Lesson

    You might have written sentences that are precise and clear, that target the audience, that contain predominantly active verbs, and that are concise, However, if those sentences do not connect, the writing will not succeed. This lesson teaches you an important strategy to have your sentences connect. Note that if you are uncomfortable with grammatical terms such as prepositional phrase or dependent clause, you should review Appendix A before beginning this lesson. ​(24 Minutes)

1. Connecting Your Ideas: The Problem and Proposed Solution. This film discusses the problems that occur when sentences do not connect in scientific writing. The film also proposes a possible solution.


2. Connecting Your Ideas: Transitional Phrases. This film discusses important transitional phrases for connecting your ideas (sentences) in engineering and science.


3. Varying Sentence Openers: What and Where. This film discusses sentence openers that provide connections which answer questions of what and where.


4. Varying Sentence Openers: When, Why, and How. This film discusses sentence openers that provide connections which answer questions of when, why, and how.


5. Connecting Your Sentences: Advanced Sentence Openers. This film discusses advanced sentence openers for connecting your ideas (sentences) in scientific writing.

Exercise

Write five to seven sentences that present your professional biography, which could be used in a written proposal or for a presentation. In doing so, write the biography in the third person using your first and last name. For the five to seven sentences, have at least four distinctly different sentence openers, such as subject noun, prepositional phrase, dependent clause, participial phrase, or appositive.


Sample Biography:
Daniel Yednock: Student, Pennsylvania State University

Daniel Yednock is a junior studying mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. A member of the Alpha Fire Company in State College, he has completed his Firefighter 1 certification and is training to be an apparatus driver-operator. When he is not at school, Daniel manages his own landscaping business. To gain engineering experience, he interned with SNC-Lavalin last summer and worked as a project engineer overseeing industrial and manufacturing job sites. After this semester, Daniel will be working at JLG Industries in Hagerstown, Maryland as a systems engineer intern.

Sentence Openers
1: Subject-noun ("Daniel Yednock")
2: Appositive ("A member...in State College,")
3: Dependent clause ("When he is not at school,")
4: Infinitive phrase ("To gain engineering experience,")
5: Prepositional phrase ("After this semester,")

Reference

  1. Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 4th ed. (New York: Springer Verlag, 2018), Lesson 5.​
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