English for Chemist

Writing in Action

M. Idham D. M.
Departement of Chemistry
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada

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 HOW?

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 Work in group (15 min)
• Write a small paragraph containing 4-5
sentences, which consists of topic sentence
(1) , supporting sentences (2-3) and
conclusion (1).

• Education • Tourism
• Health • Communication
• Transportation • Environment
• Science • Energy
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14
 Academic Writing
in Chemistry

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 Before writing To consider
• What kind of • Coherence and
writing? cohession
• How about the • Lexical resource
topic? and Gramatical
• Who are your range
audience (readers)?

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 Coherence (micro level)
How words are linked to form sentences.
How sentences are joined together.
• Agreement between subject and verb.
• Order of tenses, active vs passive voice.
• Articles and pronouns.
• Conjunction.

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 Cohession (macro level)
Organisation of the whole text.
Make the outline to assist you.
Use the transition signals to help the reader.

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 Lexical resource
The range of vocabulary in academic areas.
• To do, to conduct, to carry out, to perform.
• For example, for instance, such as, The
examples of (noun) include,
• Rapid, fast, quick,
• To start, To begin, To commence, To initialize.
• Use thesaurus!

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 Lexical resource
Word interchange
Kevin is a successful student who obtained the
price.
Kevin succeed to obtained the price.
Kevin successfully obtained the price.

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• The adsorption study was done by evaluating the
effect of initial concentration on the adsorption
capacity. The dilution of stock solution was done to
obtain the desired concentration. The adsorption
was done by shaking method. The determination of
metal concentration was done using AAS analysis.

• The adsorption study was done by evaluating the

effect of initial concentration on the adsorption
capacity. Initially, the dilution of stock solution was
conducted to obtain the desired concentration.
Then/ Next, the adsorption was carried out by
shaking method. Finally, the determination of metal
concentration was performed using AAS analysis.
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 Other tips
Use the correct tenses.
Write in the third person.
Be clear, systematic and concise.
Parrallel construction.
The aims of this study were to conduct the esterification
reaction, synthesizing the ester derivatives and the
biological assay of the synthesized ester.
Revise and proofread.
Write as natives do.
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 Other tips (don’t)
• You do not have to try to impress people by
using words most people have never heard
of.
• Do not use, slang, or unformal words or
phrases.
• Do not use contractions: for example, "don't"
must be "do not" and "isn't" must be "is not"
etc.

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 Common Error
• Affect (v) vs Effect (n)
• Stomatal closing affects the temperature of a
leaf.
• Stomatal closing has a significant effect on
leaf temperature.

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 Common Error
• Less vs fewer
• Less = ‘a smaller amount of’ and takes a
singular noun.
– There is less work available during a recession.
• Fewer = ‘a smaller number of’ and takes a
plural noun.
– There are fewer jobs available during a recession

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 Common Error
• Downward (adj) vs downwards (adv)
– There was a downward trend.
– The trend was downwards.

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 Common Error
• It’s vs Its
– ‘It’s a long way to the top’;
– The garden snail gets its helical shape through
the process of torsion.

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 Common error
• There, their and they’re
– There is a house in New Orleans.
– Their house is in New Orleans.
– They’re (they are) living in a house in New
Orleans.

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 Common error
• Since, As, because, due to, because of.
– I was without electric power because there was
the hurricane last week.
– Because of the hurricane last week, I was
without electric power
– Since/As/because he’s a good swimmer, Jim
always goes to the beach.
– I can’t leave the house since/as/because I can’t
find my keys.

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 Problematic plural
• Data (p) vs datum (s)
• Bacteria (p) vs bacterium (s)
• Media (p) vs medium (s)
• Phenomena (p) vs phenomenon (s)
• Criteria (p) vs criterion (s)

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 Outline
Abstract
Introduction
Experimental part
Results and discussion
Conclusion

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 Abstract
• An abstract is a summary of your own
research written in a small number of words.
• Tenses: Simple past
– Problem statement, Objectives
– Methods
– Results
– Conclusion

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 Abstract
In this experiment, chromatography was used Objectives
to analyse amino acids in solution. Standards
were used to identify unknown amino acids in a
mixture. Ascending layer chromatography with Methods
an isopropanol-based solvent was used to
separate the amino acids, which were then
detected with ninhydrin. The unknown mixture Results
analysed was found to contain aspartate and
histidine. It was observed that hydrophobic
amino acids were most mobile. This technique Conclusion
was shown to be an effective way of analysing
unknown mixtures of amino acids.

