Just as the broad organization helps readers navigate and find the desired information in a paper, poster, or research article, the fine organization of content within individual paragraphs and sections is important to crafting your scientific story and achieving your writing goals.
In the field of writing analysis, each step the writer takes towards their overall writing goal is termed a move. Each section of a paper or paragraph within a section contains a sequence of moves. Collectively, we can capture the sequence of moves in what is called a move structure. These terms might sound strange at first, but bear with me — the concept of moves proves rather useful!
Thinking about “making moves towards your goal” while you write is an important reminder that every sentence you write should serve a purpose. It is a reminder that effective writers achieve their writing goals through intentional writing choices.
To start understanding moves and move structures, consider a non-scientific example: a cover letter for a job application (adapted from Tatsanajamsuk 2017). This non-scientific example may help you to see how using moves in the expected sequence can help you achieve your writing goal — in this case to land a job interview.
Proposed Move Structure for Job Application Cover Letter
Notice how moves can be broken down further into submoves, and that some moves (or submoves) can be “optional.” In the context of scientific writing, “optional” is typically replaced with “as needed.” In other words, while a particular move may not always be needed to achieve your goals, when it is needed…it is not optional.
Move structures can be represented as lists, as in the example above. Graphical representations of move structures can be used to convey additional information about your writing than lists alone. In particular, graphical move structures often convey the relative length and level of detail required for your writing to achieve each move. A graphical representation of the job application letter move structure we examined above might look like this:
Let’s note several features of this graphical move structure and others we will use on Write Like a Scientist:
Features of graphical move structures
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of move structures, let’s apply these tools to scientific writing, and specifically to writing a journal article. We focus on journal articles, because they are among the most common genres used by practicing scientists. Many types of scientific writing that are commonly used by students of science (e.g., lab reports, theses, dissertations) are typically organized and contain similar content to journal articles (even as the writing itself might target a less expert audience). For this reason, the journal article organization is a broadly applicable and readily adapted starting point for most scientific writing.
In Broad Organization, we examined the IMRD organizational framework of journal articles and many other genres of scientific writing. Here, we’ll examine the specific content and sequence of content expected in each of these individual sections. In the Write Like a Scientist section on Scientific Language, we’ll refer back to this discussion as we discuss language conventions that typify specific sections and moves.
We’ll discuss the sections not in order from start-to-finish (i.e., IMRD), but in the order most scientists write them (i.e., MRDI). Introductions are often written last, or at least substantially revised as one of the last steps in writing, because until you know what your findings are, it is difficult to know what introductory background readers will need. In contrast, starting your writing with Methods is convenient because you can often write this section even as experiments are ongoing and the results are not yet known. We’ll walk through the Methods in most detail to get you used to “reading” move structures and then move more quickly through the remaining sections.
The writing goal for Methods is to describe how a study was conducted in sufficient detail that a fellow expert could replicate the work. This means, for example, that you would need to provide specifics about the particular organism you are studying but few details about how to sterilize your glassware, because that is something an expert would know and not need to be told.
Let’s examine the following graphical move structure (adapted from Robinson et al., 2008), which captures the essential organization of most journal articles Methods sections. We’ll discuss the overall structure, and then dig into the specific content of each move.
Methods sections typically have three moves, one of which (Move 3) is included only “as needed” (note its dashed outline). Indeed, there are many dashed lines within the Methods move structure! While the move structure captures typical moves and their sequence, providing writers with a guide, the abundance of dashed lines indicates that the writer still has many decisions to make.
Let’s note two additional aspects of the overall move structure:
Order of Methods Moves. Examining the overall content of the Methods section, we note that the order of the moves reflects the typical chronology of actual research (i.e., you describe your field site and materials before your procedures, because you would normally choose your field site and order your materials before using them for procedures). Data analysis is last, because this step assumes you have already conducted procedures and data to analyze. Furthermore, if your procedure only involved calculations, you probably won’t have conventional “describe materials” and “describe procedures” moves, but might replace them with a description of the mathematical model and/or equations you used.
Ordering sub-move “repeats”. When you have multiple methods to describe, the order in which you present multiple procedures (note the repeat sequence of Move 2A-2B) should be logical. Often the order is chronological (e.g., what was done to the samples in the order that it was performed) or from most critical to least critical (e.g., from the procedures that generated the bulk of the data or information to those that provided less essential complementary information). The order in which methods are presented should more-or-less match the order in which you present results, so thinking about how best to present your findings to convey a compelling scientific story will help you organize your Methods.
Methods sub-headings. Just as headings are used to clearly delineate the broad organization of a paper, sub-headings are commonly used to delineate (sub)moves. Here are some literature examples of the sequence of Methods sub-headings, and their corresponding moves.
Move 1: Provide experiment context. You’ll note that dashed lines are used for all the Move 1 sub-moves, but that Move 1 as a whole is required (solid line). This indicates that none of the individual sub-moves are required for all studies, but all studies require at least one of the sub-moves; afterall, if you don’t have an experimental design, don’t have a field or sampling site to report, and didn’t use any materials or samples…it’s not clear that you actually did any research about which to write!
Move 2: Describe Experimental Methods. This move is used to describe how the materials described in Move 1 were utilized as part of experimental procedures and instrumental techniques to make measurements or otherwise obtain the study results.
It can be challenging to decide the level of detail to include for Methods Moves 1 and 2. We mentioned early to consider whether an expert would need to receive that information in order to replicate the study. Another way to think about whether to include information or not is whether those details influence the results. This consideration came into play when we discussed reporting purity of the chemicals and batch number of a biologically active material. This same consideration is why we report lots of instrumental details for complex pieces of equipment — those variables often determine the quality (e.g., accuracy, precision, resolution, sensitivity) of the measurement.
Move 3: Describe Data- &/or Statistical Analysis. In this move, you should describe any statistical or otherwise mathematical manipulations you performed in the course of your work.
For studies utilizing multiple methods, each with unique data analysis or statistical approaches, the move structure is sometimes modified. Rather than repeat the Move 2A-2B (procedure-instrumentation) sequence for each method, followed by a single “lumped” Move 3 (data analysis) section, the data analysis information for each method is reported separately and immediately following the procedure-instrument description. This results in 2A-2B-3 serving as the repeated sequence, as shown in the modified Methods move structure here (adapted from Robinson et al., 2008):
(adapted from Robinson et al., 2008)
(adapted from Robinson et al., 2008)
Whereas Results sections convey empirical findings of experiments or computational work, including qualitative and quantitative findings, only in Discussion sections are such empirical observations explained, interpreted, and/or compared to literature findings (i.e., those published earlier).
Results convey “just the facts”, whereas Discussions convey “what the facts mean,” in the view of the authors.
(adapted from Robinson et al., 2008)
(adapted from Robinson et al., 2008)
Robinson, M.S.; Stoller, F.L. Costanza-Robinson, M.S.; Jones, J.K. Write Like a Chemist: A Guide and Resource. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
