How do you write a scientific text? - Chapter 2

How to construct a scientific text?

It is extremely important that a scientific text has a good structure. Topics must follow each other logically. Because a scientific text is often long, it always consists of different sections, which are divided further into paragraphs.

A section covers one sub-topic. An example is a discussion section in which the information presented is related to the research question and criticism is provided. Different aspects of a sub-topic are shown in separate paragraphs. A paragraph contains a coherent, rounded message. A good paragraph covers a number of sentences about one aspect of a subtopic.

There are two ways in which a paragraph can be built:

• The first sentence contains the message, the rest of the paragraph contains the arguments or an explanation

• First the arguments are given, then the message.

When a scientific text has a good, clear structure, you can often read the first sentences of all paragraphs as a summary of the full text.

What is the writing style of a scientific text?

In a scientific text it is not common to use style figures or plot twists to fascinate the reader. The writing style used in scientific tests is impersonal, businesslike, explicit, concise, revolves around the information that is presented and is referred to as academic style.

A literature review is intended to inform the reader about what literature can be read in regards to a certain topic as well as the researcher's own opinion on the topic. The content of the articles must be displayed correctly. It must be clearly stated how it concerns your opinion and where you represent the opinion of an author. A research report informs the reader about the research question, the research, the results found and the conclusions drawn based on the research. Both the literature review and the research report must provide enough information to the reader to evaluate the conclusions of the piece. You, therefore, leave nothing to the imagination or interpretation of the reader. All steps in your argument must be displayed. Although your piece must be concise, it is important to ensure that this does not lead to vagueness.

What is the style and spelling of a scientific text?

The sentences in your text should be fluent to read and spelled correctly. Poor language can influence a reader in such a way that the content is no longer appreciated. There are many rules for scientific texts, which are included in the APA Manual (APA, 2010).

As is the case for non-scientific texts, spelling and punctuation are important building blocks of the text. Regarding English spelling the Oxford English Dictionary should be considered. In addition, use the spell check of your computer program. Punctuation marks influence the text and it is therefore important that you use the correct characters. If you avoid prepositional expressions such as "with regard to" or "by means of'' it will improve how the text is read. There are much more concise alternatives, such as 'regarding' or 'using'.

Do not list information by displaying it one point over the other, you must form a running text.

When you write a scientific text in Dutch and use English-language articles, it is important that you translate adequately. Poorly translated English leads to poorly formulated Dutch and this makes your text unclear and difficult to read. Always use your own words to explain something and always refer to the source of what you are telling.

The intention is that you produce a scientific text that is easy to read for a fellow student. This means that you may assume that the reader is familiar with generally accepted terms such as 'unconscious' or 'conditioning'. You must explain concepts that are specific to the topic that you discuss and the theories that you use in your speech. Before submitting the text, ask yourself: is information missing? Would the report be easily understood by any age group? Are documents unnecessarily repeated? Do the arguments used make sense?

What are the instructions derived from the APA Manual?

• Use the active verb form to prevent a boring text.

• Look carefully where you use present tense and where you apply past tense. The present tense usually only occurs in the introduction, the transitions between paragraphs and the conclusion. Descriptions of research and articles are always in the past.

• Do not use the first person singular or plural (me, we). A scientific text is not the place to express personal opinions or tell stories.

• Use parallel grammatical constructions. So don't write “the people in the first condition saw red blocks, while the people in the second condition saw blue blocks”, but write: the people in the first condition saw red blocks, the people in the second condition saw blue blocks " This ensures clarity.

• Make a choice for specific terminology and stick to it. Do not use synonyms to make the text more varied. If you have chosen the word sex in your introduction, do not use gender in the following paragraphs.

• In a comparison you always mention both things that are compared to each other. So not: one condition…., The other…. But: in one condition ... .., in the other condition ... ..

How to refer?

Much of the information that you use will come from other literature. This must be referred to in the correct manner. You will often paraphrase: re-writing the information in your own words, therefore, it is important that readers know exactly where information comes from. That is why you refer in the text and add a reference list at the end of your text.

You must refer as accurately as possible to the article used to obtain the information. You do this with the help of references. Appendix B of the book contains a detailed description of the various ways in which you should refer to books, articles, websites, etc. The most important rules are the following.

• By default, a reference contains the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.

• You refer in one of the following ways:

• Author(s) and year in parentheses

• Author(s) in the running text and year in parentheses.

• With a publication with three or more authors, you can refer in a shortened way by using the abbreviation 'et al.'. The first time you refer to a publication you must write out all names.

• If a publication has six or more authors: you may immediately use the abbreviated method the first time you refer. 

• Only refer to literature that you have actually read yourself. In the cause of exceptions, you can use the construction "Author A, 2009, cited in Author B, 2010", if you have not read the original publication by author A.

How to quote?

A literal quote can also occur. Sometimes a quote can reinforce your argument. When literally copying text you always mention a page number. If the quote is shorter than forty words, you include it in the text without special formatting and using "double quotes". If you omit a piece from the original piece of text, you use three full stops (...). If your quote is longer than forty words, it must be indented and it should be not enclosed in quotation marks.

Try to avoid literal quotes as much as possible. It is usually the case that your text is stronger when it is written in your own words because that way the style and language used remains consistent.

What is a reference list?

Every reference in your current text must be found in the reference list at the end of your document. This reading list contains everything a person needs to know in order to find a source that you have used in your text. A reference list consists of journal articles, books, chapters from edited books and websites that you used to write your scientific text. When compiling your reading list it is important that you comply with the specific rules for the representation of sources.

