Guidance For Writing Scientific Papers In A Second Language

[ohwilleke]

I feel compelled to note a valuable new article in the magazine Science about the task of writing scientific papers in English when your native language is not English. The article is written by a Chinese scientist who did his PhD in the U.K.

The basic message is to keep it simple. Use short sentences and simple sentence structure. Prefer easy words to hard words. Avoid the long, complex sentences that you were taught how to use when you were learning English. Do this even though you were rewarded for sentences like that in school. Science doesn't reward scientists for complicated elegant writing. Science rewards scientists for good ideas that are clearly communicated.

Honestly, this is good advice even for sophisticated native speakers writing in language intense fields for sophisticated native speaker audiences, for example, lawyers writing legal briefs.

Before you start to write, it helps to outline your paper in your mind. Imagine an outline that tells the story in as simple a way as possible. Tell a story that covers every step of what you are trying to say.

But, don't get off track by discussing tangents or side points. If you must put the tangents or side points in your paper, do this in footnotes. Better yet, put tangents or side points in an appendix or your paper's supplemental materials.

Write as much of a first draft of the article as you can, as fast as you can, even if you know you are making mistakes the first time. It is easier to edit the first draft to correct your mistakes, than it is to write from a clean slate.

Don't rely on online translation software. As a last resort, translation software is still better than nothing, if your English is very bad. But, it would still be better, if your English is very bad, to find a fluent or native speaker to help you translate a draft you wrote in your own language.

The article doesn't mention the idea, but you should also have a native speaker (who has some understanding of your scientific field) edit your draft. This person will find subtle English grammar and word usage mistakes that you miss. If you have no other choice, pay for this service. It will help your career enough to make it worth the money to pay for this service.

I've seen many substantively solid scientific journal papers written by non-Native English speakers that will not get published in the best possible journals, and will not be cited by others as often as they deserve, because of basic writing problems that make the author's intent hard to understand quickly and easily.

 

[Hyperfine]

All authors would be well-advised to read a lot of papers already published in their journal of choice. That kind of experience is invaluable.

 

[symbolipoint]

Your second paragraph of advice is good, or very good.
Another suggestion is formally study English grammar and usage; something which one could do on his own without formally attending instruction in a class. This can give you a better handle on arranging what you want to express.

 

[Mark44]

The basic message is to keep it simple. Use short sentences and simple sentence structure. Prefer easy words to hard words. Avoid the long, complex sentences that you were taught how to use when you were learning English. Do this even though you were rewarded for sentences like that in school. Science doesn't reward scientists for complicated elegant writing. Science rewards scientists for good ideas that are clearly communicated.

I worked as a technical writer, writing documentation geared towards developers, at a large software company. The advice above was similar to what we had as a writing guide, as many of the people who read our documentation were not native speakers of English.

Another suggestion is formally study English grammar and usage; something which one could do on his own without formally attending instruction in a class. This can give you a better handle on arranging what you want to express.

This is something I did as well. I was determined that my work should pass muster without needing much change by our editors. At the time I had the Chicago Manual of Style as well as a copies of Strunk and White's Elements of Style (E. B. White was also the author of "Charlotte's Web") and another writing guide by Fowler.