Science Research Writing - Methodology

Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English by (Glasman-Deal, 2009) takes all the credit for images and examples.

Structure

Information Flow

A Model for Methodology

A useful writing model can be transferred, but don’t expect a perfect model.

All models are wrong, but some are useful. The famous quote about statistical models by George E.P. Box also applies to writing models.

Four Basic Components

Model Components
Part I
Provide a general introduction/overview of the materials/methods
Restate the purpose of the work
Give the source of materials/equipment used
Supply essential background information
Part II
Provide specific and precise details about materials and methods
Justify choices made
Indicate that appropriate care was taken
Part III
Relate materials/methods to other studies
Part IV
Indicate where problems occurred

Train of Thoughts

In this section, the message that you’d like to send to your readers is:

This is exactly what I did, I did it carefully and I had good reasons for doing it in this way.

A good writing model for the Methodology/Experiments section should answer the following questions:

• How do writers normally start the Methodology/Experiments?
• What type of information should it contain, and in what order?
• How do writers normally end the Methodology/Experiments?

Miscellaneous

• In some cases, writers begin immediately with a description of the procedure or the materials. This is appropriate where the research focus is very narrow and all those who are likely to read it are carrying out similar research.

• Your aim is to make sure that your readers accept the conclusions at the end of the paper. You have to make sure your readers accept the methodology before they accept your results. Therefore, this section also has a strong persuasive and communicative element. You need to communicate not only This is exactly what I did/used but also I had good reasons for those decisions. Try to use words that can communicate reliability and answer possible criticism or doubts about your choices.

• If you’re not certain that all readers are familiar with the precise details of your methodology, it is better to give slightly too much information than too little. You should include every specification and detail for other researchers to be able to reproduce your work.

• It is sometimes appropriate/necessary to mention the effects of the procedures you used. However, it is not a good idea to discuss them or comment at this stage. It’s common to provide further details about the methodology in the Results section.

  …; the resulting precipitate can be washed and stored easily.

• Sometimes you do need to mention results in this section, but only if the preliminary results were used to modify or develop the design of the main experiments/simulations.

• Write up the research and acknowledge the problems or difficulties you encountered. Mention problems in this section to indicate that you are aware of them, which is far more professional than not mentioning them. It’s not only considered acceptable to mention them in this section, it’s much better to do it here rather than wait until the end. It isn’t considered appropriate to mention limitations or imperfections for the first time when you are discussing suggestions for future work in the Discussion/Conclusion. Use vocabulary that

  • minimizes the problem
  • minimizes your responsibility
  • maximizes the good aspects
  • suggests a solution

Grammar and Writing Skills

Passive and Tense Pairs

• Check with the Guide for Authors in your target journal to decide whether this part should be written in the active or passive form.

• Using the active is not usually appropriate for a Ph.D. thesis because it’s not normally written up in the first person singular.

In most cases, the procedure used is described in the passive, either in the Present Simple Passive or in the Past Simple Passive. In formal academic writing, always use the agentless passive.

A common need is to distinguish between standard procedures and methods used in the present research. It’s conventional to use the agentless passive for both, and the only way to separate them is the correct tense. Therefore, it’s clearer to use the Present Simple passive for standard procedures and the Past Simple passive for methods used in the present research whenever possible (remember to check your target journal first).

Make sure the readers can identify the contributions of the present work!

There are several ways to make sure that the previously mentioned differences are clear and easy to identify:

• Move to the active.
• Mark it with words, such as In (this/our/their) (procedure/study/experiment/model).
• Use a dummy subject, such as This study/experiment/model.
• When a reference is needed for standard procedures, use phrases such as as in.

The Use of A and The

General Rules

1. Singular countable nouns need a determiner.
2. Use The if/when you and your readers both know which thing/person you mean.
3. Use The if there is only one possible referent.
4. Use A/An if it doesn’t matter/you or your readers don’t know which thing/person you are referring to.

Train of Thoughts

Rule 1

No. 1 - A determiner is a word like the, a/an, my, this one, some, etc.

Deciding which nouns are countable nouns and which aren’t isn’t as easy as it looks. Many nouns that are often considered uncountable can actually be used countably (Here is a list of such nouns). When using a word of this kind, stop and think if it’s being used to mean something in general (uncountable) or something particular (countable).

Rule 2

Use a the first time you talk about something, and use the when referring to it again.

I had a cheese sandwich and an apple for lunch. The sandwich was fine but the apple had a worm in it.

No. 2 - Use The if/when you and your readers both know which thing/person you mean.

In the following examples, the context made both the speaker and listener know about the thing they are talking about.

