1. Elements of Scientific writing
Dr.Muhammad Attique Khan
Shahid Principa Govt
CollegeJhang

2. Many of life's failures
are men who did not
realize how close they
were to success when
they gave up.
Thomas Edison

3. Outline
Qualities of good writing
Ways to improve
Seven steps to success
Common Problems
Ethics in Publishing
Tips on Graphics

4. Qualities of good writing

5. Some Qualities of good writing
• Reader-Based
• Purposeful
• Clear
• Correct
• Simple
• No invented words
• No Jargon
• Few, if any, abbreviations

6. Ways to Improve Writing

7. Ways to Improve Writing
Practice:
Set aside some time each day to write.
WRITE WHAT ??????????? ANYTHING.
What you write is not as important as that you write.
Model:
Model your writing after a good writing.
Use examples of good journals to begin to
differentiate between writing that is easy to read and
writing that is painful to read

8. Seven Steps to
Successful Writing

9. 1. Prepare
Identify your reader:
Who is the reader?
What does he already know?
What are his priorities?
Establish your purpose:
Clarify, Inform, notify, Convince, Justify

10. 2. Research
You must understand your subject
Trying to write about unsure subject, will make it
harder and time consuming
Sources of information are:
Databases
Library
Colleagues
Professors

11. 3. Free write
Get your ideas down on paper
Start writing whatever comes into your mind
It is the best cure for writer’s block
Free writing for 10 minutes gets creativity going
The more you write, the more ideas you’ll have
Forget grammar, punctuation, organization and
spelling
Go back later to edit for clarity, conciseness and
correctness

12. 4. Organize
Make an outline
Look over your free writing
Choose main Points
Arrange in order of importance
Choose supporting details for each
point

13. 5. Write
• Follow your outline
• Get the main ideas and supporting details
down on paper
• Start with your most important
information first
• You will polish up later

14. 6. Revise
It is the most important step; now check for
the following:
A. Unity: Do sentences in a paragraph contribute to the
central idea?
B. Coherence: Is relationship between sentences and
paragraphs clear to reader?
Transitions connect ideas, indicate relationships and
keep reader’s mind moving

15. Common Transitions include:
Addition:
moreover, further, besides, and, likewise, also, nor, too, again,
additionally, equally important, next
Comparison:
similarly, likewise, in the same manner
Contrast:
but, yet, however, still, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the
contrary, even so, in contrast to this, at the same time,
otherwise, nonetheless

16. Place:
here, beyond, nearby, opposite, adjacent to,
on the opposite side
Result:
hence, therefore, accordingly, consequently,
thus, as a result
Summary:
to sum up, in brief, on the whole, in short, as
we have said, in other words, that is
Time:
meanwhile, at length, soon, in a few days, in
the meantime, afterward, later, now

17. 7. Proofread
LOVE IS BLIND:
Researched it
Wrote it
Rewrote it
Revised it
Thus
You Will Have Hard Time to Find
Errors

18. Tricks to Proofreaders
• Enlarge the type
We see mistakes if they’re larger
• Read your writing out LOUD:
We hear mistakes that we do not see

19. Common Problems

20. A. The Passive Voice
Dr. Peterson wrote the abstract:
Active voice gives a sense of :
strength, energy, vitality
and
motion
The abstract was written by Dr. Peterson:
Passive voice slows things down,
and it’s shorter

21. Debating the Active versus the passive
voice
• Active: It is self-promoting and shows lack
of humility
• Passive: If you did it, so say you did
• Active: Scientist should stay out of the
work
• Passive: overuse of passive voice is
confusing, it
promotes misplaced modifiers
• Passive : makes the writers less
accountable

22. B. Long Sentences
• Science is complex enough without using
overly complicated sentences to explain it
• One enemy to clarity is long sentences
• Meaning can get lost because too much is
going on in one sentence
• Do not ask your sentences to do more
than they can

23. “Among good writers, It
is the short sentences
that predominates”
William Zinsser

24. Guidelines for Clearing out Clutter
Lack of clarity is No.1 problem for
editors
Wordiness is an obstacle to readers
Write to communicate NOT to impress
Keep sentences short (>17 words
discourage readers
Avoid pompous or pretentious language

25. Guidelines for Clearing out Clutter;
cont’d
Use specific words
Reduce no. of words in a phrase:
In the near future soon
is of the opinion believes
a sizable percentage of many
Owing to the fact that since
in spite of the fact that although

26. Guidelines for Clearing out Clutter
• Don’t repeat words or ideas (a palliative, non-
curative treatment)
• Be aware of: who, which, and that (clutter the
sentences)
• Avoid the careless use of the word this
• Sharpen your words with precise meaning
(Not infrequently ????)
• Get rid of excess words
• Limit “To Be” phrases (is lacking
lacks)

27. The Publishing Process
Major Journals rejects 60 to 70%
NEJM & JAMA: Rejection rate 90%
Journals do not reject good articles
Good Articles get accepted

28. The Most Common
Reasons for Rejections

29. A. The manuscript is inappropriate
for the journal and its audience
“Information for authors” :
The mission statement
The type of articles accepted
The journal’s Reader
The manuscript format
Specific Instructions (abstracts, keywords,
copyright, tables and figures, references, any
charges

30. B. The Manuscript describes poorly designed
or poorly conducted studies:
Inadequate samples
Insufficient Information
Biased samples
Confounding factors
Vague endpoints
Straying from the hypothesis
Poor control of numbers

31. C. The manuscript is poorly written
Editors: “ we have received a manuscript
that was filled with errors that we could not
Evaluate
Reviewers: “ Any time readers notice
grammatical or stylistic lapses, their
attention is drawn away from your message

32. Taking It Step by Step:
1. Should I Write an article for a journal?
(New, True, Important, Comprehensible, useful)
2. Why do I want to write this article?
3. What are the major pitfalls I might run
into ?
4. Did someone beat me to the punch?