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 Introduction
• It explains to the reader what basic scientific
question is being addressed.
• It presents brief summaries, with references,
of previous work.
• It presents the research problem or approach
being addressed in the current report.
• Tenses: simple present (in general), simple
past and future.

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 Useful phrase
• Establishing why your topic (X) is important
– It is well known / generally accepted / common
knowledge that X is …
– X has many uses / roles / applications in the field of …
• Outlining the past-present history of the
study of X
– Until now / For many years / Since 1993 Xs have been
considered as …
– X has received much attention in the last two years / in
the past decade / over the last two decades …

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 Useful phrase
• Mentioning positive aspects of others’ work
– The equations given in the paper are accurate /
comprehensive …
– The assumptions seem to be realistic / well-founded /
well-grounded / plausible / reasonable / acceptable.
• Highlighting limitations of previous studies
– One of the major drawbacks to adopting / using /
exploiting this system is …
– This method suffers from several limitations.

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 Useful phrase
• Stating the aim of your paper and its
contribution
– In this report / paper / review / study we …
– This paper outlines / proposes / describes / presents a
new approach to …
• Giving the structure of paper - what is and is
not included
– This paper is organized as follows / divided into five
sections.
– For reasons of space, Y is not addressed / dealt with /
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considered in this paper. ‹#›
 It is well known that malaria is one of Scientific
global health problem which question /
threatens ¼ of world population. For background
many years, several efforts have been
conducted such as by developing new
antimalaria drugs. Virginie and co- Previous
workers (2010) showed that works
phenanthroline derivatives displayed
good biological activity as antimalaria.
However, their method still suffers
from several limitations, such as low
accesibility and reproducibility. In this Introduction
paper, we would like (will) to develop to your
a new class of antimalaria via works
relatively simple method.
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 Experimental Section
• It includes a description of your experimental
procedure, and names of materials and
instruments used.
• Tenses : simple past and passive voice

a good experimental section should allow

another person, using what you have written
and a lab manual, to completely reproduce what
you did in the lab.
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 Sequence Transition Signals
• Adjectives : first, second, third, next, last,
final.
• Adverb : initially, firstly, secondly, thirdly,
lastly, finally, eventually, at the same time,
simultaneously, respectively, during, then,
after, subsequently, after, following.

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 Useful phrase
• Describing the apparatus and materials used
and their source
– The instrument used / utilized / adopted / employed was
…
– X was obtained from / supplied by Big Company Inc
• Explaining the preparation of samples,
solutions etc.
– Xs were prepared as described by / according to /
following Jude [2010].
– Y was prepared using the same / a similar procedure as
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for X ‹#›
 Useful phrase
• Indicating that care must be taken
– A great deal of / Considerable attention must be paid
when …
– Extreme caution must be taken / used when …
• Explaining why you chose your specific
method, model, equipment, sample etc.
– We chose this particular apparatus because / on account
of the fact that / due to / since …
– An X approach was chosen / selected in order to …

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• Materials
– Sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid , methanol,
potassium hydroxide, water and hydroiodic acid.

• Materials
– The materials used were sodium hydroxide,
potassium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid ,
hydroiodic acid, methanol and water. All the
chemical were purchased from E. Merck.

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• Synthesis of acetanilide
– Acetanilide was prepared using a similar
procedure as in [21]. Aniline (10 mmol, 1 equiv.)
was initially placed in a flask. Next, acetic
anhydride (20 mmol, 2 equiv.) and zinc powder (1
mmol, 0.1 equiv.) were respectively introduced
to the flask. The mixture was heated at 100 °C for
3 h. The reaction mixture was then allowed to r.t.
and poured to aquadest.

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 Results and Discussion
• The results include a summary of your data and important
observation.
• A Discussion section should take the form of an analysis of
your results.
• Comment on the purpose of the experiment. What do the
results indicate?
• Do the results agree with what others have found?
• Do the results support a model or hypothesis?

