 |
Reviewing scientific texts
|
|
|
|
When you read scientific works, you sometimes make for yourself notes of the points that are important for your research. Or you can find information about key ideas presented by the author in a special kind of writing. The text you read (or scientific work you write) is usually called a “primary text” while its reduced variant is called a “secondary” text. Secondary texts may differ in length and are known by different names which do not always coincide in the American and British variants of English. In the Russian language they are usually called «аннотация» or «реферат».
Review of a certain academic book or of series of scientific books or learned articles devoted to a particular problem is usually written by well-known scientists for specialized journals or by suitably qualified reviewers for popular magazines, i.e. for readers interested in the advance of science and technology. Students can also write such kind of reviews as a part of their examination task or an exercise in comprehension.
The length of the review published in journals is decided by the editor, in other case it is decided by the reviewer and may vary from several sentences to several pages. While writing a review one should not only highlight the main idea of the author(s) and focus on the main points of the book. The special features of the book i.e. of the described investigation, theory, hypothesis, etc. should be emphasised and evaluated. The reviewer may criticize the treatment of the subject (if it is comprehensive or not), the style of the author (if it is easy to read, if the illustrations are effective), the organization of information in the text, etc.
In case of reviewing several texts by different authors it is necessary to compare adopted approaches to the problem, achieved results, drawn conclusions. If different texts belong to the same author, the reviewer notes changes (if there are any) in the author’s standpoint from his earliest to his latest works. The reviewer may include short quotations from “primary” texts. The titles of the books and subtitles as well as the date and place of their publication are always included in reviews.
If the essential meaning of the “primary” text you have written is retained but all the details are excluded, the “secondary” text (or the reduced notes you have made while reading someone else’s scientific work) is called a précis or an annotation, or a synopsis. Although this type of the text is rather short, the order of presentation chosen by the author of the original text should not be changed, but should be conveyed in your own words.
A summary, as a type of scientific writing, is much shorter comparing to a précis. It should concern the most important facts or ideas about the subject of the text and include only the author’s main points. It is usually organized in a few sentences (or 200 – 300 words). In your own published scientific work, the summary may be called an abstract in Britain or Europe, or a résumé in the USA. This is intended for the reader as a hint whether to read the whole text or not.
|
|
|
2. Learn more about writing a summary. Use the given advice while writing this type of a scientific text.
1. If you have no practice in preparing a summary, find an article (or articles) relevant to your research from recent issues of scientific journals. First, read the articles carefully, make the notes of the most important points, then look at the author’s summary (abstract). Compare your notes with the summary and agree or disagree with the author’s choice of key ideas. Look at the author’s choice of words and sentence structures.
2. When you have written a scientific paper, write the first draft of your summary. Check that it includes each of the main points and nothing more. The summary must include a brief statement of the problem touched upon in the article, the main findings, your conclusions and recommendations. These elements must follow the order of information in the article. When experiments are described the used methods should be mentioned. For new methods, it is necessary to give the basic principles, the range of operation and degree of accuracy. The validity range of statements or conclusions should be indicated.
3. Write the summary in the third person, in complete sentences, develop simple, clear and direct style, choose the words that are appropriate for scientific writing and will be easily understood by the readers. The summary should capture the readers’ attention and enable them to decide whether it contains the searched information and the whole text is worth further reading.
4. When you reconsider the first draft of the section of the scientific text called a Summary or an Abstract, make sure that it contains everything you as the author want your readers to know. It should not contain information that is not included in the “primary” text, cross-references to illustrations or pages of this text, or references to other publications. Your summary should be complete, interesting and informative without reference to the rest of the text.
3. a) Look through the recent issues of journals and do as is advised in the above text (point 1).
b) analyse the given below samples of book reviews and summaries.
1. Alan Lightman. “Einstein’s Dreams”. Bloomsbury; 180 pages.
With his famous lecture in 1959, “The Two Cultures”, C.P.Snow, sparked a rancorous debate about relations between literature and science. He deplored the fact that scientists and men of letters no longer shared a common language – and, anyway, had nothing to say to one another. <…>
One scientist who would have denied that such a division existed at all was Albert Einstein, whose theories of relativity provided bold new ways of looking at time, space and matter. So it is entirely fitting that a young lecturer in physics, Alan Lightman, has written a novel, “Einstein’s Dreams”, which lets the writer’s imagination loose on Einstein’s philosophical speculations upon the nature of time.