33. 5. How are my findings related to the
existing body of knowledge?
6. What is the most appropriate journal?
7. Did you read the “information for
authors” page in the chosen journal?
8. Did you decide on the format of your
article? (IMRAD)

34. IMRAD Format
Introduction
Why did you start?
Present tense
Results
What did you find?
Past tense
Methods
What did you do?
Past tense
Discussion
What do your results mean?
Present tense

35. 9. Organize your research
(index card, references)
10. Construct the tables and figures
(title, footnote, legends, labels for axes)
Make tables & figures fully informative
11. Develop an outline: arrange in a logical order
Methods: chronological format is best
Results: most important finding first

36. A look at each Section
 Title:
 Catch the reader’s attention
 Short, specific and clear
 < 10 words
 Indicative rather than informative
 State the subject and not the
conclusion

37. Indicative:
A Comparison of Paroxetine and Clomipramine in OCD
Informative:
Clomipramine More Effective Than Paroxetine in OCD

38. Title:
 Avoid abbreviations, acronyms
 Choose carefully, titles provide
information for data bases
 Be brief, be interesting, be concise
 Avoid the temptation to use cute,
misleading, dishonest or too provocative
titles

39. An epidemiological study of radiation received by
male employees of a nuclear processing plant and
other residents in the vicinity and its relation to the
incidence of childhood leukemia
Toooooo long
Not interesting
Clumpsy
Not provocative

40. Title:
“Radiation to residents near a nuclear
reprocessing plant and its relation to childhood
leukemia: an epidemiological study”
Needs to be much shorter and more interesting

41. Title:
Leukemia Shock from Nuclear Waste Dump
Should be left to tabloid
professionals
Strayed into the world of
sensationalism

42. Title:“Nuclear reprocessing, radiation exposure, and
childhood leukemia: an epidemiological study”
Tells what the paper is about
not misleading
contain all key words for electronic retrieval
Easy to understand
catches the eye
provoke curiosity

43. The abstract
 Overview of an article
 Stimulate reader interest
 Self-contained:
 limit the length to 250 words or
less
 Read the guidelines for abstract
 Main pitfalls: no clear question, too
long, too detailed

44.  Use verbal signals to indicate parts of
abstract
Avoid abbreviations when possible
Use present tense for the introduction
and discussion
Use past tense for methods and results
Use active voice, short sentences, avoid
jargon

45.  Introduction: background and hypothesis or
question
 Materials & Methods: what, where, how,
whom, when
 Results: clearly and concisely what you found
 Discussion: answer to the question & suggestion
to new study

46. The Introduction
 Should answer the question: Why was
the work done?
 Should describe the problem of interest
 Should have prior work done
 Should have the research question
 No need for extensive introduction

47. Materials and Methods
 Should answer the question; How did
you carry out the research ?
 Should provide other researchers with a
blueprints of the study to be replicated
 It judges the quality of study design and
procedures and validity of results

48. Materials and Methods
 Design: Randomized, controlled study, clinical trial, case
control
 Study population: complete description of participants,
how selected or assigned
 Setting: where the study population was selected
 Interventions: description of treatments, therapy or
measurements instruments
 Outcome Measure: How data were analyzed, and its
statistical analysis ( appropriateness ? Correct ?)
Past tense

49. Results
One of the editors at the New England
Journal of Medicine says:
“In my opinion, the best results
section would be “ The results of
the study can be seen in Table 1.”

50. Results
Don’t repeat what is obvious in tables &
figures
Present the data in straight forward,
factual manner without comments or
interpretation
Write it in the past tense

51. Discussion
Assess the meaning of the results
Answer the question
Takes the most time
Present tense
Discuss controversial issues clearly

52. Stress (not conceal) anomalous results
OK to speculate
Mention how your study fits into the
existing knowledge
Avoid unqualified statements not
supported
by data

53. Submitting your Manuscript
Suggestions from the Editors:
Cover letter to the editor; why his journal
Transfer of copyright signed by all authors
Read “instructions to authors” and follow it
Check references

54. Include only tables, graphs that show data
efficiently more than text
Make captions clear, concise
Check tables against text, number each graph
accurately
List authors’ affiliation
Key words for indexing (MeSH)

55. Ethics In Publishing
1. Authorship:
It should be based on substantial
contributions to:
Design and Conception
Drafting article & revising it critically
Final approval of published version

56. Participation solely based on getting
fund or collection of data does not justify
authorship
General supervision of the research group is
not sufficient for authorship
Biostatistician; pay him/or include him on
author’s list (design, evaluation)

57. 2. Plagiarism:
Everyone involved in the publishing process
has a responsibility to maintain the highest
standards of ethics
It is the act of submitting the work
of others as your own work, in
whole or in part
Avoid unintentional plagiarism

58. 3. Fraud:
Takes many forms. It ‘s fraud if you fabricate a report in
whole or in part. It’s fraud if you suppress data that does
not support your hypothesis or report good
news and omit the bad.
In order to avoid any possibility of fraud, insist on
reviewing all protocols and data
Once you put your name on a report, you become
responsible and accountable for every part whether you
wrot

59. 4. Duplicate Publication:
If a journal unknowingly publishes a
previously published article, the journal
will make a statement in an editorial or the
letters to editor column.

60. Tips on Using Graphics
Graph, table, chart, map or photo can inform
more effectively
Needs to be absolutely accurate
Use minimum number of graphics
Make all parts of the graphic legible
Make the terms used in the graphic consistent
with the terms used in the text
Be consistent in format, size and terminology

61. Thank You for listening