english for writing research papers - adrian wallwork · 2014. 1. 7. · english for writing...

English for Writing research papers

and everything else …

Seminar 1 Readability

ENGLISHAdrian Wa

llwork

for WritingResearch P

apers

English for Writing Research Papers

Wallwork

Adrian WallworkEnglish for Writing Research Papers

Good writing skills are key to a successful career in academia. English for Writing Research Papers was written speci!cally for researchers and professors of all disciplines whose !rst language is not English and who wish to have their work published in an international journal.

With easy-to-follow rules and tips, and with examples taken from real papers, the book covers how to: • prepare and structure a manuscript that will be recommended by referees

for publication • use a reader-oriented style • write each section of a paper • highlight the most important !ndings • write concisely and without ambiguity • avoid plagiarism • choose the correct verb forms

The book also includes around 700 useful phrases for use in any kind of research paper.

Adrian Wallwork is the author of more than 20 ELT and EAP textbooks. He has trained several thousand PhD students and researchers from 35 countries to write research papers. 'rough his editing agency, he and his partners have been revising and editing research papers since 1985. 'is guide is thus also highly recommended for providers of editing services, proofreaders, and trainers in English for Academic Purposes.

Other books in the series: • English for Presentations at International Conferences • English for Academic Correspondence and Socializing • English for Research: Usage, Style, and Grammar

1

Education

ISBN 978-1-4419-7921-6

ENGLISHAdrian Wa

llwork

for WritingResearch P

apers

English for Writing Research Papers

Wallwork

Adrian WallworkEnglish for Writing Research Papers

Good writing skills are key to a successful career in academia. English for Writing Research Papers was written speci!cally for researchers and professors of all disciplines whose !rst language is not English and who wish to have their work published in an international journal.

With easy-to-follow rules and tips, and with examples taken from real papers, the book covers how to: • prepare and structure a manuscript that will be recommended by referees

for publication • use a reader-oriented style • write each section of a paper • highlight the most important !ndings • write concisely and without ambiguity • avoid plagiarism • choose the correct verb forms

The book also includes around 700 useful phrases for use in any kind of research paper.

Adrian Wallwork is the author of more than 20 ELT and EAP textbooks. He has trained several thousand PhD students and researchers from 35 countries to write research papers. 'rough his editing agency, he and his partners have been revising and editing research papers since 1985. 'is guide is thus also highly recommended for providers of editing services, proofreaders, and trainers in English for Academic Purposes.

Other books in the series: • English for Presentations at International Conferences • English for Academic Correspondence and Socializing • English for Research: Usage, Style, and Grammar

1

Education

ISBN 978-1-4419-7921-6

PDFs of each seminar are on my blog: adrianwallwork.wordpress.com under English courses/downloads

Who should you have in mind when you are writing:

Your paper? Your project?

Your CV? An email?

The reader

Which country has the lowest acceptance rate

in the world of articles submitted to

publication?

Italy: 9%

UK/US: 30%

Acceptance rates

Italy’s record for publishing in Nature

Only one Italian ins

Studies have found that there is a correlation between

poor English and

a) non-acceptance of research articles b) lack of faith and credibility in the writer

(thus poor business relations)

Many top journals and companies are based in US and GB: their idea of how to write is quite

different from yours.

List five things that you think represent ‘poor English’ and/or ‘poor writing skills’ that would cause

a research paper, project, or CV to be rejected.

1) LONG SENTENCES

“There are 80 words in this sentence – my brain is going to explode”

3-4 badly constructed long sentences will make your reader want to stop reading

2) “Where is the important info?” Reader cannot under-stand the importance of your findings (papers), qualifications (CVs), requests (email) because you have not highlighted them clearly.

3) “What’s so special?”

(Projects / CVs) You haven’t “sold” your ideas and yourself to the reviewers. Why should they finance your project rather than another project? Why should they employ you?

4) “Whose are these findings – yours or another author’s?”

(Papers only) Referee cannot understand if you are referring to your findings or findings already established in the literature.

5) Ambiguity: What the **** are you talking about?

If you take your dog in the car don't let him hang out of a window while driving.

6) “You didnt ceck your spellling!”

What NATIVE SPEAKING readers do NOT want to see

Long sentences

Findings / QualificaPons that are not highlighted

Less value than other papers/projects/candidates

Ambiguity

No spell check

What do Italian referees complain about the most?

Moral of the story

Papers and projects are NOT normally rejected for a few grammar or vocabulary mistakes.

But CVs are rejected even for just one mistake

Papers ARE rejected for just two or three long sentences / paragraphs

Projects and papers ARE rejected because they require too much mental effort by the reviewers

SO, MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR READERS

GOOD RULES FOR WRITING

•  1 Write from reader’s / referee’s point of view

•  2 Highlight the value of your work and your

qualifications

•  “Sell” your ideas and yourself

•  = get funds for your research project

and / or get a job in industry

This course will NOT teach you astrophysics, rocket science or

brain surgery.

I will just give you some very simple rules, which are logical and easy to remember

and easy to apply.

An email: a quick example of (non)readability

Email 1 Good morning

My name is Pinco Pallino and I am enrolled in the first year of the PhD course in Terrestrial Vehicles and Systems of Transport. Since it is only now that I have made my online enrolment to the course “Scientific English”, I am not in the list of students of either the first course or the second course of lessons. I would like to know whether, despite my delay in enrolling, I can still participate in the course: if possible I would like to follow the first session. However, for reasons that unfortunately I cannot change, which are related to my activity as a PhD student, I will not be in Pisa in concomitance with the first lesson of the first session.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Dr Pinco Pallino

PS My girlfriend wants to do an online English course, please could you send me recommendations … and also for a good English grammar (preferably with Italian explanations).

