Writing tips

Assoc. Prof. Jiuyong Li is a noted researcher in the field of Data Mining who uses English as an additional language. We asked him for his top five writing tips for students who also use English as an additional language. This is what he had to share:

1. Be confident. If you can write good in your mother tongue, you can write good in English.
2. Try not to translate. Translation needs much higher skills than writing in English. Just write in English.
3. Write in simple and short sentences. They are effective.
4. Use words that you do understand. Try to avoid complicated words.
5. Try not to use "can" in scientific writing. The word makes a statement weaker than without it.

Simple, easy to follow advice that can be applied to almost any scientific paper.

Kirsten