• Names of authors

  • First the surname, then the initials, after each initial a full stop.

  • All surnames and initials of article authors should be displayed in the order that they appear in at the top of the article.

  • For two or more initials, they should be separated by a space.

  • If there is more than one author, there is a '&' sign in front of the surname of the last author.

  • With seven or more authors you mention the first six, then a space, then a '...', then another space and finally the surname and intitials of the final author

  • Author entries are separated by commas.

• The year is in parentheses and is followed by a full stop.

• Title

  • Only the first word of the title and any subtitle will be capitalized.

  • Nouns in the title are also capitalized.

  • After a colon in the title, the following word is capitalized.

  • The title ends with a full stop.

• The journal in which the article is published

  • Give the full title of the journal and use capital letters for major words and words of four letters or more are capitalised.

  • Use italics in the title.

  • Place a comma after the title.

  • Give the year of publication

  • Put the volume number in italics followed by a comma.

  • Name the first and last page of the article and separate them with a dash

  • End everything with a full stop.

• Digital object identifiers 

  • Many articles have a digital object identifier (DOI).

  • Avoid using a full stop at the end of the DOI.

  • A DOI ensures that you can find the article quickly via Google, for example.

  • If an article that you have found online does not have a DOI use the URL of the journal's home page and do not use a full stop or a hyphen after, instead use a line-break after a double slash (//) or before any punctuation mark 

  • In every other case, it finishes with the page number. 

For references to books or chapters from edited books, the reference is largely the same. Examples of source references can be found in Appendix B of the book.

The parts of your bibliography are arranged alphabetically, by last name. Similar surnames are organized by looking at initials. If you use multiple articles from one author, you use the chronological order (1992 is for 2001). If you have an article by author Willems, and one by Willems, Broersma and Akkerman, then the article takes precedence with only one author. Publications by multiple authors with the same first author are arranged by looking at the second, third, etc. author. When an author has done several publications in one year, the first publication gets a small a behind the year, the second a b, etc.

How to format?

For the preparation of a scientific text you must follow the rules of the APA Manual (APA, 2010).

• Use a large left and right margin (the default settings are usually good). Choose a commonly used font (eg Times New Roman) in size 12. Use a line spacing of 2.0. Align the text to the left. You cannot break words at the end of the line because often they appear somewhere else in the final publication. 

• Use a title page. Here you place centre the title and below it place your name, also centered. Other information (your student number, the date, the name of your supervisor, the number of words, etc.) is stated in the lower left of the title page, left aligned.

What is the layout of paragraphs and paragraphs? 

A new paragraph starts with an unnumbered heading that is bold, centered and in upper case unless the word is a grammatical connector such as 'and'. If you want to include a subsection within a paragraph, use a second level of formatting by making the heading bold, aligning left and using uppercase and lowercase letters again. Sometimes even a third level is needed, which is then bold and indented, uses the same rules for lowercase and uppercase letters and ends with a full stop. The text then continues after the full stop, without a blank line, but is no longer bold.

Within the text you use paragraphs to add structure. A paragraph ends with a line break. A new paragraph is indented at the beginning of the sentence, with a tab. A paragraph may never consist of just one sentence.

When to use numbers or words?

You always use numbers in the abstract. When you mention numbers greater than nine, use numbers. So: seven people participated in the study, but: there were 92 subjects.

The APA Manual uses a number of exception rules. For example, you use numbers for numbers under 10 when it comes to dimensions (cm, mg), elements from a row (condition 1, condition 2), calculation numbers (multiplied by 4, more than 5%), for numbers that include a time, date , age, money amount or score and with statistical information ( F (3.8) = 5.9).

You never start a sentence with a number. Even small numbers and numbers for which the exception rules apply are then written out.

When you report an empirical study, you always describe the variables used. In the text you always use meaningful, complete indications and you do not use abbreviations or codes. This is possible in a table if there is not enough space for the full name of a variable. Enter the full name in a footnote.

According to the APA Manual, variables are usually not written with a capital letter, unless they are mentioned in combination with a multiplication sign (the Sex x Training interaction). When you name a test with a general name, for example, 'an intelligence test', you do not use a capital letter. For proper names of tests, for example, the Beck Depression scale, you use capital letters. You also write names of subscales with a capital letter.

You often make use of statistical symbols in a research report. An operator, such as =, <,>, or + for example, is always between two spaces. Symbols such as F, p, t, N, M or SD are written in italics, except for Greek letters.

How to use figures and tables?

You hardly ever come across tables or figures in literature reviews. Research reports almost always contain at least one table. You name the tables or figures used in the text with a number (table 1, figure 1). You always write out what the reader can see in a table or figure. The title of a table or figure is always there, in italics and with the number followed by a full stop in a figure and without a full stop in a table.

Tables never contain vertical lines, but horizontal ones. The first column of a table is aligned to the left, the other columns are centered. Each column in a table is given a title. Numbers that the reader should compare are side by side, not below each other. When a table contains the results of a statistical test, asterisks can indicate which data were significant and which were not. In a note below the table you indicate which p-values ​​were used to determine significance levels.

Figures and tables must always be able to be read independently. In the short explanation above a table or below a figure you provide enough information to be able to understand what is being displayed, without the need to read the current text.

How useful is formatting? 

It is important not to be distracted by all these rules: the core of your argument is the most important. The form is the way in which you convey your message and should serve the message itself. The best way to convince other scientists is to write a clear statement. Layout is the icing on the cake.