BMSC101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Scientific Writing, Technical Writing
17 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
ACADEMIC AND SCIENTIFIC WRITING
1. Discuss the difference between scientific writing and other forms of writing.
• Scientific writing:
o Technical writing governed by specific conventions
o Published in scientific journals
o Uses original data and interpretations
o Directed towards a scientific community of peers
2. Describe different types of scientific literature and explain their aims (e.g.
original research papers, edited books, review articles).
• Primary literature:
o Original data
• Secondary literature:
o Existing information is considered, questioned, organised and reviewed
3. Specify and explain the function of the fundamental parts of a modern, original
research paper.
• Title:
o Purpose: describe subject matter of the article
o A title should:
• Reflect factual content
• Use keywords
• Be specific
o Common error: to long with overly technical wording
• Abstract:
o Purpose: provides a "preview" of research article
o What to include:
• One paragraph (~100-250 words) summarising the:
▪ Purpose
▪ Methodology
▪ Results
▪ Conclusions
o Common error: not being clear/concise
• Introduction:
o Purpose: defines subject of report
o What to include:
• Existing knowledge/background information
• Why was the study performed?
• Specific purpose of study
• Hypothesis
o Common error: irrelevant information
• Materials and methods:
o Purpose: explains how the question was answered
o What to include:
• Materials that were used
▪ How they were used
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