How to Write English Papers

 

College of Materials Science and Engineering

Xiong Maolin

 

 

General Introduction to

Professional Paper Writing

 

Definition of Professional Papers

 

 

¬A professional paper is a formal printed document in which professionals present their views and research findings on any deliberately chosen topic.

 

Classification of Professional Papers

 

¬(1) report paper

¬ (2) research paper

¬ (3) course paper

¬ (4) thesis paper (dissertation).

 

1) Report Paper

 

¬The report paper summarizes and reports the findings of the author(s) on a particular subject. The author(s) may not give his/their own opinion on the issue, nor evaluates the findings, but merely catalogs them in a sensible sequence.

 

2) Research Paper

 

¬A research paper draws its material from many sources. Its aim is to assemble facts and ideas and by studying them to draw new conclusions as to facts or interpretations.

 

2) Research Paper

¬A complete research paper is usually composed of the following elements:

   title, author, affiliation, abstract, keywords, introduction, theoretical analysis and /or experimental description, results and discussion or conclusion,

   acknowledgments, references, etc.

3) Course Paper

 

¬A course paper mainly refers to the paper written after a specific course is learned or at the end of the term.

 

4) Thesis Paper (Dissertation)

 

¬A thesis paper is usually written and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA or MS (or Ph. D) in a specific discipline.

 

Principles of Professional Papers Writing

 

¬1) Accuracy

 

¬2) Brevity

 

¬3) Clarity

 

1) Accuracy

¬a) The subjective words should avoid being used, such as perhaps, maybe, likely, suggest, it seems, possibly, and probably and so on.

¬b) The words describing degrees should not be used randomly, such as substantial, adequate, considerable, actually, really, quite, rather, fairly, extremely, mostly, relatively, comparatively, unduly, and so on.

¬c) You’d better to master the exact meanings of the words.

 

2) Brevity

¬Ex.

¬The quality of the half-tone reproduction depends both on the grade of paper used (the glossier the better) and on the fineness of the screen, in general the finer screens giving the better detail, but the limit is set by the absorbency of the paper and the quality of the printing, not every printer being equipped to reproduce half-tones with maximum clarity.

¬  

2) Brevity

¬   The quality of the half-tone reproduction depends both on the grade of paper used and on the fineness of the screen. In general, glossy paper and finer screens give better detail, but the limit is set by the absorbency of the paper and the quality of the printing. Not every printer is equipped to reproduce half-tones with maximum clarity.

 

 

2) Brevity

3) Clarity

¬A professional paper can never be written in a random format, rather it should be written in a specific one. The format will make the paper an integrated whole from placing the title to the width of the margins, and to the notation used in acknowledging the material drawn from other sources or the help given by others.

 

3) Clarity

¬Figure and table can help readers understand the paper better.

 

 

Elements of

  Professional Papers

Title

 

¬1) General Functions

¬   a) Generalizing the Text

¬      b) Attracting the Reader

¬      c) Facilitating the Retrieval

 

 

Title

¬2) Linguistic Features

 

¬a) Using More Nouns, Noun Phrases and Gerunds

 

¬b) Using an Incomplete Sentence

 

 

Title

¬3) Writing Requirements

¬   a) Be Brief and Concise

¬      b) Be Specific

¬      c) Avoid Question Titles

¬      d) Being Unified

¬      e) Being Standard

 

Title

 

¬Whether all the first letter of the principal words in a title should be capitalized or not, may depend upon the specific requirements set forth by the journal to which your manuscript is to be submitted.

 

Title

 

¬Useful expressions in English paper writing homework:

  

   determination, radical, polymerization rate, MMA(methyl methacrylate)

Author/Affiliation

¬1) General Functions

¬a) Bearing Author’s Responsibility

            Definitely, the author(s) must perform the entire work of paper and be responsible for the content of the paper. That means if any consequence should arise from the publication of the paper, the author(s) should take it, without affecting the other members of the research team or people other than the author(s).

Author/Affiliation

¬b) Facilitating Retrieval and Correspondence

         The name of author(s) and institutional affiliations are usually used as author indexing. Readers can correspond with the author, according to the affiliation.

 

Author/Affiliation

¬c) Heightening Celebrity

          The publication of a research paper is regarded as a norm for valuing the professional level of the researcher and /or the academic institution concerned. Therefore this section should be written clearly so as to publish the paper in a given international journal.