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 To fall / to decline
/ to decrease
21
Steadily/ To reach
19 gradually A peak of

17
To drop
15 Sharply/steeply/
dramatically
13

11
To rise
9 steadily
To remain
7
constant
5
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

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 Useful phrase
• Referring to tables and figures
– Table 2 proves / shows / demonstrates / illustrates /
highlights that X is …
– It can be seen in / is apparent from Fig. 1 that …
– The results on X can be seen / are compared / are
presented in Fig. 1.
• Referring backwards and forwards in the
paper
– As reported above / previously / earlier / before …
– More details on this will be given below / in the next
section / in the appendix.
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 Useful phrase
• Stating what you found
– These results revealed / showed / highlighted that …
– On average / Generally speaking / Broadly speaking, we
found values for X of …
• Stating what you did not find
– There were no significant differences between X and Y in
terms of Z / with regard to Z / as far as Z is concerned.
– The analysis did not show / reveal / identify / confirm any
significant differences between …

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 Useful phrase
• Highlighting significant results and
achievements
– It is interesting / critical / crucial / important /
fundamental to note that …
– We believe that / As far as we know / As far as we aware
this is the first time that X …
• Expressing opinions and probabilities
– In our opinion / view, this method could be used in …
– It is proposed / This may mean / It seems likely / It may
be assumed that …

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 Useful phrase
• Stating that your results confirm previous
evidence
– Our experiments confirm / corroborate / are in line with /
are consistent with previous results
– This is in good agreement / in complete agreement /
consistent with …
• Stating that your results are in contrast with
previous evidence
– It was found that X = 2, whereas / on the other hand
Kamatchi [2011] found that …
– In contrast to / contradiction with earlier findings
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 Useful phrase
• Admitting limitations
– We aware that our research may have two limitations.
– Unfortunately, it was not possible / we were unable to
investigate the significant relationships of X and Y further
because / due to the fact that Z is …
• Explaining and justifying undesired or
unexpected results
– The reason for this rather contradictory result is still not
entirely / completely clear, but …
– There are several possible explanations for this result /
finding / outcome
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• First of all, different alkynes bearing an
aromatic substituent were evaluated. As
displayed in Scheme 72, γ-
Hydroxybutyrolactam 1a was obtained in good
yield (84%) when phenylacetylene 380 was
used as the terminal alkyne.

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• We were pleased to observe that the terminal
alkyne such as 3,3-diethoxyprop-1-yne, TBS-
or benzyl-protected propargyl alcohols gave
the desired product 1g-i in excellent yields
(93%, 70% and 60% yields, respectively). It
should be also noted that tert-
butyldimethylsilyl and benzyl protecting
groups were compatible with the reaction
conditions.
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• As the first attempt, we used hex-5-yne-1-
amine 409 (2 equiv.) as the substrate.
Unfortunately, we obtained a complex mixture
and neither the desired product 1ak nor the
lactone intermediate were observed (Scheme
89). Similar results were obtained when we
performed the MCR process to access six-
membered ring 1al starting from pent-4-yne-
1-amine 439.
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 Conclusion
• Summarize your results and discussion with a
short conclusion that is more than simply a
reiteration of your results.
• Tenses : Simple past

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 Useful phrase
• Announcing your conclusions and
summarizing content
– In conclusion / In summary / In sum / To sum up, our
work …
• Restating the results
– The results / findings of this study indicate / support the
idea / suggest that …
– In general, / Taken together, these results suggest /
would seem to suggest that …

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 Useful phrase
• Highlighting achievements
– We have managed to do / succeeded in doing / been able
to do / found a way to do X.
– We have confirmed / provided further evidence /
demonstrated that …
• Highlighting limitations
– The current study was limited by / unable to
– Despite the fact that there are / In spite of the fact that /
Although there are limitations due to Y, we …

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 Useful phrase
• Outlining possible applications and
implications of your work
– Our method / technique / approach / procedure could be
applied to …
– We think that our findings could / might be useful for …
• Future work already underway or planned by
the authors
– Research into solving this problem is already underway /
in progress
– Future work will concentrate on / focus on / explore /
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investigate / look into … ‹#›
• To conclude, we have developed a new
copper-catalyzed-multicomponent reaction
for the synthesis of γ-hydroxybutyrolactams
starting from (Z)-β-iodo-α-β-unsaturated
acids, terminal alkynes and primary amines.
We have demonstrated that our method was
efficient, general, selective and compatible
with various functional groups. One notable
limitation of this method was that we did not
succeed to perform intramolecular formation
of γ-hydroxybutyrolactams.
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 Cohesive Devices
• http://library.bcu.ac.uk/learner/writingguides
/1.33.htm

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 We learn to read by reading,
we learn to write by writing
BUT
We also learn to read by writing,
we learn to write by reading

The best way to learn how to write a good

articles is to READ some published articles.

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