Writing for Science and Engineering

Papers, Presentations and Reports

Heather Silyn-Roberts

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780080982861
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Engineering General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Learning how to write clearly and concisely is an integral part of furthering your research career; however, doing so is not always easy. In this second edition, fully updated and revised, Dr. Silyn-Roberts explains in plain English the steps to writing abstracts, theses, journal papers, funding bids, literature reviews, and more. The book also examines preparing seminar and conference presentations. Written in a practical and easy to follow style specifically for postgraduate students in Engineering and Sciences, this book is essential in learning how to create powerful documents.

Writing for Science and Engineering will prove invaluable in all areas of research and writing due its clear, concise style. The practical advice contained within the pages alongside numerous examples to aid learning will make the preparation of documentation much easier for all students.

• Written in modular format, so you only need to access the relevant chapter
• Covers a wide range of document and presentation types
• Includes easy-to-understand rules to improve writing

Section 1

Document Structure. The Requirements for each Section

1 Structuring a Document

2 The Core Chapter

1

Structuring a Document
Using the Headings Skeleton

This chapter covers:

• TAIMRAD: the classic structure of an experimental report.

• When TAIMRAD isn’t an appropriate structure for your document.

• The basic skeleton of section headings.

• Building an extended skeleton of section headings.

• Using the Outline mode of Microsoft Word^® to help organise your document.

• The importance of overview information: building a navigational route through your document.

• Deliberate repetition of information in the basic skeleton.

The Basic Skeleton of Section Headings for a Technical Document

This section covers:

• The classic TAIMRAD structure for an experimental report.

• When TAIMRAD isn’t suitable: choosing section headings.

• The basic set of headings forming the skeleton of a document, whatever its topic or length.

TAIMRAD: The classic structure of an experimental report

The classic, traditional structure for an experimental report, particularly a journal paper, is the TAIMRAD structure: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

When TAIMRAD Isn’t an appropriate structure for your document

The classic TAIMRAD structure may not be suitable if you are reporting on:

• Experimental work but the structure needs to be expanded from the restrictive TAIMRAD form

or

• Work that is not of an experimental nature.

In this case, you will need to construct your own set of headings.

There is no single structure that can be applied to all reports. The following sections give guidelines for this.

Choosing a set of main headings

The basic skeleton of all professional technical documents is made up of a set of main headings. The headings don’t depend on the topic or length of the report, or whether it presents experimental or investigational work that you’ve done, or material that you’ve researched only from the literature (e.g. a generalised project report).

Documents tend to start and end with the same sections; the middle part will depend on the subject matter of your document. To show this, Table 1.1 compares the basic format for a generalised short and a long document.

Table 1.1 A Basic, General Skeleton for a Generalised Short and a Long Document to Show the Similarities

Choosing Section Headings: Building an Extended Skeleton

This section describes how to:

• Build up the general skeleton into an appropriate extended skeleton of sections for your document. This covers every type of document that is not of a strictly TAIMRAD structure.

• Use the standard sections frequently used in longer documents.

Steps to take

Step 1: Working from the basic skeleton, plan an enlarged skeleton for your document. Use Table 1.2 for help: it does the following:

• It lists many standard sections used in postgraduate science and technological documents in the approximate order in which they would occur in the document.

• It gives the purpose of each section.

• It cross-refers you to the pages of this book that give guidelines on how to write each section described in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2 To Determine What Sections You Will Need for a Document

It shows (i) the possible standard sections of a graduate technical document, (ii) the purpose of each section, (iii) how often the section is used and (iv) the relevant cross-reference to guidelines in this book.

Step 2: Work out your own headings for ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Introduction: How to Use This Book
• Section 1: Document Structure. The Requirements for each Section
• Section 2: Specific Types of Documents
• Section 3: Referencing, Editorial Conventions, Revising, Proofreading
• Section 4: Writing Style
• Section 5: Presenting Your Work Orally
• Appendix 1: SI Units and Their Abbreviations
• Appendix 2: The Parts of Speech; Tenses and Forms of the Verb
• Appendix 3: Recommended Scientific Style Manuals