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Words don't come easy.

F.R. DAVID

The English language has, as mentioned in section 1.1, a rich vocabulary. Nevertheless, box 1.7 presents a suggestion for a basic scientific lexicon that contains only about 200 of the thousands of words available. Learn the meaning of these words and use them actively in your writing. If you can exploit the words from this lexicon, your scientific writing will rapidly become stronger and more mature.

The majority of the words from the basic scientific lexicon were used in writing this book. Up to five illustrative examples of their use in this book are marked in italics. section 8.2 provides the pages on which the marked words can be found. If the use of a word in this book does not make its meaning clear, refer to a dictionary or a thesaurus.

An alternative approach to finding the meaning of a word from box 1.7 is to look for words in scientific databases. Examples of these databases include PubMed (www.pubmed.gov) or Google Scholar (scholar.google. com); others are listed in section 7.1. Searching these databases for an unknown word will provide you with many articles that have your word of interest in the title or in the abstract. From these, you should be able to obtain hints on the meaning of the word and see how it is used in scientific writing. As an exercise, try to determine the meaning of the important scientific words “purport”, “pinpoint”, “feasible”, “plausible” and “flaw” by typing them into PubMed. Actively investigating the meaning of words in this way will help you to use them more regularly in your own writing.

Box 1.7A basic lexicon for scientific writing

Verbs

accumulate

adapt

affect

ask

assay

attempt

cause

cite

compare

conclude

confirm

confuse

consider

correlate

decline

decrease

deduce

demonstrate

describe

destroy

detect

deteriorate

disprove

disturb

document

evidence

explain

falsify

find

follow

illustrate

increase

indicate

induce

infer

interest

invent

investigate

judge

maintain

observe

oppose

pinpoint

point to

propose

prove

purport

quantify

quote

record

remain

repeat

reproduce

require

screen

search

shed light on

show

solve

strengthen

suggest

support

survive

test

treat

try

underline

vary

verify

work

Nouns

absence

activation

analysis

answer

appearance

application

attempt

background

blank

cause

chance

change

citation

clue

component

condition

conflict

consequence

constant

control

curve

data

decrease

difference

discovery

discrepancy

distribution

dose-response

effect

enigma

equilibrium

event

evidence

exclusion

experiment

figure

flaw

function

graph

hint

hypothesis

idea

illustration

image

inclusion

increase

incubation

ingredient

input

interaction

level

mechanism

mock

model

mystery

observation

output

panel

paradox

parameter

participant

pathway

performance

period

possibility

prerequisite

presence

process

product

question

ratio

reason

relevance

report

research

result

role

signal

situation

solution

specificity

structure

synthesis

table

target

theory

variable

variation

variety

version

volunteer

work

Adjectives and adverbs

able

active

actually

affected

artificial

associated

aware

capable

certain

closely

consistent

contradictory

correct

dependent

detrimental

essential

exactly

exclusively

external

feasible

frequent

incorrect

internal

inversely

likely

limited

linear

multiple

necessary

noteworthy

particular

pertinent

plausible

poorly

previous

prior

proportional

putative

random

relevant

resistant

robust

severe

significant

similarly

simultaneous

unable

variable