The "art" of scientific writing in English (for a non native)

S. Téletchéa — 2023-08-17T11:58:15Z

A simple how-to of frequent errors made while writing an article in English (American)

Of course, since I'm French, this article will be far from being complete, so do not hesitate to correct me !

Rule 1 - Define the topic of your research publication

http://abacus.bates.edu/ ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWstrategy.html

Rule 2 - Start your document with well-defined sections

http://geog.arizona.edu/ comrie/geog230/report.htm
http://classweb.gmu.edu/biologyresources/writingguide/ScientificPaper.htm
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/ smaloy/MicrobialGenetics/topics/scientific-writing.pdf

Checklist of words you should pay attention to while writing

http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/checklist.php

Rule 3 - The order of words in a sentence is important

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/597/01/

Rule 4 - Be concise when you write

Most often the number of words allowed in a paper is limited (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/ug/research/paper.html). Here is a short list of replacements :

Words to replace for a better understanding or concision of your sentences
Instead of ...	Write
possess	have
sufficient	enough
utilize	use
demonstrate	show
assistance	help
terminate	end
prior to	before
due to the fact that	because
in a considerable number of cases	often
the vast majority of	most
during that time	when
in close proximity to	near
it has long been known that	I'm too lazy to look up the reference

Words ending in -or (American) -our (British) color / colour, humor / humour, flavor / flavour, ...
Words ending in -ize (American) -ise (British) recognize / recognise, patronize / patronise, ...

modeller / modelling in American, modeler / modelling in English

http://www.pe2000.com/canute_spelling.htm
http://www2.gsu.edu/ wwwesl/egw/jones/differences.htm

Idiomatic expressions / proverbs

http://www.e-frenchtranslation.com/proverbs.htm
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=475327
http://www.anglaisfacile.com/free/proverbes-2.php
http://www.proz.com/glossary-translations/english-to-french-translations/152
http://www.languagerealm.com/french/frenchidioms.php

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The "art" of scientific writing in English (for a non native)

Table of contents

Rule 1 - Define the topic of your research publication

Rule 2 - Start your document with well-defined sections

Rule 3 - The order of words in a sentence is important

Rule 4 - Be concise when you write

Tips

Some remarks from teachers

Pay attention to americanism

Idiomatic expressions / proverbs