Science:Science Writing Resources/Communicating in the STEM Disciplines

Discipline-Specific Writing in STEM

Introduction
The primary motivation for developing resources to help you with your science writing stems from the fact that science differs from other disciplines. As a result, you need to use different skills to communicate scientific information effectively.

Science is often used to explain or predict outcomes that either have affected, or will affect, society. It is a very complex social activity involving many different people, and it affects us all, every day. Many governmental decisions are made based on scientific predictions, which involve specialist researchers as well as contributing citizens, yet a common goal is to follow objective measures to remove bias from such decisions.

Much of science is based on inquiry through the development of hypotheses and repeatable experiments to test these hypotheses. Data are then gathered and analyzed before conclusions and interpretations are made. However, while this path is typically followed to build knowledge, there are other routes (such as observational studies that seek to isolate patterns from large data sets, rather than imply cause-effect relationships supported by data derived from controlled experiments).

Science can be thought of as a discipline that requires a degree of evidence to build knowledge around phenomena, but it also blends logic with imagination. As a result, science is dynamic and creative, and scientists often disagree about experimental designs, results analyses and interpretations. Although scientists typically follow the scientific method of inquiry, there are many different objective and unbiased ways to do this for any given experiment, and we rarely know which is the best.

Furthermore, the vast majority of conclusions are based on measures of probability; researchers decide on a level of uncertainty that they are happy to accept before concluding one way or another what their data show.

Specific Resources to Help Build Science Writing Skills

The above point about science being uncertain (based on probability) is very important because general audiences may hold the misconception that science is about proof, and that scientists perform experiments to prove hypotheses or theories as though they were mathematical equations, which they rarely are (especially in biology where variation is seen everywhere). You must take care when communicating to such audiences to explain the uncertainty attached to what you are saying (see our dedicated resource here).

Additionally, science is a discipline that uses a lot of technical jargon, to the extent that astronomers might not understand what chemists or evolutionary biologists are talking about when they are using terms that are well known in their own circles. Dealing with jargon appropriately is therefore a very important part of being a good science communicator (see our dedicated resource here).

Linking in to this idea is the importance of tailoring your content to the needs of the audience you are addressing. For example, if you are writing a journalistic article or a blog post about the latest genetic breakthroughs showing the importance of random mutations for boosting diversity in populations, you must minimize your use of jargon wherever possible, and use everyday comparisons and descriptions to help contextualize technical concepts (for more information on this, see our resource here). Conversely, if you were writing about the same breakthrough to form part of a review article targeted at a science journal, you could afford to be considerably more technical in your writing.

Bearing the needs of your audience in mind, you can start to think about science-specific style. Although any piece of work you produce should flow smoothly from sentence to sentence (see our resources about Organizing Paragraphs and Basic Grammar and Mechanics here), you should aim to write short, succinct sentences that are easy to interpret (see our resource about writing with Clarity and Using Simple Language here); your primary goal should always be to communicate your material in a way that can be understood, rather than to write prose that could rival that of Emily Bronte or JRR Tolkien.

Not so long ago, scientists tended to write things more in the passive voice than the active voice, but conventional wisdom now encourages us to write in the active voice more often than not. The main reason for this is that it encourages writers to use strong verbs and construct shorter, simpler sentences. For our comprehensive guide on the two styles of voice, see here.

Another aspect of science writing that sets it apart from most other disciplines is the need to incorporate lots of numbers and units into such writing. Whether you are writing up your lab notebook or giving a PowerPoint presentation to your peers, you are likely to need to include specific facts and figures in this form. There are a number of rules to follow to make sure you do this effectively, and we have a dedicated resource to help.

Following on from this, it is important to know how to produce effective tables and figures to help display patterns and important information in a more visually engaging way than in simple text form; after all, many people find it easier to visualize patterns than interpret them from text, and these patterns can be relatively complex in science (a picture really can be worth 1,000 words). There are lots of little tips and explanations to help out in our dedicated guide here (for example, you can read why pie charts are normally bad choices to display data).

Most disciplines require you to support your work (and opinions) by citing relevant sources that you have used to build the quality of your content. However, the citation style between science and other disciplines is very different (it can even be different within sub-divisions of science), so learning the intricacies is very important. We have dedicated resources to help you search for content material effectively, identify different types of sources, and then integrate and cite these effectively in your writing.

Many people are worried about committing plagiarism without meaning to (by failing to cite material correctly, or by choosing not to cite certain information, for example), but we have a resource to help make sure you never fall into this trap. Included here are tips to help you decide whether you need to cite certain information based on certain characteristics (target audience, how specific the information is, and whether it is factual or an opinion).

We would also encourage anyone to develop and use a writing outline when writing about scientific information (especially when writing a report that follows the IMRAD structure – Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion – associated with science), and have put together a useful guide for that purpose here.

