Scientific Writing Archives

Feb, 2021

Five steps to write a paper: Beginners guide

Don’t you think writing a paper takes a lot of your time? It becomes more tedious if you are a beginner. That stands true because you might not know what to write and in which order. Well, we just want to tell you that you are not alone in this struggle. In this blog, we will be talking about some basic steps that can help you write a paper with great ease.

We have come across some of the clients who had told us about their struggles about writing the paper when told by the advisor. Writing a paper for a newbie means spending weeks on research, then writing and tweaking the work to get it in perfect shape. This may not still lead your work to the final stage, there still be alterations needed across multiple paragraphs, headings, conclusion, and more. The reality behind academicians facing issues in writing paper is that no one teaches them the right and easy way to do it. This often keeps most researchers in dark to figure out how to write a great paper that can be easily published in a high-impact journal.

Let us help you understand this process in detail. To start with, you need a well-defined process that allows you to write papers as per your need. Here are some basic five steps we think can be helpful to kick-start your paper writing experience.

Step 1: Defining the central message

When writing a paper, most people do the mistake of starting with an introduction without much clarity. This often leads to multiple edits at the end. To start, we suggest understanding what your paper wants to tell your audience. You must need to define a central idea/message around which the entire paper will be focused. For this, one must begin by visiting their research data. Pull out all data and inferences of your research. Find out what theory or argument you want to put forth. Create a rough storyboard with all the ideas, figures, and tables.

Step 2: Structuring your text

Once you know the central message, it is important to share it in a way where readers can easily understand. Many researchers do the mistake of haphazardly representing their ideas, which often reduces the interest of readers leading to low citations. This is where structuring the text comes into the picture, whenever thinking of writing a paper. You need to write your research content in an easy flowing manner. This helps readers to engage more and make the research content interesting and easy to comprehend. For this, you must plan your content in every section beforehand. Chart out how every section should start and end. We have seen many students starting every new section without raising an argument or question in the previous section. This is very important to maintain the flow of text, not only within a particular section but also across various sections. Thus, aligning the overall flow of the research paper.

Step 3: Catching the reader’s attention

The most important part of writing a paper is ‘Introduction’, as it decides the fate of your paper. Why so? Because the introduction is the first thing anyone will read and if you are not able to comprehend your central message of the paper here then your efforts may end in vain. For beginners, we suggest you, write the introduction at last. The introduction of a paper should be started in a way that catches the reader’s attention. You can start by highlighting the problem, stating some stats, taking events of history (relatable to the topic of research) at a glance, and more. An introduction is the section of your research paper where most of the storytelling happens. However, you have to make sure that the right facts and the central message is comprehended efficiently.

Step 4: Figures and the table

Do you know most of the people before actually reading the paper, just scroll through it to see the figures and table! This is why papers with good figures and tables get good citations. One of the important reasons for having figures and tables in your paper is that it adds a visual expect to it. The reader can comprehend the message briefly from the figures and tables. This often catches the interest of the reader at first glance, making them read the entire paper. So, focus on your figures and tables.

Step 5: Summary is the key

Well, most of the important parts of your paper are written. Now it’s time to summarise the entire idea with a take-away message. Writing a summary won’t take much of your efforts as you have already completed the tedious part. In this section, you must focus on your central message/argument and share the prospects of the research work. This is crucial because people will be keen on looking for further developments in your field of research.

These are the most basic five steps you can follow to kick start your research paper writing journey. However, if you still face any difficulty, feel free to connect with our team. We have a team of expert scientific writers helping academicians and corporates to get their finest work out in the high impact factor journal. We will be happy to assist you in writing a paper for you.

Sep, 2020

Isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection from disease in a small animal model

For the past few months, there has been a global spread and toll of COVID-19. So far, humanity has been able to eradicate only one other human infectious disease- smallpox. The novel infectious disease- COVID-19 has had its devastating share of lives globally and currently there is no cure or licensed vaccine.

