Scientific writing:

What is it? How do I

become a proficient scientific writer?

Carol M. Myford
University of Illinois at Chicago
EPSY 500
Proseminar in Educational Psychology
Fall Semester 2014
 Goals of This Presentation

Define the term “scientific

writing”
Explain how scientific writing
differs from other kinds of writing
Describe constraints that
scientists face when writing and
presenting their research
Identify types of professional
communication that are
considered to be scientific writing
Goals of This Presentation

Describe how a scientific

paper is typically organized
Discuss the characteristics
and structure of journalistic
writing
Define three aspects of
scientific writing: content,
style, and form
Introduce sets of style
guidelines used in different
fields
 Goals of This Presentation

Explain why scientific writing

is important
Identify resources that
students can use to learn to
write in a scientific style
Introduce steps that students
can take to learn to write in
APA style and become a
proficient scientific writer
Goals of This Presentation

Describe characteristics of
high quality scientific
writing
Introduce you to my area
of research expertise
"In my writing, I average about five pages a day.
Unfortunately, they're all the same page."

Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Writing

It’s about science.

It’s about art.

It is indeed a craft.

It takes time to learn.

 What is scientific writing?

“The term scientific writing commonly

denotes the reporting of original
research in journals, through scientific
papers in standard format.”
(Day & Gastel, p. 3)

“ The purpose of scientific writing is to

communicate new scientific findings.”
(Day & Gastel, p. 4)
 What is scientific writing?

NOT INSTEAD
• A form of technical writing
that reports scientific
observations and results in a
manner governed by specific
conventions
• Frames a problem in the
context of current work in the
field and presents the
research using a format that is
easy to skim for major findings
and conclusions
 How is scientific writing different from
other kinds of writing?
Subject Matter Writing Constraints
audience

mechanics politics

[Franklin,
1952]
format

Purpose of Writing Writing Style

To inform

To persuade
 What are the constraints scientists face when
writing and presenting their research? (Alley, 1996)
Who is my audience?
Audience What do they already know?
Why are they reading?
What expectations do they have?
What biases do they have?

What are the politics surrounding this work?

Politics Will politics influence what I can say?

What are the mechanics of style I must

follow?
Mechanics If I don’t pay sufficient attention to
mechanics, will that undermine my
chances of getting published?

What format will I use to communicate?

Format How formal do I need to be?
 What types of professional communication are
considered to be scientific writing?

“ … scientific writing also includes communication

about science through other types of journal articles,
such as review papers summarizing and integrating
previously published research.” (Day & Gastel, p. 3)
What types of professional communication are
considered to be scientific writing?

“ … in a still broader sense,

it includes other types of
professional communication
by scientists—for example,
grant proposals, oral
presentations, and poster
presentations.”
(Day & Gastel, p. 3)
 What is the structure of scientific writing?

• Writing usually follows a

standard formal structure,
frequently abbreviated
IMRAD (Introduction,
Method, Results, and
Discussion)
Source: Swales, J and C. Feak (2000) English in
Today’s Research World: a Writing Guide,
Michigan: Ann Arbor
What does the IMRAD structure look like in practice?

See “Why Do Chickens Cross the Road?” for a whimsical

illustration of how to use the IMRAD structure when
writing a scientific paper
 Some truths about “good” scientific writing

• Not all of the most influential

papers in science that have
had a major impact on their
field were written well.
• Some of the best written
papers were not the best
scientific works.
• A lot depends on what you
have to say…. but
• Good writing matters to most
scientists. Bad paper Great paper
 What is journalistic writing?

• The work of gathering, writing, editing, and

publishing or disseminating news through
newspapers or magazines, internet, radio, or
television
• Goal is accurate information in an accurate context,
rather than the presentation and development of
an individual writer’s style
 What are characteristics of journalistic writing?

• Writing is characterized by a
direct presentation of facts or
description of events with
little attempt at analysis or
interpretation
• Present information
accurately, precisely, clearly
and efficiently
• Journalist tries to stay in the
background, as much as
possible
• Responsible journalist tells
the reader the source of the
information
 What is the structure of journalistic writing?

• Makes use of the inverted

pyramid to structure the
writing
• Starts out with “the lead”
and then supports the lead
with other paragraphs
containing facts of
decreasing importance to
the story as one reads
farther down the article
What are the three aspects of scientific writing?