• I arrived at Heathrow Airport but the check-in was closed.
• I bought a new computer but the keyboard was faulty.
• He lit a match but the flame went out.
• Did she get the job? (the job we both know she wanted)
• I’ll meet you in the library later. (the library we normally use)

Rule 3

No. 3 - Use The if there is only one possible referent.

• We removed the softest layer of the membrane.
• Cairo is the capital of Egypt.
• The opening was located in the center of each mesh.
• Government policy is committed to protecting the environment.
• The sun’s altitude is used to determine latitude.

Rule 4

No. 4 - Use A/An if it doesn’t matter/you or your readers don’t know which thing/person you are referring to.

• A 35 ml brown glass bottle was used to store the liquid. (It doesn’t matter which 35 ml brown glass bottle was used.)
• The subject then spoke to an interviewer. (It doesn’t matter which interviewer/I know which one but you don’t.)
• It works on the same principle as a combustion engine. (It doesn’t matter which combustion engine.)

Miscellaneous

The choice of a/the/\(\varnothing\) sometimes changes the meaning of the sentence.

• This effect may hide a connection between the two. (There may possibly be a connection.)
• This effect may hide the connection between the two. (There is definitely a connection.)

• The nodes should be attached to \(\varnothing\) two adjacent receptor sites. (There are many receptor sites and any two adjacent ones will do.)
• The nodes should be attached to the two adjacent receptor sites. (There are only two receptor sites.)

They can all be used to express a general truth.

• The electroencephalograph is a machine for measuring brain waves.
• An electroencephalograph is a machine for measuring brain waves.
• Electroencephalographs are machines for measuring brain waves.

A is used before consonant sounds, while an is used before vowel sounds.

Adverbs and Adverb Location

A proofreader or editor will notice an obvious grammatical error and correct it, but if the sentence is written in grammatically correct English the error is not visible to proofreaders and editors. Here are some common hidden errors:

• the use of a and the
• whether or not to use a comma before the word which in relative clauses
• adverb location errors

Adverbs needing prepositions can be ambiguous.

Reading with one eye. (It can either mean using one eye or having one eye.)

Be careful where you put your adverb, and be especially careful if you are using more than one adverb in a sentence.

The patient was discharged from the hospital after being shot in the back with a 9 mm gun. (Did the doctors shoot her?) He gave a lecture about liver cancer at the hospital last January. (Did the lecture refer to cancer cases occurring in January or did the lecture itself occur in January?)

Consider putting adverbs that relate to the whole sentence at the front of the sentence.

Last January, he gave a lecture about liver cancer at the hospital.

If you are still left with ambiguous adverb clusters, break the sentence into units, each with its own adverb.

Last January, he gave a lecture at the hospital; his subject was liver cancer.

Vocabulary

General Introduction and Source of Information

General Verbs	Specify Procedures 1	Specify Procedures 2
attempt	all	(be) commercially available
consider	both	(be) acquired
conduct	each	(be) carried out
determine	many	(be) chosen
investigate	most	(be) conducted
report	majority	(be) collected
suggest		(be) devised
verify	tests	(be) found
…	samples	(be) generated
Introduction Vocabulary	trials	(be) modified
	experiments	(be) obtained
	chemicals	(be) performed
	models	(be) provided
	instruments	(be) purchased
	materials	(be) supplied
		(be) investigated

*There is also a vocabulary list for each research filed which should be built by yourself.

Essential Background Information

Col 1	Col 2	Col 3
above	inner/outer	occupies
adjacent	intersect	on both sides
at the front/back	(be) aligned	on each side
below	(be) attached	on either side
bisect	(be) connected	on the front/back
border	(be) coupled	on the right/left
boundary	(be) covered with/by	on top
circular	(be) embedded	opposite
conical	(be) encased	out of range
converge	(be) fastened	over
downstream	(be) fitted	parallel (to/with)
edge	(be) fixed	perpendicular
end	(be) joined	rectangular
equally spaced	(be) located	side
equidistant	(be) mounted	tip
extends	(be) placed	to the right/left
facing	(be) positioned	under
far side/end	(be) situated	underneath
higher/lower	(be) surrounded	upper/lower
horizontal	lateral	upstream
in front	margin	vertical
in the front/back	near side/end	within range

Specific and Precise Details

Col 1	Col 2	Col 3
was adapted	was divided	was operated
was added	was eliminated	was optimised
was adjusted	was employed	was plotted
was adopted	was estimated	was positioned
was applied	was exposed	was prepared
was arranged	was extracted	was quantifi ed
was assembled	was fi ltered	was recorded
was assumed	was formulated	was regulated
was attached	was generated	was removed
was calculated	was immersed	was repeated
was calibrated	was included	was restricted
was carried out	was incorporated	was retained
was characterised	was inhibited	was sampled
was collected	was inserted	was scored
was combined	was installed	was selected
was computed	was inverted	was separated
was consolidated	was isolated	was simulated
was constructed	was located	was stabilised
was controlled	was maintained	was substituted
was converted	was maximised	was tracked
was created	was measured	was transferred
was derived	was minimized	was treated
was designed	was modified	was utilised
was discarded	was normalized	was varied
was distributed	was obtained