Communicating Uncertainty

General audiences may hold the misconception that STEM disciplines are all about proofs, where scientists perform experiments to prove hypotheses or theories. However, In STEM disciplines, the vast majority of conclusions are based on measures of probability; researchers decide on a level of uncertainty that they are happy to accept before concluding one way or another what their data show (Fischhoff and Davis, 2014).

Here are some reasons for uncertainty in STEM:

• There are many different ways of approaching any research question, conducting experiments, and interpreting data/results. Even when two researchers view the same results, they might not interpret them the same way.
• The production of knowledge is an ongoing, dynamic process. Uncertainty provides opportunities for collaborative knowledge production and ongoing conversations.
• STEM research often forms conclusions based on the probability/likelihood of an explanation for what causes the results being the correct one. Much STEM research is never certain, which means it is important to indicate the degree of confidence held in a particular result (e.g. your new drug might have resulted in a statistically significant reduced chance of getting sick, but that does not mean that it will be 100% effective for everyone that takes it…).

In academic writing, researchers often use hedging language to convey uncertainty. Hedging is a kind of cautious language that conveys uncertainty, tentativeness, or hesitancy in a claim (Cüneyt, 2018). Hedging involves using words such as “could,” “might,” “may,” “often,” “possibly,” and others and allows an author to qualify a claim to protect themselves from outright refutation that an expert audience might raise.

Consider the following two examples:

“Beyond cancer invasion, ECM confinement may mechanically regulate collective and single-cell invasion in other contexts” (Ilina et al., 2020, p. 1113).

Here, the researchers are able to put forth a claim for consideration about the importance of their research. Not only does the inclusion of this hedging term make their claim less universal, it opens up the possibility for future research.

Now, consider how removing the hedging term changes the sentence:

“Beyond cancer invasion, ECM confinement mechanically regulates collective and single-cell invasion in other contexts.”

The degree of certainty in this second sentence changes considerably, making it much easier to refute.

Communicating uncertainty is also an important skill when communicating with non-specialists. We have identified five strategies that you can put into practice when communicating uncertainty to boost the chances of your readers understanding the level of uncertainty. You can:

1. Make any numbers (and statistical analyses) easy to interpret.
2. Contextualize these with an everyday comparison.
3. Choose descriptive language very carefully.
4. Use figures and images as well as words and numbers.
5. Communicate timelines (when might new data be available?).

Making Numbers (and Statistical Analyses) Easy to Interpret

When dealing with very large or very small numbers, it is a good idea to round these up/down to make it easier for people to picture.

An Example

If something has a 4,427-1 chance of happening, it’s fine to tell people that there is ‘roughly a 4,500-1 chance.’ However, if something has an 8.3/1 chance of happening, telling someone that there is ‘roughly a 10/1 chance,’ is misleading because there is actually a reasonably large difference between the two.

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Watch out for related contingencies (e.g. when one thing affects another, make sure you state the chance based on the combined likelihood, as well as the individual ones). For example, if I have a 10% chance of winning a regional award based on my grades, and then a 20% chance of winning a national award, it should be made clear that I only have a 2% chance of winning the national one (0.1 x 0.2 = 0.02).

It is also important to avoid framing bias when working with numbers. Framing bias can cause people to home in on the wrong message, and is often linked to your choice of wording, or even in the order that you introduce things.

An Example

Suppose there is a 10/1 chance that people will have a reaction to a new immunization that will make you feel very poorly for a few days, but that it is important to have the jab as catching the disease without immunization could be much worse.

If you tell people that ‘anyone having a reaction will feel very poorly and 1 in 11 of you will have this reaction,” you are focusing on the negative possibility and could dissuade people from having the immunization.

You should instead say something like ‘being able to protect ourselves from this disease is very important, so although there is a 10% chance that you might have a reaction that could make you feel poorly for a few days, medical staff are recommending this jab.’

Contextualizing Numbers with Everyday Comparisons

This is not always appropriate, but it can help to put things into context and make people understand the likelihood of something happening more easily. Pay special attention to your audience and try to tailor a comparison to them.

An Example

If you are speaking to members of a poker society, and want to communicate that there is an approximate 2% chance of another immunization making people feel poorly for a few days, you could try to relate this to an everyday example they will understand by saying something like ‘The chance of having a reaction to the jab and feeling poorly is very similar to your chances of drawing the Ace of hearts from a standard deck of cards with only one go.’ This works because there are 52 cards in a deck (and only one ace of hearts, which means the chances of drawing it are 1.92%).

Choosing Appropriate Descriptive Language

This links in fairly closely to the idea of avoiding framing bias; if you tell people that ‘the reaction to this jab that some people have is horrifying; you’ll feel gross for days,’ they will be more likely to focus on this and ignore the probability of actually being affected. People will also interpret horrifying and gross very differently, and this is the key to choosing appropriate descriptive language. Be very careful when using adjectives that imply a quantitative element to what you are saying.

