摘自

《Science Research Writing For Non-Native Speakers of English》

Hilary Glasman-Deal

Imperial College Press

# Introduction

The aim of this book is to give you the information, vocabulary and skills you need quickly and easily so that you can write confi dently using the style and structure you see in the journals you read.

Most science research is written according to a fairly conventional structure: first the title, then the abstract, followed by an introduction, after which there is a central section which describes what was done and what was found and then a discussion and/or conclusion. At the end of the paper or research article, acknowledgements and references are added.

This book is based on the most useful thing I have learned: when your language skills are not perfect, organising your information in a conventional way and using conventional language are very important.

The strategy in this book can be summed up as follows: carefully examine good examples of the kind of writing you would like to produce, identify and master the structure, grammar and vocabulary you see in these examples and then apply them in your own writing.

# How to Write an Introduction

## Structure

In practice, you will find that you need to be certain about what you have done and what you have found in order to write the Introduction, and so the best time to write it will be after you have written, or at least drafted, the report sections.

In order to help you write the Introduction to your own research, the model you build must answer the following three questions:

* How do writers normally start the Introduction?

* What type of information should be in my Introduction, and in what order?

* How do writers normally end the Introduction?

Many of the things you need to do in the Introduction are done — in reverse order — in the Discussion/Conclusion.

In the Introduction you start out by being fairly general and gradually narrow your focus, whereas the opposite is true in the Discussion/Conclusion.

## Grammar and Writing Skills

### Tense pairs

The Present Simple tense is used in science writing to state accepted facts and truths.

Using the Present Simple tense means that you believe your findings and deductions are strong enough to be considered as facts or truths.

What is important is that the event in (d) is considered more relevant to the situation now than the event in (c), which is why it is given in the Present Perfect.

Tense changes are always meaningful, and they always signal a change in the function of the information — so don’t change tense randomly and make sure you remember to change tense when you should.

### Signalling language

One of the most common errors in writing is failing to connect one sentence or idea to the next. Every time you end a sentence, your reader has no idea what the next sentence is going to do or say.

One way to connect sentences is to overlap, meaning to repeat something from the previous sentence.

Another way is to use a pronoun (it, they) or pro-form (this method, these systems) to glue the sentences together.

The third way is not to finish the sentence at all, but to join it to the next sentence with a semicolon or a relative clause (a 'which' clause).

The fourth way is to use a signalling sentence connector to indicate the relationship between one sentence and the next, or one part of a sentence and the next.

The sentence connector signals the function of the information in the sentence.

Signalling Language List

CAUSE:

due to (the fact that) / on account of (the fact that) / in view of (the fact that) / as / because / since

RESULT:

therefore / consequently / hence / as a result (of which) / which is why / so

CONTRAST/DIFFERENCE:

however / whereas / but / on the other hand / while / by contrast

UNEXPECTEDNESS:

Although / Even though / Though

Despite / In spite of / Regardless of / Notwithstanding

nevertheless / however / yet / nonetheless / even so

ADDITION:

in addition / moreover / furthermore / apart from that / also / secondly (etc.) / in the second place (etc.) / what is more

### Passive/Active

You can use we to refer to your research group or team, but do not use it to refer to people or humanity in general.

Use words like here and in this study to let your reader know when you are referring to your own work.

Your aim when you skim through a text is to find out quickly what it is about and where the various pieces of information are located so that you can read it faster and more confidently.

A paragraph in academic writing often starts with a topic sentence, which gives the main idea of the paragraph, and tells the reader what the paragraph is about.

## Writing Task: Build a Model

### Building a model

One way to find out what the writer is doing in a sentence — ratherthan what s/he is saying — is to imagine that your computer has accidentally deleted it.

Another way to figure out what the writer is doing in a sentence is to look at the grammar and vocabulary clues.

### Key

A case study of each sentence in an introduction:

1. Establish the importance of this research topic (P34 1.4.1 Vocabulary for the Introduction);

2. Provide general background information for the reader, start with the most general one, the one that many of your readers will already know (show them the wall before you examine the bricks);

3. Use research references to support both the background facts and the claim for significance (three questions should be asked: Which of the research papers I have read should be mentioned somewhere in the Introduction? Which ones should be part of the background to the research and which ones should go in the literature review which comes later in the Introduction? What order should I mention them in? Who comes first and who comes last?);

4. Describe the general problem area or the current research focus of the field;

5. Provide a transition between the general problem area and the literature review, include references to previous or current research wherever it is useful, even in a sentence whose function is primarily to provide a transition;

6. Provide a brief overview of key research projects in this area (for example...), arrange your references in a logical way (chronological, different approaches/theories/models, general/specific);

7. Describe a gap in the research (however/although...), this is where you begin to introduce the purpose of your paper and the specific problem you will deal with;

8. Describe the paper itself (this study focuses on/the aim of this work is...);

9. Give details about the methodology reported in the paper;

10. Announce the findings, be careful not to go into too much detail at this point.

Streamline and 4 basic components:

