Introduction

The aim of this book is to give you the information, vocabulary and skills you need quickly and easily so that you can write confidently using the style and structure you see in the journals you read.

Most science research is written according to a fairly conventional structure: first the title, then the abstract, followed by an introduction, after which there is a central section which describes what was done and what was found and then a discussion and/or conclusion. At the end of the paper or research article, acknowledgements and references are added.

This book is based on the most useful thing I have learned: when your language skills are not perfect, organising your information in a conventional way and using conventional language are very important.

The strategy in this book can be summed up as follows: carefully examine good examples of the kind of writing you would like to produce, identify and master the structure, grammar and vocabulary you see in these examples and then apply them in your own writing.

How to Write an Introduction

Structure

In practice, you will find that you need to be certain about what you have done and what you have found in order to write the Introduction, and so the best time to write it will be after you have written, or at least drafted, the report sections.

In order to help you write the Introduction to your own research, the model you build must answer the following three questions:

• How do writers normally start the Introduction?
• What type of information should be in my Introduction, and in what order?
• How do writers normally end the Introduction?

Many of the things you need to do in the Introduction are done — in reverse order — in the Discussion/Conclusion.

In the Introduction you start out by being fairly general and gradually narrow your focus, whereas the opposite is true in the Discussion/Conclusion.

Grammar and Writing Skills

Tense pairs

The Present Simple tense is used in science writing to state accepted facts and truths.

Using the Present Simple tense means that you believe your findings and deductions are strong enough to be considered as facts or truths.

What is important is that the event in (d) is considered more relevant to the situation now than the event in (c), which is why it is given in the Present Perfect.

Tense changes are always meaningful, and they always signal a change in the function of the information — so don’t change tense randomly and make sure you remember to change tense when you should.

Signalling language

One of the most common errors in writing is failing to connect one sentence or idea to the next. Every time you end a sentence, your reader has no idea what the next sentence is going to do or say.

One way to connect sentences is to overlap, meaning to repeat something from the previous sentence.

Another way is to use a pronoun (it, they) or pro-form (this method, these systems) to glue the sentences together.

The third way is not to finish the sentence at all, but to join it to the next sentence with a semicolon or a relative clause (a ‘which’ clause).

The fourth way is to use a signalling sentence connector to indicate the relationship between one sentence and the next, or one part of a sentence and the next.

The sentence connector signals the function of the information in the sentence.

Signalling Language List
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
UNEXPECTEDNESS:
Although / Even though / Though
Despite / In spite of / Regardless of / Notwithstanding
nevertheless / however / yet / nonetheless / even so
ADDITION:
in addition / moreover / furthermore / apart from that / also / secondly (etc.) / in the second place (etc.) / what is more

Passive/Active

You can use we to refer to your research group or team, but do not use it to refer to people or humanity in general.

Use words like here and in this study to let your reader know when you are referring to your own work.

Your aim when you skim through a text is to find out quickly what it is about and where the various pieces of information are located so that you can read it faster and more confidently.

A paragraph in academic writing often starts with a topic sentence, which gives the main idea of the paragraph, and tells the reader what the paragraph is about.

Writing Task: Build a Model

Building a model

One way to find out what the writer is doing in a sentence — ratherthan what s/he is saying — is to imagine that your computer has accidentally deleted it.

Another way to figure out what the writer is doing in a sentence is to look at the grammar and vocabulary clues.

