Page 54 - English for Writing Research Papers

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This chapter covers how to structure a paragraph by linking sentences together in the
most logical order possible. It also suggests ways to break up a long paragraph. You
will learn that good writing means always thinking from a reader-perspective:
• how can I make it easier for the reader to follow what I am saying and clearly
understand the benefits of my methods and fi ndings?

• how can I do all this while expecting the minimum possible amount of effort
from my readers?

3.2 First paragraph of a new section – begin with a mini

summary plus an indication of the structure
Readers do not necessarily read the paper from beginning to end. They may begin
with any section in the paper.

This means you could consider starting some sections (e.g. Introduction, Discussion,
Conclusions) with a one or two-sentence summary of the main aims and/or fi ndings
of the paper. This style is also typical if you are writing chapters in a book.

However, check the general style of papers in your chosen journal. If they do not
begin sections in such a way, then don’t do it yourself. Instead go for a more direct
approach (see Sect. 4.5 ).

Here are some examples of mini summaries at the beginning of a section:

The X Committee has for some years encouraged collaborative clinical trials in X by
reporting the results in the medical literature. In this section we describe the first of two

unreported results that we believe deserve such publication and which constitute the main
contribution of this paper.

As mentioned in the Introduction, a principal concern in the field of X is to understand
why… This section attempts to answer the question…
Our aim is to provide a simple alternative to the complex theoretical models that attempt to
explain… In this section we present a simplified model, which we believe is…

This section reviews the process of… This process provides the backbone to the system that
is at the core of our research.

In addition to this mini summary, some authors also briefly outline what will be
contained in the rest of the section. Here are four examples:

S1. In this section, we briefly review the broad perspectives that have shaped the direction of
thinking about …
S2. In this section, the numerous advances in cosmology are described, with emphasis on the
vast new area of …