Improving Research Writing for Publication (Full Lecture)

*Presentation by Kevin Heintz, Wordvice Content Manager/Senior Editor, at the annual convention of the Transplantation Society of Taiwan on 3 November, 2017.

What Does “Quality of Writing” Mean and Why is It Important in Manuscripts?

In the world of clinical and scientific research, rejection by journals is the norm rather than the exception. Almost all researchers who write manuscripts will receive rejection letters from journals, especially in the beginning stages of their careers, and thus rejection should be seen as a learning experience rather than something to be dejected about.

This reality raises the question all researchers must ask themselves: “Why are my manuscripts being rejected?” And from a wider perspective: “What are so many manuscripts so often rejected?”

One likely answer to this question is that there is a deficiency in “quality of writing” in a great many manuscripts. This can lead not only to rejections, but to continued requests for revision and resubmission (if the research itself is deemed significant and valid), as well as deferment, costing researchers extra time, money, and effort. While there is endless excellent research being conducted at any given time, the manuscripts that get published will combine novelty, relevancy, impact, and other scientific parameters of a good manuscript with another parameter whose importance is often overlooked: “quality of writing.” This is the topic of my presentation today.

This video includes:
✔ A comprehensive overview of common problems with “quality of writing” in research papers submitted to journals
✔ Graphics and slides from studies that breakdown the errors in content, grammar, and style derived from millions of edited words in research papers
✔ Tips and suggestions for authors in eliminating these errors prior to submitting their manuscripts

Who should watch this video:
★Research writers writing a paper for a journal or conference
★Students interested in learning how to edit their work

For more useful writing tips, check out these posts on our “Resources” page:

“How to Write the Best Journal Submissions Cover Letter"

“100+ Strong Verbs That Will Make Your Research Writing Amazing”
“How to Write an Abstract”
“Which Tense to Use in Your Absract”

Wordvice Journal Submissions Page

Tweet @ us on Twitter: @WordviceEditing

Wordvice offers services in other languages and countries:

[Bill.R.]

Awesome. As a researcher writing manuscripts and professor who grades research papers, this was very helpful. There is more to the verb tenses than you had time to explain. I hope you make (or maybe already did make) a video on that as it can be confusing and even subjective.

[solomonwong]

在美国做了十年教授，每次写英文论文，语法上最难克服的，往往就是那看似最简单的定冠词：什么时候用a, 什么时候加 the, 什么时候复数，什么时候啥也不加。 非常感谢！

[annarusli]

well explained Kevin. keep sharing informative knowledge and valuable experience with us..

[vahanprasan]

Thank you so much for showing that Writing is a skill, for sure.

[bootsakonseaharattanapatum]

I would say thankfully for your presentation that is very useful to improve my research writing for international publication.

[obby]

I've observed a mistake at 23:53 (exposure not exposed), and you quickly moved to the next slide.

[dr.bharatbhushanjindal]

Well explained, very informative and helpful.

[imusar]

Thank you for the informative lecture. i'll be glad if, you could please share the slide with me.

[quickideas]

Good day

I have an idea about how to increase data collection participation in academic research. Please where do I publish such an idea and how should I structure such a manuscript.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[ImtithalSaeed]

Please, can you provide us with the slides?

[gbarakorotambeke]

I attended the research writing workshop which was very educative to improve my paper writing skill.P/S Can the slides on how to write an effective research paper be forwarded to me . Dr. T. N .Gbarakoro

[ot]

And.. Abstracts are actually written at the end of any research paper. How can you write it before without the results of your experiment or the statistical analysis of the review!!??
And, about verb tense, as a native, We do NOT use the simple past unless we have the specific time of when an event or a research was carried out. We DON'T say: mice exposed to treatment developed antibodies. We say mice have developed antibody who treated with X.

[ot]

You gotta be kidding. I saw raw drafts of well educated non natives that beat the heck out of native speakers who way too often think they know it all. Please, the entire field requires a reality check and WAY LESS ARROGANCE. And one more thing, in STEM the over use of passive voice actually Always come from us native speakers! But, those of us who are bilingual definitely have a much better approach to writing.