книги / How to Write a Research Paper in English

Since active-voice constructions are usually stronger, clearer, more direct, and often more concise than their passive-voice counterparts, most style guides advise scientific and clinical authors to favour the active voice in their research writing.

However, this is not a command to silence the passive voice entirely. In fact, scientific manuscripts have increasingly favoured the passive-voice construction in the past couple of decades. Whether the reasons for this are practical or because it is simply more fashionable today to use the passive voice, there are good reasons to include this construction to gain a balanced perspective in your writing.

Sticking with the conventional wisdom that we should use the active voice as often as possible, when exactly should we opt for the passive? Here are three circumstances in which using the passive voice can be a good decision.

1. When the agent of the action is unimportant, unknown, or obvious to readers

Choose the passive voice when the agent of the action is unknown or unimportant to the action being discussed, or when it is quite clear who is performing the action. In some cases, you may identify the agent using a “by” clause, but it is often unnecessary to add this information.

2.When the object or action itself is more important than the agent performing the action.

In research writing, the study is clearly of greater importance than the researcher undertaking the study, and thus the passive voice is more often employed. This object/action focus can commonly be seen in the Methods section, in which an author writes about what he or she did (or rather, “what was done”), mostly using the passive voice since the topics here are generally the research methods, materials, and procedures.

What would be the net benefit of using the active voice here? The active-voice constructions are admittedly a bit stronger and livelier, but they seem more fitting for a short story or anecdote than for an explanation of actions carried out in the course of a scientific study.

Another benefit of using the passive voice in the Methods section (in addition to some other parts of the research paper) is that it varies the structure and cadence of your sentences while maintaining emphasis on the actual work. One can see how a paper becomes more readable when there isn’t constant emphasis on only one part of a sentence.

In the Methods and other sections of the manuscript, use the passive voice to redirect focus to the work being done ‒ the object of the action or the action itself.

3.When the recipient of the action is the topic of your sentence.

It is sometimes necessary to use the passive voice to place the most important information at the beginning. By placing an item at the beginning of a sentence, you are

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putting it in the “topic position” (or “subject position”), indicating that it is the central element of your sentence.

Similarly, by placing a word at the very end of your sentence, you put it in the “stress position,” which is often used for words or phrases that modify or qualify the primary focus of your sentence. You can place words in these positions using passive or active constructions.

There are several good reasons to vary your sentences between active and passive voice:

•To place emphasis on the most important element of the sentence.

•To cut down on word count (sometimes using active, sometimes using passive).

•To make your paper easier for the reader by creating variations in cadence and syntax. Thus, choose the active voice whenever possible. Choose the passive voice when

there is good reason to do so. Consider passive voice when:

•The agent is unknown, unimportant, or obvious to the reader.

•The agent is less important than the action of the sentence.

•The agent is less important than the topic of the sentence.

•One topic (among several) has greater importance.

Which voice you use and how you order your sentence elements can make a big difference in establishing the importance of one element over another, especially when both of these are important to your study and neither involve the researcher.

Exercise 2. Read the text and answer the question: What makes your research writing captivatiing?

The academic community can be conservative when it comes to writing styles, but your writing shouldn’t be so boring that people lose interest midway through the first paragraph! Given that competition is at an all-time high for academics looking to publish their papers, we know you must be anxious about what you can do to improve your publishing odds. To be sure, your research must be sound. But it also must be clearly explained. So, how do you go about achieving the latter?

Below are a few ways to breathe life into your writing.

1. Analyze vocabulary with word clouds.

Have you heard of the website, Wordle? It’s a word-cloud generation site, and if you click on “Create your own,” copy and paste your draft manuscript into the text box that appears, you may quickly discover how repetitive your writing is!

Seeing a visual word cloud of your work might also help you assess the key themes and points readers will glean from your paper. If the Wordle result displays words you

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hadn’t intended to emphasize, then it’s a sign you should revise your paper to make sure readers will focus on the right information.

As an example, below is a Wordle of our recent article entitled, “How to Choose the Best title for Your Journal Manuscript.” You can see how frequently certain terms appear in that post, based on the font size of the text. The key words, “titles,” “journal,” “research,” and “papers,” were all the intended focus of our blog post.

2. Study language patterns of similarly published works.

Study the language pattern found in the most downloaded and cited articles published by your target journal. Understanding the journal’s editorial preferences will help you write in a style that appeals to the publication’s readership.

Another way to analyze the language of a target journal’s papers is to use Wordle (see above). If you copy and paste the text of an article related to your research topic into the applet, you can discover the common phrases and terms the paper’s authors used.

For example, if you were writing a paper on different proceses, you might look for a recent review on the topic, preferably published by your target journal. Copy and paste the text into Wordle and examine the key phrases to see if you’ve included similar wording in your own draft. The Wordle result might look like the following, based on the example linked above.

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3. Use more active and precise verbs.

Have you heard of synonyms? Of course you have, but have you looked beyond single word replacements and rephrased entire clauses with stronger, more vivid ones? You’ll find this task is easier to do if you use the active voice more often than the passive voice. Even if you keep your original sentence structure, you can eliminate weak verbs like “be” from your drafts and choose more vivid and precise actions verbs. As always, however, be careful about using a thesaurus to identify synonyms. Make sure the substitutes fit the context in which you need a more interesting or “perfect” word.

To help you build a strong arsenal of commonly used phrases in academic papers, we’ve compiled a list of synonyms you might want to consider when drafting or revising your research paper.

A.Describing the scope of a current project or prior research.

B.Outlining a topic’s background.

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C. Describing the analytical elements of a paper.

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D. Discussing results.

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F. Explaining the impact of new research.

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