 

Author/Affiliation

¬2) Linguistic Features (Rules of Spelling)

¬   The name of a Chinese author is preferably spelt in accordance with the Chinese pinyin.

¬   All the letters of the family name are preferably capitalized so as to distinguish the family name from the given or personal name.        Use no abbreviations in the section of affiliation. Give adequate postal address, including ZIP or other postal codes and the name of the country.

 

Author/Affiliation

¬3) Writing Requirements

¬a) Printing Format Unified

           If a writer intends to send his paper to an international, he should prepare his name and affiliation according to the specific requirements of the journal.

Author/Affiliation

¬b) Number of Authors

           In general, it is advised that the number of authors should not be over four. In case of real need, it is advisable to use “et al.” after the principal authors. Too many authors listed may lead to inconvenience in author indexing.

 

Author/Affiliation

¬c) Professional Title Omitted

        The professional title, administrative rank or academic degree such as “Professor”, “President”, “Chief Manager”, “Doctor”, etc. are preferably omitted before the name of an author.

 

Author/Affiliation

¬d) Address

          The institutional affiliation should be written from the smaller unit to the larger ones.

          For multiple authors or multiple affiliations, follow the instructions given by the editor of the journal to which your paper is submitted.

 

Author/Affiliation

¬4) Useful expressions in English paper writing homework:

 

¬College of materials science and engineering, Beijing university of chemical technology

 

Keywords

¬1) Functions

¬a) General Functions

       

           As the name implies, keywords are the most important words and phases representative of the theme of the paper, and frequently used in a paper. Reader can find out the theme of the paper by looking at the keywords.

 

 

Keywords

¬b) Easiness of Highlighting

      

        The function of keywords is to facilitate the information retrieval and emphasize the gist of the paper.

 

Keywords

¬2) Linguistic Features

¬a) Nominalization

           Keywords are usually used in the form of nouns, not verbs. For examples, “investigation” is used instead of “investigate”; “fabricate” should be replaced by “fabrication”; and “educate” ought to be replaced by “education.”

 

 

Keywords

¬b) Limited Number

           The number of keywords for a paper should be limited. Four to six keywords are the average. In general, there should be at least 2 and at most 8.

 

Keywords

¬c) Designated Choice

           The keywords of a paper usually come from the title and/or the abstract, where the key terms of words and phrases are usually contained.

 

Keywords

¬3) Writing Requirements

¬a) Placing in Right Location

        Though keywords can be either above or below the abstract of a paper, they are yet, in most cases, placed below the abstract.

 

Keywords

¬b) Spacing the Keywords

          Keywords are not necessarily all capitalized, except the first letter of keywords as a heading. Use comma (,) or semicolon(;) to separate the words. Larger space can also be used instead of punctuation. Do not use full stop(.) after the last keyword.

 

Keywords

¬c) Adopting Standard Abbreviations, etc.

¬   Standard abbreviations are preferred in the section of keywords. All abbreviated words should be in conformity with the ISO norms. Since the keywords are often used as indexing to retrieve the paper, they must be understood, at least, by professionals in the field.

 

Abstract

¬“The abstracts are short summaries of the original documents. They provide for the reader entry to the original literature, but they do not replace that literature. They are expected to be accurate, clear, concise and complete in essentials. They report the basic informational content of the original document. They are neither critical nor evaluative reviews. They are not meant to serve as laboratory manuals or chemistry handbooks. Their primary purpose is to provide accurately and quickly, sufficient information on the chemical content of the document abstracted to allow the searcher to determine whether it is necessary to consult the original publication for complete details.”

 

Abstract

¬ Linguistic Features of Abstract

¬An abstract is a miniature of the paper with a strictly limited number of words. Normally, 200 words should be a sensible maximum for a relatively long paper or report; 50-100 words may suffice for a short article. The length of an abstract greatly varies depending on the length of the paper. As a general rule, an abstract will be approximately 3-5% of the length of the paper.