An Example

If you said the chance of having a reaction to the second immunization was pretty unlikely, your readers would likely interpret this very differently. What does ‘pretty unlikely’ mean? One person might assume there is a 20-30% chance of something ‘pretty unlikely’ happening, whereas another might think this means there is only a 2-5% chance of it happening.

For this reason, it is always a good idea to use objective adjectives where possible, and to accompany them with a distinct number (e.g. ‘There is a 2% chance that you will have a reaction to this immunization, so it’s pretty unlikely.’).

Using Figures and Images (as well as Words and Numbers)

Some people find it easier to visualize and interpret patterns when they see them in figures and images instead of reading about them in print. The great advantage that figures have over words and numbers is that they can be more effective in highlighting magnitudes of differences between comparisons.

There are a few tips that you should put into practice when producing effective figures (such as keeping them simple, avoiding white space, and using bar graphs where possible – these are easier to interpret than pie charts and scatter plots). These tips and more information can be found by visiting our Effective Tables and Figures resource.

An Example

If you write that there is a 75% chance of rain at 6 am on a particular day, then a 35% chance of rain at noon, and a 40% chance at 6 pm, it is not easy to quickly relate to the relative uncertainty of these estimates; how much of a difference is there in these estimates?

The figure below makes this much easier to visualize, and might help you make a more informed decision as to whether you would risk going out without a rain jacket at certain points of the day.

Figure 1: Probability of rain at different times on a particular day.

Communicating Timelines

Because scientific knowledge is constantly evolving, it is a good idea to mention whether there will be an update in the coming weeks/months/years that might change the information you are currently presenting.

It is also a good idea to inform people when they can expect to hear more information in the midst of a crisis. For example, if there is an outbreak of mumps at school, it is better to tell people that you are unsure of the risk their children have of catching it if you don’t know, but that you are working with health specialists and will have information on this for them in the next five days. Telling them that ‘we don’t know’, but not giving them an indication of when you will know more is only going to cause worry and anger.

An Example

You might have completed Stage One of a research project that shows there is a 1 in 2,000 chance that your town will be hit by an earthquake in the next 10 years. However, if Stage Two is currently underway and you will have additional data to provide a more accurate estimate in three months, you should tell people that; not only are you underlining the point that your estimate at present is just that – an estimate – but you are also giving them a timeline as to when they can expect to get a more fine-grained one.

Communicating Uncertainty Quick Quiz

1) Read the following summary of some research in which you must communicate the degree of uncertainty in your results.

We have assessed the risk of a serious volcanic eruption affecting people living in the nearest town and believe there is a 1 in 151,091 chance that such an eruption will occur in the next week, a 1 in 106 chance in the next 10 years and is a 1 in 12 chance that it will happen in the next 50 years.

a) Decide whether you can simplify the three numbers without affecting their accuracy too much, to make this easier for people to interpret, and then make these simplifications if you think it is possible to do so (1 mark for each decision, 3 marks total).

b) Read the following descriptions of the risk facing town residents, and rank these in order from best to worst, remembering the importance of avoiding framing bias (4 marks):

A: Realistically, there is no chance that the volcano will erupt in the next week.

B: It is a bit more likely that the volcano will erupt by 2065 than by 2025.

C: It is very unlikely that the volcano will erupt in the next 50 years.

D: There is an absolutely tiny chance that the volcano will erupt in the next week.

2) Read the three short descriptions below that all deal with scientific uncertainty in some way. Try to suggest what the potential problems are with each one and then re-write them to remove these problems (3 marks).

i) If the pest outbreak spreads to the city, there is a 1.3% chance that all the maple trees will die. Scientists think there is approximately a 14% chance that it will reach the city.
ii) Statistics show that cyclists involved in traffic accidents have a 45% chance of missing at least two weeks of work to recover from injuries. Car drivers have only a 15% chance, but on average they are involved in six times as many accidents.
iii) Every single one of our 150 test subjects improved their performance in biology exams following our instructional course, so there is no chance that you would pay for it and not see an improved result at the end of term.

Quick Quiz Answer Key

To check your answers and see whether you are now a wizard at communicating uncertainty effectively in your science writing, you should access the answer key here.

Using Comparisons and Descriptions

There are a variety of techniques that can be used to describe and compare, but selecting an appropriate one is especially important when communicating science. We often need to describe experiments, phenomena and/or situations of which our audiences have no experience (Taylor and Dewsbury, 2018).

More generally, using comparisons and descriptions selectively in your writing will also make it easier and more interesting to read. When done effectively, it will provide an extra level of engagement with your readers, which is useful if you have to use a certain amount of jargon or if you simply want to make your article more accessible. For example, if you have to explain how cell receptors work to an audience without specialist knowledge, it might be useful to describe them as "mini sorting machines," that "ensure only the right deliveries are made to specific cells."

