What is Scientific Writing? + Features + Examples

“Scientific writing which is an academic style of writing– is a style to write scientific literature, mainly used in scientific research. It is not more different from the academic styles of writing but there are some key features every science student should know.” 

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The word “scientific writing” scares research scholars. Lab experiments are a key principle in scientific research. Students, over the period, become an expert in doing whatever research they are doing. 

They will know how to optimize experiments and draw outcomes but when it comes to writing, they put down their weapons. Scientific writing– which partly differs from the main academic style of writing is a key skill every researcher of science should know. 

It’s crucial to perceive from the very beginning that science is more about presenting (in writing) your work rather than doing only experiments or research. Every small point of your findings, you have to show, in a way that other scientists can understand. 

Indeed, writing is not as difficult as students wonder. Some specific key principles to writing in science are the only things they have to recognize. Plenty of free and paid thesis writing tools are now available online. Even AIs too. 

So English writing isn’t that difficult now. What is more burdensome is to present the knowledge in proper style– Like, writing for science. You are on this article because you want to strengthen your skills in this specific field.

I will not let you down. In this article, I will explain what scientific writing is, its purpose and its importance. Once you learn it thoroughly, in the last segment, I will give you some of the key tips to improve your style. 

Trust me these tips are enough to write an excellent scientific draft. There are examples, explanations and many more things this article has. So stay tuned and read the article until the end.

What is Scientific Writing? 

Scientific writing is, as aforesaid a style of academic writing, commonly employed to represent scientific literature. It isn’t more separate from the native academic style but only in some aspects which are crucial for science. 

Any scientific draft, either a science thesis, article, review or report should follow common and key features of the scientific writing style. It should have features as followed: clear, concise, understandable, peer-reviewed, well-cited, grammatically correct, formally styled and targeted. 

The present style of writing has one key feature and must be followed by every science field and interdisciplinary field— its defined structure. 

Any scientific draft should have an abstract, introduction or topic background, review of literature, methodology, results and outcomes, discussion, interpretation and references sections. More key features and their examples are explained in the last section.

Related article: How to write a PhD thesis?

What is the purpose of scientific writing? 

What should be? You say. 

Much like the other writing style, the sole purpose of scientific writing is to present knowledge but in a specific structured manner. However, a few purposes are,

• To show, demonstrate and explain your knowledge. 
• To define your research question with arguments.
• To give strength to your finding by discussing other literature. 
• To convince readers.
• To educate readers with new knowledge.  
• To validate the new knowledge/findings with supporting evidence. 
• To engage the readers. 

Who can use scientific writing? 

Any science student can and should have to use this style to present their knowledge. Students and researchers from biology, botany, zoology, microbiology, physics, chemistry, environmental sciences, social sciences, geology, anthropology, or any interdisciplinary field of science can use this style. 

Remember scientific writing is not 

• Storytelling
• Writing news and blogs 
• Writing a novel 
• Writing any fictional story 
• Writing a letter or email. 
• Personal 

It has specific features and that must be there in your draft. So what are those? Let’s see. 

Features of Scientific Writing + Examples

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Structure

Any science writing should have a defined structure. As aforementioned, it should be divided into chapters. 

Example: 

Citing information

Yet another important feature of any science writing is citing every bit of information you are giving in the draft. Citing information is giving validation as well as the importance to the original author of the information. 

Related article: What is an in-text citation?

Formal style

Scientific literature must be written in a formal style of writing. Now, without going into much deeper, understand the formal writing style as if you are writing for an unknown person. You don’t know the target. 

So the formal writing style is for a broad audience, without a target, with less of a personal tone and more grammatically correct.

Both these examples show the difference between informal and formal writing. And how the formal style can correctly be used in scientific writing. Here are some quick tips to understand this style.

Quick tips 

Formal style should have a specific set of vocabulary. For example, instead of ‘think about’, write ‘consider.’Here is a list of vocabulary for scientific writing. 

Informal	Formal	Informal	Formal
Look into	Investigate	Lack	Deficiency
But	However	Put in	Insert
Whole	Complete	Chance	Opportunity
Anyway	Nevertheless	Use	Utilize
I think	In my opinion	Say no	Reject
Hurt	Damage	Show	Demonstrate
See	Observe	Seem	Determine
Need	Require	Throw away	Discard
Bad	Negative	Luck	Fortunate

• Formal-style writing is complex. One should have to write long sentences. 
• Do not use contractions, like— don’t, won’t, aren’t, etc. 
• Do not short forms, like— TTYL (talk to you later) or ASAP (as soon as possible). 
• The tone of writing should be serious and professional. 
• Use passive voice. 

