A good scientific article is like an organism, not a molecule

If you were sick, would you go to a biochemist or a doctor? I would go to a doctor, because in addition to biochemistry, she would have studied physiology, histology, anatomy, pathology, and many other subjects. A doctor understands how the body works at both the micro- and macro-scales.

What does this have to do with writing? Well, the problem is that when treating a "sick" piece of writing that needs to be improved, both students and teachers of scientific English often act like biochemists instead of doctors. They focus only on the micro-scale aspects of the writing such as whether a noun should be preceded by "a" or "the". This could be compared to treating a patient with a severe spinal deformity by giving him calcium supplements, then smiling and wishing him luck as you wave goodbye. Although the calcium supplements may indeed help the bones in his spine to become stronger, and weak bones may be part of his problems, he probably needs surgery and physical therapy to be able to stand up straight and breath easily. In the same way, grammar and vocabulary are important, but not enough for good writing. Macro-scale aspects, such as the way sentences, paragraphs and sections are organized and connected in good English writing, are also necessary to tell the story of your research.

Joshua Schimel, who has edited several scientific journals including Soil Biology & Biochemistry, uses a similar metaphor (2012, 104) in which he compares words to atoms, sentences to molecules, and paragraphs to cells. Just as cells are "the fundamental unit of life", a good paragraph "tells a complete short story with a coherent structure, a story that fits into and contributes to the larger work." Later (2012, 194), referring to the macro-scale aspects of an article as "story" and the micro-scale aspects as "language", he writes the following: "…when I get a paper where the story is strong but the language weak, I'll send it back to get the language fixed before sending it out for review. If I get a paper where the story is weak, I'll just reject it."

What Schimel does not mention, and may not realize, is that sometimes English-language learners write their papers with a structure that is appropriate for their own language and culture, but that does not work in English. For example, they may not know how to use English to connect their ideas, so that the paper lacks coherence. Or, in their culture, paragraphs may have different structures; many Polish scientists write English-language paragraphs that are too long because they tell more than one complete short story, and they put the most important sentences in the middle of the paragraph, whereas in English the important sentences should go at the beginning or the end.

So, how can you strengthen the story in your English-language paper? If you are Polish, make sure your paragraphs are short and focused, and that they have topic sentences. Check that you have answered key questions for the readers. And to do all these things better, more easily, and quicker, you should write an outline before you start each section of your article.

During the next few weeks, we will look at how to make and use an outline.

REFERENCE
Schimel, Joshua. Writing science: how to write papers that get cited and proposals that get funded. Oxford University Press, 2012.