Structuring your writing for Science & Engineering

Master key writing strategies to enhance clarity and coherence in your science and engineering work.

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Elevate your scientific writing by cohesively linking your ideas.

Complex concepts found in Science and Engineering become easy to understand when your writing structure is coherent.

Think of scientific writing as a chain of connections between theoretical knowledge, research and ideas. If you don’t show these connections, you may confuse your reader.

How can I create links between ideas?

You can highlight the relationships between your ideas on each level of your text:

Between clauses or sentences
- Accurate analysis could not be achieved because the samples were contaminated.
Between stages of the text
- In Chapter 1, a brief introduction of the various analysis tools such as dissipativity, passivity theories and network topology has shown the attractiveness of the proposed method. This chapter studies these methods in greater detail and the different research work associated with them.
Between paragraphs
- Several studies have considered the therapeutic use of bacteriophage to reduce Campylobacter colonisation of broiler chickens… Although significant research specific to this area has been conducted in developing countries, a lack of knowledge in the Australian poultry industry still exists.

Methods to link your ideas

Rewording

When your write for science and engineering, make sure that each paragraph aims to develop one main idea. This will ensure your paragraphs hold together, especially in sections with a broad focus, such as your Abstract and your Introduction.

Repeat key information, using slightly different forms of your content words. This will help you connect and elaborate on your ideas, and support your reader with understanding your key points.

Example

Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms have significantly compromised antibiotic treatment. A large proportion of resistance in Gram-negative bacteria can be attributed to…

Using pronouns

In your writing, you'll often need to refer to key terms very frequently. However, if you keep using the same words every time, your writing will sound redundant.

Instead, use pronouns to keep your text concise while building up complex ideas. Pronouns allow you to refer back to previously mentioned ideas without restating them, helping your readers to follow your argument without getting overwhelmed.

Example

(Key term →) Subcritical water can be used as a fluid for effective drug delivery device processing. (Pronoun →) It has recently been found to be an effective eluent… (Pronoun →) This has great potential for the delivery of drugs particularly for cancer patients.
To make information clear to your reader, try to stick to the following information structure:

Old (or known) information is placed at the beginning of the sentence

New (or unknown) information is placed at the end of the sentence.

Example

(New →) Peanut allergy is one of the most severe allergies because of its life-threatening character. (Old →) A trace of peanuts (New →) can trigger an abnormal immunological reaction ranging from nausea to anaphylactic shock. (Old →) Anaphylaxis reaction (New →) is a severe response for hypersensitive individuals.
Transition words hold your writing together, like glue. They show the relationships between ideas and information, and can work at the sentence, paragraph or section level.

Use transition words to help show your reader the connections between ideas. Transition words include words and phrases such as:

moreover

furthermore

as a result

however.

Examples

Due to the importance of groundwater as a resource its protection from contamination is essential… In the past, … groundwater has been contaminated due to poor planning, deliberate actions and accidents. As a result, there is presently a need for reliable and efficient remediation technologies (Dasey, 1996, p. 1).

Antibiotic resistance poses a serious problem worldwide and leads to difficulties in implementing effective treatment of bacterial infections. Furthermore, infections caused by resistant pathogens are associated with higher rates of morbidity and mortality (Jones, 2004, p. 10).

Although Ohtsuka et al. were able to achieve high efficiency for photolithographic DSBC structures that have back surface field (BSF) made from BN solid sources, the p+ region was only a small area of the whole solar cell structure. Therefore the bulk minority carrier lifetime degradation was greatly reduced by limiting the diffusion to a small area (Chen, 2003, p. 2-15).