Whenever you use a description or comparison in your writing, try to make sure that it is succinct, simple to understand/visualize, appropriate for your audience, and – most importantly – an accurate description of the more complex relationship you are trying to explain. For example, "winning that science scholarship" is not "like winning the lottery," because there was no skill involved in the latter. Instead, it is more "like getting your dream job."

Similes actively explain a comparison for a reader (e.g. "smaller rivers branch into bigger ones like blood vessels branching into major veins and arteries"), whereas metaphors turn one object into another, thereby leaving the reader to make the connection (e.g. the typical student’s study area is a disaster zone). Importantly, as Taylor and Dewsbury (2018) note, while these features of academic writing offer many descriptive possibilities, they also have limitations particularly in their potential to oversimplify scientific phenomena.These subtle differences are more important than you might think: Similes, if chosen appropriately for the audience at which they are aimed, should always be understood, whereas metaphors can "open the door" to personal interpretations.

Some examples

Notice the subtle difference in the following similes and metaphors:

1S) These elements react as fast as lightning.

1M) This reaction is a lightning bolt.

2S) Sitting through that lecture was like watching paint dry.

2M) That lecture was a snorefest.

3S) The two species are as different as night and day.

3M) The two species are black and white.

Note how the metaphors could be interpreted differently to how they are intended (especially 3M, which is supposed to imply the two species are very different from one another, but you could see how people might think the two species are coloured black and white instead).

Choosing When to Use Similes and Metaphors

It is very important to gauge your audience when using comparisons and descriptions; a simile or metaphor might be technically great, but if it means nothing to the people reading your article, it will only confuse and frustrate. For example, there is no point in telling the general public in Canada that: Students trudging to their 9:00 am lectures are “as sleepy as brown bats.” It is true that brown bats are among the sleepiest creatures in the animal kingdom, but it is highly unlikely that most people know this.

Things to Avoid

Firstly, the overuse of descriptions and comparisons typically makes things more confusing and (almost certainly) less concise, so try not to use too many in your writing.

Secondly, "dead" descriptions and comparisons are of little use because they have become so common in our language (and thus, they have lost their impact), and because their original meaning has been lost. For example, telling the audience that the alpha male gorilla in your study is "as bold as brass," could be problematic. Scholars believe that the simile comes from the 18th century, and that it was used then to describe people that had been executed publicly after being found guilty of serious crimes; brass was deemed to be a cheap, vulgar metal, so the simile was used to suggest the executions had happened cheaply, and violently. This is almost certainly not what you want to say about your confident gorilla looking after his tribe in the beautiful misty mountains.

Thirdly, comparisons can be inappropriate for a whole variety of reasons. For example, they might be offensive in some way (too graphic, rude, racist, and/or sexist). Misleading comparisons can be "exploited to further social and political agendas" (Taylor and Dewsbury 2018, p. 3). Taylor and Dewsbury (2018, p. 3) note, for example that: “war on invasive species is another example that demonstrates how certain sociopolitical ideologies become entangled with scientific discourse."

Finally, mixed comparisons should be avoided at all costs. These include two or more unlinked descriptors in the same sentence, which makes the meaning very difficult to interpret. For example, it is difficult to understand the statement "time flies when the weight is lifted off your shoulders" because it contains two unrelated descriptors.

Video Resource

For a recap and for some extra information about using comparisons and descriptions effectively in your writing, please watch Grammar Squirrel’s video on the UBC Science Writing YouTube channel.

We then suggest you complete the quick quiz (below) to see whether you have mastered some of the important skills relating to using comparisons and descriptions.

Comparisons and Descriptions Quick Quiz

1) Are the following sentences examples of metaphors or similes (4 marks)?

i) Designing the Grammar Squirrel videos was no walk in the park.

ii) Having said that, it was a lot of fun, like working on a group project with enthusiastic colleagues.

iii) However, in terms of whether the videos are useful for students, the proof will be in the eating.

iv) And we won’t be served that dish until they have provided lots of feedback.

2) Rank the following comparisons in order from best to worst and briefly justify your decisions (4 marks). Hint: Think about the factors that make comparisons effective [and the things that you should avoid] when establishing an order.

A) Waiting around before an exam is like being on ‘Death Row’.

B) Receiving a good grade after revising hard is like earning a deserved promotion.

C) Being made to work in a group with unhelpful people is like being allocated the only broken seat in the movie theatre.

D) Getting an unfair appraisal from your tutor is like being picked last as the uncoordinated kid in gym class.

3) Which of the following two comparisons is the most effective (1 mark)? Why (1 mark)?

Random genetic mutations are very common but the chance that any one unique mutation will lead to a very favourable result is the same as…

A) Being elected as president of the United States after a successful career in politics

B) Stumbling upon buried treasure worth millions of dollars in your garden

Quick Quiz Answer Key

To check your answers and see whether you are now a wizard with comparisons and descriptions, access the answer key here.