Many studies lately have been discussing in-depth about neutralizing antibodies. They represent therapeutic and prophylactic options that could help guide potential vaccine designs. Neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) in terms of another respiratory virus- respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is widely used clinically, usually to protect vulnerable infants prophylactically. Generally, nAbs with good potency also known as super antibodies can supersize antiviral therapeutic efficiency. Along with the help of bioengineering, the nAbs half-life can be prolonged bringing down the cost considerably.

In this study, the authors try to present potent nAbs to the COVID-19 virus and further demonstrate their efficacy in-vivo using small animal models. The researchers of this paper, isolated and characterized the required monoclonal antibodies from recovering convalescent donors and developed neutralizing assays to investigate the antibody responses. In parallel, the researchers also developed both live attenuated and pseudovirus neutralization assays using HeLa- ACE2 (Angiotensin-converting enzyme) cell line. The collected convalescent plasma was evaluated against COVID-19 by using 8 donors. The antigen-specific B cells were sorted and corresponding genes were identified and cloned to enable antibody expression and characterization. The promising monoclonal antibodies were progressed for further testing in-vivo using a small animal model.

The study further isolated the potent neutralizing antibodies to two epitopes- the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the non RBD- Spike (S) protein. The data showed that the passive transfer of neutralizing antibodies provides distinct protection against the novel- COVID-19 virus as seen in Syrian hamsters. The animal model throughout the infection maintained the same weight and showed low lung abnormalities. Nevertheless, as for any animal model, there were a few limitations, including the difference in receptor cells between the hamster and humans.

The results from the study suggest a focus on the RBD and a string neutralizing antibody responses were seen by immunizing mice with a multivalent RBD. The few weak preponderances of neutralizing antibody to S protein may be due to the result of the study using recombinant S protein. In conclusion, the data from the study potentially open up to the idea of the very rapid generation of neutralizing antibodies to a newly emerged novel virus. The antibodies can open up to the possibilities of finding a clinical application and will aid in vaccine manufacturing or design.

Jun, 2020

Why does your scientific writing need to be clear and precise?

Scientific writing is not just something used to talk about science, but a form of technical writing that experts and scientists use to explain and communicate their research to the world. A good piece of scientific writing should maintain the same clarity and precision of that used in research work. In communication between the author and the audience, scientific writing demands precision- a precise use of words and phrases, and most important clarity.

All the above three criteria are crucial because of the highly technical terms and phrases used by the author to represent his/her work especially to an audience with very less or no knowledge on the subject. It must be acknowledged that sometimes the audience might be from a different discipline and may not be a native speaker of the language used in the writing.

Due to the vast number of audiences which a journal attracts, it is important to keep the work as precise as possible which helps in preventing any mistranslations and misunderstandings. It is also essential to portray communicating figures, and facts used in research as well as the description of results, precise and exact.

What does it mean to be clear and precise in scientific writing?

A key to any writing is to focus on words and punctuation. Subtle differences in the word choice or correct use of punctuation can significantly elevate ones writing.

An organization of writing is crucial. The paper should be telling a story, making it logical, with specific rules going into each section. In academic wiring, your work needs to be unambiguous and accurate. Though not as simple as it sounds,

it will help in making it more readable to the audience. Writing precisely requires careful thinking and editing. If a person has to work too hard to comprehend what he reads, then a problem persists in the authors writing skills.

Remember you’re not trying to impress, you’re are writing to communicate.

If you want your work to be read, you as an author should do most of the work for the audience, and a key important part of this is implementing a flow in your writing.

What strategies to use in scientific writing?

When writing your piece, you should be clear in the information you are providing. The key to any great writing is its structure. For example, if you are covering three different topics in a paragraph and don’t give a coherence, then the reader will not be able to comprehend and find it hard to read.

Another crucial guideline to achieve flow is to always provide ample information to your audience so that each sentence is lucid. Every sentence provided by you as an author should comprehend each other. This can be achieved by providing information or referring to the previous sentence before introducing new information. Below are some pointers:

Using effective transitions between paragraphs, sections, and within sentences when applicable.

Writers are recommended to start their sentences using strong verbs and nouns, and not use weak phrases.

Always strive to have clarity in your writing, try to make the unspoken spoke. Just because a sentence or piece of information is comprehensible by you as a writer doesn’t mean your audience is on the same wavelength as you are.