Mr. Lightman imagines Einstein marooned as a poorly paid, patent clerk in his home town of Basle, Switzerland. There he dreams about the consequences for ordinary people of looking at time in different ways. <…>
|
|
|
This book is a joy. It stimulates the intellect. It bridges disciplines by linking intellectual understanding with the kind of relaxing enjoyment to be expected from a good novel. The message is simple: like literature, science at its best must take great leaps of the imagination.
2. Guterl, Fred. “ Keyhole view of a genius ”. Physicist Albert Einstein is profiled. A series of books about the man delves into his complicated and passionate private life.
3. ABSTRACT. The hawk was the focus of our studies. Over a three-year period we spent more than 2,000 hours observing 19 nests from blinds built high in trees. As long as we observed from a distance, the birds acted as if we weren’t there. But to make detailed studies of nests, eggs and chicks, we had to climb to the hawk’s aeries and the attack often ensued, usually from behind.
In cooperation with Dr Jeffrey L. of Cornell University, we found that the only pollutant abnormally high in the broken eggs was DDE.
We obtained evidence suggesting that DDE, in addition to its effect on eggshells, may also disrupt normal reproductive behaviour of hawks.
4. RÉSUMÉ. This work provides an overview of a wide range of exiting and compatible approaches to written text analysis. It includes the criticism of both classic and modern papers by distinguished scientists who share a common linguistic framework. The focus varies from their approaches to single words and individual expressions through their analyses of the organisation of paragraphs, sections and whole texts. The quotations are selected from both classic and specially commissioned papers.
5. SUMMARY. McCloskey, Donald. “ An economic uncertainty principle ”
Economists claim to know the next month’s interest rate, yet they are not rich. Their claim is also a claim that others in the market do not know the future of the interest rates. The economic uncertainty principle is examined.
4. Read and translate the following sentences. Analyse the underlined expressions. Use them while writing summaries or book reviews.
A. 1. In his last paper the authorattempts to clarify the relation of mankind and environment. To do so, he first presents a list of technological catastrophes and then shows the harm they caused to nature. 2. The authordebates the problem of greenhouse effect. 3. This workpresents theoretical discussion on the problem and comments on the empirical results obtained by the author. 4. The researchersuggests a new methodological framework within which this phenomenon can be studied. 5. The authorexplores the many different forms of tornadoes and the devastation that they can create. 6. The authorsdescribe two experiments demonstrating the utility of noise in bringing out an electronic signal and the possible extraction of data from background noise. 7. The bookbrings together educators from Europe and the USA with wide experience of interactive video for education and training, describing their experience and potential for this medium. It reflects the current knowledge, both theoretical and practical, relevant to the production of good video material. 8. The book is concerned with the advanced or mature student learning a new language.
B. 1. In this article I review the history of psychology. 2. In my paper I demonstrate the advantages of this approach and argue that it is valid for all cases. 3. I claim that insufficient attention has been paid to this techniques. 4. In this article I claim that insufficient attention has been paid to this question. 5. I conclude with a discussion of consequences of the greenhouse effect. 6. This unique and effective picture of the current state-of-the-art draws on a broad range of international experience in computer and modern language teaching. It effectively covers the gap left by scattered papers in journals on individual programmes. 7. The paper clearly demonstrates the importance of support for dementia sufferers. 8. The article offers an analysis of social stratification.
|
|
|
C. 1. Here the results of the study are evaluated and assessed in the light of the problem of protecting the environment. 2. The risk management principleis examined in the paper. 3. The formation of memories about emotional experiences have been traced. 4. The construction of the experiments and the likely resultsare discussed. 5. The question of whether the machines that humans have invented to extend the power of the human mind could outlive them to inherit the earth is addressed. 6. An attempt at integration of economic and psychological theories of consumption is presented. 7. The relationship between educational technology and student achievement in mathematics is established and supported by statistics.
APPENDIX A
Learn more expressions which can help you to write about the following:
A) source materials
a review of the literature on the problem; an extensive body of literature exists on the phenomenon; the most important primary source of information on the issue is …; the archive proved a valuable resource; N’s work laid the foundations for…; the paper is based on findings from recent research into…;
|
|
|
