The Key To Scientific Writing In English: Paragraphs with a point

"The beginning (often just the first sentence) should state clearly the subject of the paragraph...The first sentence...is the key."
–Robert A. Day, Scientific English: A guide for scientists and other professionals, 2 ed. (Oryx Press, 1995)

You're a scientist. You've studied English and you can read scientific papers in English. You understand the speakers at international conferences and enjoy talking with your colleagues from other countries. But your papers are returned with comments like, "Please improve the English."

I know scientists who have been asked to improve the English in their papers even after they have paid for professional translation. Some have even had their paper checked by a native-speaker or a professional proofreading service. But then their paper was returned with a comment like this: "Please have this paper checked by a native speaker or a professional proofreading service." When I've looked at their papers, I've seen that the problem wasn't grammar or vocabulary. The problem was organization.

Learning how to organize their paragraphs with good English-language style has helped my students and editing clients more than anything else. Their reviewers' comments have become more positive – some reviewers have even thanked them for writing their papers so clearly. I've been able to understand their papers more easily, which makes it easier to find and correct the little errors in their grammar and vocabulary. And my students have also noticed the change in their own writing – "Yes! It's clearer now," is a typical comment that I hear when students see the change in their writing.

There are usually just two types of paragraphs in good English-language science and technical writing: 

1. Most paragraphs begin with the main or most important idea, then add details. The main idea of the paragraph is usually clearly written in the first sentence. If this idea is complicated, sometimes two or even three sentences are necessary. This structure often works well in the results section: give an overview of a result, then then details. For example, start by writing that predictions from modeling agreed well with experimental observations, then give details about how well they agreed. 
2. Some paragraphs begin with an introduction to the main idea, add details, and build to a conclusion at the end. This often works well in the discussion section of a paper: Start with one of your results. Discuss the result, perhaps by comparing your result with results from similar studies. End with a conclusion, perhaps by suggesting why your results differ from those of other studies.

There are three reasons why this style of organizing paragraphs works so well. First, when you put the main or most important idea at the beginning, readers instantly know what the paragraph is about. This helps them to clearly understand the relationships between all the ideas that you are presenting. This clarity will help if you or your readers have any problems with the English in the paragraph.

The second reason why this style works well is because readers expect important information to be in certain places. In English, these places are the beginning and the end of paragraphs and sections. Some of my readers might be wondering why their high school teachers taught them to organize paragraphs in a different way, or didn't teach them that paragraphs need organization. This is because their native languages organize texts in a different way. This kind of organization is a part of each language, just like grammar and vocabulary. In fact, organization is so important that the study of how different languages organize texts is a part of discourse analysis, which is a sub-field of linguistics. So don't make the mistake of assuming that texts are organized the same way in every language. If you do, you risk confusing your readers. Many papers that I've read were confusing because the writer put unimportant details in places where we expect important ideas to be in English.

The third reason why this style works well is because your readers can quickly find the information they are looking for. The beginning of each paragraph tells what it is about, so it is easy for the readers to find what they want. And if you make things easy for your readers, you increase your chances of getting another citation.

Starting with next Sunday's post, we'll look at some examples of paragraphs and articles from the scientific literature, and have some different exercises that will help you with paragraph organization. Until then, here's an exercise to test your understanding of this lesson:

EXERCISE: Which paragraphs in this post are like the first type of paragraph above? Which are like the second? Keep reading to find the answers.


Answers:
Paragraph 1 – type 2
Paragraph 2 – type 2
Paragraph 3 – type 1
The  section with the bullet points numbered 1 and 2 consists of two type-1 paragraphs, or can be read as one big type-1 paragraph.
Paragraph 4 – type 1 (after an introductory sentence, the main point is in the second sentence)
Paragraph 5 – type 2, (the first two sentences introduce the main point, the last makes a conclusion about it)
Paragraph 6 – type 2
Paragraph 7 – type 1 (hard to classify, but "next Sunday's post" implies the topic of the paragraph: what happens next)

"Grade school teaches that a paragraph has a topic sentence that makes a point, which the rest of the paragraph develops. This … model … works much of the time and is a good starting point." 

– Joshua Schimel, Writing Science: How to write papers that get cited and proposals that get funded (OUP, 2011)

"A coherent paragraph will usually have a single sentence that clearly articulates its point…a coherent paragraph will typically locate that point sentence in one of two places [the beginning or the end]."
   

–Joseph M. Williams, Style: Toward clarity and grace (University of Chicago Press, 1995)