Writing Readable Research - A Guide for Students of Social Science - Beverly Lewin
What Are the Constraints in Scientific Writing?
Writing Readable Research - A Guide for Students of Social Science - Beverly Lewin
Beverly Lewin [+]
Tel Aviv University
Beverly A. Lewin has extensive experience in teaching scientific writing to Ph.D. students from non - English speaking backgrounds, in various social sciences, as well as in fields ranging from astronomy to zoology. Her research focuses on scientific discourse, especially genre analysis and managing interpersonal relations in texts (hedging and criticism). Publications include Expository Discourse: A Genre-Based Approach to Social Science Texts (co-authored with Jonathan Fine and Lynne Young, Continuum, 2001) and The Sword and the Word: Criticism in the Academy (co-edited with Françoise Salager-Meyer, Peter Lang, forthcoming).
Description
Scientific writing is very ‘bounded’ (constrained) by layers of rules and conventions that must be observed in order for the text to be publishable. This chapter discusses these rules and conventions: Topics covered: Register; Style; Textual Cohesion; Social Realities and Conventions; Genre; Medium; Field; Rhetoric; Where Do these Constraints Come From; Putting It Together