ACTIVITY 1

NTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC WRITING

Written communication is an essential component of all sciences. You will often be given questions that
require you to describe ideas and results accurately, succinctly and in an appropriate style and format.
Throughout this module you will be developing your skills in scientific writing. Below are some tips that
may help you when answering written questions.

ORGANISING TIME
Often your writing will have a time limit. The deadline may be as short as 15 minutes to a couple of hours
in an exam, or several days or weeks for a project or lab report. Whatever the deadline, making a
timetable before you begin can help you give each section the appropriate attention, allowing you to
complete the work on time.

1) Break down the question or task into sections or stages – remember to include reading, planning

and revising, not just writing!

2) Think about how much time each section should take, and assign a proportion of the total time

available to each

3) Set realistic deadlines for completing each stage, allowing some extra time for unexpected delays

4) Refer to your timetable frequently, and where deadlines are missed make extra effort to catch up

ORGANISING INFORMATION AND IDEAS

Before you start writing, it is important to gather and think about the relevant material. You must then
decide:

 What needs to be included and what doesn’t

 In what order it should appear
Start by jotting down headings for everything of potential relevance to the topic. This is called
brainstorming. Once you have identified your main ideas is to create a spider diagram or a mind
map to organise your ideas.

Idea 1:
Anatomy

Idea 4:
Behaviour Main Idea 2:
Phylogeny
Question:
Spiders

Idea 3: Diet

Fig 1: A Spider Diagram Fig 2: A Mind Map (Wikimedia Commons)

The next stage is creating an outline of your text. This is an important step as:

 It forces you to think about and plan the structure

 It provides a checklist so nothing is missed out
 It ensures that the material is balanced in content and length
 It helps you to organize figures and tables by showing where they will be used
Membrane structure and Function
Introduction
Membrane components
Phospholipids
Proteins Sterols
Glycoconjugate
s
History of ideas and models
Gorter and Grendel 1925
Davson and Danielli 1935
Robertson 1959
Brunton 1960s
Singer and Nicolson 1972
Supporting evidence – fluid mosaic model
Liposomes
Transmission e.m.
Freeze fracture e.m.
Cell fusion studies
Photobleaching recovery
Transport
Selectivity
Passive diffusion
Osmosis – water
Facilitated diffusion
Active transport

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 Endocytosis and
exocytosis Examples
Red cell
Bacterium
mitochondrio
n

Fig 3. An example of an outline for an essay with the title “Membrane Structure and Function”

In an essay or review, the structure of your writing should help the reader to assimilate and understand
your main points. Sub-divisions of the topic could be related could be related to the physical nature of
the subject matter (e.g. zones of an ecosystem) and should proceed logically (for example from the low
water mark to the high water mark). If evaluating past work a chronological approach is best (e.g. the
development of the concept of evolution), whereas a step-by-step comparison might be best for certain
exam questions (e.g. discuss the differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes).

DEVELOPING YOUR TECHNIQUE

Writing is a skill that can be improved, but not instantly. You should analyse your deficiencies with the
help of feedback from your tutors. Be prepared to change work habits, for example planning your work
more carefully, and be willing act on feedback received to refine your writing skills.

GETTING STARTED
A common problem when writing is “writers block” – inactivity or stalling. If you find yourself in this
situation, ask yourself the following questions:

 Are you comfortable in your surroundings? Is your desk cluttered, or are you surrounded by

distractions?

 Are you trying to write too soon? Have you clarified your thoughts and done the preliminary

reading?

 Are you happy with the underlying structure of your work? Have you written an outline? Are you

unable to think of a particular detail? Just start writing – it is more likely to come to you when you

are thinking of something else.

 Are you trying to be too clever? Your first sentence doesn’t need to be particularly smart in style. A

short statement of fact or definition may be sufficient, and you can always return and revise the

opening statement once you have written the rest of the piece.

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 On that point, do you really need to start at the beginning? Try writing a more straightforward part

first and return to the opening remarks. For example, with a lab report, start with the materials and

methods before moving to other sections.

 Are you too tired to work? Don’t try to write too much in one long stretch. Take regular breaks and

plan your work effectively to avoid trying to write too much in one sitting.

It is strongly advised to revise your first draft in all writing assignments, except for exams. With a word

processor, this could be as simple as reviewing the spelling and grammar checker. Where possible,

schedule your writing to leave the first draft to “settle” for a few days. If you return to it with fresh eyes

you will spot errors more easily. Try the following structured revision process when reviewing your text:

1) Examine the content. Have you included everything and is it all relevant?

2) Check the grammar and spelling.

3) Focus on the clarity of your message. Is the text clear and unambiguous? Does each sentence

really say what you want it to say?

4) Be succinct. What can be missed out without spoiling the essence of the work? Imagine an

editor has set you the target or reducing the text by 15%. Are there places you can reduce

unnecessary words, e.g. “ensure” rather than “make sure that”.

5) Improve style. Could the text read better? Consider the sentence and paragraph structure

and the way your text develops to its conclusion.

FURTHER READING
For more help on your scientific writing, see the resources available through AES and:

Practical Skills in Biology (2016); Prof Rob Reed, Dr Jonathan Weyers, Dr Allan Jones; ISBN- 10:
129209432X; ISBN-13: 978-1292094328

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PRACTICE QUESTION
1) The essay title you have been given is:

“The importance of water for biological organisms”

Your time limit for this activity is 45 minutes.

a) Start by brainstorming the main ideas from this topic below.

b) Now organise these ideas by creating a spider diagram or mind map.

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 c) Structure your essay by creating an outline.

d) Fill in the details and complete your essay below.

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Extra space