Scientific Writing

For B.Sc. level: Wissenschaftliches Schreiben (WiSch)

For M.Sc. level: Skills for Scientific Practice in Plant Sciences (SkriPS)

Link to software for plagiarism check (password required)

Writing in and for science differs from writing taught in school and follows its own rules and conventions. These rules and conventions have to be communicated to students and early-career scientists early on, preferentially within the scientific discipline under study. Term papers, B.Sc. and M.Sc. theses already require the knowledge and the skillful application of these rules and conventions.

Learning Scientific Writing step by step, from text analysis to manuscripts for submission to international journals, requires gaining own writing experiences over time. This is facilitated by several means, in courses taught by the Grassland Sciences group, but also in joint teaching activities within the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center (PSC).

Learning Scientific Writing step-by-step is achieved within the following B.Sc. and M.Sc. courses (co-)taught by members of the Grassland Sciences group:

• Ökophysiologie (4^th semester, B.Sc.): phrasing of research questions, hypotheses testing, logic argumentation, clear positioning towards original research question (see template Ökophys-Aufgabe)
• Futterbau (5^th semester, B.Sc.): text analysis of published literature using a clear set of questions (see template Textanalyse); self reflectance on own working process (see template Selbstreflexion)
• Graslandsysteme (6^th semester, B.Sc.): reading scientific papers (see example Textreduktion); identifying and summarizing key messages, reproducing a scientific text in own words
• Biogeochemistry and Sustainable Management (M.Sc.): focusing a broad topic to a research question, searching and evaluating literature, writing the first draft, giving feedback to authors (see Waser et al. 1992), using peer feedback, revising and writing the final version of a scientific report (analogous to the Fate of a manuscript)
• Global Change Biology (M.Sc.): focusing a broad topic to a research question, searching and evaluating literature, writing an executive summary (see template Executive Summary)
• Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (M.Sc.): finding a research question, writing a research proposal (see file How to write a proposal)

More materials about Scientific Writing (e.g. papers, checklists, best examples) as well as learning activities and online tutorials within a writing lab can be found here (for ETH Zurich and PSC students). For a software to check for plagiarism, click here.

The e-learning platforms are also described in the following publications:

• Paschke M, McNamara P, Frischknecht P, Buchmann N (2010) Die onlinebasierten Schreibplattformen „Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, WiSch“ (Bachelorlevel) und „Scientific Writing Practice, SkriPS“ (Masterlevel). Vermittlung wissenschaftlicher Schreibkompetenz in der Fachdisziplin. In: Mandel S, Rutishauser M, Seiler Schiedt E (Eds.): E-Learning 2010. Digitale Medien für Lehre und Forschung. Waxmann: Münster. P. 50-60
• Paschke M, McNamara P, Frischknecht P, Buchmann N (2011) Wissenschaftliches Schreiben in den Pflanzenwissenschaften am Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center: Implementierung fachintegrierter, stufenspezifischer Lernziele für das Schreiben vom Bachelor zum Doktorat. Schreiben 1-8