Scientific Writing

Scientific writing is simply writing about science. There seems to be an enigma around the phrase and perhaps the belief that one should use "scientific writing techniques" to write about science or in the scientific realm. In fact, good scientific writing relies on good writing and there are very few, if any, writing techniques that are specific to scientific writing.

George Gopen is a noted expert in scientific writing, having co-authored an article on the subject and then offering lectures and workshops on scientific writing. Yet, when reading the article, you very quickly realize that his and Judith Swan's suggestions apply to any type of writing; they just use scientific prose as their examples.

I speak with some authority on this, because I have a degree in scientific and technical communication and was previously a Technical Writer. Today, I dug into the works and advice of three communication greats: George Gopen, Edward Tufte, and Steven Pinker. You may have noticed my switch from "writing" to "communication," and that's to enlarge our idea of good writing to include the visual communication we see on the page or screen. Below, I highlight an important takeaway from each scholar, but I begin with one tip with which they all agree.

Good writing in any genre is written for the audience
What is good writing? Well, certainly this is debated and contested, but as a writer, the only opinions that should matter are that of your audience. The question should be, "How do you communicate your ideas most clearly so that your reader can understand or even use the information?" The following tips can give us part of the answer.

Sentence Stress Position (George Gopen)
Gopen and Swan's article below focuses largely on the structure of the sentence, and one of the big takeaways that Gopen offers is to be aware of the stress position in a sentence. The stress position is the end of the sentence or clause, and intuitively where the reader looks for the most important information. As a quick example, I pulled language from an NSF abstract:

Original: Results from this research may be used to improve heat and mass transport models, frost heave models, and models of frozen soil creep by incorporating enhanced unfrozen water content functions, which will account for unfrozen water mobility and its dependence on soil-specific physicochemical properties.

Improved: Results from this research may be used to improve heat and mass transport models, frost heave models, and models of frozen soil creep by incorporating enhanced unfrozen water content functions.


You'll see that all I did was take off the part of sentence that seemed to fizzle. This information may be pertinent and require its own sentence, but in tagging it on to the original, we're putting less important information in the stress position. By removing it, we put the focus of the sentence back on the research results.

Visual Communication (Edward Tufte)
Edward Tufte points out that often times we write something and then add in visuals or charts and think of them separately.  Yet, when a reader looks at the same page, they don't see them separately; it is one source of information. The title, the headings, the text, and diagrams, the graphs should all work together for the single purpose of communicating an idea to the reader as clearly as possible.  This should tell you that not only is it a no-no to refer to a graph or chart that is found two pages later, but to also make sure no piece of your work distracts from your key points. And, when making decisions about how to communicate an idea, you should always choose the form (text or visual) that best communicates your idea.


Show, Don't Tell (Steven Pinker)
Steven Pinker makes the point that one makes a stronger argument and a more compelling read when one uses her text to illustrate the point, using examples, instead of telling the reader outright. The easiest way to say this is to avoid hyperbole. If something is excellent, don't tell the reader it's excellent, show them why it is and allow them to come to that conclusion. In grant-writing, it's essential for the Investigator to show why she is the best researcher to conduct the proposed project. She must do this by demonstrating her expertise and experience. She won't do herself any favors if she tells the reviewers that she is the best researcher for the job.


I hope these nuggets from some of the great communication experts can allow you to very quickly apply them to your scientific writing or whatever kind of visual communication you're working on! Stay tuned for more writing tips in the next few weeks.

Resources:
The Science of Scientific Writing - George Gopen and Judith Swan
Highlights from Edward Tufte Presentation - iSquared (video)
Steven Pinker on Good Writing - iSquared (video)