Writing in the Sciences Week1 学习笔记

本篇博客为 Coursera 上一门关于科学写作公开课的学习笔记。

课程地址

介绍

  • 好文章的标准是什么?
    1. 好的文章表达想法非常简洁与有效
      • 这需要有可以说的东西以及清晰的想法
    2. 好文章的写作风格是优雅和时髦的
      • 这需要时间以及大量的修改
      • 很多作者往往过分关注第二点而忽视了第一点
  • 好作者的标准是什么?
    1. 有东西可说
    2. 逻辑性思考
    3. 了解一些简单的、可以学习的写作规则(本课程学习)
  • 本课程的主旨
    • 复杂的想法并不需要复杂的语言
    • 科学写作阅读起来应该是容易甚至享受的

高效写作的原则

  • 高效写作需要遵循以下原则
    1. 去除杂乱(不必要的单词和短语)
    2. 使用主动语态
    3. 用动词写作
      • 使用强动词
      • 避免将动词变成名词
      • 不要将主要动词埋藏在句子中

去除杂乱

  • 常见的杂乱(clutter)包括:
    1. 累赘的单词或短语
      • As it is well known
    2. 没有具体含义的单词或短语
      • basic tenets of
    3. 可以被缩短的长单词或短语
      • muscular and cardiorespiratory performance
    4. 没有必要的专业术语和缩写词
      • miR
    5. 重复的单词或短语
      • studies/examples
    6. 副词
      • very, really, quite, etc.
  • 这些杂乱都与要表达的想法无关,所以应该去除
  • 除了上述所说,下面还有几个关于去除杂乱的技巧:
    • 尽量消除否定
    • 尽量消除 there are/there is
    • 省略不需要的介词
      • The meeting happened on Monday.
      • They agreed that it was true.

案例

  • Anti-inflammatory drugs may be protective for the occurrence of Alzheimer’s Disease.
    • Anti-inflammatory drugs may protect against Alzheimer's Disease.
  • Clinical seizures have been estimated to occur in 0.5% to 2.3% of the neonatal population.
    • Clinical seizures occur in 0.5% to 2.3% of newborns.
  • As we can see from Figure 2, if the return kinetic energy is less than 3.2 Up, there will be two electron trajectories associated with this kinetic energy.
    • Figure 2 shows that a return kinetic energy less than 3.2 Up yields two electron trajectories.

作业

  • Give a five-letter word that means the same thing as: “has no”.
    • lacks
  • Many women with BRCA mutations take prophylactic steps towards reducing their risk of ever getting the cancer because early detection is not perfect.
    • Many women with BRCA mutations opt for prophylaxis, because early detection is imperfect.