Rafael F. Duarte

English for Biomedical Scientists

Methodological Approach to English for Biomedical Scientists.- English Grammar Usage.- Usual Mistakes Made by Scientistis Speaking and Writing in English.- Writing a Manuscript.- Writing Scientific Correspondence.- Attending a Scientific Course or Conference.- Giving Presentations for Biomedical Scientists.- Chairing a Scientific Discussion.- Curriculum Vitae, Cover Letters, and Other Professional Letters.- Getting Ready for a Job Interview in English.- The Laboratory Environment.- Laboratory Writing.- Laboratory Safety and Biohazards.- Laboratory Animal Work.- Latin and Greek Terminology.- Acronyms and Abbreviations.- Conversation Survival Guide.

Getting Ready for a Job Interview in English

Unit IX has just shown you how to write a CV and cover letter that can make your qualifications and experience look competitive for a job application. So, if you got invited for an interview: congratulations, you’ve successfully passed the first round! The job, however, is far from over. If you want to finish it and get an offer for the position that you are applying for, you will have to confirm that good initial impression from your resume in a job interview. Even more, as a non-native English-speaking applicant, you will have to confirm that good first impression in an interview held in a language that is not your own.

Curriculum Vitae, Cover Letters, and Other Professional Letters

This unit will give general guidance for biomedical scientists on how to write a CV and cover letter that stand out in English and, more importantly, for an English-speaking evaluator. General guidance on the design, sections, and lay out of CV and cover letters will be provided and explained with various examples and specific templates. Professional correspondence goes well beyond CVs and cover letters. Other professional letters that will be discussed in this unit include job acceptance and declination letters, resignation letters, and reference letters.

Writing Scientific Correspondence

This unit is made up of several examples of letters sent to editors of scientific journals. Our intention is to provide you with useful tools to communicate with journal editors and reviewers in a formal manner. It is our understanding that letters to editors have quite an important, and many times overlooked, role in the fate of scientific manuscripts.

English Grammar Usage

The first chapters are probably the least read by most readers in general and scientists in particular, and in our opinion it is precisely in the first chapters that the most important information of a book is displayed. It is in its first chapters that the foundations of a book are laid, and many readers do not optimize the reading of a manual because they skip its fundamentals.

Conversation Survival Guide

Many professionals who can hold their own fairly well in a technical conversation in English find themselves at a total loss for words in other situations. This is only to be expected. Work is a big part of life, taking up a large proportion of your waking life. Dedicated scientists and physicians often spend an even larger proportion of their time immerged in their work than their counterparts in other professions, and the chances are that most of your contact with the English language is related to your work. That is well and good, but work is not everything. When you travel outside your own country, you will need to use English in many different situations. Remember – fluency builds self-confidence and the lack of fluency breeds insecurity.

Latin and Greek Terminology

Latin and Greek terminology is another obstacle to be overcome on our way to becoming fluent in medical English. Many English scientific terms come from Latin and Greek. For this reason, romance-language speakers (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.) are undoubtedly at an advantage. This advantage, however, can become a great drawback in terms of pronunciation and, particularly, in the use of the plural forms of Latin and Greek.

Writing a Manuscript

In units II and III we have given you a somewhat general introduction to scientific English grammar and usage, and to some of the usual mistakes made by non-native English-speaking biomedical scientists. In this unit, we leave introductions behind and dive in for one of the most important skills that every non-native scientist must develop: the capacity to deliver good scientific writing in English. The premise to this statement can be briefly put as follows: 1. English is not just the global language of science; it is virtually its only language. 2. Science is not really science until published (i.e. written – peer reviewed – published). 3. As a biomedical scientist you must be able to effectively write your research in English.

The Laboratory Environment

In this unit we take a look at the research laboratory environment in English. Our goal is to help you identify and refer correctly to various types of rooms, pieces of equipment, and other devices typically found in a biomedical research lab. Lack of fluency in this area may often be a source of frustration for non-native researchers, who need to point embarrassingly at or undertake convoluted descriptions of facilities that they cannot find the right word for. In addition, native English-speaking researchers face the baffling challenge of deciphering what their non-native English-speaking colleagues are trying to say.

Usual Mistakes Made by Scientistis Speaking and Writing in English

In this section we try to share with you what we have found to be some of the great hurdles in scientific English. There are many things that certainly can go wrong when one is asked to give a lecture in English or whenever one is supposed to communicate in English, and there are specific units to discuss those. This unit is by no means an exhaustive account. After reviewing English grammar usage, we think it is useful to pass our recollection of the commonest mistakes from what we have learnt from our own experience in the fascinating world of scientific English.