Effective way of writing scientific

paper
 Tenses
Abstract: simple present, e.g.,
«The flow depends largely on the heterogeneous distribution of density»
«We report the first observation and quantification of…»
Introduction
 Stating truths: simple present, e.g.,
«There is an increasing need for…»,
“Consistent efforts are required to improve the performance”
 Describing past results: present perfect, e.g.,
«In the past, geophysicalmethods have been used to image…»
«Recent studies in French Guiana have suggested the existence…»
 Referring to the contents of your paper: simple present , e.g.,
«We present a strategy for imaging…»
«Our data challenge some widely held assumptions about…»
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 Tenses
Main Body
 Explanation of experiments: past simple/present perfect, e.g.,
«Temperature was measured…»
«Generic probes were used as positive and negative controls…»

Results
 Figures, tables, theories: present simple
«Figure 1 shows the photo of...»
«The acquisition parameters are summarised in Table 2...»
«According to equilibrium theory, the rate depends on…»
 Observations, findings: past simple
«Soils were slightly alkaline with a mean pH of…»
«Two variants were found…»

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 Tenses
Discussion
Truths, implications: present simple
«Understanding a glacier’s mass balance is crucial…»
«This suggests that biovolume is a better indicator…»
Past studies: present perfect
«Recently, it has been found that…» «Other studies have indicated that…»
Conclusions
This paper: past simple
«We showed that…» «Our transcriptomic analysis revealed that…»

Prospectives: simple future

«The kinetic parameters will inform future models…»
«The influence of iron will be the object of future research…»

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 Tenses
Acknowledgments present simple
«We thank...»
«I am grateful to…»

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 Punctuation & connecting words

• Comma
 «Present paper describes the seismic and the electrical method»

 «We performed an S-wave reflection survey, MASW, and ERT...»

 «In this paper,... Finally,...»

 «However,...» VS «Nevertheless,…»

«Often, the landfill has been treated as a bioreactor; however, there is no clear
proof that the landfill will reach complete stabilization»

«We showed that the seismic method provides higher resolution in imaging the
landfill body; nevertheless, the main structures of the subsurface are also
imaged in the ER and IP results»

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 Sentence structure/content
Semicolon
 Lists, e.g., «The objectives of this paper are: (a)....;(b)....;(c)...»

 Connecting sentences, e.g., «We attributed this primarily to the presence of

biogas in the pore spaces in the landfill; the presence of biogas is a fact well-known
for this site»

American VS British English

• color – colour
• center – centre
• aluminum – aluminium

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 Sentence structure/content
Active VS passive voice

«In Figure 8, We show the temperature distribution along a cross section

located at middle plane.

«Temperature distribution along a cross section located at middle plane is

shown in Figure 8»

«Temperature distribution along a cross section located at middle plane has

been shown in Figure 8»

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Use of variety of connecting words

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 Sentence structure/content

• Don’t be wordy
«In this presentation, I am going to present you tips on how to better write a
scientific English article, about your scientific research»
«Today, I will present tips on improving your scientific writing»

Corrections from your peers

• Organize your supervisors’ corrections
• Ask your friends to read your article
• Don’t be disappointed & be open to criticism
• Create a “common-error list” of your own

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Sentence structure/content

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Sentence structure/content

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Sentence structure/content

Thanks

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