Use of passive voice 

Another crucial parameter for scientific writing is the use of passive voice. The reason behind that is, the passive voice supports the formal writing style more correctly. In fact, it’s a structural ingredient of formal writing.  

Hence both formal writing style and passive voice are traditionally employed for academic and scientific writing. 

Example:

 

(Keep in mind that I’m not an English language expert, just explaining the structure for required writing). 

The use of abbreviations

Various abbreviations are commonly used in any scientific writing— For example, DNA, cm, g, ml, CPU, etc. But as the thumb rule of formal writing suggests that we can’t use short forms, now what to do?

Abbreviations are an integral part of any science field. To use it effectively, give a list of abbreviations at the very beginning of the thesis or article. And if you very well know the structure of the thesis, after the list of tables, and the list of figures; we use a list of abbreviations.  

Notedly, for some specific words which are very rarely used in the thesis, you can list the full name in the bracket also— For example, DNA (Deoxyribose nucleic acid). Avoid using it many times. 

Example:

 Precision 

The objective of scientific writing is to provide correct, factual and relevant knowledge. Therefore, it should be written with precision and without any vague expression. 

Example:

Clear and concise

The next feature of scientific writing is clarity and conciseness. Peers should know that other peers, scholars and scientists will read their draft so the writing must have clarity. Every bit of information must be delivered correctly and comprehensively. 

Concise doesn’t mean short sentences. Conciseness, here, is in the sense of the use of information. Use only “relevant” information. You are not writing a blog or news article, so avoid repeated writing and irrelevant knowledge. 

Example:

Information regarding ovarian cancer is irrelevant. 

Both sentences are within the scope of the study and are relevant. 

What I’m trying to say is to write with a clear intention and within the scope of the study.  

Accuracy and trustworthiness

Scientific writing must be trustworthy. Meaning, the information or knowledge provided— within the scope, must be accurate. You are not allowed to fabricate, manipulate, or alter any information, knowledge or data. 

Any of these acts is not acceptable and eventually reduces the trustworthiness of your writing. However, you can write “estimated” or “approximate” value if given in many pieces of literature, with proper citation. 

This is one of the important points for the present style– the reader should trust your knowledge. To give more strength to your trustworthiness, with citation, give a reference list so that readers can validate and verify information if needed. 

This is the reason, vague expressions like, “a few studies suggest or several studies suggest” aren’t used. 

Example:

Transition words 

Yes, scientific writing is complex and supervisors often reject peers’ drafts because of ‘too simple’ language. To make your sentence complex, in-flow and more engaging, use transition words, like—  in addition, moreover, furthermore, nonetheless, nevertheless, oftentimes, or many more. 

Keep in mind to know the meaning of transition words and use them only if required or needed.

Example:

Correct Punctuations 

So far, we have discussed things that make our scientific writing very effective, but to make every sentence count as a correct, logical and important one, the meaning of the sentence or writing should remain intact. 

That’s achieved certainly by using correct punctuation during writing. Keep in mind, wrong punctuation misinterprets the sentence. Here is the list of useful punctuations for scientific writing.  

Punctuation	Sign	Use
Comma	,	To separate sentences or to create a pause.
Semicolon	;	To show the break between two connected sentences.
Colon	:	Thematically connect or join two sentences.
Full stop	.	Complete the sentence or show the end of the sentence.

Example:

The use of Present tense 

The present tense is a fundamental constituent of scientific writing. You may wonder, “isn’t it?” Besides only your methodology and results, peers have to use predominantly the present tense in their thesis, even though you are mentioning the previous research. Take a look at some examples here. 

Examples:

Be careful to use the past tense 

The past tense is often used in writing scientific literature but for some parts of the thesis. Mostly, to show the methodology and results, the past tense is employed. Check out these examples. 

Examples

Summary (Tips) for scientific writing

• Use a formal writing style. 
• Use passive voice to structure your sentence. 
• Part your thesis into chapters and sub-chapters. 
• Use paragraphs meaningfully. 
• Avoid vague expressions. 
• Use present tense in your thesis even to quote previous research. 
• Use past tense to demonstrate the methodology and your results. 
• Give a list of abbreviations at the very beginning. 
• Use punctuation correctly
• Use citations and references to increase your thesis’s trustworthiness. 
• Engage the audience by using transition words.

Wrapping up: 

I am planning this article for months but, I want to give actionable content value and so it took time. I’m not and English literature expert. I also learn so many new things from this article. I hope you too get actionable value from this article. 

Keep in mind that writing for science isn’t as difficult as you think. You just have to learn to make it a bit difficult to achieve the level of writing other scientists have. That’s it. This gigantic content will do the job for you, almost. 

But still, keep learning, keep reading and keep writing. And Yes, don’t forget to use our proven and tested daily schedule for PhD students.