THE SCIENCE OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING George D Gopen ：在科学或科学写作gopen乔治.ppt

“THE SCIENCE OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING”George D. Gopen and Judith A. Swan Technical Writing ENGL 3153 Scott Hale Scientific Writing Remember: The goal is to communicate. Accurate information is useless if the reader cannot understand it. When presenting data in a table Give context before data. The information which is familiar (time increments) comes before the “new” data. Reader Expectations Readers expect information from left to right and top to bottom in chronological (or other standard order of) sequence. Example: If the headings in your resume are top to bottom, and your content moves from left to right, don’t put a heading to the left/right of another (horizontally) or provide any content arranged vertically. Reader Expectations: cont’d Readers expect the writer to follow generic considerations (Introduction, Experimental Methods, Results and Discussion) Example: A cover letter should announce the position being applied for before the writer begins to talk about his/her qualifications. Improving Accessibility First, grammatical subjects should be followed as soon as possible by their verbs. Avoid: I would, because of many reasons--the first of which is location, the second of which is challenge, the third of which is independence--like to remain my own boss. Accessibility--Con’t Second, every unit of discourse, no matter the size, should serve a single function or make a single point. Avoid: I have received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and, since I live nearby, can come in to interview at any time. Accessibility--Con’t Third, information intended to be emphasized should appear at points of syntactic closure. Syntactic closure occurs at the end of a clause or sentence. Syntactic closure comes HERE, but it can also come HERE. Put in the topic position the old information that links backward; put in the stress position the new information you want the reader to emphasize.” 1. The backward-linking old information can appear in the