What?
To help make your writing more direct, clear and succinct, it’s worth investing some time to read (books, blog-posts and articles) on “Scientific Writing”. To start out, I highly recommend the Purdue Online Writing lab webpage and an article about writing papers [Kording 2017].
For now, though, here are some quick tips for making the best out of your essay / lab report.
Paragraphs
The #1 way to improve your essay structure
The number 1 killer of essay structure (in my opinion) is improper use of paragraphs. If you use paragraphs correctly, your essay will flow much better. Also, the line of argument and writing clarity will automatically improve. This is because the reader will be able to follow the writing more easily.
Fix?
-
Read the advice about paragraphs on the OWL how to structure individual paragraphs and how to connect them.
-
Open your essay in Word / Pages. Switch on “Track Changes”. Find locations for missing paragraph breaks. You may also find places where you have a paragraph break, but shouldn’t have. Fix those areas.
-
When you are finished, imagine a reader skip-reading your whole essay by only reading the topic sentences. Does your essay still make sense?
Important stuff first / unimportant stuff last
I often see background material / arguments introduced as follows:
“Schluppeck et al (2018) argued that high-resolution fMRI is ideally suited for mapping the structure and function of sensory …” or “Xing et al (2013) used fMRI to probe…”
This way of presenting information puts the less important information first (who the author was) and only introduces the important stuff towards the end of the sentence.
Fix?
- Always lead with the important information. In the example above, amuch better way to present things would have been:
“High-resolution fMRI is a powerful method for mapping the structure and function of sensory areas (Schluppeck et al, 2018).”
Seems like a subtle change, but consistent use of this makes essays much more engaging and easier to read.
- Load your essay. Switch on “Track Changes”. Find places where you use “X (2016) showed….”, “A study published in the journal PNAS in 2018 showed…” (and other such statements). Fix them.
Always spell and grammar check your essay
As a final step before submitting, always step away from the text for an hour / an afternoon / a day. Then come back for a final proof-read and spell check. You will catch many silly mistakes.
If you want some technological help:
-
Hemmingway app – make your writing more bold and clear (in fact, I used this app to check my writing in this document).