Enhancing Scientific Writing Skills

1. GRADUATION THESIS
ENHANCING SCIENTIFIC REPORT WRITING SKILLS
FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF ENGLISH,
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
STUDENT: NGUYEN THI HIEN
COURSE: K26 (2019-2023)
SUPERVISOR: TRAN THI LE DUNG, PhD.
Hanoi, April 2023
Hanoi Open University
Faculty of English

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Introduction
1
Literature
review
2
Methodology
3
Results
and
Discussion
4
Conclusion
5

3. INTRODUCTION

4. Aims and objectives
Aims
3
Objectives
1
2
To help the third-year students at the FOE enhance their
scientific report-writing skills
To investigate the current situation in
writing scientific reports
To find out the problems in the writing
process
To give some solutions to enhance scientific
report writing skills

5. Scope of the study
About how to enhance
scientific report writing
skills for the third-year
students at the Faculty
of English, Hanoi Open
University

6. Research questions
2
3
1
What are the difficulties in the writing process?
What are suggestions to enhance scientific
report writing skills?
What is the current situation in writing scientific
reports of third-year English majors at HOU?

7. LITERATURE REVIEW
Blake & Bly: “Reports provide knowledge that has been gathered
via investigation and analysis of findings and problems.”
2
Robert A. Day
The IMRaD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion)
organization of scientific papers has developed within about
the past century.
Theuns Kotze
A scientific writing may consist of 5 main parts, which are
the Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results
and Discussion, and Conclusion.

8. Structures of a scientific report
IMRaD
( for basic sciences )
ILMRaDC
(for the field of social and humanities)
1. Title Page
2. Table of Contents
3. Abstract
4. Chapter 1: Introduction
5. Chapter 2: Methodology
6. Chapter 3: Results
7. Chapter 4: Discussion
8. Conclusion
9. References
10. Appendices
1. Title
2. Abstract/ Summary
3. Acknowledgements
4. Table of contents
5. Lists of tables or figures
6. Lists of abbreviations
7. Chapter 1: Introduction
8. Chapter 2: Literature review
9. Chapter 3: Methodology
10. Chapter 4: Results and discussion
11. Chapter 5: Conclusion
12.References
13.Appendices

9. METHODOLOGY
Participants: 62 students
Questionnaire : 10 questions concentrating
on :
• The current situation of students in
writing scientific reports
• Students’ difficulties in the writing
process
• Main factors leading to the difficulties

10. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Data analysis ( Total: 62 responses )
Difficulties and solutions on scientific report writing skills
Analysis of students’ current situation in writing
scientific report
Analysis of the difficulties in writing scientific report
Analysis of the primary causes

11. 31.7%
47.6%
58.7%
49.2%
23.8%
Lack of practicality
Include unscientific and
unobjective content
Make mistakes in using
words
Plagiarism error
Others
Chart 2. Students' weaknesses in scientific
report writing

12. 52.4%
24.2%
37.6%
42.0%
47.5%
8.0%
Have all the above difficulties
Do not choose the suitable writing style to
your report
Do not know how to cite documents in
effective way
Do not know how to separate facts and
opinions
Not sure about the form of the report
Be hard to find out reliable resources
Chart 3. Students' difficulties in scientific report
writing

13. 19%
13%
25%
43%
Chart 6. The first thing students do when writing a
scientific report
Discovery/reading about
your topic
Planning (decide question of
the report)
Gathering the data
Outlining the report

14. 39.7%
57.1%
28.6%
79.4%
52.4%
22.2%
Document resources are limited.
There have not been many opportunities to write a
science report.
Studying subjects in the lecture takes up a lot of time.
It is very difficult to write a standard scientific report.
Competitions on scientific research have not widely
popularized.
Others
Chart 8. The objective causes leading to the
difficulties

15. Solutions on scientific report writing skills
Increasing popularity of scientific research
activities
Seeking for reliable resources
Enhancing scientific report writing skills
Raising students’ awareness and motivation
Resolving external factors
Resolving internal factors

16. 5. Proofreading
4. Editing
1. Planning
2. Drafting
3. Revising
Enhancing scientific report writing skills
Using writing process

17. Enhancing scientific report writing skills
Style 1
Avoiding plagiarism
3
Giving examples
and illustrations
2
Avoiding
plagiarism
Taking notice of some critical points

18. Enhancing scientific report writing skills
1
2
3
Making the report more objective
Making the report more precise
Making the report more logical
Making an effective scientific report

19. CONCLUSION
To write an effective report, students should:
• Follow five necessary steps
• Pay attention to some critical points
• Improve writing skills
Writing a standard scientific report is not a simple task
=> Unavoidable mistakes

20. Implications
Convey theoretic knowledge
in a more interesting way
Express the importance of
writing scientific reports
Help students solve problems
Encourage students to
participate in scientific
research activities
Recognize the importance
of scientific research
Have an overview of a
scientific report
Enhance scientific report
writing skills
Overcome difficulties
For lecturers For students

21. Thank you for
your attention!
Contact: Nguyễn Thị Hiền
Phone: 098.808.7290
Email: 19a71010039@students.hou.edu.vn