Truth: What is the author's philosophical position on truth? How is it recognized and conveyed?
Presentation: What do authors (and readers) value in presentation mode?
Situation: What is the mode to convey the author's ideas to readers?
Target audience: Who is the target audience? What kind of readers does the author expect?
Thought and language: What is the relationship between the author's thought and the language he chooses to express it?
These five characteristics of each style are different. Therefore, in order to explain the style of scientific papers, each feature will be introduced in detail below.
1. Authenticity
Scientific papers state universal objective facts that are independent of the author or reader. This fact is reasonable, but it is not obvious. It takes effort to get close to this truth. Finally, we can only comment on the accuracy of our scientific model, not the absolute correctness. Because truth is independent of the author and the reader, anyone who is willing to try to understand it can get close to it. The author has no privilege to be close to the truth. If readers do the same work and think in the same way, they may come to the same conclusion. Scientific knowledge is not invented or created, but discovered and confirmed by other scientists.
demonstrate
In many writing styles, writers and readers attach importance to the value of clarity, elegance and liveliness. In scientific papers, the most valuable things are accuracy, precision, clarity, conciseness and elegance (in this order).
Accuracy means that all new knowledge is reasonable and verifiable. The key of research paper is to expound new knowledge. Too little elaboration will make readers question the value of the paper; Too much elaboration will make people question the author's organizational ability. There are two explanations in the paper that are redundant, inconsistent with the facts and unsupported by the facts. Moreover, any viewpoint that cannot be verified according to the information provided in the paper is the same as the viewpoint that does not support verification. Therefore, the language of scientific exposition must be carefully selected, neither too much nor too little. It is very important to be clear about the restrictions of the content, because it is very unlikely that your paper will become the last document on this topic.
Accuracy means that what the reader understands is consistent with the author's intention. Even if the reader's understanding is wrong, the reason is that the author's writing is not accurate enough. Clarity means that the author's work is easy to understand. A passage must be reread many times to understand its meaning, which is definitely not clear enough. Only when the author's ideas are clear, clarity needs to be precise. Accuracy does not need to be clear, but clarity helps accuracy. When the writing is accurate and clear, readers can easily and quickly understand their intentions. Using common jargon can increase clarity, but using exaggerated words to impress readers will have the opposite effect.
We value brevity, because we cherish time. If a paper can be written in half a word, it is only half useful. Now we can begin to put the suggestion of "omitting unnecessary words" into practice and apply it to the writing of scientific papers. If you think a word is unnecessary, please circle it and find out whether it will damage accuracy, precision or clarity. If not, please delete it.
Beautiful writing is rarely done in scientific and technological writing, but it can be done. In other writing methods, beautiful words are often obtained at the expense of accuracy, making sentences more vivid and eye-catching. However, without proper restrictions, the expression is not accurate enough. In scientific papers, we are willing to sacrifice beautiful, beautiful and charming words for accuracy and precision. Nevertheless, when I come across a paper that can achieve the goal of accuracy, precision, clarity and conciseness, and express it elegantly and appropriately, I will still feel encouraged and happy.
scene
The imaginary scene is that the author and the reader communicate at an academic conference. The audience is there because they are interested in your topic, and they will save the questions for the last. Your task is to impart your research results to your audience. Such occasions need formal and professional language, and oral and personal anecdotes are forbidden. But don't write anything you'll never say. Reading sentences aloud helps to ensure that your writing conforms to the scene.
4. Objectives
Your readers are the audience of your imaginary seminar. They are interested in your topic and are generally familiar with this field, but they don't necessarily know the specific details. They are enthusiastic graduate students and experienced researchers. They may wisely choose and browse the journals you want to publish. Sometimes they are experts in your research field, but usually they are not. They are smart and willing to try to understand the information you want to express, but only if you think your paper is worth understanding. Authors and readers are generally peers.
5. Thought and language
If the author has no ideas in his mind, the paper can't be fully expressed and understood with appropriate words. Language (including mathematical language) can express the most complex concepts completely and accurately. The author may claim to be the first person to get new ideas, but anyone can understand them as long as they are properly expressed. Einstein's special relativity and general relativity are shocking originality, which also proves that he is a genius. But once expressed, these theories can be verified by any qualified and diligent scientist.
Scientific papers do not accept intangible things, mysterious things and unique personal experiences. Feelings and fantasies don't apply here. Great efforts are usually made to define terms and agree on their meanings, including establishing standard-setting bodies to create universally recognized terms. Procrastination is considered to be a sign of sloppy thinking.