37.1 Introduction

All students in scientific, engineering and health professions need to read the research of others; that’s how to stay up-to-date with the discipline. Some students will also need to write about their own research or the research of others. To do so, understanding the language of research is important.

Formal approaches to writing and reporting research exist, for experimental (CONSORT) and for observational studies (STROBE). We will not delve into these specifically (partly because of the wide range of disciplines adopting this book), but these websites are useful resources.

Some information in this chapter is based on Dr. Michael Lufaso’s notes (http://www.unf.edu/~michael.lufaso/chem4931/lecture3.pdf) and Prof. Tony Roberts (http://www.maths.adelaide.edu.au/anthony.roberts/LaTeX/ltxwrite.php) notes.