Passive vs. Active voice

Carolyn Brown

Taller especializado de inglés científico para publicaciones académicas

D.F., México10-28 de junio de 2013

PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ACADEMIC PUBLICATION

Background and Basics in Academic Researching and Publishing

A different language, a different culture• Publishing in a different language is also publishing

in a different culture• In giving this course, we have discovered cultural

differences in the approach to an academic paper• What are the features of English-language papers?

▫ Clear▫ Concise▫ Focussed▫ Structured▫ Attribution:

What is the contribution of the authors? What is being cited from other authors?

A different language, a different culture• English-language academic writing: clear and

concise• All statements must be very clear, without

ambiguity or vagueness• The relationship of one idea to the next idea

must be clear (and, however, therefore)• Paragraphs and sections must be concise• They must contain all of the information

needed to understand the context, but no more

• Is any information unnecessary? Can it be stated more simply?

A different language, a different culture• Content of a paper is focussed▫ The paper has a hypothesis or objective, usually stated at

the end of the Introduction▫ All of the information needed to explore this objective is

included in the paper▫ But no extraneous information is included▫ For example: the Methods must be complete so that the

reader can understand exactly what you did. Common laboratory procedures can be cited (“according to Dilman”)

▫ Results include only the results pertinent to the objective. Tables and graphs are a good way to present results

▫ Full data may be provided on the journal Web site, but is not part of the paper

A different language, a different culture•The focus of a paper is different from the

focus of a PhD (doctoral) dissertation•Dissertation is much broader, treating many

aspects of a research area•A paper has one objective (hypothesis) only•See other papers in your area to see how

other authors have defined their objective•Choose the focus of your paper, and include

only the background, methods, and results relevant to that objective

A different language, a different culture• English-language papers must be structured• Scientific papers generally follow Introduction,

Methods, Results, and Discussion (sometimes separate Conclusion or Interpretation) — IMRaD

• Different structures for review papers• Even if the paper does not use IMRaD, there must be a

structure that is clear to the editors and readers• The same structure is followed in the abstract• Literature review is usually in the Introduction,

although sometimes in the Discussion. It should be brief, containing only what you need to understand the objective. It answers the question, Why did you do this research?

A different language, a different culture•Attribution

▫What is the authors’ original, unique contribution?

▫What did you do that is novel and different? Why?

▫It should be clear what your contribution is: “This paper contends that...” “We found that...” “Our team discovered...”

▫Acceptable to use the first person “I”, “we”, “our team” to make this clear

A different language, a different culture▫ Conversely, make it clear when you use another

researcher’s ideas or data▫ Cite all ideas taken from other papers ▫ Personal communications or unpublished data can be

cited in the sentence “but a recent report has found the sooty tern on adjacent

islands (P. Cormorant, unpublished data).”▫ Ideas that are not cited are assumed to be your ideas▫ Ensure it is clear where an idea comes from:

“To test the skin samples, we used the method of Hicks and Johnston (2003)”

“Eberlee (2005) believed that such large fungi constituted one organism. However, we found that DNA of one putative fungal organism differed over large distances. Therefore, the organism has adapted enough to be considered different organisms.”

This course• We developed this course for UNAM-Canada• It was given as a pilot in the summer of 2011• We have improved and refined the course each time

we give it• We are interested in your ideas and experiences in

the course• Significant progress will depend on your starting

point and your level of English language knowledge• We wish to apply our instruction to your

manuscripts• Let us know what difficulties you are experiencing• It is a pleasure to meet you and learn about your

research