Everyone who once was a student knows how hard it is to write a decent scientific paper. However, what if you had to write one using a foreign language? This way the goal gets far more complicated. There is no reason to panic though; writing a research paper in a foreign language is hard but not impossible. Right now, we will tell you how to successfully do it.
A research paper – what is it like?
Speaking shortly, a research paper is a text that you write after studying some materials or conducting an experiment, making conclusions out of it, that can have some practical impact. There can be various requirements to the paper, like the amount of words or pages, but there are still a few core rules, that you must follow during the writing process:
- Academic language – while writing your research paper you have to make sure that you do not use any slang words and keep it sounding like a scientific material. However, do not make it sound too complicated either; you want it to be understood by everyone, right?
- Strict structure – whenever you are writing a scientific paper there is usually a number of rules that you have to follow, regarding your text and its format. These rules vary from paper to paper, but there are still some core points that you have to include, such as introduction, main part, conclusion and list of references.
- Logical narration – while writing a research paper you have to logically express your opinions and statements, no jumping from one point to another!
So, now that you know what a research paper is, we will present to you a list of tips on how to write it in a foreign language.
1. Getting familiar with profile lexis
Research paper of any kind always includes profile lexis. So it is your job to accurately translate it to the foreign language. At this point simply using online translator might not be enough, as you want your scientific community to understand the point you are trying to prove in your paper. If you could just spend some time sinking deeper into nuances of translation of scientific terms you will be using, the quality of your research paper would benefit greatly from it.
2. Do not let one word become an obstacle
Very often when people are struggling through writing their research paper in a foreign language they come across a few words that they cannot translate accurately. In most cases, this one word stops the whole writing process. Well, do not let that discourage you! While you are trying to find the right word, write the closest synonym and move on, you will think of that later. It is more important that you do not lose the idea that you have, rather than writing everything correctly from the first attempt. There is such thing as proofreading after all.
3. Excellent grammar
While writing your research paper in foreign language your grammar has to be more than just good, it must be excellent. So make sure that for those purposes you choose the best translation services, as some of them might twist your ideas around by doing inaccurate translation.
4. Make it easy
The biggest flaw of scientific texts is their complexity to those, who are not familiar with the subject. Even if your research paper is not aimed at non-scientifical community you still might want to make it clear and simple. This way your ideas will be understood easier and the chance of you making mistakes goes down as well.
5. Do not hesitate
It is never easy to write texts, using the language that is not your native – be it a school essay or a massive scientific research paper. So by procrastinating and promising yourself to ‘start tomorrow’ you are only making things worse. Do not be afraid to make mistakes, you will perfect everything later. Just remember, that by starting to write your paper you will do 50% of the job.
Conclusions
So this is a list of tips for those, who are about to start writing their research paper using foreign language. Sure, this can seem scary at first, but as soon as you actually begin writing you will see, that this process can also be creative and interesting. So do not procrastinate, use these advices and write the best research paper you can.