Scientific writing

Scientific writing tips

Note that I use “report” and “paper” here interchangebly.

  • General:

    • Say what you’re going to say, say it, then say what you said/why it matters. Valid for entire theses, sections, subsections and paragraphs.

    • Your job: make your conclusions in a way that is (a) convincing but (b) as easy to understand as possible.

    • Do not make observational statements (e.g., “Figure 3 shows that the new design has a lower power than the original design”) without following up with analysis. E.g., explain why that observation makes sense, or is unexpected, or is caused by…etc.

  • Figure captions (more tips here from ACS):

    • Should describe the contents of the figure and any subplots.

    • Should not have significant analysis; that should be in the main text.

    • May highlight any key observations the reader should take note of.

    • Example of a good figure caption: “Scatterplot of extreme loads for DTU 10 MW (red) and group design (blue) as a function of wind speed: (a) tower base fore-aft, (b) tower base side-side. Note the signifant increase in loads for group design near 7 m/s, indicating resonance.”

  • Paragraphs:

    • Each paragraph should have a single, clear idea or conclusion you are trying to convey.

    • A paragraph should be 3 to 4 sentences. A paragraph may be longer if it is well-written and focused on a single idea.

    • Paragraph format: intro sentence (say what you’re going to say), supportive sentences (say it), then conclusion (say what you said/why the reader should care).

    • Example of a good paragraph (taken from this paper):

      • “The agreement between the two models is generally quite good, especially for the ElastoDyn/H2-PTNT models, with more discernible differences between the BeamDyn and H2 FPM responses. With the same controller and controller parameters between the two codes, the differences can be attributed to the structural modeling, both in terms of the structural property preprocessing and differences in the theoretical basis of the two codes. The resulting blade deflections and torsion also change the respective aerodynamic responses of the blades. Therefore, using the exact same controller parameters does not maximize agreement between the models. Minor re-tuning that accounts for the differences in the aeroelastic response is expected to further reduce discrepancies and will be the subject of future work. Generally though, the difference in dynamics for these two models is small enough to be acceptable.”

  • Chapters, sections and subsections:

    • Structure within chapter/section/subsection is same as a paragraph: say what you’re going to say, say it and then say what you said (and why it’s important).

    • Every medium/large chapter, section or subsection should have an intro sentence explaining the contents of sub- or sub-subsections.

    • At the end of each chapter/section/subsection, the reader should know the answer to “so what”? What is important about what you wrote? Why should they care?

Resources

  1. Day, R. A., Gastel, B. (2006). How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. Spain: Cambridge University Press.

  2. Landberg, L (2025). Writing your best thesis: a little book of thoughts.