WRITING

It is essential that you be able to express yourself clearly, using appropriate language. It is one of the goals of the Biology Department to emphasize the importance of this ability.

Ideally, you should have these rules in mind as you create your written reports. However, at the very least, once you think you're done your report, go through this document step-by- step with yours. The easiest way to do this is to search <CTRL F> or search and replace <CTRL H> for erroneous terms in your Word document.

Some composition errors:

• Incorrect or insufficient attribution of "it", "that" or "this".

o "Food goes through the mouth, then the pharynx. It then goes to the esophagus." What the latter sentence really says is "The pharynx goes to the esophagus." "It", "that" or "this" always refers to the most recently written noun.

o Rarely do "it", "that" or "this" make an effective start to a sentence. The reader questions the component of your previous writing to which those words refer.

• While we’re on the topic of starting sentences correctly…

o Do not start sentences with the conjunctions "And" or "But"; do not start sentences with "So" or "As well".

o A capital letter starts a sentence; other than for proper nouns or titles, there should be no other capital letters within a sentence.

o Do not start a sentence with:

§ "Studies have shown that..."

§ "A study by Dr. X showed..."

• A period (or other suitable punctuation) ends a sentence.

• Possessiveness in Pronouns – No Apostrophes!

o "It’s" means "it is" (always)!

• e.g. "It’s a convenient time for the spider to fix its web."

§ The possessive use of "its" (2nd case in the example) does not have an apostrophe. Apostrophes substitute for a missing letter (or in some cases, letters), or are used to show possession (but not in pronouns).

• Thus the example reads, "It is a convenient time for the spider to fix its web." It does not read, "It is a convenient time for the spider to fix it is web."

• Possessiveness in nouns: note the position of the apostrophe…

o "The subject’s finger lengths were measured."

§ Meaning: One subject had her finger lengths measured.

o "The subjects’ finger lengths were measured."

§ Meaning: Many subjects had their finger lengths measured.

• Specific word or phrase problems:

o Avoid use of the word "basically" – it adds nothing to your writing.

o Avoid the words "various" or "varying" unless you really mean them. In most cases, people using these words usually mean "several" or "different".

o Do not use contractions – such as don't and aren't – in scientific writing.

o Use adverbs, not adjectives when describing a verb – e.g. slowly not slow; quickly not quick.

o "A lot" is an expression of two words, not one ("alot" does not exist).

o The expression "so that" can usually be shortened to "so". The word "that" is rarely useful in this situation.

o Incorrect use of the personal pronoun "you":

§ If you are talking about the person grading your paper, then say "you". It is unlikely that this will be the case.

o "well" is an adverb; "good" is an adjective. "He is a good player; he plays well."

• Poor sentence structure

o Subject-verb disagreement

§ "The leaves is falling."

§ "leaves" is plural; "is" can only be used with singular nouns.

§ "The leaf is falling." or "The leaves are falling." are both correct.

§ "Data" is plural; "Datum" is singular. Treat them accordingly.

o Each sentence must have a subject and a predicate (look back to your grade school English notes).

o In scientific writing use rather short declarative sentences. Avoid the use of too many independent clauses in one sentence.

o Clauses within a sentence, and entire sentences, should follow logically from one to the next.

o Avoid "fluff" sentences i.e. sentences that add nothing substantive to your written argument

o Avoid frequent use of parenthetic insertions.

o Avoid the use of semi-colons, but if you do use them, use them correctly. Semi-colons cannot be used to separate dependent clauses; they only separate independent clauses.

o Watch for tautologies; don't say the same thing twice in one sentence.

• Correct spelling is essential; Canadian spelling is preferred (thus "colour" not "color"). Do not rely on a spell checker.

• Be specific!

o Colloquialisms – the use of "street speech" must be avoided.

o Anthropomorphisms – attribution of human characteristics to other animals or inanimate objects must be avoided.

o Incorrect use of "to kill" – one cannot "kill" and enzyme because it was never alive!

o Do not use the nouns "thing" or "stuff"; avoid the descriptors "could have" or "may have".

o Avoid flippancy – scientific writing is meant to be serious!

o Avoid redundancy (repetition).

o Avoid incorrect "category comparisons" e.g. An enzyme reaction (a process) cannot be compared with a molecule (an object)

• Numbers are separated from their units by a space.

o correct: "The stream was 3.02 m wide."

o Incorrect: "The stream was 3.02m wide."

• References to Figures

o Do not start paragraphs in the results section with a sentence that just states a figure exists:

§ e.g. "Figure 2 shows the change in pH for all test conditions."

o Simply start your paragraph with the first results, then make reference to the appropriate figure. The reference to the figure is typically parenthetical, and inserted prior to the period at the end of the sentence.

When the reference is within parentheses (we never use brackets for this situation), the word figure is abbreviated to Fig. Note it is capitalized, and there is a period after the g. If the reference is part of the regular flow of words, then the whole word "figure" is used.

§ e.g. "The subjects who drank the bicarbonate solution experienced an increased urine pH throughout the experiment (Fig. 2)."

§ e.g. "In contrast to the data shown in Figure 2, the octopus excreted high levels of ammonia during winter (Fig. 3)."

o There are some exceptions to putting parenthetic figure references at the end, here's an example where it is convenient to place references to figures in the middle of a similar sentence.

§ e.g. "The subjects who drank the bicarbonate solution (Fig. 1) and cola drinks (Fig. 2) experienced a change in urine pH throughout the experiment.

o Do not write "see fig. 1" or "refer to fig. 2" or "as shown in figure 3". Those italicized words are redundant (except in rare cases which you will not likely encounter).

• Whole numbers, when used to denote quantity (not dates or figure references) between zero and ten, are spelled out; others are left as numerals.

o "We collected 37 insects in four different locations on 5 June 1999 (Fig. 7)."

o However, don’t start a sentence with a numeral.

§ Correct: “Thirty-seven insects were collected.”

§ Incorrect: “37 insects were collected.”

• Abbreviations

o non-standard ones should always be defined when they are first used

o e.g. is the abbreviation for "for example"

• i.e. and ex. are not abbreviations for "for example"

o i.e. is the abbreviation for "in other words"

o sec is the abbreviation for "secant"; s is the abbreviation for "seconds"

Useful references:

Day, Robert. How to write and publish a scientific paper. 2^nd ed. ISI Press, Philadelphia : 1983. Call number T 11 D33

Internet resources for scientific writing

Acknowledgement:

Thanks to Dr. A. Miller for the initial impetus and some of the material for this site.

R.F. Lauff Department of Biology St. Francis Xavier University Antigonish, NS Canada B2G 2W5