Mastering Scientific and Medical Writing (eBook)

A Self-help Guide

Silvia M. Rogers (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2014 | 2. Auflage
XIV, 116 Seiten
Springer-Verlag
978-3-642-39446-1 (ISBN)

Infos

This self-help guide is intended for scientists and medical professionals and students who wish to improve their scientific writing skills. Exercises invite the reader to practice the most important aspects of scientific writing. Although the book addresses certain issues more troublesome to scientific communicators of a non-English language origin, the guide will be of equal benefit to those whose first language is English. If you want not only to write but to write well, this book is for you.

This second edition takes into account new developments in the area of scientific communication. In particular, the importance of authenticity is addressed, drawing attention to the sensitive issue of plagiarism in scientific texts.

Inhalt

Preface 6
About the Author 8
Acknowledgments 10
Contents 12
1: Introduction 16
2: Good Versus Poor Scientific Writing: An Orientation 18
2.1 What Is “Good” Scientific Writing? 18
2.2 The Plain Language Movement 19
2.3 The Baso Pyramid of Scientific Writing 20
2.3.1 Baseline 21
2.3.2 Style 21
2.3.3 Opinion 21
2.4 Common Myths and Misconceptions 22
2.4.1 What Are Myths and Misconceptions? 22
2.4.2 Long and Complicated Sentences 23
2.4.3 Misusing or Wasting Specific and Generic Terms 23
2.4.4 Reluctance to Use First-Person Pronouns Leading to Overuse of Passive Voice 24
2.4.5 Tendency to Turn Sharp and Powerful Verbs into Weighty Nouns 24
3: Words and Units: Orthography and Punctuation 25
3.1 Correct Spelling 25
3.1.1 Getting Words Right 25
3.1.2 Using Spell Checkers 26
3.2 Consistent Spelling: American English Versus British English 26
3.3 Punctuation 27
3.3.1 Proper Use of Punctuation Marks 27
3.3.2 Hyphens and Word Division 27
3.3.3 Punctuation Marks Indicating Emotion 29
3.3.4 Parentheses and Brackets 29
3.3.5 Periods in Titles and Academic Degrees 30
3.3.6 Apostrophes in Contractions 31
3.3.7 Nonbreaking Spaces and Hyphens 31
3.4 Shortened Word Forms in Scientific Writing 32
3.4.1 Types of Abbreviations 32
3.4.2 True Abbreviations 33
3.4.2.1 Latin Abbreviations 33
3.4.3 Units of Measurement 33
3.4.4 Acronyms and Initialisms 35
3.4.5 Contractions 35
3.4.6 Suspensions 36
3.5 Numbers 36
3.5.1 Expressing Numbers in Scientific Texts 36
3.5.2 Formats of Numbers 37
3.5.3 Ranges of Numbers 38
3.5.4 Percentages 38
3.6 Capitalization 39
3.6.1 Use of Capitals in Scientific English 39
3.6.2 Capitals in Proper Nouns (Names) 39
3.6.3 Capitals in Titles 40
3.6.3.1 Capitalizing Hyphenated Compound Words in Titles 40
3.6.4 Capitals in Designations 41
3.6.5 Capitals in New-Age Words 41
4: Forming Sentences: Grammar 42
4.1 Why Battle with Grammar? 42
4.2 The Tenses in Scientific Reporting 43
4.3 Joining Statements 45
4.3.1 How Can the Joining of Words or Statements Cause Confusion? 45
4.3.2 Nonparallel Verbs 46
4.3.3 Nonparallel Modifiers 47
4.3.4 Nonparallel Prepositional Phrases 48
4.4 Subject–Verb Agreement 48
4.4.1 Using the Correct Verb Forms 48
4.4.2 Special Nouns 50
4.4.3 Collective Nouns 50
4.4.4 The Rule of Meaning 51
4.4.5 Verb Matching with “None” and the “Neither–Nor” Linkage 52
4.5 Syntax (Order of Words) 53
4.5.1 Modifying Phrases 53
4.5.2 Position of Adverbs in Sentences 54
4.5.3 Position of Prepositions in Sentences 55
4.6 Dangling Participles (and Other Danglers) 56
4.6.1 What Are Danglers? 56
4.6.2 Dangling Participles 56
4.6.3 Dangling Gerunds 58
4.7 The Relative Pronouns “Which” and “That” 58
