Scientific writing can be difficult. This is especially true for academics who must write in their second language of English, and also for those at the beginning of their degree, when the challenge of coming to terms with the scientific or technical aspects of a subject seems more important than the need to write clearly and consistently. This SlideShare highlights some of the common pitfalls encountered by both groups and provides practical advice on how to deal with them.

1. Scientific
writing…

2. can be
difficult

3. This is especially true for
• Professional academics who must write in their
second language of English
• who face an additional hurdle in the
race to publish or perish
• Undergraduate and postgraduate students
• who are so busy getting to grips with the
science that they don't worry too much
about writing clearly and consistently

4. However, help is at hand…
• This short SlideShare will highlight
• Key problem areas for non-native English
(NNE) authors
• Some of the errors made by English-speaking
students new to science writing
• Not surprisingly perhaps, these overlap to some extent
• And then point you in the right direction towards
solving the problems and fixing the errors

5. These slides are based on two e-books
that aim to help NNE and student
authors improve their science writing
skills
For more details visit

6. Science Writing
The two books are
• field guides in the sense that they will
point you in the right direction or jog
your memory regarding the
requirements of writing good
scientific prose, rather than be an
exhaustive guide to the language and
the genre
• interactive in the sense that they
contain links to additional material
that can be accessed as required to
support the main text

7. The mind map outlines the key
themes covered in the books…

8. … and the word cloud provides a
visual representation of them

9. The following slides
contain examples from
the topic areas covered
in the books and offer
some suggestions on
how to tackle the various
problems, together with
links to external
resources that provide
more details as required

10. Punctuation
• Strunk’s Rules 2–6* cover comma usage:
2. In a series of three or more terms with a single
conjunction, use a comma after each term except the
last
3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
4. Place a comma before and or but introducing an
independent clause
5. Do not join independent clauses by a comma
6. Do not break sentences in two
* Strunk, W. (2007) The Elements of Style, Filiquarian Publishing.

11. Punctuation
• Apostrophes can be used to indicate either
• Possession; e.g., John’s shirt, or
• Omission; e.g., don’t (but you shouldn’t use these in
formal writing)
• Dash it all
• The use of hyphens (-), en dashes (–), em dashes (—) and
the like can be dashed confusing
• leading to the potentially life-threatening conundrum
of whether you are about to find a man eating tiger or
a man-eating tiger in the next room

12. Style & Flow
• Paragraphs
• Make the paragraph the unit of composition
• As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic
sentence
• Sentences
• Consider the structure (clauses, conjunctions etc.)
and order of the words used
• And most important one of all…
• Omit needless words

13. Formatting
• Even the simplest document will need some
formatting and you should be consistent with your
choice of
• Font (type, size, colour, etc.)
• Text justification
• Reference styles
• Heading formats
• Figure captions
• Figure and table numbering
• Line spacing
• Paragraph indents

14. Scientific Rigour
• Take the time to sort out your references
– Check that all author names are spelt correctly
– Use a consistent citation style in the main text
– Make sure that anything cited in the text is also
included in the list of references at the end (and vice
versa)
– Format this list consistently and according to the
relevant guidelines
• How to format references
• Citation Style Chart

15. Editor’s Most Wanted
• Time spent checking for erroneous double
spaces, finding and using the correct symbol
for the minus sign, or fixing other typos
(typographical errors) prior to the final
submission of your work is TIME WELL SPENT
• Take look at the Top Typos that I see most
often when editing NNE texts
and try to avoid them

16. Want some more?
• Go to the knowledge base on our web site, which gives a more
structured sample of the material covered in the two books
• Better still, follow one of the links below and get the the most
appropriate version for you on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac
• Science Writing: An Interactive Field Guide for Non-Native
English Speakers
• Science Writing: an interactive field guide for students
• Or if you are a Kindle user
• Thanks for your time
The Frank Partnership Limited