Email 2 Dear Prof. Wallwork Am I too late to take part in the first session of your Scientific English course? Thanks in advance. Pinco Pallino

Email 2 Dear Prof. Wallwork Am I too late to take part in the first session of your Scientific English course? Thanks in advance. Pinco Pallino MORAL OF THE STORY 1 Write less and you make fewer mistakes 2 Think about what your reader really needs to know - don’t include information that is of interest to you but no interest to him / her.

What do you see?

We all have different perspectives

Trend today in English: seeing things from the audience’s point of view

rather than your point of view

Moral of the story In your papers, emails, presentation slides, and applications for jobs always think about the audience. Think in terms of them them them NOT me me me

What do they want to: •  know? •  read first? •  hear first? How can I make it easier for them?

Very Simple Sentence One part only

English is oPen considered to be the simplest language.

Simple Sentence Two parts

Of all the languages in the world, English is oPen considered to be the simplest.

Complex Sentence Too many ideas

and visually difficult Of all the languages in the world, including those that are now dead languages, for example La

Where is key informa

Rule for wri

1) Subject 2) Key info

English, which is the interna4onal language of communica4on, is now studied by 1.1 billion people. English, which is now studied by 1.1 billion people, is the interna

Don’t separate the subject from the key informa

Don’t bury/hide the subject in the middle of the phrase

Owing its origins to the Anglo Saxons (a tribe who lived in what is now Denmark and Northern Germany), English is the interna

English, which owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons, is …

English owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons.

Remove relaPve clauses

English, which owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons (a tribe who lived in what is now Denmark and Northern Germany)

English owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons.

Remove brackets (and consider removing content of brackets)

…. a tribe who lived in what is now Denmark and northern Germany) and is the international language of communication,

…a tribe from what is now Denmark and northern Germany. It has become the international language of communication.

Remove linker * and begin a new sentence

* A linker is a connecting word: moreover, in particular, consequently

… is the international language of communication, in part due to the importance of the USA, rather than the Queen of England, is now studied by 1.1 billion people.

… is the interna

Do exercise 1 page 2

1 key: 4, 1, 3, 2

Having shorter sentences also makes it easier to change their order

English owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons, who were a tribe from what is now Denmark and Northern Germany. // It has become the international language of communication. // This is in part due to the importance of the USA, rather than the Queen of England. // English is now studied by 1.1 billion people.

English is now studied by 1.1 billion people. It owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons, who were a tribe from what is now Denmark and Northern Germany. // It has become the interna

Instead of 4 sentences, you could easily use 2

English owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons, who were a tribe from what is now Denmark and Northern Germany. // It has become the interna

You could even write one sentence … but if readers have to read four or five sentences like this they may stop reading due to the effort involved

English is studied by 1.1 billion people and owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons, who were a tribe from what is now Denmark and northern Germany, subsequently becoming the interna

The readability of a long sentence also very much depends on the order in which the informaPon is given

English is studied by 1.1 billion people and owes its origins to the Anglo Saxons, who were a tribe from what is now Denmark and northern Germany, subsequently becoming the interna

Motivo: C.M. Firma: A Wallwork

“A million dollars please – in cash!”

The USA and GB have become customer-driven societies

Not every sentence should be short. The example below is (perhaps) TOO simplisPc.

Abstract We inves

Do exercise 2

The red example is acceptable when you want to aaract aaenPon and be 100% clear. The blue is OK, but you should not

write an enPre secPon using 10-‐15 word sentences.

We inves

OK for a paper (but probably not a presentaPon – why not?)

Using four different methodologies, each of which gave contradictory results, we inves

If you can make sense of the sentence without punctuaPon then it is probably OK

Using four different methodologies each of which gave contradictory results we inves

Test 1: Can you immediately understand this sentence without punctuaPon?

Using four different methodologies previously used in the literature in separate contexts each of which gave contradictory results in this study the meaning of life as seen through the perspec

Test 2: Is the sentence easy to read aloud? Does it sound natural?

Using four different methodologies, previously used in the literature in separate contexts (i.e. anthropology, biology, physics and soil sciences), each of which gave contradictory results, in this study, the meaning of life, as seen through the perspec

Guidelines on sentence length

The best solu


Do not write a series of sentences of only 5-‐15 words. Occasionally use short sentences to agract agen


If your sentence contains any (qualsiasi) of the following, you probably need to divide it up:

which + which

and + and + and

, + , + , + , + ,

also + in addition / furthermore

;

Unacceptable short sentences

The test bench, which was custom made in our laboratory, was equipped with an electronically controlled motor (asynchronous 3-‐phase, 180 w, gear ra

Keep very similar concepts in the same sentence (even if the sentence becomes 30 words)


which + which


Read them both aloud: which sounds more natural and why?

The test bench, which was custom made in our laboratory, was equipped with an electronically controlled motor, which kept the velocity constant.

The test bench was custom made in our laboratory and was equipped with an electronically controlled motor, which kept the velocity constant.

The blue version sounds more natural because there are no interrupPons to the flow

The test bench, which was custom made in our laboratory, was equipped with an electronically controlled motor, which kept the velocity constant.

The test bench was custom made in our laboratory and was equipped with an electronically controlled motor, which kept the velocity constant.

Morale della favola

Long sentences are NOT intrinsically bad.

Short sentences are NOT intrinsically good.

A sentence is badly constructed if it does not flow logically, i.e. if it is series of subclauses which interrupt each other. A sentence (short or long) is good if it requires minimal effort by the reader.

english for writing research papers - adrian wallwork · 2014. 1. 7. · english for writing...

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