Producing Effective Tables and Figures

Your goal in communicating science should always be to make the topic you are discussing as clear and accessible to your audience as possible. Although your writing is a critical element of this, you should not underestimate the importance of producing effective tables and figures.

Some people find it easier to understand and interpret results and/or the relative magnitude of any trends by looking at figures as opposed to reading explanations in text. Similarly, tables should be used to summarize the most important, specific results in a way that makes it easy for anyone to read and interpret these. Even if you provide similar information in words, it can help to include tables and figures as well. This is particularly true when you are communicating uncertainty and because virtually all data analyses are based on probability, there will almost always be an element of uncertainty in the results you present in lab reports or research-based journal articles.

On the other hand, some people struggle to interpret figures (and information contained in tables), which means there are some guidelines you should follow when producing these, to minimize the likelihood of confusing your readers. Remember that you should be producing a table or figure to help show a pattern and/or specific information in a way that is easier to interpret than if it was simply written. With this in mind, you should always try to:

1) Be clear and concise.

Someone without any background in your discipline (and who hasn’t even read any of the accompanying work) should be able to look at the figure or table and at least understand and interpret the pattern it shows (e.g. If you show your history-studying roommate a figure showing a pattern from biology data, they should be able to describe that to you without having read any of your report).

2) Avoid redundancy.

There is no point writing exactly what a figure or table shows in text if you then display exactly the same information in the related figure or table. There is no need to write about every detail in text when that specific detail can be found in accompanying tables and figures (e.g. write ‘As food resources decrease, hare birth rates also decrease (see Figure 1). For each 10% reduction in food resources, hare birth rates decreased by a similar margin (see Table 1 for specific amounts)’.

3) Give clear titles and legends that are concise and easy to read.

Try to describe the patterns shown in the figures or tables in the titles themselves, as this helps people interpret what the data show (e.g. if your figure shows the general pattern that hare birth rates decrease when food resources decrease, use a title like ‘Hare birth rates decrease when food resources decrease,’ rather than ‘The relationship between hare birth rates and food resources,’ which leaves the reader to interpret things (potentially inaccurately).

4) Be consistent.

Make sure you use the same abbreviations throughout, and if you have different treatment groups, make sure they appear in the same order from one table/figure to the next (e.g. don’t label data of hares from Nova Scotia as ‘NS’ in Figure 1, and then as ‘Nova Scotia hares’ in Figure 2).

Deciding Whether to Use Figures or Tables

Whether you use a figure or a table in any given situation should depend on what data you have to present and on what you want your reader(s) to focus on. This often comes down to whether you want your reader(s) to focus on a pattern, or a trend, or whether you want them to focus on very specific details (such as the absolute numbers generated by experiments).

To help further, Table 1 (below, note the clear title!) should allow you to match your data to the most appropriate option for displaying that data.

Table 1: When to use tables and figures based on the different types of data you may wish to present.

Use A Table When You Want To	Use A Figure When You Want To
Compare data values among related items or groups	Summarize trends and patterns
Display specific numerical values (or many data values)	Show these trends and patterns when these are more important than the specific numerical values
Highlight a Yes/No effect (or a Present/Absent effect)	Show explanations of procedures (methods) or responses (e.g. images)

Some Examples (Using Table 1 To Help Decide Whether To Use Figures or Tables)

A) You want to show the effect of a new drug that you are testing that has been designed to help people get to sleep. You have two groups of people (one given a placebo, and one given the drug), and measure the average time it takes for people in each group to get to sleep after going to bed.

Displaying these results in a figure (e.g., in a bar chart) would work best because the most important thing to display is the pattern (did people taking the drug sleep longer than those that took the placebo?) rather than the specific data values.

B) You also want to show the ages of all the people (n=27) in the group given the drug, and whether they got to sleep faster than before they took part in the study.

Displaying these results in a table best provides the specific numerical data (ages of all 27 participants) and whether they got to sleep faster after taking the drug (Yes/No).

Specific Tips for Producing Effective Figures

1) Simplicity is important. Try to show the main pattern or trend as simply as possible.

Hint: in many cases, bar charts or scatter plots are the best options, while pie charts are usually bad choices because research shows that people are not very good at comparing ‘slices of pie’; it can be very hard to judge between two groups/categories that are similar in terms of their pie slice, whereas the same comparison is made very easily in bar graph form.

To show the importance of this point, look at Figure 1 below and see how easy it is to tell which of the three groups (A, B and C) performed best in biology classes when these data are presented in a bar graph; conversely, see how difficult it is to judge when the same data are presented in a pie chart.

Figure 1: Bar Charts are Generally Easier to Interpret than Pie Charts. The same data are displayed in the two charts but while it is easy to rank the three groups in terms of performance in the bar chart, it is impossible in the pie chart.