1. Establish the importance of your field, provide background facts/information (possibly from research), define the terminology in the title/key words, present the porblem area/current research focus;

2. Previous and/or current research and contributions;

3. Locate a gap in the research, describe the problem you will address, present a prediction to be tested;

4. Describe the present paper.

## Vocabulary

1. Establish significance (P34, major current focus/numerous experiments have established that/generated considerable recent research interest...);

2. Previous and/or current research and contributions (P36, was demonstrated/were found/focused on identifying...), recycle these verbs at the end of the Introduction when you say what you plan to do in your paper;

3. Gap/problem/question/prediction (P37, few researchers have addressed the problem/there remains a need for/largely unsuccessful...), alter them to make them more polite not to criticism;

4. The present work (P40, this paper focuses on/the purpose of this study is to describe and examine/in order to...), don’t rely on one-size-fits-all verbs such as "discuss", use more specific verbs, like: compare/analyse/describe

# Writing about Methodology

## Structure

This section is the first part of the central ‘report’ section of the research article (the second part is the Results section), and it reports what you did and/or what you used.

The Methodology should contain sufficient detail for readers to replicate the work done and obtain similar results.

When we come to ask our three questions:

* How do I start the Methodology/Experiments section? What type of sentence should I begin with?

* What type of information should be in this section, and in what order?

* How do I end this section?

## Grammar and Writing Skills

### Passives and tense pairs

You can use the active (we collected) if you worked as part of a research team.

When you write about what you did and what you used, you need to be able to distinguish between standard procedures, i.e. what is normally done or how a piece of equipment is normally constructed, and what you did yourself.

Five possible uses of passives and tense pairs (P49)

### Use of 'a' and 'the'

Singular countable nouns need a determiner.

Some nouns can be used as countable nouns and uncountable ones (P51)

Use 'the' if or when you and reader both know which thing/person you mean.

Use 'the' if there is only one possible referent.

Use 'a' if it doesn't matter or you don't know or your reader doesn't know which thing/person you are refering to.

'a' is used before consonant sounds, while an is used before vowel sounds. Sound, not spelling, is important here.

### Adverbs and adverb location

Common hidden errors include mistakes in the use of 'a' and 'the', whether or not to use a comma before the word which in relative clauses and adverb location errors.

Since your aim is to stay safe and write clearly, it is better to avoid adverb clusters like these, and rewrite the information in a diff erent order. If your adverb relates to the whole sentence then consider putting the adverb at the front of the sentence. If you are still left with ambiguous adverb clusters, consider breaking the sentence down into units, each with its own adverb.

## Writing Task: Build a Model

### Building a model

### Key

A case study of each sentence in an introduction:

1. Offer a general overview of the entire subsection, including the purpose of the investigation. There are three ways to introduce the Methodology: offer a general overview by outlining the parameters of the work; provide background information about the materials or about the source of the materials/equipment; refer back to something in the previous section. Remember: show your reader the wall before you begin to examine the bricks;

2. Provide background information and justify the choice of location by referring to previous research. In fact there is a strong persuasive and communicative element in this section. You need to communicate not only 'This is exactly what I did/used' but also 'I had good reasons for those decisions';

3. Provide an overview of the procedure/method itself;

4. Provide details about what was done and used and also shows that care was taken;

5. Continue to describe what was done in detail, using language which communicates that care was taken;

6. Describe what was done by referring to existing methods in the literature. Remember to use the Present Simple for this kind of background information (This method obtains) and to switch back to the Past Simple when you return to describing what you did;

7. Provide more detailed information about the method and shows it to have been a good choice;

8. Provide more details of the method;

9. Mention a possible difficulty in the methodology. Use vocabulary that minimises the problem, minimises your responsibility, maximises the good aspects and suggests a solution.

Streamline and 4 basic components:

1. Provide a general introduction and overview of the materials/methods, restate the purpose of the work, give the source of materials/equipment used, supply essential background information;

2. Provide specific and precise details about materials and methods, justify choices made, indicate that appropriate care was taken;

3. Relate materials/methods to other studies;

4. Indicate where problems occurred.

## Vocabulary

1. Provide a general introduction and overview of the materials/methods and give the source of materials/equipment used (P77)

The impact tests used in this work were...

All reactions were...

In the majority of the tests, ...

2. Supply essential background information (P79)

at the near end and at the far end/is aligned with/are positioned near

3. Provide specific and precise details about materials and methods (P81)

attempt/consider/conduct/anneal/calibrate/centrifuge/dissect/calculate/extract/isolate

4. Justify choices made (P82)

To validate/in order to determine/for the sake of

5. Indicate that appropriate care was taken (P84)

firmly/at least/constantly

6. Relate materials/methods to other studies (P85)

as in.../slightly modified/as reported previously

7. Indicate where problems occurred

Inevitably/however/although