Scientific writing and publishing simply explained: How to write and publish a scientific paper

By Patricia Sommer

So many students struggle to even sit down to do such work. They are left alone by professors and instructors, and not even their advisors can help sufficiently.

So even though it is a particularly important subject area, there is still little literature to which these students can turn. This can cause anxiety as well as a sheer amount of stress. At the same time, writing a paper can also be a lot of fun because, ultimately, it is a topic that is studied for a long time and which, accordingly, involves a lot of self-interest.

The contents of the book are:
- The scientific style
- Prove argumentations
- Quoting correctly
- Overcoming writing hurdles
- Creating an outline
- Gender-sensitive language

So that writing a scientific text is not remembered as a time full of horror and problems, this book aims to explain some basic fundamentals and provide tips and approaches to methods for those who are themselves currently in this difficult phase of their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Apr 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9783986469719

Book preview

Introduction

O

lthough writing, holding a fountain pen or ballpoint pen, and meanwhile also typing on a keyboard is learned at school, many people still find it difficult to transfer their thoughts to paper or a screen. Already within the school the few children who really actively and gladly write down their thoughts or even copy sentences from one of the textbooks strongly distance themselves from their classmates. It is therefore not surprising that students are not spared this problem either.

Writing one's own thesis, whether for the bachelor's or the master's degree, is the highlight of every student's life. The many semesters and all the years of active preparation build up to this moment. Despite this preparation, students are unfortunately left alone. Instead of the bachelor's thesis reflecting what has been learned and accordingly coming easily, this process is a particularly rocky road for so many young people.

Problems and complications with writing do indeed occur quite frequently within every study program and are thus a very central cause for having to study significantly longer than actually necessary or for dropping out of a study program. Especially within the humanities and social sciences this happens more and more often.

By all means, these young people are prepared for this difficult task. Every single homework and exam prepares them for this actual task; writing their own thesis. However, this problem exists not only among students, but also among students of any age in any school in the country; it is only through writing homework and exams that very few young people really establish a routine that is then followed. A routine, and thus a direct stylistic structure, is essential within a bachelor's and/or master's thesis. It is precisely this routine that so many shy away from, which is why half-hearted excuses are ultimately used to convince one's psyche that there are more important things than the truly thoughtful writing of a text.

Common excuses usually sound the same; all of a sudden there are so many more important things to do. It doesn't matter if it's the annual call to the grandparents, the visit to the parents, the shopping, taking out the trash, watching the birds perched on a branch outside singing a happy song, or even staring at the ceiling or a gray, dreary wall. All of these are excuses that students use to avoid dealing with the really important things in life.

The key word here is not even that today's young people, according to statements by older generations, can no longer bear responsibility and they therefore do not set about these tasks, but rather that writing now simply no longer gives people any pleasure. Studies in recent years have increasingly shown that the two youngest generations have a particularly big goal in their lives: They want to do what fulfills them, they want to enjoy and have fun doing the things they do. Accordingly, it is also understandable that precisely those young people who follow this guiding principle, who have chosen a course of study that they enjoy, that gets them going at full speed, and with which they can imagine working for a lifetime, lack the fun of writing.

After all, writing a bachelor's thesis isn't even just focused on writing. Instead, the actual task is so much bigger. It is rare that a person, regardless of age, really knows a topic so well that no further research is needed, no year numbers or specific characteristics need to be looked up. Since this is usually not the case, writing a paper for a student is a particularly long process with many steps that need to be completed.

So before the actual writing comes the research. Especially many questions have to be answered, which means that students have to take their individual time to prepare for writing a text in the first place. This is certainly not to be compared with a homework in school, in which hardly any effort was made or in which a simple text was copied or transcribed straight away. No, this is an extremely important final paper that can change lives. Every question has to be answered individually. However, it is not even about the content of the thesis or the bachelor thesis. Instead, it is about the characteristics of a scientific text.

For example, when can a scientific text be considered scientific? Is it really only about the fact that said text is complicated and difficult to read or understand? Is it permissible to write in the first person or must the third person always be used? How is it structured in a meaningful way? And how exactly can a task actually be understood, which includes the writing of a scientific text?

Such questions can not only be tiring, but also take away all courage from the student, because viewed differently, it is not rare that students really deal with a topic. They like to do research and always expand their knowledge. The existing knowledge is there, they just can't write it down and that can quickly become a real pain. Ultimately, these young people have everything they need to get their career off the ground, to take a particularly big developmental step in their lives, but then it ultimately fails because of such a small detail that doesn't even have anything to do with the actual topic?

This does not only affect students. Professors have also been complaining for some time that their students have writing weaknesses. A particularly high percentage of all majors fail to meet the professors' prerequisites. Why exactly is this the case and why is writing a scientific text so difficult for today's generation when significantly more people used to meet this standard?

For writing weaknesses, there are particularly many factors related to the general upbringing of parents or else guardians, but it is just also particularly about how the content of the course is taught to students. The actual way exactly how this is done is a particularly big hurdle in generally composing a text or actually learning how to write. Particularly within academic writing, these very same hurdles are taken to a new level.

Fuzzy terms, imprecise explanations of terms and a particularly difficult to digest scientific jargon ensure that these young people never learn the correct form of writing and do not even question this. In addition, in the fields of natural science, for example, formulas and general keywords are added within the lectures, which, however, are not reproduced in this way within a bachelor thesis, but must be explained much more profoundly. An awkward language of the professor ensures that an equally awkward language is written down within a scientific paper and within lectures, attention is very rarely paid to clear comprehensibility and grammatical correctness.

In short, then, there are few clear points of reference for students to turn to in this day and age. As any science changes and evolves, so, of course, do the regulations that govern such scientific texts. These regulations and guidelines are now more complicated and difficult than ever, as is almost every area of life in relation to a bygone era. Over the heads of the students hovers the uncertainty whether only rudimentarily the right tone has been struck, whether a formulation makes any sense at all in the eyes of the professor and whether a demanding style is really demanding enough.

Students certainly don't have it easy. This book is intended to help precisely those people who fail at writing scientific texts and really cut their teeth on it. It is a process that must be learned and to which there is no shortcut. The hurdles on the way to success cannot be overcome in a short sprint, which is difficult but quickly over, but it is a particularly long marathon,