2) Label all axes and legends. In Figure 1, note how it is clear what the bars and pie slices represent (Groups A, B and C), and how the data are measured (%).

3) Include white space. The use of white space is an important aspect of design, ensuring elements are properly spaced out to maximize visual communication.

Specific Tips for Producing Effective Tables

1) Divide categories logically. Think about the order in which data should be presented so that it tells the tale you would like your audience to read.

Hint: If treatment group number 6 did much better on an exam than the other groups, consider showing this group first in your table, and then ordering the remaining groups based on their performance rather than ordering them in sequence from 1 – 10).

To show the importance of this point, look at Table 2 below and notice how much more effective example A is when compared to example B, which shows the same data.

Table 2: Presenting Data in Rank Order in Tables Can Help to Show the Important Patterns As Well As The Specific Values.

Example A		Example B
Group	Performance (%)	Group	Performance (%)
6	78	1	64
4	69	2	63
7	65	3	55
1	64	4	69
2	63	5	51
10	59	6	78
8	57	7	65
3	55	8	57
5	51	9	50
9	50	10	59

2) Format your table so that it is easy to read. Make sure there is sufficient space between rows and columns because it is hard to distinguish between data or see patterns in an overly cluttered table.

3) Be as concise as possible. You would often show data in a table and not a figure because it is important to show the specific data values rather than the pattern in these data. But this does not mean it is OK to include a huge amount of raw data that is not imperative for the reader to see. Try to minimize the amount of data you actually present (e.g. if you measured the height of 197 university students, you don’t need to present a table with 197 rows; instead show the mean height, the range, and the standard deviation for males and females in your sample).

Producing Effective Tables and Figures Quick Quiz

1) Decide whether the following four situations are better suited to displaying data in a figure or a table (four marks):

a) You have sampled 35 different ponds in British Columbia and taken two measurements in each one (water temperature and O2 concentration (%)).

b) You measured the length (cm) and weight (g), and counted the number of colourful spots on 25 different salmon caught in one lake and want to show the variation in these fish.

c) You wanted to see which food type these salmon preferred when given a choice of worms, beetles, larvae, and bread, so you made all four types available to each salmon and recorded its first choice.

d) You noted whether each fish ate one of the food types within 30 seconds, whether it swam alone or in a shoal, and whether it was scared or curious when it heard a ‘plop’ in the water and want to display these data.

2) There are three main problems with the table below (Table x). Suggest what these are (3 marks) and then re-draw the table to improve on these problems (3 marks). Hint: Refer back to the Introduction, and the Specific Tips for Producing Effective Tables sections; you might get some inspiration from these.

Table X: Table Showing The Effects of Treatment Dose.

Treatment Dose (mg)	Weight Gain After 2 Weeks (g)	Was The Patient Happy? (Yes/No), Was The Patient Sleeping Well? (Yes/No)
100	370	Yes, No
150	430	No, No
300	765	No, Yes
200	480	No, Yes
500	1060	Yes, No
250	490	Yes, Yes
350	740	Yes, No
400	900	No, Yes

Quick Quiz Answer Key

To check your answers and see whether you are now a wizard at producing effective tables and figures, you should access the answer key here.

Different Formats

Academic research papers in STEM disciplines typically follow a well-defined I-M-R-A-D structure: Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion (Wu, 2011). Although not included in the IMRAD name, these papers often include a Conclusion.

Writing Journal Style Atricles

Writing Journal-Style Articles (and Lab Reports)

The I-M-R-A-D structure provides a framework for you to use in organizing content, and – more so than for any other format – you can write science journal-style articles and lab reports by focusing on the different sections as if they are discrete, mini reports.

Introduction

The Introduction typically provides everything your reader needs to know in order to understand the scope and purpose of your research. This section should provide:

• Context for your research (for example, the nature and scope of your topic)
• A summary of how relevant scholars have approached your research topic to date, and a description of how your research makes a contribution to the scholarly conversation
• An argument or hypothesis that relates to the scholarly conversation
• A brief explanation of your methodological approach and a justification for this approach (in other words, a brief discussion of how you gather your data and why this is an appropriate choice for your contribution)
• The main conclusions of your paper (or the “so what”)
• A roadmap, or a brief description of how the rest of your paper proceeds

Methods

The Methods section describes exactly what you did to gather the data that you use in your paper. This should expand on the brief methodology discussion in the introduction and provide readers with enough detail to, if necessary, reproduce your experiment, design, or method for obtaining data; it should also help readers to anticipate your results. The more specific, the better!  These details might include:

• An overview of the methodology at the beginning of the section
• A chronological description of what you did in the order you did it
• Descriptions of the materials used, the time taken, and the precise step-by-step process you followed
• An explanation of software used for statistical calculations (if necessary)
• Justifications for any choices or decisions made when designing your methods

Because the methods section describes what was done to gather data, there are two things to consider when writing. First, this section is usually written in the past tense (for example, we poured 250ml of distilled water into the 1000ml glass beaker). Second, this section should not be written as a set of instructions or commands but as descriptions of actions taken. This usually involves writing in the active voice (for example, we poured 250ml of distilled water into the 1000ml glass beaker), but some readers prefer the passive voice (for example, 250ml of distilled water was poured into the 1000ml beaker). It’s important to consider the audience when making this choice, so be sure to ask your instructor which they prefer.