Content

Style

Form
Content is the message given. It refers to the ideas you
wish to express in your writing.
Style is the manner in which you choose to express your
ideas. It is the way that you present your message.

Illustration

Structure Language
 Form refers to the appearance of the message—
the format and mechanics of your writing
(i.e., how the writing appears on the page).

mechanics
format
grammar
typesetting
usage
font style
punctuation
layout
spelling
Do all scientific fields share a common set of style guidelines?

• Different fields have different

conventions for writing style, and
individual journals within a field
have their own style guidelines
Why is scientific writing important?
Scientists are called upon to communicate in many different
situations, with a variety of different audiences. This
requires analyzing each situation and deciding upon the best
way to communicate in that particular situation.
Reports Conferences
Articles Lectures
Proposals Meetings
Web Pages Posters

specific general
technical technical non-technical
audiences audiences audiences
Psychologists typically receive little or no formal training
in scientific writing in their academic programs
(Sternberg and Sternberg, 2010)
• Psychologists are trained in:
• how to design and conduct
studies, and
• how to analyze data.
• Few departments provide formal
training in:
• how to report on research,
• how to conduct a constructive
peer review of a manuscript, or
• how to prepare grant and
contract proposals.
 Ready for the workplace?

Psychologists exit their academic programs often

times insufficiently prepared for the common
workplace writing tasks they will face.
The UIC College of Education has now revised its Core
Curriculum. Each department is responsible for
ensuring that it provides students with instruction in
scientific writing.

The Topical Core for

Educational Psychology
includes some formal
writing instruction as
part of the Proseminar
experience.
 What does the scientific writing course cover?

 How to get going—how to get in the habit of writing regularly

 What is involved in writing the various sections of a scientific
paper
 Strategies for revising and editing a draft of a manuscript
 How to judge the quality of research papers
 What does the scientific writing course cover?

 Mastering the essentials of writing in APA style

 Choosing an appropriate publication outlet for a manuscript
 Writing abstracts, review articles, and proposals
 Writing papers suitable for non-technical audiences
 Preparing conference and poster presentations
 When should I plan to take this course?

 After you have completed ED 505

(Introduction to Educational
Research: Paradigms and
Processes), ED 506 (Introduction
to Educational Research: Designs
and Analyses) and EPSY 503
(Essentials of Quantitative
Inquiry)
 When you have a piece of
scientific writing in mind that you
want to work on
Where do educational psychologists look for guidance
related to content, style and form in writing?
 Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association

• First introduced in 1929 as a brief

journal article
• Purpose was to “set sound and
rigorous standards for scientific
communication”
• Desire was to create a set of
procedures, or style rules, to
“codify the many components of
scientific writing to increase the
ease of reading comprehension”
• Has become a highly regarded
authoritative source on all aspects
of scholarly writing
 Who uses the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association?

• Used by psychologists, as well as

researchers in education, social
work, nursing, business, and many
other behavioral and social
sciences
• Has evolved from a 7-page
document in 1929 to a 272-page
text in 2009.
• Revisions made in 1952, 1957,
1967, 1974, 1983, 1994, 2001,
2009
What types of articles appearing in scientific journals
make use of the style guidelines outlined in the
APA Publication Manual?

Empirical Studies
Literature Reviews
Theoretical Articles
Methodological Articles
Case Studies
Other
 What does the APA Publication Manual cover?

Chap. 1 Writing for the Behavioral and Social Sciences

(types of articles, ethical and legal standards in publishing,
insuring the accuracy of scientific knowledge, protecting the
rights and welfare of research participants, protecting
intellectual property rights)
Chap. 2 Manuscript Structure and Content
(Journal Article Reporting Standards, structure and content of
each manuscript element)
 What does the APA Publication Manual cover?

Chap. 3 Writing Clearly and Concisely

(organization, writing style, reducing bias, grammar and
usage)
Chap. 4 The Mechanics of Style
(punctuation, spelling, capitalization; rules for use of italics,
abbreviations, numbers , metrication; creating statistical and
mathematical copy; displaying equations)
Chap. 5 Displaying Results
(creating tables and figures)
 What does the APA Publication Manual cover?

