Why is scientific writing important?

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Regardless of whether it's a seminar paper, bachelor's thesis, master's thesis, or doctoral dissertation - when it comes to scientific papers, it's the first impression that counts. This does not only mean the outer form of the work; even if it is self-evident that coffee stains and smeared printer ink on the thesis are a no-go.

Verbal and written expression is one of the first criteria by which we judge our fellow human beings. Studies show that we decide in a matter of seconds whether we consider our counterpart to be intelligent on the basis of a person's language skills, among other things. Professors and doctoral students who correct academic papers are not exempt from this. Even before examiners of academic papers can assess the methodological quality of the writing project, an impression of the writer's competence is formed after reading just a few paragraphs. For this reason alone, scientific writing is one of the basic requirements of scientific work. In extreme cases, the writing style alone decides whether the work is read to the end with interest and pleasure or not. And: How the grade turns out. Therefore, you should definitely know the rules of scientific writing! You can read about them below.

Scientific writing ≠ complicated writing

Scientific writing should never be equated with "complicated writing". In fact, most scientific writings can be outsourced to writing services to save time. For example, you can check out the paperhelp review, and consider ordering from them.

So, talking about the complexity of this kind of paper, It is a fallacy that good academic writing scores with turgid sentence constructions and the highest possible density of technical terms. On the contrary, academic writing is all about making arguments that are factual, concise, and, above all, understandable. That's why we've compiled a list of things you should keep in mind or avoid when writing scientifically.

Scientific writing: Short and concise

Things that make up a scientific writing style

short and concise sentences according to the "one thought, one sentence" principle

objective, detached expression, i.e. few adjectives, no embellishments

Constructions for structuring trains of thought ("On the one hand,... on the other", "it follows that...")

Verbs instead of nouns (even if the nominal style is widely used in science: verbs make a text seem more lively and understandable)

Things you should avoid in scientific writing

Tapeworm sentences that make it difficult to follow the train of thought

Filler words (e.g. "so to speak", "arguably")

Words that weaken the argument (e.g., "in principle," "to some extent," "certainly")

generalizations and exaggerations (e.g., "immensely," "enormously," "violently")

word monsters (e.g. "crop failure insurance business")

multiple stringing together of direct quotations (better: indirect quotation)

excessive use of anglicisms

too many abbreviations

"I" constructions such as "In this paper, I compare the theories xy..." (better: passive constructions like "This paper serves to compare the theories xy...", "In the following, the theories xy are compared.")

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