Writing up Research: Experimental Research Report Writing for Students of English

This book is designed to help you learn to use the most important features of technical and scientific English in writing about research in your field. The principal type of writing treated here is the experimental research report, but the information in this book is also relevant to writing research proposals, literature reviews, summaries, abstracts, and especially theses and dissertations. Many of the expressions and grammatical structures presented in these chapters may not be new to you. What will be new are the specific uses of these items in technical writing. These uses are called because they are commonly followed by authors in most fields of research. Technical writing in English is very conventional. That is, when you have learned the conventions presented in this book, you will be able to write an acceptable report about almost any research project that you may carry out. Examples from published research articles in various field are included in each ~hapter. These show you how scientists use the language forms you are ~tudymg when they write up their research. Sometimes these examples will mclude technical vocabulary that is new to you. Try not to be distracted by these terms; they should not interfere with your ability to understand the examples or to. appreciate the way these writers use the language conventions you are studymg. We hope, in fact, that you will find these excerpts to be interesting examples of research in many different fields. . In working through this book, you will be asked to find examples of pubhshed research in your area of interest. This is done because we believe that the m?~e you read, the better you will write. You will also be asked to carry out an ongmal research project to put into practice the conventions you are studying. Through these activities of reading, writing, and research practice, you will soon master the language of the experimental research report.