Chap. 6 Crediting Sources

(plagiarism and self-plagiarism, quoting and paraphrasing;
citing references in text, preparing a reference list)
Chap. 7 Reference Examples
(how to prepare references of different types)
Chap. 8 The Publication Process
(editorial process (peer review), author responsibilities)
 Where can I get help to learn APA style?

• Go to the APA Style website:

http://www.apastyle.org
• Provides many valuable
resources on APA style
• Provides guidance beyond
what is in the APA Publication
Manual regarding writing and
publishing
• For example, how to cite
social media (Twitter,
Facebook and Google),
how to cite e-books, how
to cite YouTube
 What resources are available to
help me master APA style?

• Self-pacing, self-teaching
workbook
• Includes groups of instructional
exercises and practice tests on
various aspects and features of
the 6th edition
• Order from the APA style
website ($25.95/$22.95 if you
are a member or an affiliate
member of APA)
What resources are available to
help me master APA style?
• “Cliff Notes” of the APA
Publication Manual
• Easy-to-use spiral bound pocket
guide
• Focuses on the rules that writers
need to follow in order to select
the best words and format for
their articles
• Presents a list of the most
important writing standards
• Order from the APA style website
($29.95)
 What resources are available to
help me master APA style?

• Provide guidance on how best to

present the findings of your
research using tables
• Each chapter focuses on a
different statistic, giving
examples of how data can be
displayed
• Walks the reader through the
process of creating tables
• Order from the APA website
($19.95)
 What resources are available to
help me master APA style?

• Focus is on designing visual

displays
• Includes tips on creating bar
graphs, line graphs, plots, charts,
and photographs
• Also includes valuable chapters
on how to present conference
posters and presentations
• Order from the APA website
($19.95)
 What resources are available to
help me master APA style?

• Includes many examples

from articles that have been
published in APA journals
illustrating how the journal
article reporting standards
(JARS) have been used in
different types of studies
• Very useful for students who
are learning about the
reporting standards
• Order from APA website
($27.95)
 What resources are available to
help me master APA style?

• Outlines the key elements to

include when referencing
electronic sources, with an
emphasis on using the digital
object identifier (DOI) to locate
web-based information reliably
• Order from APA website ($11.95)
 What other resources are available to
help me learn APA style?

• Many resources for learning APA

style on the APA website:
• Free tutorial on the basics of APA
style
• Free tutorial on what’s new in the
6th edition
• Online course on the basics of APA
style
• Topic-specific resources (e.g., bias-
free language, ethics, digital
object identifiers (DOI), statistics)
• Other resources (e.g., APA style
blog, FAQs about APA style)
How do I become skilled in scientific writing
and master APA style?

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Practice, practice, practice–
and then practice some more!
What are steps I can take to learn APA style and
become a proficient scientific writer?

Buy the APA Publication Manual.

Sleep with it as your pillow.
Can you learn it by osmosis????
Unfortunately, probably not.
 What are REALISTIC steps I can take to learn APA style
and become a proficient scientific writer?

1. Study the APA Publication

Manual.
2. Work through the exercises
in the student workbook
(Mastering APA Style).
3. Use the tutorials and other
online resources at the APA
style website.
 What are REALISTIC steps I can take to learn APA style
and become a proficient scientific writer?

4. Consult writing guides:

Sternberg and Sternberg,
The Psychologist’s
Companion: A Guide to
Writing Scientific Papers for
Students and Researchers

Alley, The Craft of Scientific

Writing

Day and Gastel, How to

Write and Publish a Scientific
Paper
What are REALISTIC steps I can take to learn APA style
and become a proficient scientific writer?
5. Take courses in which scientific
writing and mastering APA
style is stressed.
6. Create or join a study/support
group (online or face-to-face )
to learn with others how to
write.
7. Sign up for an independent
study with a faculty member,
and write short pieces in APA
style, with feedback from the
faculty member.
What are REALISTIC steps I can take to learn APA style
and become a proficient scientific writer?

8. Identify exemplary pieces of

published research in your
field and carefully analyze
them to determine what
makes them exemplary.
9. Collaborate with a scientist
engaged in research to learn
the ropes of writing for
publication through high
quality mentoring and
apprenticeship.
 What does the scientific writing process look like?

