Tips for writing scientific texts

Questions to ask yourself before starting:

In these cases, both options are fine, but it must be consistent throughout the text.

- will I use US or British English?

- will I capitalise the titles or not?

- what kind of units will I use?

- will I use a dash or "to" to separate numbers (e.g. "27–35 °C" or 27 to 35 °C")?

- will I use hyphens for prefixes or not (e.g. "micro-organisms" or "microorganisms", "pre-treatment" or "pretreatment")?

- which reference format will I use?

- are there guidelines for this journal, homework, etc., and have I followed them all?

- I promise that I will define all acronyms before using them

Some little reminders for German native speakers:

- I will not use capital letters unless there's a really good reason

- I will not confuse my dots and commas (10,000 and 0.45), even in diagrams/tables

- I will think about the correct use of hyphens in English (-)

- I will think about the correct use of commas in English

- I will try not to use extremely long sentences

- I will try to avoid putting the verb at the end
- I will try to use verbs instead of verb nouns where possible

- I will be careful where I put the word "also"
- I will be careful how I use the word "therefore"

- I will be very careful with the word "respectively"

- I will avoid the words "shall", "thereby" and "hereby"

- I won't talk about self-made things

- I will think about the correct use of present simple and present continuous

thereby/hereby

My advice: don't use the words "thereby" or "hereby".

The word "hereby" means "here in this document", and is typically only used in legal statements in the phrase "I hereby declare..."

For example:

I hereby declare that I, John Smith, agree to to terms of this contract.
I hereby declare that Bob Jones worked in my company from January to October 2010.


The world "thereby" means "doing that made something happen".

For example:

She dropped her cup on the floor, thereby causing a disruption to the classroom.

http://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/thereby


Origin of the confusion:

In German there are two words, "hierdurch"/"hierbei" and "dadurch"/"dabei" that are very similar to "hereby" and "thereby". One big difference is that "hereby" is not used outside of legal documents. The other big difference is that "thereby" can not be used at the start of a sentence, and that you need a comma before and an -ing verb after "thereby" (see examples above).

Here is the correct way to translate "hierbei"/"hierdurch"/"dadurch"/"dabei"

Prozess X ist blabla und ist ein wichtiger Teil von Y. Hierbei wird ABC gebildet und bla bla.
This would be translated as :
Process X is blah blah and is an important part of Y. During this process, ABC is formed and blah blah...  or
Process X is blah blah and is an important part of Y. ABC is formed during this process and blah blah...

Prozess X ist blabla und steigert den Y-Wert. Dadurch wird weniger ABC gebildet...
This would be translated as:
Process X is blah blah and increased the y value. This means that less ABC is formed...

Units

Two metres per second can be written as:

2 m/s

2 m·s^-1

The most important thing is: choose one type and stick to it throughout your text.

There is always a space between the number and the units, except for percentage.

5%

Here is a list for how to write units according to international standards.

Further information can be found on the Wikipedia entry on this topic. 

Choose whether you will write "1 to 2 m·s^-1" or "1–2 m·s^-1", and stick to it throughout your text.

Bonus point: so that your units don't run onto the next line, e.g. 

the liquid was heated to 37

°C and held for one hour.

you can use something called a "non-breaking space" or "hard space". This means that even if you make changes to the text, this space will never break onto a second line and the number and units will always remain together on the same line.

On Word in Windows you can get this using ctrl-shift-space and in Mac you can get this using alt(option)-space. Click here for German keyboard instructions.

Another bonus point:

The symbol connecting numbers in a range like 1–2 m·s^-1 is called an "en dash". This symbol cannot be found on your keyboard and is not the same as a hyphen in a word (like co-operation). More information can be found here.

Capital letters

You don't need to use capital letters as often as you think!

It's very complicated, but a good rule of thumb is to capitalise at the start of sentences, names and places... and nothing else.

For example:

I like to go hiking in the Alps.

I live in Vienna.

My name is Bob.

There are some additional things that should be capitalised, like nationalities and religions:

For example: 

All Christians adhere to Christianity and follow the teachings of Jesus. 

The French president is called François Hollande.

So while you would say:

I am Italian.

you would also say:

I am a biologist.

There are some grey areas. The subject you study at university if often the title of your degree (so capitalised) but also a general subject (so not capitalised).

For example:

Both are correct:

I study law at the University of Vienna

I study Law at the University of Vienna

Should I use capital letters in titles?

Both are fine!
My advice: use small letters.

Many years ago students were taught to use capital letters in titles. For example:

The Effect of Changing Sleep Patterns on Brain Function

But this is changing, at it is now perfectly OK to use small letters in titles. For example:

An economic assessment of syrup production in Brazil

One reason for this change is that certain things in science are always with big or small letters, like mRNA or E. coli, and this makes using capital letters in titles complicated.

Whichever you choose (capitalised or uncapitalised titles), use only one style and use it throughout your text.

Good:

Materials and methods

Results and discussion

Also good:

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Bad:

Materials and methods

Results and Discussion