CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE WORK "WRITING A SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE"

Abstract

In the article "Writing a Scientific Article", Sebastião Gusmão offers a practical and clear guide on the essential guidelines for writing scientific texts, emphasizing the original article as the basic format for academic writing. The author argues that the quality of the writing directly reflects the researcher's ability to communicate his/her findings, and that it is vital that the author be aware of the theoretical bases and structure of his/her text.
Gusmão divides his work into two parts. The first part presents the theoretical bases of scientific writing, where he discusses the importance of each stage in the construction of a coherent and logical text. He establishes that scientific writing should integrate data and interpretations, aiming to answer research questions objectively. In this context, he highlights the IMRED model (Introduction, Materials/Methods, Results and Discussion) as fundamental for organizing the content in a way that reflects the logic of the research.
The second part of the article addresses Magnusson's "backwards" writing proposal, which suggests that the writing should begin with the conclusion, followed by the sections that support this conclusion. This approach allows the author to maintain the text’s coherence and eliminate unnecessary information, ensuring that each part of the article contributes to the understanding of the problem under investigation. Gusmão also discusses scientific language, emphasizing that clarity and conciseness are crucial. He recommends careful revision of the text to remove redundancies and emphasizes the importance of varying verb tenses according to the context: past to describe methodologies and results, present for conclusions and citations, and infinitive for objectives. In the end, the author reaffirms that an ideal scientific text should be simple, logical and concise, focusing on clarity for the reader. His article is a valuable resource for researchers who wish to improve their writing skills, highlighting the need for effective communication in the academic environment.