Basic English Writing

in Science & Technology

Professor Chris G Whiteley
Honours Professor: Enzymology
Graduate Institute Applied Science & Technology
National Taiwan University Science & Technology
Taipei; TAIWAN

TR: 1013-3; Tel: (02)-2737-6939

E Mail: c.whiteley@mail.ntust.edu.tw

How well you communicate

affects your career
Successful engineers spent 25% of week writing
Recruiters claim that engineers need more work on
their writing
Professional engineers found writing their most
useful subject in college

How well you communicate affects

the well-being of others
Explosion was caused by
failure of O-rings in the
solid rocket boosters
Engineers knew of O-ring
problems before launch
.so what happened!
SpaceShuttle
Challenger
(January28,1986)

Engineers failed to
communicate
seriousness of problem

Good communication is the key to making

yourself known in the scientific world.
If you cannot write, and cannot write well,
your papers will not make an impact.
So many good scientists/engineers struggle
to put their thoughts on to paper
This course overcomes that hurdle and shows
that you can think and write in a logical, clear
and precise way.
The course shows how to construct an article
and about style and about English language.

BriefOutline:
1: Welcome, introduction and overview
2: Language and Style 1: Sentences to paragraphs
3: Language and Style 2: Verbs and punctuation
4: Language and Style 3: Style, mistakes and jargon
5: Reading and the logical structure of articles
6: Abstracts
7: Planning, brainstorming, crystallising ideas
8: The body of an article
9: Figures, tables, equations.
10: Information sources, citations, plagiarism, ethics.
11: Criticism and peer review
12: Concise writing, Precis exercise
13: Tools for writing and other topics.

If the reader is to understand

what the writer means,
..
the writer must understand
what the reader needs

The following was the start of an abstract to a

paper I was trying to read..
Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) immunotherapy
is based on the ex vivo selection of tumorreactive lymphocytes, and their activation and
numerical expression before reinfusion to the
autologous tumor-bearing host.

So..
Is this sentence easy to understand?
Is this sentence enjoyable/interesting to read?

..another example!
These findings imply that the rates of
ascorbate radical production and its recycling
via dehydroascorbate reductase to replenish
the ascorbate pool are equivalent at the lower
irradiance, but not equivalent at higher
irradiance with the rate of ascorbate radical
production exceeding its recycling back to
ascorbate.
Is this sentence readable?
Is it written to inform or to obscure?

Fundamentals of Effective Writing

The secret of good writing is to strip:
- every sentence to its cleanest components.
- every word that serves no function,
- every long word that could be a short word,
- every adverb that carries the same meaning
thats already in the verb,
- every passive construction that leaves the
reader unsure of who is doing what.

These weaken the strength of a sentence.

Principles of effective writing

Cut unnecessary words and phrases;
Learn to part with your words!
Subject + verb + object (active voice)
Object + verb + subject (passive voice)
Write with verbs: use strong verbs,
Avoid turning verbs into nouns,
Dont bury the main verb!

Cut unnecessary words

This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of

cancer biology study design, using as examples
studies that illustrate the methodologic challenges
or that demonstrate successful solutions to the
difficulties inherent in biological research.
and

To could look like this!!

Thispaperreviewscancerbiologystudydesign,
usingexamplesthatillustratespecificchallengesand
solutions.

another example!
As it is well known, iIncreased athletic activity has
been related to a profile of is associated with lower
cardiovascular risk, lower blood pressure levels,
and improved muscular and cardio-respiratory
performance fitness.
could be written as.
Increased athletic activity is associated with lower
cardiovascular risk, lower blood pressure, and
improved fitness.

or.
Increased athletic activity lowers cardiovascular
risk and blood pressure, and improves fitness.
(stronger level of evidence)

Cut unnecessary words

Look for and remove all unnecessary words that
might slow your reader.
Dead weight words and phrases
as it is well known
as it has been shown
it can be regarded that
Empty words and phrases
basic tenets of
methodologic

Long words or phrases that could be short

muscular and cardiorespiratory performance
Unnecessary jargon
muscular and cardiorespiratory performance
Repetitive words or phrases
illustrate/demonstrate
challenges/difficulties
Adverbs
very
really
quite
basically
generally

Long words and phrases that could be short

A majority of.
A number of.
Are of the same opinion
Less frequently occurring
All three of the.
Give rise to
Due to the fact that
Have an effect on

- most
- many
- agree
- rare
- the three
- cause
- because
- affect