Elements of Scientific writing

Dr. ImanZaghloul

Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Edison

Outline Facts and Myths Qualities of good writing Ways to improve Seven steps to success Common Problems Ethics in Publishing Tips on Graphics

Facts & Myths

MythI am a scientist and not a writer

Fact : Writing is not a career, it is a skill

necessary for professionals to do their jobs

Myth I don’t have a talent for writing, I’ve

always been bad at it.

Fact Writing is a skill, not a talent. Any

professional can and should learn to write effectively

Myth: If a piece of writing gets published,

it’s a good piece

Fact : Many of the published papers you are

reading are badly written

Myth: Until I have my ideas clearly organized

in my head, I shouldn’t start writing.

Fact : The best way to clarify thinking is to

start writing. The act of writing helps to clarify and organize thinking and to generate

ideas.

Qualities of good writing

Some Qualities of good writing

• Reader-Based• Purposeful• Clear• Correct• Simple• No invented words• No Jargon• Few, if any, abbreviations

Ways to Improve Writing

Ways to Improve Writing

Practice: Set aside some time each day to write. WRITE WHAT ??????????? ANYTHING. What you write is not as important as that you write.

Model: Model your writing after a good writing. Use examples of good journals to begin to differentiate between writing that is easy to read and

writing that is painful to read

Seven Steps to Successful Writing

1. Prepare Identify your reader: Who is the reader? What does he already know? What are his priorities?

Establish your purpose:Clarify, Inform, notify, Convince, Justify

2. ResearchYou must understand your subject

Trying to write about unsure subject, will make it harder and time consuming

Sources of information are:DatabasesLibraryColleaguesProfessors

3. Free writeGet your ideas down on paperStart writing whatever comes into your mindIt is the best cure for writer’s blockFree writing for 10 minutes gets creativity goingThe more you write, the more ideas you’ll haveForget grammar, punctuation, organization and spellingGo back later to edit for clarity, conciseness and correctness

4. OrganizeMake an outline

Look over your free writing

Choose main Points

Arrange in order of importance

Choose supporting details for each point

5. Write• Follow your outline

• Get the main ideas and supporting details down on paper

• Start with your most important information first

• You will polish up later

6. ReviseIt is the most important step; now check forthe following:

A. Unity: Do sentences in a paragraph contribute to the central idea?

B. Coherence: Is relationship between sentences and paragraphs clear to reader?Transitions connect ideas, indicate relationships and keep reader’s mind moving

Common Transitions include:

Addition: moreover, further, besides, and, likewise, also, nor, too, again,

additionally, equally important, next

Comparison: similarly, likewise, in the same manner

Contrast: but, yet, however, still, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the

contrary, even so, in contrast to this, at the same time, otherwise, nonetheless

Place:here, beyond, nearby, opposite, adjacent to, on the opposite sideResult:

hence, therefore, accordingly, consequently, thus, as a resultSummary:

to sum up, in brief, on the whole, in short, as we have said, in other words, that isTime:

meanwhile, at length, soon, in a few days, in the meantime, afterward, later, now

7. ProofreadLOVE IS BLIND:Researched itWrote itRewrote itRevised it

ThusYou Will Have Hard Time to Find

Errors

Tricks to Proofreaders

• Enlarge the type We see mistakes if they’re larger

• Read your writing out LOUD:We hear mistakes that we do not see

Common Problems

A. The Passive VoiceDr. Peterson wrote the abstract:

Active voice gives a sense of :

strength, energy, vitality and

motion

The abstract was written by Dr. Peterson: Passive voice slows things down,

and it’s shorter

Debating the Active versus the passive voice

• Active: It is self-promoting and shows lack of humility

• Passive: If you did it, so say you did

• Active: Scientist should stay out of the work

• Passive: overuse of passive voice is confusing, it

promotes misplaced modifiers

• Passive : makes the writers less accountable

• Active : it does not make you less accountable

B. Long Sentences• Science is complex enough without using

overly complicated sentences to explain it

• One enemy to clarity is long sentences

• Meaning can get lost because too much is going on in one sentence

• Do not ask your sentences to do more than they can

“Among good writers, It is the short sentences that predominates”

William Zinsser

Guidelines for Clearing out Clutter

Lack of clarity is No.1 problem for

editors

Wordiness is an obstacle to readers

Write to communicate NOT to impress

Keep sentences short (>17 words discourage readers

Avoid pompous or pretentious language

Guidelines for Clearing out Clutter; cont’d

Use specific words Reduce no. of words in a phrase:

In the near future soon is of the opinion believes a sizable percentage of manyOwing to the fact that since in spite of the fact that although

Guidelines for Clearing out Clutter

• Don’t repeat words or ideas (a palliative, non-curative treatment)

• Be aware of: who, which, and that (clutter the sentences)

• Avoid the careless use of the word this• Sharpen your words with precise meaning (Not

infrequently ????)• Get rid of excess words• Limit “To Be” phrases (is lacking lacks)

The Publishing Process

Major Journals rejects 60 to 70%

NEJM & JAMA: Rejection rate 90%

Journals do not reject good articles

Good Articles get accepted

The Most Common Reasons for Rejections

A. The manuscript is inappropriate for the journal and its audience

“Information for authors” :

The mission statementThe type of articles acceptedThe journal’s ReaderThe manuscript formatSpecific Instructions (abstracts, keywords, copyright, tables and figures, references, any charges

B. The Manuscript describes poorly designed

or poorly conducted studies:

Inadequate samples Insufficient Information Biased samples Confounding factors Vague endpoints Straying from the hypothesis Poor control of numbers

C. The manuscript is poorly written

Editors: “ we have received a manuscriptthat was filled with errors that we could notEvaluate

Reviewers: “ Any time readers noticegrammatical or stylistic lapses, theirattention is drawn away from your message

Taking It Step by Step:

1. Should I Write an article for a journal?

(New, True, Important, Comprehensible, useful)

2. Why do I want to write this article?

3. What are the major pitfalls I might run into ?

4. Did someone beat me to the punch?

5. How are my findings related to the existing body of knowledge?

6. What is the most appropriate journal?

7. Did you read the “information for authors” page in the chosen journal?

8. Did you decide on the format of your article? (IMRAD)

IMRAD Format

IntroductionWhy did you start?

