Examples of academic phrases in English that you can use in your own scientific texts; organized under the main sections of a journal article (e.g. Methods, Results) and under language categories (e.g. how to compare and contrast, how to describe trends)
This is a special issue of the journal Medical Writing that has chapters on academic writing, each with explanations, examples, and, most importantly, exercises and an answer key.
Links to some of the chapters are provided here. To see the whole issue, click on Writing better workbook:
- Can you recognise the four main ways that English sentences can be structured? Authors: Claire Gudex, Jude Pedersen
- Finding the action in your writing: Avoiding nominalisation. Author: Michele Aduengo
- Removing the dead wood. Author: Christine Møller
- Writing economically in medicine and science: Tips for tackling wordiness. Author: Barb Every
- How to shorten a text by up to 30% and improve clarity without losing information. Author: Tom Lang
- Structuring paragraphs. Authors: Amy Whereat-Terdjman, Phil Leventhal
Duke Graduate School - Scientific Writing Resource
Online course material that teaches how to write effectively and to communicate what you intend to the reader; a series of lessons with examples and worksheets
Take care with medical abbreviations!
A quick glance at this list will show you why you need to explain the abbreviations you use in journal articles – even if YOU know what they mean.
That Oxford comma again!
Also known as the serial comma, this can determine which guests turn up to a party (search the Internet for "Serial comma Stalin Kennedy" if you do not know this one). And now a US court has ruled a $10 million payment due to a missing Oxford comma
Are Americanisms taking over British English?
List of amusing (and useful) grammar tips
Read an amusing (and useful) list of grammar tips published in the British newspaper The Guardian
34 of the Zaniest, Craziest Words in the Dictionary
An interesting list of unusual words. Worth knowing as a scientific writer
Important new medical definitions
Coffee (N.), the person upon whom one coughs.
Caterpallor (N.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
Inoculatte (V): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Free guidance and courses on English grammar, spelling, and writing style (also for English as a second language) and on how to start, organize, and revise your writing.