Scientific Writing HRP 214 In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world not to the man to whom the idea first occurs Sir William Osler Scientific Writing HRP 214 Writing is an art But when it is writing to inform it comes close to being a science as well Robert Gunning The Technique of Clear Writing Scientific Writing HRP 214 Lecture One Introduction What makes good writing What does it take to be a good writer Scientific Writing HRP 214 What makes good writing Takes having something to say and clear thinking 1 Good writing communicates an idea clearly and effectively 2 Good writing is elegant and stylish Takes time revision and a good editor Scientific Writing HRP 214 What makes a good writer Inborn talent Years of English and humanities classes An artistic nature The influence of alcohol and drugs Divine inspiration Scientific Writing HRP 214 What makes a good writer outside of poets maybe Having something to say Logical and clear thinking A few simple learnable rules of style the tools we ll learn in this class Take home message Clear effective writing can be learned Scientific Writing HRP 214 How much can you improve your writing in one short quarter A lot In addition to taking this class other things you can do to become a better writer Read pay attention and imitate Let go of academic writing habits deprogramming step Talk about your research before trying to write about it Develop a thesaurus habit Search for the right word rather than settling for any old word Respect your audience try not to bore them Stop waiting for inspiration Accept that writing is hard for everyone Revise Nobody gets it perfect on the first try Learn how to cut ruthlessly Never become too attached to your words Find a good editor Scientific Writing HRP 214 Reading list Read pay attention and imitate My favorite sources of good writing The New Yorker The New York Times How many read the NY Times Tuesday Science section Nature Science Expect to see examples from these sources throughout this course Scientific Writing HRP 214 Clear writing starts with clear thinking Scientific Writing HRP 214 Before you start writing ask What am I trying to say When you finish writing ask Have I said it Scientific Writing HRP 214 Once you know what you re trying to say then pay attention to your words Today s lesson Strip your sentences to just the words that tell Scientific Writing HRP 214 The Elements of Style William Strunk Jr available online at http www bartleby com 141 Vigorous writing is concise A sentence should contain no unnecessary words a paragraph no unnecessary sentences for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline but that every word tell Scientific Writing HRP 214 The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components Every word that serves no function every long word that could be a short word every adverb that carries the same meaning that s already in the verb every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence And they usually occur in proportion to the education and rank William Zinsser in On Writing Well 1976 Scientific Writing HRP 214 Famous Example Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination from a government blackout order in 1942 Scientific Writing HRP 214 FDR s response Tell them that in the buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows Scientific Writing HRP 214 Example 2 Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account example by George Orwell quoted in Sin and Syntax Scientific Writing HRP 214 Example 2 I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favor to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all Ecclesiastes Help This was the first sentence of a recent scientific article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology Introduction section Adoptive cell transfer ACT immunotherapy is based on the ex vivo selection of tumor reactive lymphocytes and their activation and numerical expression before reinfusion to the autologous tumor bearing host Aaaccckkkk That sentence does not make me want to read on And here s the final sentence from the same article Current studies in our laboratory are focused on the logistical aspects of generating autologous cell based patient treatments the genetic modification of lymphocytes with T cell receptor genes and cytokine genes to change their specificity or improve their persistence and the administration of antigen specific vaccines to augment the function of transferred cells This is academic writing at its finest boring unreadable written to obscure rather than to inform Another example A sentence from Photochemistry and Photobiology These findings imply that the rates of ascorbate radical production and its recycling via dehydroascorbate reductatse to replenish the ascorbate pool are equivalent at the lower irradiance but not equivalent at higher irradiance with the rate of ascorbate radical production exceeding its recycling back to ascorbate Another example A sentence from Photochemistry and Photobiology These findings imply that the rates of ascorbate radical production and its recycling via dehydroascorbate reductatse to replenish the ascorbate pool are equivalent at the lower irradiance but not equivalent at higher irradiance with the rate of ascorbate radical production exceeding its recycling back to ascorbate After much work on my part I translated this too These findings imply that at low irradiation ascorbate radicals are produced and recycled at the same rate but at high irradiation ascorbate radicals are produced faster than they can be recycled back to ascorbate Scientific Writing HRP 214 Today s introduction to writing
View Full Document
Unlocking...