 

 

 

Abstract

 

¬Categories of Abstracts

¬    Descriptive (Indicative) Abstracts

¬    Informational (Informative) Abstract

Abstract

¬Descriptive (Indicative) Abstracts

¬The effect of UV light, electron beam, γ-ray irradiation as well as ultrasonic irradiation, on structure and change in properties of commodity polymers were studied in hopes of gaining an innovative route to enhance their properties and bringing them possessing the properties possessed by some engineering plastics.

 

Abstract

¬Informational (Informative) Abstract

 

¬“The miscibility between chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) with ethylene propylene diene monomer/nylon resin (EPDM/PA) was studied. A compatibility mechanism is proposed based on TEM and SEM results, and is confirmed by DSC and DMA studies of the blends. The solubility characteristics of the blends in formic acid solution give an approximate idea about the amount of CPE reacted with PA. TEM shows that almost each dispersed particle is composed of two kinds of polymers inserted or anchored each other and between them there is a certain extent transitional interface, vulcanization makes matrix and dispersed particle crosslink each other, some particles whose shape is of micro-fiber are observed. SEM reveals that adhesion between the matrix and the dispersed particle is improved significantly through crosslinking. DSC shows that, while CPE is added to the blend, glass transition temperature (Tg) of PA decreases significantly, but Tg of EPDM remains stable. DMA shows that CPE is mainly blended into dispersed particle. It makes dispersed particle smaller and well distributed and thus significantly increase interaction between two phases. These investigations show that EPDM/PA/CPE blend system is a heterogeneous blending system. Extent of Tg (PA) decrease may be considered as a measure of compatibility. The permeation of CPE segments towards nylon substrate may be considered as a determinant for improvement of miscibility of this blending system.”

 

 

Abstract(Complete Content)

 

¬A Statement of the Problem

¬A Statement of the Approach to Solving the Problem

¬The Principal Result

¬Conclusions

 

 

 

Abstract (Formalized Structure )

¬Topic Sentence

¬● The purpose of this paper is …

¬● The primary goal of this research is …

¬● The intention of this paper is to survey …

¬● The overall objective of this study is …

¬● In this paper, we aim at …

¬● Our goal has been to provide …

¬● The chief aim of the present work is to investigate the features of …

¬● The authors are now initiating some experimental investigation to establish …

¬● The work presented in this paper focuses on several aspects of the following …

 

Abstract (Formalized Structure )

¬Topic Sentence

¬● The problem we have outlined deals largely with the study of …

¬● With his many years’ research, the author’s endeavor is to explain why …

¬● The primary object of this fundamental research will be to reveal the cause of …

¬● The main objective of our investigation has been to obtain some knowledge of …

¬● With recent research, the author intends to outline the framework of …

¬● The author attempted the set of experiments with a view to demonstrating certain phenomena …

¬● The experiment being made by our research group is aimed at obtaining the result of …

¬● Experiments on …were made in order to measure the amount of …

¬● The emphasis of this study lies in …

 

Abstract (Formalized Structure )

¬Supporting Sentences

¬● The method used in our study is known as …

¬● The technique we applied is referred to as …

¬● The procedure they followed can be briefly described as …

¬● The approach adopted extensively is called …

¬● Detailed information has been acquired by the authors using …

¬● The research has recorded valuable data using the newly-developed method.

¬● This is a working theory which is based on the idea that …

¬● The fundamental feature of this theory is as follows.

¬● The theory is characterized by …

 

Abstract (Formalized Structure )

¬Supporting Sentences

¬● The experiment consisted of three steps, which are described in …

¬● The test equipment which was used consisted of …

¬● Included in the experiment were …

¬● We have carried out several sets of experiments to test the validity of …

¬● They undertook many experiments to support the hypothesis which …

¬● Recent experiments in this area suggested that …

¬● A number of experiments were performed to check …

¬● Examples with actual experiment demonstrate …

¬● Special mention is given here to …

¬● This formula is verified by …

¬● We also supply …

 

Abstract (Formalized Structure )

¬Concluding Sentence(s)

¬● In conclusion, we state that …

¬● In summing up it may be stated that …

¬● It is concluded that

¬● The results of the experiment indicate that…

¬● The studies we have performed showed that …

¬● The pioneer studies that the authors attempted have indicated in …

¬● We carried out several studies which have demonstrated that …

¬● The research we have done suggests that …

¬● The investigation carried out by … has revealed that …

 

Abstract (Formalized Structure )

¬Concluding Sentence(s)

¬● Laboratory studies of … did not furnish any information about …

¬● All our preliminary results light on the nature of …

¬● As a result of our experiments, we concluded that …

¬● From our experiment, the authors came to realize that …

¬● This fruitful work gives explanation of …

¬● The author’s pioneer work has contributed to our present understanding of …

¬● The research work has brought about a discovery of …

¬● These findings of the research have led the author to the conclusion that …

¬● The data obtained appear to be very similar to those reported earlier by …

¬● Our work involving studies of … prove to be encouraging.