Key

A case study of each sentence in an introduction:

1. Establish the importance of this research topic (P34 1.4.1 Vocabulary for the Introduction);
2. Provide general background information for the reader, start with the most general one, the one that many of your readers will already know (show them the wall before you examine the bricks);
3. Use research references to support both the background facts and the claim for significance (three questions should be asked: Which of the research papers I have read should be mentioned somewhere in the Introduction? Which ones should be part of the background to the research and which ones should go in the literature review which comes later in the Introduction? What order should I mention them in? Who comes first and who comes last?);
4. Describe the general problem area or the current research focus of the field;
5. Provide a transition between the general problem area and the literature review, include references to previous or current research wherever it is useful, even in a sentence whose function is primarily to provide a transition;
6. Provide a brief overview of key research projects in this area (for example…), arrange your references in a logical way (chronological, different approaches/theories/models, general/specific);
7. Describe a gap in the research (however/although…), this is where you begin to introduce the purpose of your paper and the specific problem you will deal with;
8. Describe the paper itself (this study focuses on/the aim of this work is…);
9. Give details about the methodology reported in the paper;
10. Announce the findings, be careful not to go into too much detail at this point.

Streamline and 4 basic components:

1. Establish the importance of your field, provide background facts/information (possibly from research), define the terminology in the title/key words, present the porblem area/current research focus;
2. Previous and/or current research and contributions;
3. Locate a gap in the research, describe the problem you will address, present a prediction to be tested;
4. Describe the present paper.

Vocabulary

1. Establish significance (P34, major current focus/numerous experiments have established that/generated considerable recent research interest…);
2. Previous and/or current research and contributions (P36, was demonstrated/were found/focused on identifying…), recycle these verbs at the end of the Introduction when you say what you plan to do in your paper;
3. Gap/problem/question/prediction (P37, few researchers have addressed the problem/there remains a need for/largely unsuccessful…), alter them to make them more polite not to criticism;
4. The present work (P40, this paper focuses on/the purpose of this study is to describe and examine/in order to…), don’t rely on one-size-fits-all verbs such as “discuss”, use more specific verbs, like: compare/analyse/describe

Writing about Methodology

Structure

This section is the first part of the central ‘report’ section of the research article (the second part is the Results section), and it reports what you did and/or what you used.

The Methodology should contain sufficient detail for readers to replicate the work done and obtain similar results.

When we come to ask our three questions:

• How do I start the Methodology/Experiments section? What type of sentence should I begin with?
• What type of information should be in this section, and in what order?
• How do I end this section?

Grammar and Writing Skills

Passives and tense pairs

You can use the active (we collected) if you worked as part of a research team.

When you write about what you did and what you used, you need to be able to distinguish between standard procedures, i.e. what is normally done or how a piece of equipment is normally constructed, and what you did yourself.

Five possible uses of passives and tense pairs (P49)

Use of ‘a’ and ‘the’

Singular countable nouns need a determiner.

Some nouns can be used as countable nouns and uncountable ones (P51)

Use ‘the’ if or when you and reader both know which thing/person you mean.

Use ‘the’ if there is only one possible referent.

Use ‘a’ if it doesn’t matter or you don’t know or your reader doesn’t know which thing/person you are refering to.

‘a’ is used before consonant sounds, while an is used before vowel sounds. Sound, not spelling, is important here.

Adverbs and adverb location

Common hidden errors include mistakes in the use of ‘a’ and ‘the’, whether or not to use a comma before the word which in relative clauses and adverb location errors.

Since your aim is to stay safe and write clearly, it is better to avoid adverb clusters like these, and rewrite the information in a diff erent order. If your adverb relates to the whole sentence then consider putting the adverb at the front of the sentence. If you are still left with ambiguous adverb clusters, consider breaking the sentence down into units, each with its own adverb.

Writing Task: Build a Model

Building a model

Key

A case study of each sentence in an introduction:

