writing are presented in Part I: preparing effective exhibits for your papers, research, and argumentation. Part II is dedicated to writing journal article style papers, starting with the most important section: the Results and Discussion. Finally, other genres of scientific communication, such as research proposals and conference presentations, are discussed in Part III.

Version 0.9 of the guide

If you're reading this, then you are working from a pre-print of the first edition of the guide (version 0.9). We are still hard at work editing, refining, and adding material. To that end, we would be grateful for your help! Please let us know if there is anything you find confusing or missing. Similarly, while we don't expect you to be our copy editors (we're looking into finding one now), we are grateful for reports of any mistakes, typographical errors, or omissions. Please direct your comments to STEMwritingguide@

Thank you for your interest in science writing and the guide.

Binyomin Abrams Boston, 2021

Part I

Tools of the Trade ? Writing isn't just writing

vii

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