Building English Language Skills for Scientific Writing
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Date
2017
Authors
Halvorsen, Andy
Heitman, Char
Pashby, Patricia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The following four modules are designed to help you improve your scientific writing skills in
English. The modules cover a range of foundational skills such as sentence and paragraph
structure as well as offer broader information on academic style, conciseness, vocabulary
choices, quoting, paraphrasing, and providing accurate and complete citation information.
This material was developed in coordination with the Introduction to Scientific Writing MOOC
offered through the American English Institute at the University of Oregon during Winter 2017. If
you participated in this MOOC, you will recognize the materials as a collection of the lessons
and applied discussion activities conveniently bundled into one document. If you did not
participate in the MOOC, the modules can still be beneficial to you as an introduction to
fundamental knowledge about scientific and academic writing.
Throughout our modules, we have used excerpts of authentic scientific articles in many of the
examples. We think these authentic samples are important because they represent real
scientific writing. If you find the language in these examples challenging, please don’t worry.
They are included only to help you see real scientific writing in action, and you certainly don’t
need to understand every word. Instead, focus on understanding the concepts being introduced
rather than the meaning of the text itself.
Before you begin working with this booklet, you are encouraged to locate scientific articles from
your specific field to use as models. Then as you work through the materials, look through your
model articles to see how each language or writing point is approached in your particular field.
Note whether the concepts covered in the modules seem to be true in writing from your field as
well. Comparing the examples in the lessons and the writing in your field, what similarities and
differences can you find?
Description
34 pages
Keywords
Introduction to Scientific Writing MOOC, American English Institute, University of Oregon, Academic writing, Grammar lessons