¬● The author has satisfactorily come to the conclusion that …

¬● Finally, a summary is given of …

 

Abstract

¬“5 Steps” for Abstract Writing

¬a) Underlining Key Words and Sentences

¬Carefully examine the headings, topic, supporting and concluding sentences of paragraphs, by marking such transitional makers as first, second, third; note the key words indicating comparison/ contrast (e.g., however, on the other hand, etc.) or essentials (e.g., best, foremost, what is more important, the key to the problem is, etc.).

 

 

Abstract

¬b) Listing Essential Points of the Paper

       List the main points you have drawn from your careful reading of the whole paper. Try to put the same emphasis onto the points of your paper as you did with the original paper. Check the table of contents (if there exists one) or the outline (if you are abstracting your own paper) for the main points of the paper.

 

Abstract

¬c) Boiling down Each Section to a Sentence or Two

        It is an effective practice in preparing your abstract. This is especially important for s descriptive (or indicative) abstract.

 

Abstract

¬d) Drafting the Abstract

¬Use your own words wherever possible. If you borrow some words or phrases, or whole sentences from the text, you may find the abstract lengthy or unnatural. Avoid including opinions, examples, details and explanations. Do not use such phrases as “as shown by …” or “for example, …”. Your abstract must be completely independent of the paper. Put the abstract aside for some time till you are refreshed, then read and edit it.

 

Abstract

¬e) Checking the Final Draft

¬Regardless of the length of the final draft of your abstract, study it again with a view to shortening it further to a minimum length.

 

Introduction

¬1) General Functions of Introduction

¬    a) Introducing the Subject

      When retrieving information, a reader always first skims the title, the abstract and the introduction of a paper to determine whether or not the document is worth reading . The author is here to supply sufficient background information to relieve the readers who are not well-informed in this field of troubles in understanding and evaluating the results of the given study without referring to previous publications on the topic.

Introduction

¬b) Limiting the Research Scope

¬Only when an introduction clearly defines the limits of the research scope can readers retrieve the information efficiently provided that the subject is introduced correctly.

 

Introduction

¬Limiting the Research Scope

¬● The problem is within the scope of …

¬● The problem under discussion is within the scope of …

¬● Studies of these effects covered various aspects of …

¬● Our studies with this technique are confined to only one particular aspect …

¬● The problem described previously was directed to the example of …, which differs from …

¬● This subject is concerned chiefly with the study of …

¬● The author has limited his studies to the related aspects of …

¬● The approach under study is only applied to …

¬● The problem I have referred to falls within the field of …

¬● The problem we have just outlined seems to be inside of the province of …

¬● The theory can not apply to other cases of …

¬● The emphasis of this paper is to survey …

 

Introduction

¬c) Stating the General Purpose

¬The following is the introduction of a professional paper entitled Interactions between Large Organic Cations and Cation Exchange Membranes.

 

Introduction

       Interactions between ion exchange membranes and large organic ions have been studied^[1-6]. It has been previously reported^[2] that a cation exchange membrane is converted into its bipolar type and then into its amphoteric type as the adsorption or ion exchange of cationic surface active agents proceeds on the membrane. The bipolar type cation exchange membrane is more permeable to monovalent cations than to multivalvet cations^[1].

       Fouling of ion exchange membranes by large organic ions such as ionic surface active agents is a serious industrial problem in electrodialysis, although the development of anti-organic fouling membranes has been reported^[7-10]. On the other hand, it has been reported^[11] that a ruthenium-bipyridine complex was adsorbed on cation exchange membranes and the electrochemical property of modified electrodes was studied.

       Thus it is of considerable interest to study the absorption and electrodialytic desorption of large organic cations and the change in properties of the membranes. Mainly N-alkyl pyridyl derivatives were used for experiments.