There is always a point of exhaustion an author reaches. At times like this, try to take the break you need, step away from your writing and have a look at it again from a fresh perspective. This will not only help you rectify your mistakes but also helps you view your work from a reader’s point of view.

Why is it so important to maintain a standard in scientific writings?

In the field of science, good writing skills is not a luxury, but a much-needed skill. It is fundamental to spread knowledge, but also for creating knowledge among the audience. During the writing process as an author, we are forced to keep things precise and simple. It is by our writing that we bridge the gap with respect to the lack of clarity or information. According to the great philosopher Artur Schopenhauer

“Unclear writing is an indication of unclear thinking”

If an author cannot concisely, clearly, and logically represent his collected and analyzed data, it doesn’t matter even if its groundbreaking discovery, the reader will not be able to understand and question your results. So it should be really stressed that the clearer authors explain their work, the better understood by more number of people.

May, 2020

Difference between a blog and an article- Simplified

Ever wonder what is the difference between a blog and an article? It’s a topic that makes people wonder. Though they are often used interchangeably, an article and blog post are not the same thing. No matter what, it all starts at one point “great content”. Great content helps you stand apart from the crowd.

With digitization expanding at a fast pace, everyone is switching coherently towards it, where content reigns king! In the era of digitization, without content, you will not be able to convey your intentions to the audience. That’s where understanding the material required, plays a major role for researchers and scientists. Here’s an in detail look at the difference between a blog and an article.

Writing style and length:

A most noticeable difference- a blog is a relatively new form of writing, whereas an article has been existing for hundreds of years now. A blog is usually written from a personal perspective, an inside point of view. Based on this it is safe to say, a blog is something more casual and provides a great way for you to personally connect with the audience you are trying to reach.

It can include interviews and facts, however, it should be based on experience and should include more personality.

While on the other hand articles usually have a more sophisticated and journalistic tone due to the amount of detailed information involved. The author’s opinion is not encouraged and is mostly kept formal, where an editor is usually involved.

Blog posts are usually short in nature, consisting of around 500 words but this is not the limit. You can also find blog posts as long as 1000-1500 words. However, it is recommended to post short blogs to keep your audience engaged as people don’t prefer reading long items. The usage of the first-person language and recent updates makes it easy for the audience to relate to what you are trying to convey. Blogs are meant to be intriguing, capturing but don’t usually contain a lot of intellectual tones usually found in an article. It is meant to be more laid back and even amusing in some cases. On the other hand, an article is crafted by a third person point of view, and is usually long with a minimum of 1000 words. They use more intricate language that discusses the topic more formally.

The purpose:

The informal nature of a blog makes it relatively easy to write. They serve the purpose of instant satisfaction- an urge to communicate. If the goal of yours is to build a relationship with your target audience, a blog is your friend. It will help you convey a great amount of information without getting into the little details.

Articles cannot be scanned through with ease like a blog, due to the fact that it is not their sole purpose. A lot of time is invested by the author in carrying out long hours of research and creating content to convey detailed information to make sure it gives the targeted audience a feel of sitting in a classroom.

Editing:

A blog post is to keep your audience up to date. It is usually published on a blog page or a website, giving the writer the freedom to edit and update it according to the time. Articles being long, once written cannot be changed again.

A blog goes through very minimal straight forward, simple editing, while on the other hand articles are edited meticulously making sure to avoid any type of error whether its grammar or facts. Articles are usually published in a journal or magazine, hence editing is very crucial here.

SEO perspective:

To speak in a more digital point of view, a blog would help you create a more authoritative status and build leads for your business. It will serve an important purpose of building your SEO ranking by strategically including keywords, several links to serve the purpose and keep the visitors on the site for as long as possible.

On the other hand the objective of an article is to provide the necessary topic information in full description and don’t emphasize the keywords required for SEO. Being written in an extended format and published in journals, the use of keywords is not a crucial part of an article.

The final showdown

So the above are some of the crucial differences between a blog and an article to help writers to target their audience more effectively. Keeping that aside both blogging and article writing are extremely important for any business to create additional awareness for their brand and there is no reason a website can’t contain both. After all CONTENT IS KING! Now that you know the difference, let’s get cracking and get the increased traffic you are looking for!