1. Offer a general overview of the entire subsection, including the purpose of the investigation. There are three ways to introduce the Methodology: offer a general overview by outlining the parameters of the work; provide background information about the materials or about the source of the materials/equipment; refer back to something in the previous section. Remember: show your reader the wall before you begin to examine the bricks;
2. Provide background information and justify the choice of location by referring to previous research. In fact there is a strong persuasive and communicative element in this section. You need to communicate not only ‘This is exactly what I did/used’ but also ‘I had good reasons for those decisions’;
3. Provide an overview of the procedure/method itself;
4. Provide details about what was done and used and also shows that care was taken;
5. Continue to describe what was done in detail, using language which communicates that care was taken;
6. Describe what was done by referring to existing methods in the literature. Remember to use the Present Simple for this kind of background information (This method obtains) and to switch back to the Past Simple when you return to describing what you did;
7. Provide more detailed information about the method and shows it to have been a good choice;
8. Provide more details of the method;
9. Mention a possible difficulty in the methodology. Use vocabulary that minimises the problem, minimises your responsibility, maximises the good aspects and suggests a solution.

Streamline and 4 basic components:

1. Provide a general introduction and overview of the materials/methods, restate the purpose of the work, give the source of materials/equipment used, supply essential background information;
2. Provide specific and precise details about materials and methods, justify choices made, indicate that appropriate care was taken;
3. Relate materials/methods to other studies;
4. Indicate where problems occurred.

Vocabulary

1. Provide a general introduction and overview of the materials/methods and give the source of materials/equipment used (P77)
   The impact tests used in this work were…
   All reactions were…
   In the majority of the tests, …
2. Supply essential background information (P79)
   at the near end and at the far end/is aligned with/are positioned near
3. Provide specific and precise details about materials and methods (P81)
   attempt/consider/conduct/anneal/calibrate/centrifuge/dissect/calculate/extract/isolate
4. Justify choices made (P82)
   To validate/in order to determine/for the sake of
5. Indicate that appropriate care was taken (P84)
   firmly/at least/constantly
6. Relate materials/methods to other studies (P85)
   as in…/slightly modified/as reported previously
7. Indicate where problems occurred
   Inevitably/however/although

Writing about Results

Structure

However, one of the most important reasons for writing a Results section rather than relying on graphs, tables and other images is that you must communicate your own understanding and interpretation of the results to your readers.

When we come to ask our three questions:

• How do I start the Results section? What type of sentence should I begin with?
• What type of information should be in this section and in what order?
• How do I end this section?

Grammar and Writing Skills

Sequence

In order for other researchers to be able to repeat your work accurately and compare their results with yours, you need to be able to describe the order and time sequence of what you did and found in a very precise way.

The words and phrases that communicate sequence can be divided into eight groups (P98):

1. before the beginning: beforehand / earlier
2. at the beginning/first step: at first / initially
3. steps/order: after / previously
4. after a short while: before long / soon
5. at a late/later stage; after a while/longer period: eventaully / later on
6. one point/period occurring almost or exactly at the same time as another: as soon as / when
7. at the end/last step: finally / lastly
8. after the end: afterwards / in the end

Frequency

It is also important to communicate clearly how often a particular event or result occurred.

Frequency language has been arranged in the list below in order of frequency from 100% frequency (on every occasion) down to zero frequency (never) (P100). However, note that frequency language is often used in a subjective way: if something is said to occur frequently, this could be in relation to how oft en it was expected to occur.

Quantity

Results do not speak for themselves! Your reader needs to know what the numbers or quantities mean in order to understand them.

Losing this opportunity to communicate what your results mean can cause problems. If you do not describe or comment on your results in words, the reader may perceive them differently from you.

One way to communicate your interpretation of the results is to use the language in the Frequency list. Another way to communicate your comments on the numbers, levels
and quantities in the figure you are describing is to use quantity language (P107).

Causality

This section is designed to provide you with a variety of language options to represent your understanding of the relationships between the events you observed.

Causal statements such as x caused y are risky because they may be disproved at a later stage.

