Diana A. Taylor

PhD Nuclear Physics (Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden) & MSc in Pharmaceutical Information Management (London)
- Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech, Russia, UK, South Africa  & USA

Member DIA & EMWA - english - german - russian - polish - bulgarian
For a quick glance: http://about.me/healthywords

For more details: http://healthywords.wordpress.com

For latest news: http://twitter.com/HEALTHYWORDS 

since 2000: Conference Speaker, University Lecturer, Workshop Leader, Author, Mentor...
* pharmaceutical training institute uk * uniklinikum heidelberg * mentorinnennetzwerk biozentrum uni frankfurt am main * institute for international research frankfurt am main * phocus basel * international Max Planck research school frankfurt am main * drug information association * marcus evans conferences berlin * tectum publishers marburg * PAREXEL Akademie berlin * informa life sciences london * charité  universitätsmedizin berlin * uni mainz * berliner-seminare * tshwane university of technology * university of the orange free state south africa * university of south africa unisa * university of pretoria * university of wales uk *

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Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:16:34 +0200
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Scientific Writing and English
To: [log in to unmask]

Dear Diana,

>The experience in UK and US is that academics in these countries have enormous difficulties in expressing themselves clearly in a scientific way.
>This costs their institutions and the research industry where these academics work enormous amount of money to fix.
>This is known from research conducted in these countries.
>The results of this research is that academics in these countries do not receive the required level of education in the use of English as an academic
>means of communication during their university education. That is, according to this research, by no means do "they come equipped with at least a basic faculty in this area".
>That is why universities in UK and US have installed the Teaching of Academic Writing. This has nothing to do with native speaking.

I can agree with everything you said above and I certainly don't want to suggest that proficiency in English will automatically result in scientific texts of high quality. Having spent more than 7 years in the US as a scientists, I have seen my share of poor scientific texts produced by native English speakers.

It is my experience though as a teacher of courses in Scientific Writing and Scientific Publishing at universities and other academic institutions, that the use of English is for some students a major obstacle in their production of scientific texts. My courses (held completely in English) contain among other subjects (scientific text theory, text structure, text types, practical tips, illustrations, peer review, scientific quality control) also a section on Scientific English (ca. 15 to 20%) that comprises exercises in the use of English in scientific texts. There are specific differences between English and other languages that are of particular relevance for science texts (e.g. verb tenses, adjective-adverb, sentence style...). Why not teach them in such a context and why not try to improve the educational materials for such classes?

>Concerning other countries, their scientists must learn like their collegaues in UK and US to use their native language for academic writing.
>Making a translation in any other language, including the English one, is then not the issue.
I cannot agree with this one. I professionally write both in English and in German. Of course, if the final text is to be in German (my native language), I need to be able to express myself clearly and scientifically in German (I also think, that if you receive public research funds, you have an obligation to explain your work to the taxpayer who pays your salary). However, if the result is to be in English, it is not simply a matter of a good translation. I have yet to find a scientist who writes his papers first in e.g. German and then translates it into English to have it published in an international journal. That would be cumbersome and time consuming and I doubt the result would be very attractive. Rather, the text needs to be in English from the go to arrive at satisfying result. My students seem to intuitively understand that and are always very interested in these exercises.

Best wishes,

Christian

 P.S.: By "basic faculty" I simply meant a basic vocabulary and an elementary grasp of grammar (if only intuitive).

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Re: Writing http://bl166w.blu166.mail.live.com/mail/#articles in English
Date:	Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:45:08 +0000
From:	Dr. Diana A. Taylor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To:	Dr. Diana A. Taylor <[log in to unmask]>
To:	[log in to unmask]