Penulisan Laporan dan Karya Ilmiah

(PLKI)
Scientific Writing and Reporting

Indriana Hidayah
Anugerah Galang P.
 Second rule towards effective writing:
Develop a good paragraph
• Unity. A paragraph has one idea that is expressed in its
topic sentence. Supporting sentences provide detail and
discussion around the idea.
• Order. Organize your supporting sentences. Whether you
choose chronological order, order of importance, etc.
• Coherence. Sentences within a paragraph need to connect
to each other and work together as a whole.
• Completeness. If all sentences clearly and sufficiently
support the main idea, then your paragraph is complete.
– No standard, can be for example three supporting sentences
and some examples.
– Concluding sentence or a sentence that will link to the next
paragraph.
 Example of a good paragraph
It is commonly recognized that dogs have an extreme antagonism
toward cats. (1)This enmity between these two species can be traced back to
the time of the early Egyptian dynasties. (2) Archaeologists in recent years
have discovered Egyptian texts in which there are detailed accounts of
canines brutally mauling felines. (3) Today this type of cruelty between these
two domestic pets can be witnessed in regions as close as your own
neighborhood. For example, when dogs are walked by their masters (and they
happen to catch sight of a stray cat), they will pull with all their strength on
their leash until the master is forced to yield; the typical result is that a feline
is chased up a tree. The hatred between dogs and cats has lasted for many
centuries, so it is unlikely that this conflict will ever end.
The paragraph is effective for the following reasons:
• Unity. All the sentences effectively relate back to the topic sentence at the
beginning of the paragraph.
• Coherence.
– There is a flow of thoughts and ideas among the sentences in this paragraph.
– There are good transitions employed in the paragraph.
• Order. The writer presents sub-topics in an orderly fashion that the reader can
follow easily.
• Completeness. Enough space to develop the topic.
– There are three reasons to accept the argument.
– Incorporates some examples in order to give those reasons more validity.
Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage

• Many grammatical constructions are

important for writing good English.
• The principle of this stage, however, is to make
students get familiar with a few basic essential
tools that can enhance their sentence clarity
in technical writing.
 Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage

 Use of Subordinate Clauses

 Definition: A group of words that has both a
subject and a verb but (unlike an independent
clause) cannot stand alone as a sentence. Also
known as a dependent clause.
 Example:
 "Memory is deceptive because it is colored by
today's events." (Albert Einstein)
 We can all go for ice cream if I can find my
independent – wallet. dependent –
the main clause the subordinate
clause
Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage
 Formally, subordinating conjunctions can be grouped as
follows:
 simple conjunctions: when, whenever, where, wherever,
because, if, unless, until, while, as, although
 conjunctive groups: as if, as though, even if, even though, even
when, soon after, no sooner, as a result
 complex conjunctions: there are three subclasses:
 derived from verbs : provided (that), granted (that), considering
(that), seeing (that), suppose (that), supposing (that), so (that)
 containing a noun: in case, in the event that, to the extent that,
in spite of the fact that, the day, the way
 adverbial: so/as long as, as soon as, as far as, much as, now
(that)
Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage
Exercise
1. Below is a list of complex sentences, identify the subordinate
clauses and the subordinating conjunctions, then explain the
relationship expressed in each sentence.
1) Since Jim arrived early, he didn't have to wait.
2) The other people in the room turned to see who had done it when
Constance sighed.
3) The neighbors finally lodged a complaint with the town board because
the dog barked incessantly at night.
4) As motor racing goes green, Formula 1 is aiming to lead automotive
research in finding hi-tech efficiency gain.
5) One of the keys to this ecological drive is regenerative braking, which
recovers energy generated during deceleration.
Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage
Exercise
• Why Do I Need to Know Which Clauses Are Subordinate?
– To put coma correctly

– To develop a complete sentence.

Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage
Exercise
1. Combine two sentences or a set of isolated ideas into one sentence
by using appropriate subordinating conjunctions.
1) New racing bicycles have disc wheels. Wind resistance is reduced.
2) Copper is highly conductive. It is used for electric wiring.
As copper is … it is used for electric wiring.
1) The water is heated. It reaches a pre-set temperature.
Soon after the water is heated, it reaches a pre-set temperature.
1) The program was written in FORTRAN. It is longer than a machine
language version. It can run on many different computers.
2) Eunice set fire to the cat. The cat jumped into the pool. The cat could
not swim. Rodney rescued the cat.
Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage
• “Relative Clauses”. Relative clauses can be useful tools for defining
and qualifying nouns instead of putting a long list of technical nouns
or adjectives before a noun. Example:
 A girl is talking to Tom. Do you know the girl? Do you
know the girl who is talking to Tom? → relative pronoun
 I was invited by the professor whom I met at the
conference. → relative pronoun
 That is the reason why we met him. → relative adverbs
 A butterfly is an insect which has colorful wings. →
defining relative clause, no commas
 Jim, who/whom we met yesterday, is very nice. → non-
defining relative clause, with commas
Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage
• “Parallelism”. By convention, items in a series appear in parallel grammatical
form: a noun is listed with other nouns, an -ing form with other -ing forms, and so
on. Failure to express such items in similar grammatical form is called faulty
parallelism. Example:
– A battery powered by aluminum is simple to design, clean to
run, and inexpensive to produce.

– "They are laughing at me, not with me." (Bart Simpson, The
Simpsons)

– "Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their

brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve
it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude
that will determine their altitude." (Jesse Jackson)
Writing Skill: 2) Tools Acquisition Stage
Exercise
Revise your 1st essay task (experience of studying here)
by:
• Implementing the discussed writing principles:
concise sentence and good paragraph (unity,
coherence, order, complete)
• Using subordinate clauses, relative clauses, and
parallelism.
 Do not forget to make a journal of your writing
practice.