Here are some other ways of reducing your risk and responsibility by ‘softening’ a causal statement (P110):
It appears that…
It can/may* (therefore) be inferred/assumed that…
It is (very/highly/extremely) probable/likely that…

Writing Task: Build a Model

Building a model

Key

1. Refer to the findings and conclusions obtained by other researchers;
   You can begin by offering an overview of the current section or you can begin by referring back to something from the previous section(s).
2. Refer back to your own methodology and adds more information about it;
3. Invite the reader to look at a graph/figure/table etc;
4. Refer to specific results and compares them with those obtained in another study, using subjective, evaluative language (consistent with);
5. Offer a general statement about your results to begin a new paragraph;
6. Refer to specific results and compare them to those obtained in another study, using language that comments on the result(s) (a striking difference);
7. Select specific results to describe in more detail, using language that comments on the results (considerably lower, generally, frequently far lower);
8. Refer to the method used to analyse the results;
9. Mention a problem in the results and uses quantity language (slightly) to minimise its significance;
   As with problems in the methodology, if you delay writing up until your results are all perfect, you may never get to publish it. So write it up as soon as your results are worth communicating; don’t wait for perfection.
   Use vocabulary that minimises the problem, suggests possible reasons for it and/or offers a solution or a way forward.
10. Make a reference to the implications and applications of the work s/he has done.

Streamline with 4 basic components:

1. Revisiting the research aim/existing research; revisiting/expanding methodology; general overview of results;
2. Invitation to view results; specific/key results in details, with or without explanations; comparisons with results in other research; comparison/s with model predictions;
3. Problems with results;
4. Possible implications of results.

Vocabulary

1. Revisiting the research aim/existing research (P137)
   Since… investigated experimentally.
   We reasoned that…
   In earlier studies…
2. General overview of results (P138)
   It is apparent that both…
   It is evident that…
   In general, …
3. Invitation to view results (P138)
   indicate / illustrate / reported
   … can be seen in Fig. 1.
   Comparing Figs. 1 and 4 shows…
4. Specific/key results in details (P140)
5. Comparisons with other results (P143)
   It is evident that…
   … almost identical in…
   … strongly confirm…
6. Problems with results (P144)
   It should, however, be noted that…
   Nevertheless, …
   Reasonable results were obtained…
7. Possible implications of results (P147)
   This suggests that…
   It could be inferred…
   … seem to indicate that…

Writing the Discussion/Conclusion

Structure

When you started the Introduction, you helped your readers move into the research article by establishing that the topic was a significant topic, providing background information and so on. Following the same pattern in reverse, you end the Discussion/Conclusion by helping your readers move out of the article.

When we come to ask our three questions:

• How do I start the Discussion/Conclusion section? What type of sentence should I begin with?
• What type of information should be in this section, and in what order?
• How do I end this section?

Grammar and Writing Skills

Modal verbs are particularly useful in the Results and Discussion sections. In these sections you are writing about the reasons, interpretations and implications of your results and you oft en need to communicate that something is a possible reason, or an obvious interpretation or a probable implication.

Here is a table showing how each of these modal verbs works in the past tense and in the negative, with examples (P161).

1. Ability/Capability: can / can not
2. Possibility/Options: may / might
3. Probability/Belief/Expectation: should / ought to
4. Virtual certainty: must / have to
5. Advice/Opinion: should / should have
6. Necessity/Obligation: need to / have to

Writing Task: Build a Model

Building a model

Key

1. Revisit previous research;
   Offering an overview of the section by previewing the content of that subsection with some general statements and referring back to something from the previous sections to link it with the new one.
   One option is to begin by revisiting the most signifi cant aspects of your work.
2. Revisit the Introduction to recall specific weakness in the methodology used in previous studies;
3. Revisit the methodology used in this study;
4. Revisit and summarise the results;
5. Show where and how the present work fits into the research ‘map’ of this field;
6. Recall an aspect of the results that represents a positive achievement or contribution of this work;
   Mapping shows where the achievement fits into the research picture in this field, but the achievement itself is often stated separately so that the reader can see the value of what has been done and found in this study independently of how it affects the current state of knowledge.
7. Focus on the meaning and implications of the achievements in this work;
   Saying what your results are is the central function of the Results section; talking about what they mean is the central function of the Discussion.
8. Note that one of the achievements or contributions of this work is its novelty;
9. Refine the implications of the results, including possible applications;
10. Describe the limitations which should direct future research;
11. Suggest a specific area to be addressed in future work.