Getting in the Mood Writing the First Draft

Revising, Revising, Revising Finishing

 High quality scientific writing strives for
strong ideas, solid reasoning, clarity and conciseness
(despite what Calvin thinks)
Becoming a proficient scientific writer involves learning
effective strategies for overcoming writer’s block
(other than the strategy that Calvin uses)
Becoming a proficient scientific writer involves learning
how to convey one’s ideas using a formal writing style
(but not the one that Jeffery has adopted)
Becoming a proficient scientific writer involves learning
how to make it through the publication process
(aka “the minefield”) with your sense of self still intact
What is the key to becoming a successful scientific writer?
Observing and sticking to deadlines!
What do I write about? What research topics “float my boat”?
Studies of rater behavior in large-scale performance and
product assessment settings

• How interchangeable are raters?

Does it matter which raters rate
which students?
• Do some raters rate more
severely than other raters?
• Do some raters have difficulty
using rating scales in a consistent
fashion?
• Do some raters’ standards drift
over time? Are there raters who
become more lenient or more
severe as time passes?
Contexts for carrying out my research
Assessment of writing (Advanced
Placement examinations, Test of
Written English)
Portfolio assessments (Advanced
Placement Studio Art, Arts
PROPEL)
Assessment using audiotapes (Test
of Spoken English, TOEFL iBT)
Assessment using videotapes and
live performance (National Board
for Professional Teaching
Standards assessments, Praxis
assessments, standardized
patient examinations)
Computer scoring of essays (e-rater)
Quality control monitoring of raters

Developing and testing new

methods to identify raters
who are experiencing
problems in applying scoring
rubrics—quality control
monitoring of rater behavior
Analyses of rating data

Detecting and measuring

rater effects, rater errors,
and rater biases that can
enter into scoring and
introduce unwanted
sources of variation into
the ratings
 Rater Leniency/Severity Effect
Lenient

Severe

Rater leniency—a rater’s tendency to assign ratings

that are on average higher than those assigned by
other raters

Rater severity—a rater’s tendency to assign ratings

that are on average lower than those assigned by other
raters
Halo Effect

1. A rater’s tendency to
assign a student similar
ratings on conceptually
distinct criteria

2. Allowing one’s general

impression of a student to
influence judgments of
performance on individual
criteria
Central Tendency Effect

A rater’s tendency to
overuse the middle
categories on a rating
scale while avoiding the
extreme categories
» The “everybody-is-
average” error

Results in a bunching of
ratings in the center of a
scale
 Restriction-of-Range Effect

Occurs in situations in which

ratings are clustered at any point
along the rating scale
» Clustering at the upper end
of the scale—a leniency
effect
» Clustering at the lower end of
the scale—a severity effect
» Clustering in the middle of
the scale—a central tendency
effect
 Rater Drift Behavior

Rater drift—a rater’s’

tendency to alter his or her
interpretation of a scoring
rubric and start to interpret
the rubric in a different
manner

Consensual rater drift—A

rater pair alter their
interpretation of a scoring
rubric, but other rater pairs
do not adopt (or are not privy
to) those changes
Table Drift

Table drift—one or more tables

of raters alter their
interpretation of a scoring
rubric, but the other tables
don’t follow suit
 Carryover Effect

Occurs when a rater’s judgment

regarding a particular
performance criterion affects
the rater’s judgment of the next
criterion to be rated
 Order Effect

Occurs when a rater’s

judgment of a previous
student’s performance or
product unconsciously
affects his or her judgment
of the next student’s
performance or product
 Rater Bias

Raters show patterns of

severity or leniency when
rating certain subgroups of
students (i.e., “differential
severity” or “differential
leniency”)

Their patterns of ratings may

suggest bias related to
background characteristics of
students (e.g., race or
ethnicity, age, gender,
physical attractiveness,
personality)
Courses I Teach at UIC

Assessment
» Assessment for Measurement
Professionals
» Large-Scale Testing
Measurement
» Approaches for Analyzing Rating
Data
Program Evaluation
» Educational Program Evaluation
Scientific Writing
» Proseminar in Educational
Psychology II: Discourses in the
Field
Questions? Comments?