Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer''''s Guide pot

[...]... Writer’s Guide the contents, of a section They are standard and allow rapid navigation to parts of interest to the reader Within a paragraph, it is also possible to make things stand out Take the change in sentence length, for example After a long sentence, and particularly at the end of a paragraph, a short sentence carries much emphasis, as you will see Why? Its syntax is usually simple and fast to... couples happily wedded: • • • An unfamiliar word and its definition An acronym and its definition A noun/phrase and its pronoun • • • • A verb and its object Background information and the text it clarifies A visual and its complete caption A verb and its subject In summary, acronyms, pronouns, abusive detailing, background “ghettos”, cryptic captions, and separated phrases all take their toll on the reader s... Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide ideas forward, since the sentences have the same meaning Needless paraphrases slow down reading and reduce conciseness (Sentence 3, in bold, repeats what sentences 1 and 2 already cover.) Additional length also occurs when details explain details Nested detailing diverts attention It takes the reader away from... scattered; and restructure the paragraph to remove repetition and inconsistent keywords Sometimes, additional length is caused by lack of focus The paragraph accumulates points and issues that are interwoven and difficult to disentangle without a complete restructure of the long paragraph Look at your long paragraphs and ask yourself, what am I trying to achieve with this paragraph? Does that support my overall... times, expand its letters the first time it appears on a page so that the reader does not need to flip pages back and forth Some journals ask authors to regroup all acronyms and their definitions at the beginning of their paper so that the reader can locate them more easily Avoid acronyms in visuals or define them in their caption Avoid acronyms in headings and subheadings because readers often read the structure... its cohesion decreases Additional length is often a consequence of paraphrasing Needless paraphrases slow down reading and reduce conciseness When ideas are not in motion, two things happen to a paragraph: its length grows and its cohesion decreases Additional length is often a consequence of paraphrasing With paraphrasing, the paragraph lengthens without actually moving the FA January 18, 2007 20 wspc/spi-b452/ch02... this background material is not used immediately, the memory will have to store it for later use Unfortunately, the memory warehouse is small and the warehouse keeper is quite busy The variable types There are two types of variables in a computer programme: global and local variables Global variables are declared at (Continued) FA January 24, 2007 12 wspc/spi-b452/ch01 Scientific Writing: A Reader and. .. as ectopic beats, initiated and propagated cell-to-cell One could also rewrite the sentence to make the pronoun disappear The cellular automaton (CA) cell — a natural candidate to model the electrical activity of a cell — is an ideal component to use in the simulation of intercellular communications, such as those occurring between cardiac cells, and to model the cell-to-cell initiation and propagation... you want the reader to sail through your paper with minimal memory load, identify and remove the causes for overload Read your introduction again Can you push background details closer to what they really explain? Are the sentences that feel long also ambiguous? Are details keeping apart elements of a sentence that should be closer? FA January 18, 2007 wspc/spi-b452/ch02 Scientific Writing: A Reader and. .. screw and injector are separated The redesigned screw still has enough channel depth and strength to handle standard plastic pellets; but the separate injection plunger, now only a few millimetres in diameter, can be used to control the metering accuracy The rewritten paragraph has three sentences instead of one, and 66 words instead of 81 As a result, because our memory can handle it, clarity is increased . Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide FA This page intentionally left blankThis page intentionally left blank January 19,2007 wspc/spi-b452/FM Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide FA Contents Preface. time had passed and he had forgotten it. 3 January 24,2007 wspc/spi-b452/ch01 Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide FA 4 Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide Acronyms allow. Singapore. SCIENTIFIC WRITING: A READER AND WRITER’S GUIDE Wanda - Scientific Writing.pmd 5/17/2007, 7:05 PM1 January 19,2007 wspc/spi-b452/FM Scientific Writing: A Reader and Writer’s Guide FA Preface You