4.8 Use of “Respectively” 59
4.9 Plurals of Abstractions and Attributes 60
5: Putting It Nicely: Style 61
5.1 What Is “Style” in the Context of Scientific Writing? 61
5.2 Active Versus Passive Voice 62
5.2.1 Why Argue About Active/Passive Voice? 62
5.2.2 Shifting Emphasis by Choosing the Voice 62
5.2.3 The Verb “To Be” in Copula Formulations 63
5.3 Overuse of Prepositions 63
5.4 Limiting Modifiers and Other Decorative Words 65
5.4.1 Excessive Adjectives, Adverbs, and Nouns 65
5.4.2 Modifier Strings 66
5.5 The “House Style” of Journals 67
5.6 Company-Internal Conventions of Style and Format 68
6: Redundancy and Jargon: Focusing on the Essentials 70
6.1 Redundancies in Scientific Reporting 70
6.2 Double Negatives 71
6.3 Tautology (Repeated and Redundant Words) 71
6.4 Doubling Prepositions 72
6.5 Jargonized Writing 73
6.6 Oxymorons 74
7: Quoting Published Material: Reference Formats 75
7.1 What Can Go Wrong When Quoting Published Material? 75
7.2 Reference Formats and the Uniform Requirements 76
7.2.1 What Style Should I Use? 76
7.2.2 Using Vancouver Style 76
7.2.3 Reference Manager Tools 79
8: Ethics of Scientific Writing: Avoiding Discrimination 80
8.1 Prejudice and Semantic Labeling 80
8.2 Sexist Writing and Gender-Biased Expressions 80
8.2.1 Sex Versus Gender 80
8.2.2 Gender-Inclusive Language 81
8.3 Racist Writing 82
8.4 Ageism 83
9: Sticking to Your Word: Avoiding Plagiarism 84
9.1 What Is Plagiarism? 84
9.2 Forms of Plagiarism 85
9.2.1 Plagiarism of Text 85
9.2.2 Plagiarism of Ideas 86
9.2.3 Self-Plagiarism 87
9.3 How to Avoid Plagiarism 88
10: Structuring Scientific Texts: Getting the “Story” out 90
10.1 Determining the Audience 90
10.2 Adapting the “Story” to the Readers’ Needs 91
10.3 Drafting an Abstract 92
10.3.1 The Importance of Abstracts 92
10.3.2 Descriptive Abstracts 93
10.3.3 Informative Abstracts 93
10.3.4 Structured Abstracts 93
11: Appendix 94
11.1 Scientific Writing Rules at a Glance 94
11.2 American English Versus British English: Groups of Words Affected by the Different Spelling 97
11.3 The Main Punctuation Marks in Scientific Writing 98
11.4 Awkward Phrases to Avoid 100
11.5 List of Academic Degrees and Honors 103
12: Exercises 106
12.1 Exercise 1 | Consistent Spelling 106
12.2 Exercise 2 | Proper Punctuation 106
12.3 Exercise 3 | Using Numbers and Percentages Correctly 107
12.4 Exercise 4 | Using Proper Capitalization 108
12.5 Exercise 5 | Using Tenses in Scientific Reporting 108
12.6 Exercise 6 | Restoring Parallelism 109
12.7 Exercise 7 | Avoiding Verbal Phrase Danglers 110
12.8 Exercise 8 | Using “Respectively” Properly 110
12.9 Exercise 9 | Avoiding Excessive Passive Voice 111
12.10 Exercise 10 | Limiting the Number of Prepositions 111
12.11 Exercise 11 | Using Modifiers in Moderation 112
12.12 Exercise 12 | Avoiding Tautological and Other Redundant Expressions 112
13: Solutions to Exercises 113
13.1 Solutions to Exercise 1 113
13.2 Solutions to Exercise 2 114
13.3 Solutions to Exercise 3 115
13.4 Solutions to Exercise 4 115
13.5 Solutions to Exercise 5 116
13.6 Solutions to Exercise 6 117
13.7 Solutions to Exercise 7 118
13.8 Solutions to Exercise 8 118
13.9 Solutions to Exercise 9 119
13.10 Solutions to Exercise 10 120
13.11 Solutions to Exercise 11 120
13.12 Solutions to Exercise 12 120
References 122
Dictionaries 122
Selected Books 122
Published Literature 123

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.1.2014
• Zusatzinfo: XIV, 116 p. 1 illus. in color.
• Verlagsort: Berlin
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• ISBN-10: 3-642-39446-9 / 3642394469
• ISBN-13: 978-3-642-39446-1 / 9783642394461