Hello!
Scientific writing is a core element of academic work and has been a recurring topic discussed in previous posts. Focusing specifically on journal articles, one of the most established forms of science communication, it is beneficial to identify and implement strategies to facilitate writing such complex pieces of work. Often, not only do we have to describe how intricate experiments were performed, but we also convince readers how the proposed approach provides valuable and novel information on a given topic. Therefore, in this post, I would like to present some strategies that have helped me draft original research articles and make this task more engaging.
2. Seamless results and discussion
3. Leave room for spontaneous reflections
Defining a writing plan
Most journal articles follow a relatively standard structure featuring several sections, from Introduction to Discussion, and it is helpful for me to prepare a plan for each one. Broadly, I split the work into three categories: introduction, which combines background knowledge from the literature and some general details of the work to motivate the subsequent sections; materials and methods, a predominantly descriptive section that mainly relies on the practical execution of the project; results and discussion, where the main findings are reported and, in parallel, intriguing considerations are presented in the discussion and framed in the context of previous work. I prefer to write them in this order and start to incorporate the notes from my logbook into each part.
Crucially, I believe having the figure panels ready is extremely helpful to continuously assess if the storyline matches the findings and details highlighted in each graph. Furthermore, focusing on the materials and methods, writing the complete workflow can help double-check mentally if all steps were completed appropriately and identify possible mistakes or additional analysis to strengthen our results. This is essential to settle as subsequent sections will be prepared based on this information.
On a structural level, there is one more tip to apply. Previously, I have mentioned how summarising the structure of different sections when reading other papers can be very impactful in developing templates that fit different types of work. Therefore, already at this stage, when we start to have an idea of which one may be most suitable, I try to incorporate those ideas in the planning of the text, especially for the introduction and discussion. While for the former, it can help motivate the work effectively, the structure of the discussion determines what items are highlighted, how the limitations are addressed and how to properly frame the impact of the work in the field. As I keep reading articles from different journals, it becomes easier to identify such patterns and build a collection that is readily available when needed. The more comprehensive level to implement this approach is collecting the specific textual expressions used in each sentence, which ultimately represent a valuable thesaurus of textual elements for different purposes.
Seamless results and discussion
Next, I would like to emphasise my approach for the results and discussion category. Although the results are usually highly descriptive, where the goal is to present our findings objectively and impartially, the discussion often has more room for persuasion to show how they support (or not) the hypothesis advanced in the introduction or fit with the results from previous work. Following this idea, I start by writing the results, and each sentence or idea that deviates from a clear objective statement is moved to the discussion. Sometimes, these are simple to identify, perhaps when realising a limitation of the work, while others may be more subtle, such as the underlying biological explanation for the values obtained. I always try to write enough sentences in the discussion to recall the specific topic structuring the text later, but depending on the complexity of the item, it can be helpful to spend some time and complete the paragraph(s) about it. In the end, the result section is complete, and we have several paragraphs in the discussion which need to be ordered and complemented to match the planning defined previously, dramatically reducing the effort required for this section.
A more challenging step for me when preparing the discussion is to smoothly complement some topics with data from the literature. For this, I often start by consulting similar papers and understand which claims are usually compared to previous results and how conflicting or supporting statements are handled.
Leave room for spontaneous reflections
Following the previous item, I have encountered several writing roadblocks when facing unexpected results or data that initially seems unexplainable. In these moments, if I have the feeling the problem is conceptual and not necessarily a technical mistake in the execution, it usually helps me to leave it aside, almost maturing unconsciously, until I can think about it during a low mental-effort task, which can be as simple as going for a walk or run. Often, these activities allow me to think about a problem without immediate access to all the specific details but instead use the trends I grasped when I did look at the data. Ultimately, this creates a level of flexibility that certainly does not guarantee that a solution will be found but generates unexpected insights on topics or ideas worth exploring. For the same reason, I always try to keep a tool to write on (such as a notebook or phone) and collect these seeds of intellectual imagination.
Overall, I have found this intentional brainstorming to be especially useful to frame ideas in a bigger picture and often leads to possible follow-up projects of the work.
Conclusion
Preparing original research articles is a worthy challenge that tests the limits of solid scientific work, writing skills and creative design of figures. Nonetheless, it is gratifying to witness the progress and insights of such a journey. I am still developing my knowledge in these topics, and I hope to expand my toolset to make this process (even) more enjoyable.
Please feel free to share what are your techniques to draft reports and articles about your scientific work!
Have a great day!