Apr, 2020

Making a Career in Scientific Writing

Scientific writing nowadays a very lucrative career for many people across the wide variety of niches. This may include writing for newspapers, magazines, publications, press releases, broadcast media, blogs, newsletters, and the list goes on. It doesn’t matter which area you would like to explore to showcase your writing skill, the most important thing is to choose as per your strength. Most of the writers end up working in the above-listed venues, which often offer them a great path to learn new things about writing and exploring skills beyond the limit. One of the best ways to learn about scientific writing is to hear out the people in the field. Whether it is writers, editors or those who hire, knowing their experience can fuel yours.

To understand deeply what key steps can help the budding science writers, we queried many existing writers and editors in our team as well as in our connection. The major aim was to understand the basic challenges every writer faces at the initial stage when they are getting started. Moreover, other key considerations such as what kind of training is important, how much time a writer should spend learning, how to fetch the first assignments, and dealing with other stuff like accounting, taxes, etc., were discussed to gain better insights. In this article, we will try to highlight and share their vision and thoughts on some of these issues to help budding writers know how to go ahead.

To start off let’s understand how someone thinking of making a career in scientific writing should take a step ahead. For people with serious intention in becoming a writer, their efforts, talent and focus during the transition can be of great benefit. However, this is not the limit. The foremost important consideration when trying to be a writer is to showcase your skills to others. This will help you gain quality projects over a period. But is it so easy to gain projects just by showcasing the talent? Well, no. You need to work on other management skills such as networking. More the network better will be the exposure.

Many budding writers often ask if advanced scientific training will be boon or bane for them. The answer to this is both yes and no. The training may work if you are writing for a publishing house focused on too many technical details. However, it may be of no use if you are writing for a normal audience. Use of jargon and difficult to understand technical terms for common people may not be the right choice. So you need to decide upon the audience you will be majorly focused on. If you are considering making the transition as a freelance writer initially then you must learn some hacks. This often includes making an effective business contract with your client. This assures you receive the stipulated amount of work and payment on time.

Making a career in scientific writing is a very lucrative field but it doesn’t mean you can excel in it without any talent. Constant learning and acquiring new forms of writing are very important to meet the needs of the changing market. It helps you thrive better and fuel your career positively. At Sciwrite Global, we do hire talented scientific writers. If you have a knack to perform the best and bring value to the organization then feel free to connect.

Dec, 2019

Tips for beginners to learn scientific writing skills

Writing and science cannot exist in isolation. Instead, you can say that it is an indispensable part of scientific research as it forms the foundation of communicating the research work. No wonder this speaks a lot about the value of learning scientific writing skills. But questions often arise like where to begin from? Should one undergo a course? Or start practicing on their own? Well, in this blog we are trying to address these questions. We are sharing some important tips and considerations that can benefit beginners as well as experienced people to improve their scientific writing skills.

Begin with daily write-ups:

One of the best ways of learning writing is ‘To Write’. You must practice every day to become good at scientific writing. Initially, it may seem complicated but once you start practicing, you will find that your skills are improving day by day. If you find difficulty in writing science-related topics, you can choose to start with topics of your choice. Doesn’t matter whether it is related to the field or not as at the initial stage you need to focus on building the habit of writing. If you are not able to give special time to your writing skills then start using opportunities in daily life. For example, use social media postings. Twitter is considered to be the best option because you have limited space to write about a thought. This forces you to present an idea in the most concise and crisp manner without losing the true essence.

Raise the right questions:

Powerful and interesting writing is characterized by properly structured content. For this, you must raise questions such as – What? Where? When? Why? Who? How?

Fetching answers to these questions at the beginning of writing will help in charting down the scientific content in a precise manner. This way, you will be able to focus on the scientific idea and demands of readers more efficiently. However, one should only raise relevant questions that help in expanding the understanding of the scientific concept.

For example: To draft a write-up on the CRISPR-Cas system, one can raise the following questions to structure the content –

What is the CRISPR- Cas system?
Why it is in the news?
From where the system has originated
How it is helping the researchers develop new techniques?
What are its applications?
What are the expected future developments?