 

Introduction

¬ Structural Features of Introduction and Some Idiomatic Expressions

¬a)Starting with the Research Background

¬● Over the past several decades….

¬● Somebody reported …

¬● The previous work on … has indicated that …

¬● Recent experiments by … have suggested …

¬● Several researchers have theoretically investigated …

¬● In most studies of …, …has been emphasized with attention being given to …

¬● Industrial use of … is becoming increasingly common.

¬● There have been a few studies highlighting …

¬● It is well know that …

 

Introduction

¬Structural Features of Introduction and Some Idiomatic Expressions

¬b) Transiting to the Existing Problem

¬● Great progress has been made in this field, but (however, nevertheless, etc.)…

¬● Also, the consideration of … alone cannot explain the observed fact that …

¬● A part of the explanation could lie in … However,…

¬● The study of … gives rise to two main difficulties: one is …; the other is …

¬● Despite the recent progress reviewed in …, there is no generally accepted theory concerning …

¬● From the above discussion, it appears that at present neither … nor …are known.

¬● A major problem … is the harmful effect exerted by …

¬● An experiment of the kind has not been made.

¬● The kind of experiment we have in mind has not been carried out until now.

 

 

 

 

Introduction

¬Structural Features of Introduction and Some Idiomatic Expressions

¬b) Transiting to the Existing Problem

¬● Until now no field experiments of … have been reported.

¬● Not any experiment in this area has suggested that …

¬● More than one experiment must be initiated to substantiate …

¬● The method we used differs greatly from the one reported ten years ago.

¬● The method of making … was not invested till the existence of …

¬● No clear advancement has so far been seen in …

¬● No direct outcome was then reported in …

¬● No such finding could be available in …

¬● So far there is not enough convincing evidence showing …

¬● The data available in literature failed to prove that …

¬● The theory of … did not explain how much modifications arose.

 

Introduction

¬Structural Features of Introduction and Some Idiomatic Expressions

¬c) Focusing on the Present Research

¬● In this paper,… is investigated (studied, discussed, presented, etc.)

¬● The present work deals mainly with …

¬● We report here … in the presence of …

¬● This paper reports on …

¬● On the basis of existing literature data, we carried out studies in an effort to …

¬● The present study will therefore focus on …

¬● The primary goal of this research is …

¬● The purpose of this paper (study, thesis, etc.) is …

¬● In this paper, we aim at …

 

Introduction

¬ Useful expressions in English paper writing homework:

¬different polymerization rates, different polymerization systems and conditions, large scale production, theoretical research to measure the polymerization rate, variational physical parameters, be directly proportional to, concentrations, reactants, products, dilatometer.

 

Materials Used in the Experiment

¬What should be done in this section is to state briefly the kind of material and its quality and quantity so that the experimental process can be repeated by others in the same way.

 

¬The cation exchange membranes of NEOSEPTA CL-25T used for the experiments were manufactured by Tokuyama Soda Co. Ltd. by the ‘ Paste Method’^[12-15]. The characteristics of the membranes are shown in Table 1.

 

Materials Used in the Experiment

¬Useful expressions in English paper writing homework:

¬benzoyl peroxide, initiator, methyl methacrylate, monomer.

 

Equipment Introduced in the Experiment

¬The purpose of listing of the equipment should be aimed at explaining why the given piece of equipment or facilities used is necessary and how the researcher used such pieces of equipment and facilities to actualize his experiment.

¬All fluorescence measurements were taken with the commercially available UA-3 uranium analyzer manufactured by Scintrex Ltd. Concord, Ontario, Canada. The instrument uses a pulsed nitrogen laser source and has been previously described in detail.

 

 Technology Involved in the Experiment

¬The author should briefly mention how he has gained the experimental result, that is, what technology or techniques he has used, or what preparations he had made before the experiment started.

