Tip Number 5: How to structure sentences.

Writing sentences is a skill that comes with practice. The more you write, the better you will become. So write more. One of the tips I have for young researchers looking to get their first paper published is that I advise them to publish a case report or publish a letter to the editor. By the way, I am speaking to non-English speakers here. This series of posts is intended for non-English speakers.

For non-native English speakers, getting the first sentence written down is near impossible.

So how do you structure your sentences? I am not a English teacher nor do I have qualification in English literature so I will not go into the details of how a verb or noun could/should be used to structure a sentence. What I will give is my tips on how to layout the paragraph.

The hard part is the initial first draft. That is the hard (or it may appear to be) part. More importantly is that the initial draft is the CREATIVE part of the writing. After the 1st draft – the creation has already occurred. After that you would just need to refine, polish and fine tune your paper to get it ready for submission to a journal.

My tip is do not be afraid to start getting your fingers on the keyboard and start typing. Just type. Write down what is in your mind. Do not sit in front of your computer wondering if the sentence is grammatically correct or not. Remember, the 1st draft is the DRAFT! It will change. So start the process.

Once you finish, save it, give it a week or two and comeback and read over. You will find a lot of mistakes. Yes that is true! This is the time to polish and fine tune.