You will notice that the answer to these questions helps to make the content well organized. To explain further, the answer to the first question can be used to introduce about the CRISPR technology, answer to subsequent questions can form the body of the article while the answer to last question (future development) can form a part of way forward, conclusion or future prospects, which end your content on a good note.

Read about what you want to write

Another important consideration to improve writing skills is extensive reading. You can read articles, blog posts, research papers and other similar content in your niche area. This will help you learn different styles and patterns followed by the writer. Try reading the same topic from multiple sources. For example, read articles on CRISPR Cas from different websites. You will understand the pattern of writing, what points to focus, and you can even get to learn some new findings.

Reading extensively about a topic of interest will help you gain a good knowledge of it, reducing the chances of misinformation. However, always read from reliable and credible sources, even if you are reading from some random source make sure to find the reference that supports the statements.

Stick to simple words

People often have a perception that a good article consists of jargons but this is not true. Instead, an article must be easy to understand, it should easily communicate the idea of a writer to the readers. For this, one should prefer using simple and less complicated words. Writing in a way that can be easily understood by readers not only fetches their attention but also comforts them with your writing style. This allows a reader to finish off the entire article, which is otherwise left unread.

Writing is an art and it takes time to gain due expertise in it but it’s not impossible. Just start writing every day, and you can see the improvement in your skills. Implement the above-mentioned points while drafting the content and writing it down. Remember every great writer once started like this, so are you. Keep aside the fear and begin the journey of building scientific writing skills, which in the future can even help you fetch good writing jobs.

Dec, 2019

How to Write a Great Title?

No matter how much effort you have taken to write an article or research paper, if the same effort is not reflected in your title it’s of no use. Though it may seem to you that writing a great title will take only a fraction of time, but it’s not true. Instead, it is one of the major driving parts of the entire work. One should spend quality time on the title because it is the first thing that a reader will observe. If you are not able to catch the attention of the reader through your title or are not able to convey about the topic through it and your entire effort goes into waste.

A title is the starting point of any article, paper, essay or any other write-up, where the writer highlights the intention or directs the reader about the content. We all are living in an era of digitization where almost everyone searches relevant articles using multiple search engines. If you have ever observed there will be a lot of articles with a similar title that you are looking for, but you choose the one which attracts you the most and serves the purpose of your search. The question often arises here that in such a sea of information and online content, how to make your work stand different? What importance does a title play? Can a great title attract a good number of readers? Well, this article will help you share some tips and insights to write a great title and answer the above questions in brief.

Begin with a rough draft

It is best to start any article by giving a title first. It helps you stay directed while writing the rest of the body and conclusion of the article. Writing a research paper or article is a lengthy process. It might happen sometimes that you may divert from the original topic. To prevent this, it is always best to write a rough title initially and make corrections once the entire paper or article has been written.

Choose from different types of title

The titles of the research paper, essays and articles can be categorized into a number of types. As per Hartley (2008) there are as many as 13 variants of the titles. However, we will here enlist three common types of variants mostly used to convey the true essence of the topic.

Declarative titles – As the name suggests in such title you convey the major idea, findings or conclusion of the articles. For example, ‘A study shows naturotherapy based treatments overcome weight gain issues’.
Descriptive titles – Here you try to describe the entire idea behind the article or the write-up while keeping the conclusion part hidden. For example, ‘Effectiveness of CRISPR based gene editing therapy to cure blood disorders’. Here the title describes the context of the article that it discusses about the CRISPR technology but does not reveals if it is successful in treating the disorders.
Interrogative titles – These types of titles are one of the best ways to catch the attention of the readers. Here you convey the idea behind the article in the form of a question. For example – ‘How to write a great title’, this is an interrogative title. Here you know the article discusses tips and guidance for writing a good title for an article or research paper. Moreover, most of the readers search content in interrogative forms such as what is CRISPR, How CRISPR gene editing can transform disease treatment and much more.