Present tense

ResultsWhat did you find?

Past tense

Methods What did you do?

Past tense

DiscussionWhat do your results mean?

Present tense

9. Organize your research (index card, references)

10. Construct the tables and figures (title, footnote, legends, labels for axes)

Make tables & figures fully informative

11. Develop an outline: arrange in a logical order Methods: chronological format is best Results: most important finding first

A look at each Section

Title: Catch the reader’s attention Short, specific and clear < 10 words Indicative rather than informative State the subject and not the

conclusion

Indicative: A Comparison of Paroxetine and Clomipramine in OCD

Informative:Clomipramine More Effective Than Paroxetine in OCD

Title: Avoid abbreviations, acronyms Choose carefully, titles provide information for data bases Be brief, be interesting, be concise Avoid the temptation to use cute, misleading, dishonest or too provocative titles

An epidemiological study of radiation received by male employees of a nuclear processing plant and other residents in the vicinity and its relation to the incidence of childhood leukemia

Toooooo longNot interesting

ClumpsyNot provocative

Title:“Radiation to residents near a nuclear

reprocessing plant and its relation to childhood

leukemia: an epidemiological study”

Needs to be much shorter and more interesting

Title: Leukemia Shock from Nuclear Waste Dump

Should be left to tabloid professionalsStrayed into the world of

sensationalism

Title:“Nuclear reprocessing, radiation exposure, and childhood leukemia: an epidemiological study”

Tells what the paper is about not misleading

contain all key words for electronic retrieval

Easy to understandcatches the eye

provoke curiosity

The abstract Overview of an article Stimulate reader interest Self-contained: limit the length to 250 words or

less Read the guidelines for abstract Main pitfalls: no clear question, too

long, too detailed

Use verbal signals to indicate parts of abstractAvoid abbreviations when possible

Use present tense for the introduction and discussion

Use past tense for methods and results

Use active voice, short sentences, avoid jargon

Introduction: background and hypothesis or question

Materials & Methods: what, where, how, whom, when

Results: clearly and concisely what you found

Discussion: answer to the question & suggestion

to new study

The Introduction Should answer the question: Why was

the work done? Should describe the problem of interest Should have prior work done Should have the research question No need for extensive introduction

Materials and Methods

Should answer the question; How did

you carry out the research ?

Should provide other researchers with a

blueprints of the study to be replicated

It judges the quality of study design and

procedures and validity of results

Materials and Methods Design: Randomized, controlled study, clinical trial, case

control Study population: complete description of participants,

how selected or assigned Setting: where the study population was selected Interventions: description of treatments, therapy or

measurements instruments Outcome Measure: How data were analyzed, and its

statistical analysis ( appropriateness ? Correct ?)

Past tense

Results One of the editors at the New England Journal of Medicine says:

“In my opinion, the best results section would be “ The results of the study can be seen in Table 1.”

Results Don’t repeat what is obvious in tables &

figures

Present the data in straight forward, factual manner without comments or interpretation

Write it in the past tense

Discussion Assess the meaning of the results

Answer the question

Takes the most time

Present tense

Discuss controversial issues clearly

Stress (not conceal) anomalous results

OK to speculate

Mention how your study fits into the existing knowledge

Avoid unqualified statements not supported

by data

Submitting your Manuscript

Suggestions from the Editors: Cover letter to the editor; why his journal

Transfer of copyright signed by all authors

Read “instructions to authors” and follow it

Check references

Include only tables, graphs that show data efficiently more than text

Make captions clear, concise

Check tables against text, number each graph accurately

List authors’ affiliation

Key words for indexing (MeSH)

Ethics In Publishing

1. Authorship:

It should be based on substantial contributions to:

Design and Conception

Drafting article & revising it critically

Final approval of published version

Participation solely based on getting fund or collection of data does not justify authorship

General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship

Biostatistician; pay him/or include him on author’s list (design, evaluation)

2. Plagiarism:Everyone involved in the publishing process has a responsibility to maintain the highest standards of ethics

It is the act of submitting the work of others as your own work, in whole or in part

Avoid unintentional plagiarism

3. Fraud:Takes many forms. It ‘s fraud if you fabricate a report in whole or in part. It’s fraud if you suppress data that does not support your hypothesis or report good

news and omit the bad.

In order to avoid any possibility of fraud, insist on reviewing all protocols and data

Once you put your name on a report, you become responsible and accountable for every part whether you wrot

4. Duplicate Publication: If a journal unknowingly publishes a

previously published article, the journal will make a statement in an editorial or the letters to editor column.

Tips on Using Graphics

Graph, table, chart, map or photo can inform more effectively

Needs to be absolutely accurate Use minimum number of graphics Make all parts of the graphic legible Make the terms used in the graphic consistent

with the terms used in the text Be consistent in format, size and terminology

Thank You for listening