Results

The Results section outlines the data gathered through the methods described above and explains what the data show. This usually involves a combination of tables and/or figures and prose. In other words, the results section gives your reader context for interpreting the data. The results section usually includes:

• A presentation of the data obtained through the means described in the methods section in the form of tables and/or figures
• Statements that summarize or explain what the data show
• Highlights of the most important results

Tables should be as succinct as possible, including only vital information (often summarized) and figures should be easy to interpret and be visually engaging. When adding your written explanation to accompany these visual aids, try to refer your readers to these in such a way that they provide an additional descriptive element, rather than simply telling people to look at them. This can be especially helpful for readers who find it hard to see patterns in data.

Discussion

The Discussion section explains why the results described in the previous section are meaningful in relation to previous scholarly work and the specific research question your paper explores. This section usually includes:

• Engagement with sources that are relevant to your work (you should compare and contrast your results to those of similar researchers)
• An explanation of the results that you found, and why these results are important and/or interesting

Some papers have separate Results and Discussion sections, while others combine them into one section, Results and Discussion. There are benefits to both. By presenting these as separate sections, you’re able to discuss all of your results before moving onto the implications. By presenting these as one section, you’re able to discuss specific results and move onto their significance before introducing another set of results.

Additional Tips: Tense Consistency

Try not to confuse your readers by mixing tenses in the same sentences. It can often be easy to do this when writing about science in this format, because you are talking about your experiment (which has already happened), and then linking it to theory, which is still evolving (happening now, and continuing to happen in the future).

To help, try to refer to your experiment in the past tense and then mention its link to other work in the present or future tenses – but do this in different sentences. The Methods and Results sections should be written entirely in the past tense because these things have already happened (you have conducted your experiment and you have gathered your results).

Writing Science Essays

The main aim when writing science essays is to synthesize information (mostly from primary sources in the literature) to support the position that you are taking; by this, we mean that you should clearly set out what you are going to say and how you are going to say it, before summarizing reliable sources to provide reasons and evidence to justify your position (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Essay Writing Framework

The Thesis Statement and Development Statements

The opening to your essay should have a strong, clear, and specific thesis statement and one or more development statements. The thesis statement is the claim of the argument presented in the essay. Without this, the reader would not know what to expect the rest of the essay to develop.

The development statement(s) are also crucial as they tell a reader which points will be used to support the argument, and also which order they will be presented in. If some of these points are not listed – or presented in a different order to the one stated – the reader might fail to understand your intent, or even discount the steps used to support the argument. This logical progression is vital to make sure your readers follow the same line of thought as you did.

You can write a development statement at the start of each new paragraph to form something of a signpost for your readers.

Handy hints:

• Although using a thesis statement and clear development statements to open your essay will mean you do so in an organized way, do not be afraid to split these up around other conversational sentences within your opening paragraph
• It is also fine to make personal, stylistic choices in the way that you present your development statements and link them to your thesis statement, to prevent your introduction from sounding too choppy and formulaic (e.g. you do not have to write: “I will support ‘a’ with ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’.” You can instead write: “’b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’ all suggest that ‘a’ is true in most environments...”).

Examples

Write: “Reintroducing wolves as additional predators into Yellowstone National Park has had a positive effect on plant biodiversity,” rather than: “Reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park has benefited lots of plants.”

Then, write: “Changes in the number of plant species and the relative dominance of each species demonstrates this, as does the biomass of experimental plots that were surveyed before and after the reintroduction,” rather than: “This essay will consider lots of different ways in which plant biodiversity has improved.”

The Main Body

In the main body of the essay, each of the points presented in the introduction should be presented and discussed. Examples and references (citations) are generally included in these paragraphs, but it is important to note that each paragraph should contain only one main idea with examples or references that justify it. This main idea should be presented in a topic sentence at or near the beginning of the paragraph; these topic sentences act as signposts throughout the main body of the essay (and can be mini development statements).

Try to pay an appropriate amount of attention to each point as you develop the essay; if you are going to write more about one point than others, try to make it clear why you are doing this because otherwise your reader might wonder why other points have received less comprehensive treatment.

The Summary

The summary/conclusion of the essay is your final opportunity to synthesize your argument and finish with a convincing bang. Here, you should review your main argument and, depending on the length of your essay, your supporting points. (A short essay will not require this.) Most importantly, you need to show your readers how these ideas fit together and why they are important – you are giving them closure and tying up any loose ends. No new information should be added to the essay at this point.