Length of the title

Another important point to consider while writing a title is its length. As per standard guidelines, it is suggested that any title between 8-11 words is good. You must avoid too short titles ranging between 3-4 words, as they rank poorly on the search engine. So if you want your article or paper to be easily available to the readers, follow the standard guidelines. Moreover, in a study it is found that title with 8 words had 21% more clicks than others. 8 to 10 words long title is the medium length, wherein the idea can be conveyed very easily to the reader. Too long titles make it less attractive and boring whereas too short title does not convey the idea properly. Any article with an 8-10 word title is considered to be the best and a great way of capturing the eyes of the readers.

Way Ahead

Each of the above-said points is very useful in writing a great title. However, depending upon the type of content you are writing the demands of the title may change. In the case of research papers, articles and other related scientific content above said guidelines stand true but in case of other content such as presentations, press releases, blogs, and more the demand may change. Though there won’t be much significant change, as you can follow the three common variants of titles mentioned above that fits into almost any content. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try today and write an amazing title. Let us know in the comment if it helped you in any way. You can also share your way of writing an amazing title. You can also see another great blog on ‘How to write a good introduction’.

Dec, 2019

How to Write a Good Introduction?

An introduction is a part of an article, research paper or any other write-up which has to be crisp, catchy and comprehensible, as you just have a few seconds to captivate the interest of your reader. If you skip on to write an attractive introduction your write-up may end up like other content which is hardly read by anyone. Obviously, no one wants to take that chance, therefore knowing how to write a good introduction that holds your reader and interests him to read the write-up completely is something worth to know.

Your efforts for the initial few lines can decide whether a reader will read the rest hundreds of lines. Well, if you are struggling to write a great introduction for your articles and research papers then here we are sharing some important considerations to help you move ahead.

Keep it broader initially then narrow down: Start the main passage with a broad description of the idea or context of the research work and later on narrow it down to the core idea of the topic. This helps in positioning the sequels of an idea in a well-defined manner rather than haphazardly. Moreover, this way you can cover up all the necessary points to be mentioned in the introduction. This allows positioning the research work or any idea within the boundaries of your expectations and making it accessible to the readers in a comprehensible form.

Why should I read this? Try finding this answer: Once you have created a rough draft covering the broader aspects of the write-up, try to narrow it down by asking why you should read it? Does the introduction highlight what mentioned in the title? Does it maintains the flow of the explanation from one sentence to another or can a reader comprehend it easily without putting many efforts? Answers to these questions will be able to cover up the points necessary to capture the attention of the reader addressing why one should read it.

Catch the eyeballs at first sight: It is often said that if your first line of the content is catchy and relatable there high chances that a reader will stick to your write-up. But the question arises on how to make an introduction catchy at first sight? Well here are a few things that you can follow:

Starts the introduction with an anecdote – Hook the reader’s interest at first sight by giving a hint about the article using an intriguing narrative. You can use any famous saying with proper credits or make your own.
Start with the numbers – Not every time you have something relatable to make it attractive using an anecdote. In such cases try using statistics, wherein you can highlight the issue or any idea with earlier references. For example, while writing an article for PCOS condition, you can start with highlighting the severity of the condition with few stats such as ‘1 in 10 women suffer from PCOS’.
Create a story: Another way is to create a story to which the reader can relate to. Here you can start on a personal note (in case of articles and blogs) or give scientific background (in case of research papers and related technical content) with proper references. For example, when writing for Ebola virus you can highlight from where the virus first originated and how it was transferred from bats to humans etc.
Ask questions: One of the old and best ways to hook your reader’s interest is to question them. This helps in creating a curiosity in the minds of readers that forces them to know the answers, making them read the content thoroughly.

Keep it short and crisp: Compose a crisp and concise introduction. Dispose of filler words and expressions. It’s great to practice multiples times to get into the flow of writing crisp sentences while keeping in mind to capture the reader’s eye in the opening section.

We hope that the above-mentioned points aid you in learning writing an effective introduction that helps in captivating the interest of your readers. If you are interested in knowing more tips then you must visit our blog on ‘Tips for beginners to learn scientific writing skills’. Also, if you seek any special help in writing research work and other documentation involving scientific writing feel free to connect with our team.

Tag Archives: Scientific Writing

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