Justify Choices Made

Col 1	Col 2
because	provide a way of
by doing …, we were able to	selected on the basis of…
chosen for	so
chosen to	so as to
for the purpose of	so/such that
for the sake of	thereby
in an attempt to	therefore
in order to	thus
it was possible to	to
off er a means of	to take advantage of
one way to avoid…	which/this allows/allowed etc.
our aim was to	with the intention of

Infinitive	-ing Form	Noun
achieve	achieving	achievement
allow	allowing	\(\varnothing\)
assess	assessing	assessment
avoid	avoiding	avoidance
compensate for	compensating for	compensation for
confi rm	confi rming	confi rmation
determine	determining	determination
enable	enabling	\(\varnothing\)
enhance	enhancing	enhancement
ensure	ensuring	\(\varnothing\)
establish	establishing	establishment
facilitate	facilitating	facilitation
guarantee	guaranteeing	guarantee
identify	identifying	identifi cation
improve	improving	improvement
include	including	inclusion
increase	increasing	increase
limit	limiting	limitation
minimise	minimising	\(\varnothing\)
obtain	obtaining	\(\varnothing\)
overcome	overcoming	\(\varnothing\)
permit	permitting	\(\varnothing\)
prevent	preventing	prevention
provide	providing	provision
reduce	reducing	reduction
remove	removing	removal
validate	validating	validation

Indicate Appropriate Care Was Taken

Col 1	Col 2	Col 3	Col 4
accurately	every/each	immediately	rigorously
always	exactly	independently	separately
appropriately	entirely	individually	smoothly
at least	firmly	never	successfully
both/all	frequently	only	suitably
carefully	freshly	precisely	tightly
completely	fully	randomly	thoroughly
constantly	gently	rapidly	uniformly
correctly	good	reliably	vigorously
directly	identical	repeatedly	well

Related Materials/Methods

Exactly the same

Col 1	Col 2	Col 3
according to	as reported by/in	given by/in
as described by/in*	as reported previously	identical to
as explained by/in	as suggested by/in	in accordance with
as in	can be found in	the same as that of/in
as proposed by/in	details are given in	using the method of/in

Similar

Col 1	Col 2	Col 3
a (modified) version of	(very) similar	(to) adapt
adapted from	almost the same	(to) adjust
based in part/partly on	essentially the same	(to) alter
based on	largely the same	(to) change
essentially identical	practically the same	(to) modify
in line with	virtually the same	(to) refi ne
in principle	with some adjustments	(to) revise
in essence	with some alterations	(to) vary
more or less identical	with some changes
slightly modified	with some modifications

*For words in Col 3, it may NOT be necessary to state the differences.

Significantly Different

Col 1	Col 2	Col 3
a novel step was …	although in many ways similar	(to) adapt
adapted from	although in some ways similar	(to) adjust
based on	although in essence similar	(to) alter
in line with	with the following	(to) change
loosely based on	modifi cations/changes:	(to) refine
partially based on		(to) revise
partly based on		(to) vary
		(to) modify

*For words in Col 3, it is necessary to state the differences.

Indicate Problems

Minimize Problem	Minimize Responsibility	Maximize Good Aspects
did not align precisely	limited by	acceptable
only approximate	inevitably	fairly well
it is recognized that	necessarily	quite good
less than ideal	impractical	reasonably robust
not perfect	as far as possible	however
not identical	(it was) hard to	nevertheless
slightly problematic	(it was) difficult to
rather time-consuming	unavoidable	Talk about Solutions
minor deficit	impossible	future work should …
slightly disappointing	not possible	future work will …
negligible		currently in progress
unimportant		currently underway
immaterial
a preliminary attempt
not significant

Countably Used Uncountable Nouns

Col 1	Col 2	Col 3	Col 4	Col 5
absence	concern	failure	organization	strength
advice	death	fashion	paper	technology
age	democracy	fear	philosophy	time
agriculture	depression	fire	policy	trade
analysis	design	food	power	treatment
art	duty	growth	pressure	trouble
atmosphere	economy	heat	purity	truth
beauty	education	history	reality	velocity
behaviour	electricity	industry	salt	vision
calculation	energy	life	sand	waste
cancer	environment	light	science	water
capacity	existence	loss	silence	wind
childhood	experience	oil	space

Reference

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1. Glasman-Deal, H. (2009). Science research writing for non-native speakers of English. World Scientific.