Quick Start for Paper Writing

Sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr. Katharina Doblhoff-Dier in Leiden University

I write this blog aiming to share some simple tips about academic writing, and hope it could help the “poor guys” struggling with the writing, more or less.

Notice: I am not a master in writing but only a TOTAL FRESHMAN. And all the texts following are based on what I learnt and my understanding, maybe incomplete (I hope no mistakes at least). Nevertheless, I believe that it is the reason why I can make the texts more friendly and achievable for the tyros. If you have any question, please feel free to come and talk with me ;-)

Practice! Practice… Practice?

I guess some (or even most) of the you would say ‘duh’ when you heard about “Practice! Practice! Practice!” in some books. Sounds 100 percent correct but useless, right? Overall I agree, if you don’t have a concrete and reasonable plan. Aimless practice can sometimes not only have no effects, but, even worse, depress you. Hence, I strongly suggest you start with writing YOUR paper, a specific example. For those having no projects, experiment report can also be an alternative. Then, craft your work step by step!

Step ONE: polish up your outline

The first and most important step. Seems to irrelevant to writing skills, uhm? Yes, but checking the outline with your colleagues and supervisors can largely save your time. Just imagine the time to rewrite the whole section! Generally speaking, the big framework for the project (and then the paper) has been made. However, we need to go a further step, and check the structures between paragraphs and even sentences. Actually it is the nightmare for many students, I believe.

For example, here we try to introduce the modelling methods in interface electrochemistry (mainly about EDL modelling), following solution electrochemistry introduced in the last section. Hence, we write down the outline below and discuss it with our partners.

the electric double layer (EDL) xxx (importance of EDL/why we want to investigate it)
==>
EDL is hard to be probed (reason)
==>
we can get some info with in situ techniques and ab initio simulations
==>
One of the key characteristics of EDL is its capcacitance
==> 
EDL capacitance can be measured by experiment (CV/impedance) and be a bencemark for modelling
==>
replace the solute by the electrode (from solution electrochemistry to interface electrochemistry)
==> 
use similar simulation methods and focus on their performace on EDL modelling

In this step, you don’t need to consider the elegance of your language. Simple but accurate texts can make your life easier.

Step TWO: ABT structure

“How long would you need to tell a story?” Randy Olson asked this question in his TEDMED talk. (YouTube link here. Sorry I cannot find another source for the guys in China…) In this talk and his book Houston, We Have a Narrative: Why Science Needs Story, Olson introduced a quite simple method to construct a narrative, the ABT structure:

(…) AND (…), BUT (…), THEREFORE (…)

Let’s try to fill this structure with the outline in the last step!

%% start the ABT structure
% EDL is important (... AND ...)
the electric double layer (EDL) xxx (importance of EDL/why we want to investigate it)
% BUT it is hard to be probed
However, EDL is hard to be probed, not only because xxx but xxx
% THEREFORE, we need some tools
To address this difficulty, both in situ experimental techniques and modelling are required.
%% END the ABT structure

If you don’t know how to construct your idea, write down all the points you can think about and try to adapt them to one or more ABT structure(s).

If you think the linking somewhere is not smooth enough, rewrite it with an ABT structure.

Ahhh! Not bad!

Step THREE: repeat your words

With the two steps mentioned above, I believe you have worked out a comprehensible outline. Then, we need to strengthen the linking between sentences and make the logic more explicitly, by repeating the words in the last sentence. Hence, your texts can be easier to be followed! Here is an example:

Electric double layers (EDL) at the electrode/electrolyte interfaces are where electrochemical reactions occur, and thus are of paramount importance in electrochemistry.
% Electric double layers (EDL) <==> EDL
However, microscopic understanding of the EDL is still lacking due to its complexity and difficulty to probe.
% microscopic understanding <==> valuable insight
Thanks to the development of computational methods, modelling has shown great potential in studying the interface of the electrode and the electrolyte in the past few years, and provided valuable insight into EDL structures and dielectric properties.

Maybe the repetition between the second and the third sentences is slightly implicit, but the idea is there. Nevertheless, I would not recommend a tyro to do so, since you might confuse the readers with rephrasing. If you are not sure, just repeat the words and make your texts clear!

Albert Einstein: When you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

Here we come to another example (cited from DOI: 10.1126/SCIADV.ABB1219). I like this compact structure very much.

An electric double layer (EDL) formed at an electrified interface can afford a potential change of a few volts within a very thin layer of 3 to 5 Å, amounting to an extremely large electric field of similar strength to that in a particle accelerator.
% an extremely large electric field <==> a strong electric field
Naturally, one would wonder how solvent molecules such as water or any other reactive species inside the EDL would behave in response to such a strong electric field. 
% how ... behave <==> this question
Answering this question is not only of fundamental interest but also of technological importance in a broad range of research areas in science and technology, to name a few, energy storage in supercapacitors, electrocatalysis of relevance to energy and environmental applications, self-assembly of colloidal particles, ion transport across biological membranes, and mineralization processes in earth science.
% fundamental interest, technological importance <==> its significance
Despite its significance, molecular-level understanding of EDL is largely missing, owing to its complexity and difficulty to probe.
% molecular-level understanding <==> microscopic structures
Because of the advent of advanced experimental (e.g., synchrotron-based techniques and Raman spectroscopy) and computational methods [e.g., ab intio molecular dynamics (AIMD)], it is not until recently that the microscopic structures of EDL have started to be unveiled.

Yeah! Finally! I don’t want to talk too much to distract you (but I still strongly recommend you to read the book mentioned above for fun!). I think the three tips above are sufficient to work out a readable draft for your big bosses. Don’t be afraid of writing! Just have a try!

I am not a natural in writing. On the contrary, I had really struggled with English writing and thought I was a dunderhead at all, even if I had a pretty nice and patient supervisor who helped me a lotttttttttt in my first paper. Things turned up in a day (shortly after I finished the quasi-final version of my first paper) when I was asked to give a hand to my colleague for a review. When I started to read the review, I knew how to put all I had been taught into practice magically. Just like a spark in my mind. Maybe you know what should be improved only when you need to deal with an “unreadable draft” ? (Just kidding! Don’t kill me, Xiaohui!)