Scientific Writing

It is important to know who your audience is, in other words who will be reading your paper ...

• to get more attention for your research

• to adjust the language you use

• to know what information should be included

• to have a better chance of it being published

Scientific writing should be

• long

• clear

• concise

• brief

Every paragraph should have a topic sentence.

• True

• False

Every paragraph should have at least five sentences.

• True

• False

All of the other sentences in a paragraph should support the topic sentence, in other words be about the topic stated at the beginning.

• True

• False

One of the main functions of technical terminology is to say a lot with a few words.

• True

• False

Usage of the passive voice is not very common in scientific writing.

• True

• False

Which verb tense should be used in research papers?

• present tense

• present perfect tense

• past tense

• future tense

Why should the past tense be used in a paper about a scientific study or experiment?

You should avoid the following when writing:

• colloquial speech

• slang

• contractions

• third person