Scientific Writing Task 1
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The document discusses principles of effective scientific writing. It recommends placing new information in the stress position to emphasize it for readers. Authors should put the subject of the sentence first, followed by relevant context, and articulate the action in the verb. Readers interpret based on structural cues, so authors need to provide context before new ideas and ensure emphasis matches structure. Tables should contextually pattern information on the left and interesting results less obviously on the right. Long sentences are hard to write but not necessarily read if context precedes the subject. Writing style is personal but can be improved.
Scientific Writing Task 1
- 1. Scientific Writing Task 1 Messages on "Science of Scientific Writing" By Andini Indyanita
- 2. Structural Principles of Scientific Writing • Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb. • Place in the stress position the "new information" you want the reader to emphasize. • Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position. • Place appropriate "old information" (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position for linkage backward and contextualization forward. • Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb. • In general, provide context for your reader before asking that reader to consider anything new. • In general, try to ensure that the relative emphases of the substance coincide with the relative expectations for emphasis raised by the structure.
- 3. Communicate to readers • The ideal goal is readers can perceive accurately what is in author's mind. • Author must understand how readers go about reading. • Readers are not reading, they are interpreting. • Readers Interpret based on clues they receive from structure. • Put informations where readers expect to find. • If author violates readers' strutural expactation, (commonly) readers will hard to understand and could be mis-interpret or no-interpret.
- 4. Table • Table : The contextual material appears on the left in a pattern that produces an expectation of regularity; the interesting results appear on the right in a less obvious pattern, the discovery of which is the point of the table.
- 5. Sentence • Long sentences need not be difficult to read, they difficult to write. • Subject is followed by important context.
- 6. Style • The structural choice is a personal style • Writing style is improvable • No fix algorithm for good writing