Technology Involved in the Experiment

¬Useful expressions in English paper writing homework:

¬density, less than, conversion ratio, shrinkage degree, reactive mixture The conversion ratio is expressed in equation 1:

 

Technology Involved in the Experiment

 

 

¬monomer concentration, polymerization time, conversion ratios, molar concentration

¬One part by weight of, 100 parts by weight of, bulk polymerization, descending height of the level of the liquid in the dilatometer, every 5 min

¬radius, capillary, descending height, conversion ratio-time figure, polymerization rate (ν)

 

 

Results

¬ General Functions and Contents of Results

¬The value of a research lies in the value of its final results and the author’s interpretation of the results. In terms of content, research results are usually presented together with the corresponding analysis concerned. So in this section the author should present the essential results and data and then generalized them to a theoretical height. Therefore there are usually two ingredients in the section of result: full presentation of the specific data of the work and detailed analysis of the results.

 

Results

¬Writing Requirements for Results

¬Any data shown in this section must be meaningful.

¬Second, the presentation of results should be short. Sometimes, the result may have just one sentence: “The results are shown in Table 1 (or Figure 1)”.

Results

¬Some Useful Expressions

¬● The research we have done suggests an increase in …

¬● As a result of our experiments we concluded that …

¬● This fruitful work gives an explanation of …

¬● Our experimental data are briefly summarized as follows …

¬● Figure 3 shows the results obtained from studies of …

¬● Table 5 presents the data provided by the experiments on …

¬● This table summarized the data collected during the experiment of …

¬● Some of the author’s findings are listed in tables.

¬● The direct outcome was then reported in …

¬● Sufficient result for … has been observed with the new method …

¬● This work did provide …

¬● Most recent experiments to the same effect have led the authors to believe that …

¬● As a result of our experiments, we concluded that …

 

Discussion

¬General Functions and Main Elements of Discussion

¬a) Analyzing the Data

           Try to present the basic principles, factual relationships, and successful generalizations of the results. Bear in mind that, in a good discussion, what you need to do is to discuss but not recapitulate the results.

 

Discussion

¬b) Pointing out Doubts

¬   Point out any exceptions or any lack of correlation, and define unsettled points or doubts, the limitations, failures, as well as points for attention, if any.

 

Discussion

¬c) Expounding Viewpoints

¬   Give your judgment, evaluation, analysis, and show how your results and interpretations agree (or contrast) with previously published work.

 

Discussion

¬d) Stating the Significance

¬   Point out the theoretical implications of your work, as well as any possible practical applications.

 

Discussion

¬e) Arriving at a conclusion

¬   Provide the outcome and/or the end-results of the research, etc., as clearly as possible; and summarize your evidence for each conclusive statement.

 

Discussion

¬Useful expressions in English paper writing homework:

 

¬Impurities, relationship, linear, steady , slope

 

Conclusion

¬As the end-result of the whole paper, conclusion is the final viewpoint drawn by the authors after investigations, experiments, inferences, discussions and so on.

Conclusion

¬Useful expressions :

¬● On the basis of …, the following conclusion can be made …

¬● From …, we now conclude …

¬● To sum up, we have revealed …

¬● We have demonstrated in this paper …

¬● The results of the experiment indicate …

¬● In conclusion, the result shows

¬● We have described …, we found …

¬● Our argument proceeds in …

¬● The research work has brought about a discovery of …

¬● Finally, a summary is given of …

¬● These findings of the research have led the author to the conclusion that …

¬● The research has resulted in a solution of …

 

Acknowledgement

¬Acknowledgement is mainly used to extend the authors’ indebtedness to the helpful support or concern from their colleagues (or institutions) in offering any useful material, specimen, technical know-how, suggestions, or any other kind of enlightenment, etc. to the authors.

Acknowledgement

¬● … wishes to express his sincere appreciation to (somebody)…for (something or doing something)

¬● The authors are indebted to … for …

¬● … thank … for…

¬● We wish to express our thanks to …

¬● Thanks are due to … for …

¬● … gratefully acknowledge to … for …

¬● Thanks go to … for …

¬● This work was supported in part by …

¬● Support by … is gratefully acknowledged.

¬● We have also benefited from …

¬● Acknowledgments are made to … for …

¬● This investigation received financial assistance from …

¬● The above research was made possible by a grant from …

References

 

¬General Functions

      

¬      a) Showing Respect to the Previous Works

¬   b) Facilitating the Literature Search

References

¬Writing Requirements

¬a) Correct in Content

¬   The content of the references should be exact, complete and standard because they may be taken as references for further literature search by others.

¬b) Unified in Style

¬   The style of references varies, depending on individual journals, and detailed stipulations are set forth by different journals.