Streamline:

1. Revisiting previous sections; summarising/revisiting general or key results;
2. Mapping (relationship to existing research);
3. Achievement/contribution; refining the implications;
4. Limitations; current and future work; applications

Vocabulary

1. Revisiting previous sections
2. Summarising/revisiting general or key results
3. Refining the implications
   When you revisit these sections, don’t change the words in the sentences unnecessarily; your aim is to create an ‘echo’ that will remind the reader of what you said before, so repeating the same words and phrases is advantageous.
4. Mapping (relationship to existing research) (P188)
   To the knowledge of the authors, …
   … are comparable to…
   … are in general agreement with …
5. Achievement/contribution (P189)
   novel / dramatically
   … provide compelling evidence that…
   … provide the framework for …
6. Limitations/current and future research
   … are encouraging and should be validated …
   … remain to be determined.
   Future work should …
7. Applications/applicability/implementation
   … can be applied to …
   It should be possible, …
   … could be applied …

Writing the Abstract

Structure

It should make sense as a standalone, self-contained description of the research article, and readers should be able to understand the key points and results of the research even if they never see the whole article. The Abstract, in this sense, is a representation of the research article.

Most Abstracts are results-focused and there are basic similarities in all Abstracts, but there are two quite distinct models. The first model is similar to a summary, and is very structured. Th e second model is more common, and focuses primarily on one or two aspect of the study, usually — but not always — the method and the results.

When we come to ask our three questions:

• How do I start the Abstract? What type of sentence should I begin with?
• What type of information should be in the Abstract, and in what order?
• How do I end this section?

Grammar and Writing Skills

Verb tense

The gap/problem is normally in the Present Simple tense.
When you are referring to what the paper itself does or what is actually in the paper itself, use the Present Simple tense.
When you are referring to your methodology, or what you did during the research period, it is common to use the Past Simple tense.
It is also possible to use the Present Simple tense to talk about your methodology, especially when you are referring to calculations or equations which can be found in the paper itself.
Results can be expressed in either the Present Simple tense, or more commonly, in the Past Simple tense.
Achievements can be expressed in the Present Perfect tense, as in the Discussion/Conclusion and also in the Present Simple tense.
Applications are normally stated in the Present Simple tense.

Length

Most are between 80–150 words and are written as a single paragraph. Even longer Abstracts (150–250 words) are usually written as a single paragraph.

Language

The Abstract is sometimes written in a slightly less technical way than the article itself in order to attract a wider audience.

Writing Task: Build a Model

Building a model

Key

MODEL 1

1. Provide background factual information;
   Limit background information to one or two sentences.
2. Combine the method, the general aim and the specific aim of the study in one sentence;
   You can reduce the number of words by combining the background information and the aim, or what this paper does and what was found, so that the sentence serves more than one purpose.
3. Summarise the methodology and provide details;
4. Indicate the achievement of the study;
5. Present the implications of the study.

MODEL 2

1. Combine what the paper does (This paper reports), the method or materials used (water-soluble polymer blend), the contribution (novel) and the aim of the study (to control drug release);
2. Refer to the method in more detail and provides numerical details of the results.

Streamline:

1. Background; aim; problem; what the paper does;
2. Methodology/materials;
3. Results; achievement/contribution;
4. Applications;
5. Limitations; future work.

Vocabulary

1. Background (P217)
2. Aim (P217)
3. Problem (P218)
4. What the paper does (P218)
5. Methodology/materials (P219)
6. Results (P219)
7. Achievement/contribution (P220)
8. Implications (P220)
9. Applications (P220)
10. Limitations and future work (P221)

本文于2023年4月21日首发于B站