In this blog, we will teach you how to use specialized terminology in your research papers with some practical examples. Using scientific jargon and technical vocabulary has two advantages, number one, you are using the language used by your peers in your field, and number two, it makes your text significantly shorter.
1. Scientific Jargon
Make sure you use scientific jargon that is relevant to your field in your text. Scientific jargon refers to technical terms specific to your discipline. Here is an example. In the example below, the same statement has been written in both everyday language and using scientific jargon. “The X-ray of the breast” in the first statement has been replaced by “Mammography” in the second statement. “A needle to extract breast tissue” in the first statement has been replaced by “Biopsy” in the second statement, and “Dangerous cancer” in the first statement has been replaced by “malignant tumor” in the second statement.
✖ Sentence written in everyday language
The X-ray of the breast is used to find cancers. Then, a needle is inserted to extract breast tissue to find out if it is a dangerous cancer.
✔ Sentence written using specialized terminologies
Mammography is used to detect cancers. Then, a Biopsy is performed to confirm if it is a malignant tumor.
2. Abbreviations and Acronyms
Try to use acronyms and abbreviations for long method names. Abbreviations and acronyms are a great way to make your writing concise and save time. Define the acronyms and abbreviations during their first occurrence then use the short form in the rest of the text. The common practice is to put the acronym and abbreviations in parentheses after the full term.
Look at the example below. We have defined the abbreviation for Digital breast tomosynthesis as “DBT” at the first occurrence and then started using the abbreviated form in the rest of the text.
Author defines ‘DBT’ at the first occurance, and uses the abbreviated form in the rest of the text
Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) has been recently introduced to overcome some of the limitations of traditional mammography. DBT has been adopted in many countries for routine screening of breast cancer.
3. Notations and Technical Definitions
The introduction paragraph is the best place to introduce notations and technical definitions. This can include symbols, characters, and terminologies. Notations and definitions can help you to express very large names and numbers in a form that is easy to understand to your readers. Following are some examples.
✔ Examples of notations introduced in the introduction paragraph of a research paper
[1] We introduce some notations which applies throughout the rest of the paper. Let ‘X’ be a collection of points and ‘Y’ be a ….
[2] Throughout the paper we will signify variable names with upper-case letters.
[3] We first introduce some notation. Let ‘i’ denote ….
4. Summary
If you have any questions, please drop a comment below, and we will answer as soon as possible. We also recommend you to refer to our other blogs on academic writing tools, academic writing resources, academic writing phrases and research paper examples which are relevant to the topic discussed in this blog.