Additional Tips: Peer Review and Creating and Using Writing Outlines

Before you start to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), you should produce a writing outline. Although it can seem like wasted time, you will find that producing a detailed ‘roadmap’ will help you organize your writing much more efficiently. It will almost certainly save you time in the long run, and will also help you compartmentalize the different tasks associated with your essay, making them seem more manageable.

Once you have written your essay by using the outline, you can start to edit it and add in transitions to make each sentence flow smoothly into the next one. Although the content is the most important part, you should not underestimate the importance of transitional words and phrases in helping to develop a smooth, logical development.

Scientific communication often relies on a rigorous peer review process, in which scientists in similar fields read and then critique each other’s written work, before allowing the original author(s) to respond and alter their work to improve it.

Whether you are writing a journal-style article/lab report, an essay, or a blog post, it is always a valuable exercise to ask someone to review your work before submitting it; this is especially true for essays, because your aim is to produce a convincing, logical argument, but it can be hard to be objective about your own work and so what seems to make perfect sense to you might not be clear to someone else. Often, it is only when someone reads your work and provides you with feedback that you see some holes in your logical development.

With this in mind, we advise you to ask a peer tutor or friend to read your work before you submit it; if they follow your argument and seem convinced at the end, you have probably done a good job! Either way, their feedback as readers will be helpful for you as you revise and take your work to the next level.

Writing Journalistic Articles and Blog Posts

Writing Journalistic Articles and Blog Posts

Writing journalistic articles and blog posts requires very different skills than the other two formats we have considered because your target audience is very different. Think about the last science-based news article you read in the newspaper or online and consider how much more accessible it was than a journal article. Specific detail is important in journal-style articles; however, informal, even quirky, writing without too many details (like those found in a science journal article’s methods section) is more likely to capture the imagination of the casual reader.

There are many different ways of attempting to structure a journalistic article or blog post. One such approach is to try to include ‘The 5 W’s’ (the who, what, where, when, why) in the first two paragraphs of an article/post. Journalists sometimes refer to this as ‘the lead’. In the interest of creating an engaging opening to your story, you should aim to do this in no more than 50 words.

Example

Write: “Professor Gareth Bennett of Trinity College Dublin has found a way to make aircraft quieter while using less fuel, paving the way for a ‘greener’ future. Professor Bennett yesterday signed an agreement with leading aircraft manufacturers, which will see these planes in action by 2018.”

In the above example, readers have learned all about the important news in just 45 words. The story could now be developed with more specific information and quotations throughout the rest of the story by working down the ‘inverted pyramid’ of information (Figure 2). The key here is to add to the story by including content of increasing depth and decreasing breadth as you work your way into the news.

Figure 2: The inverted pyramid of information. Try to work down it by adding more specific detail as you go.

Including quotations from relevant sources will make the story more interesting and add a personal touch as well as credibility, but make sure these quotations say something useful. Try to ensure they add something to the story (they don’t just repeat information already paraphrased beforehand) and make sure they are interesting and easy to understand; there is no point including a quote from someone whose opinion is irrelevant or inappropriate, or if it fails to ignite an interest in the story. Be careful that you are not using a quote out of context and that you include any background information readers might need to understand it properly.

Examples

Write: “Professor Bennett said: “I’ve been flying high ever since we signed the contract; this has been the culmination of some serious work as it has been my dream for the last decade to reduce the carbon footprint we leave as frequent flyers,” rather than: “Professor Bennett said: “These new planes will make less noise and use less fuel.”’

Write: “London Heathrow Airport Traffic Controller, Stuart Richards, said ‘Noise pollution has been a growing concern for 20 years, so this truly is a ground-breaking development,’” rather than: “Toby Hamilton, who flies at least 20 times a year on business, said ‘I’m looking forward to getting on board as soon as the new planes are in operation.’”

Additional Tips: Visual and Audio Aids

News is no longer confined to newspapers. In addition to being more readily available through digital formats, news stories are spread quickly through social media. In such a fast-paced news environment, visual and audio aids can make the difference between an article appearing internationally on hundreds of different websites or failing to get ore than a few views in the local newspaper.

Try to think of any relevant images that you can add to your article/blog post, or share via Twitter for example, to try to boost readership. Even better, video and/or audio clips that can be embedded in a webpage and shared via social media will likely create more interest as well (many people will watch a three-minute news round-up on their smartphones on the commute to work). Remember to credit any image, audio or video, just as you would cite a source used in an essay or lab report.

Try also to choose a quirky, snappy title for any images you use; people are more likely to read the caption and the article if the visual element takes their eye and the caption grabs their attention, than if it sends them to sleep before they’ve begun to read it.

Example

Write: “Trinity Engineer Flying High,” rather than: “Professor Bennett Makes Aeroplane Breakthrough.”