A Workflow for Scientific Writing

The process of scientific writing can be made less daunting by breaking it into manageable pieces. The key to this is a workflow that lets you address one aspect of the task at a time.

· Outlining

o All scientific papers can be expressed as a hierarchical outline with increasing detail at each successive level in the hierarchy.

o The first two levels of this hierarchy are the pretty much the same for all papers, so their structure and content have been captured in the Universal Outline chapter of this book. Start there, cutting out any aspects that don’t apply to your paper.

o You then work down the hierarchy one level at a time until you reach the sentence level.

§ Subsections

· Go down to the next level in the hierarchy and list the topics you need to cover in each subsection.

· Then sort these topics into story-telling order, where each new topic can be understood in terms of just those that came before.

· Each of the topics you’ve listed here will become a sub-subsection or a paragraph.

§ Paragraphs

· Go down another level in the hierarchy. This is usually the paragraph level. If not, repeat the subsection instructions above until you do reach the paragraph level. The distinction is whether the material would benefit from a title as a reader navigation aid. If so, it’s a sub-subsection, if not it’s a paragraph.

· List all the facts you need to cover to make the point you’d listed for this paragraph.

· Sort these facts into story-telling order, where each new fact can be understood in terms of those that came before.

· Each of these facts will become a sentence.

§ Sentences

· What does the reader need to know to link this fact into the unfolding story? This information goes at the start of the sentence.

· What is the new fact? This fact goes at the end of the sentence.

· Editing

o Here we go through the document one sentence at a time, improving the quality of the sentence one aspect at a time.

o Linkage: Tweak the sentence so that its role in the storyline is immediately clear. This is achieved with a few choice words that link the sentence back to those preceding sentences upon which it most directly stands or whose questions it most directly answers.

o Clarity: Tweak the word choice until each word captures precisely the meaning you wish to convey.

§ Each word should neither be more general that what you really mean, nor more specific. That is, it should not include anything you are not talking about nor exclude anything you are.

§ Check carefully to make sure that each word really means what you think it does. It’s all to easy to use a word that is only loosely related to the one you want in either meaning or sound.

§ For both of these checks an online dictionary and online visual thesaurus can be useful.

§ For a final check, try expressing the sentence as literally as possible in either math or in computer code. It’s okay to do this in your head as each sentence should be simple enough that this is easy. If the math or code you get conveys exactly what you mean, good. If not, go to the top of this section (i.e. Clarity) and start again. Repeat that cycle until a literal interpretation of your sentence matches what you meant to say.

o Grammar

§ Check that the verb and subject are in number agreement: plural with plural and singular with singular.

§ Check to make sure that the verb tense is correct.

· Past tense for a literature review unless you’re stating your own views (present tense) or summarizing (present perfect tense).

· Past tense for your methods.

· Past tense for your results.

· Present tense for the implications and your conclusions.

§ Check punctuation.

· Commas – The Associated Press Punctuation guide can be helpful here.

Notice that at no point in this workflow is there an actual writing task. Writing is not a separate part of the process! Instead, the text of your paper just gradually acquires detail and quality as you progress through the workflow. The details grow in gradually during the outlining phase and the quality improves one aspect at a time during the editing stage.

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This page was last updated by George Young on September 10, 2019