The Climate Food and Farming (CLIFF) Research Network is an international research network that helps to expand young researchers' knowledge and experience working on climate change mitigation in smallholder farming. CLIFF provides grants for selected doctoral students to work with CGIAR researchers affiliated with the Standard Assessment of Mitigation Potential and Livelihoods in Smallholder Systems (SAMPLES) project. This presentation is Unconventional Approaches to Writing Scientific Papers by Todd S. Rosenstock, a scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

1. Unconventional approaches to writing
scientific papers
Todd S. Rosenstock
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
Cologne, Germany | 10 November 2017

2. Who knows how to make this meal?
Like cooking ugali:
No one was born able to write papers
Quality
ingredientsRecipe
Keep
trying Modify to
your taste

3. Where are we going today?
• Define the goals and approach for this series
• Brainstorm struggles (with writing): It’s not just
you
• Three principles of writing
• Name 5 rules of thumb for clear and concise
writing
• Getting started: Goals, Prepare, Copy
• Deconstruct the introduction, methods, results
and discussion

4. GOAL
To provide tools to help finish your
first paper or reduce the time it
takes to write your next 20 papers
What’s yours?

5. What are the most
difficult parts of
writing papers for
you?

6. Learning to write
takes _____ & _____
Scientific fact #1

7. Learning to write
takes time & _____
Scientific fact #1

9. Learning to write
takes time & practice
Scientific fact #1
“The first time I saw his [Todd’s] writing, I
wondered how he was in graduate school”
– Eike Luedeling (ICRAF Sr. Scientist) speaking
about the join writing on the USAID Global
Horticulture Assessment in 2005 at UC Davis

10. Writing is ______
Scientific fact #2

11. Writing is rewriting
Scientific fact #2
Avoid perfect drafting!

12. If you can’t outline it,
you can’t write it
Scientific fact #3

13. Rules of thumb
• Topic sentences
• Use shorter words when possible
• Less is more. Write sentences with less than
11 words/no compound sentences
• Active tense is OK
• Buy or get a style guide

14. Set (daily) goals
Getting started #1
Times, pages, paragraphs,
sentences, etc

15. Prepare
Getting started #2
You can’t create a a meal when you
don’t have ingredients (lit review,
outline, graphs, tables, etc)

16. COPY
Getting started #3
No I mean MIMIC

17. The Introduction

18. What is the
purpose of the
introduction and
what do you need
to accomplish in it?

19. Structure of the introduction
Big problem statement
Research
Specifics
Construct an argument
Logical
Flow of
Ideas

20. What are methods
and results for and
what not to do?

21. Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t innovate.
• Don’t report everything (unless it is critical)
• Don’t explain the results
• Don’t do a literature review of the methods

22. What is the
discussion for?

23. Two ways to write
the discussion

24. 1. They said, We
found, The results
agree or disagree,
here’s why

25. 1. They said, We found, The
results agree or disagree,
here’s why
2. We found, They said, The
results agree or disagree,
here’s why

26. Thank you
See you next time (TBD)