Structure of a Scientific Article

It is widely known that the text should obey the "thesis - argument - example" scheme. This rule is universal, and works for any format, whether it's an Instagram post or a doctoral dissertation. But in order to create a text with an ideal structure, the principle of scientific reasoning alone is not enough.

There can be several abstracts in the text. Then the author needs to decide in what order to describe them and why the order should be that way. For example, start simple and gradually increase the difficulty. For example, you can easily get help with assignments in any discipline just see here, and not immediately jump into the thick of things, even if you are writing an article for specialists - the reader also needs time to catch the essence.

“Starting simple” does not mean starting any article with the elementary. It's infuriating. If you're writing for PhDs, they know exactly what investing is. If the article is for children, limit yourself to the analysis of the topic “the essence of investment”. Don't mix difficulty levels.

How to structure text

The author studied how the color of the buttons on the site affects sales. He needs to describe the results of the experiment in a scientific article.

Article outline

Relevance: we talk about how important budget marketing tools are for small companies, for example, website color palette optimization

Hypothesis: we decided to test how color affects consumer behavior, we expected to get such and such results

Theoretical Fact #1: Describe the basic principles of color psychology (how each color affects consumers)

Theoretical Fact #2: What exactly was meant by consumer behavior in our experiment (making a purchase)

Description of the experiment: goals, objectives, phases

Data visualization: visual demonstration of changing behavioral indicators

Conclusions from the experiment: the statement that “red is selling” has been refuted

Practical recommendations: description of a universal model for the formation of a color palette for any company in the area under consideration

Conclusions

How to organize material: paragraphs

The longer the article, the more important the qualitative structuring of the text. We'll read a little Facebook post if the introductory sentence is catchy—even if it's all solid text with no paragraph breaks. This works with posts up to 500-600 characters long. Long canvases of text subconsciously want to be torn into several parts.

The volume scares off the reader. To read a long text, you need to divide it into paragraphs. One paragraph, one thought. Do not make paragraphs too long: if you get more than 7-8 sentences, most likely there is a lot of water in the text.

Paragraphs make information easier to digest and allow the reader to cut down on reading time. This is especially important for scientific articles, which are rarely read in their entirety. Researchers look for specific abstracts in articles and skip unnecessary parts of the text - your task is to make this task easier for them.

Follow the dynamics - paragraphs should be of equal length. No need to meticulously count the number of characters, it is enough to monitor the visual balance of the text. This way you can give equal attention to each idea, and the reader will not be left with the feeling that you did not understand some facts completely. Make the beginning of the paragraph informative and try not to start the first sentence with introductory constructions. The phrase that starts a paragraph works as an anchor for the audience's perception. If the reader’s gaze clings to the continuous “well-known”, “so”, “thus”, then the article will seem dull in advance.

How to organize material: paragraphs

If the article is voluminous (from 1500 characters) and it reveals several theses at once, the text should be divided into more semantic blocks. Come up with subheadings that will make it easier for the reader to navigate. Then, instead of one article of frightening length, you will receive a set of small light texts, see the recommendations on this topic or go to Reddit.

Elaboration of the structure of the article helps to solve the problem of creative stupor. If you present an article as a set of short text blocks, writing becomes easier. Work no longer feels huge and complex, and stepping through small tasks enhances the feeling of progress.

Structuring helps to understand the causes of procrastination. Often the article is “not written”, but the author does not realize that only one specific subtask, and not the entire text, causes anxiety.