Scientific Writing Lesson 2: The Craft of Scientific Writing

The last lesson established why there is a need for a separate style of writing for scientific work that is dependent upon the intended audience. This lesson sets about the task of covering some of the mechanical considerations of doing the actual writing.

General Tasks

1. Read chapter 4 in Alley's book using the techniques from Lessons 2 and 3 from the Self-Study course.
2. Write a one page report about some scientific topic of strong interest to you. Make an assumption about the level of the audience before you begin writing.
3. Write an operational definition of word pair as used in Alley's book. Give three examples of word pairs.
4. Look over your work and look for any use of a member of a word pair. Did you use it properly? If not, then make the necessary correction in your report.
5. Look for groupings of words that have no meaning. If you find any can you think of a rewording that will make sense? Make all necessary corrections.
6. Write an operational definition of the word synonym. Include a note about the problem with synonyms. Look through your report for examples of the improper use of synonyms. Make all necessary corrections.
7. Write an operational definition of the word connotation. Look for improper connotations in your report. Correct all errors you find.
8. Look for instances of words like always, or never. Are they appropriate? Are you sure? Are there any special cases where these words are not appropriate in the context of your report? Have you tried to find such? If the answer to any of these questions is no then choose a different word (like usually).
9. Read through your report as though you were at the level of the intended audience. Have you given all necessary detail to make it understandable? Are there any sentences that require understanding or knowledge beyond the intended audience? If so, rewrite those sentences to include all necessary details. If this makes your report go over the single page, then so be it. Continue with this process until the document is as it should be for your audience.
10. Write an operational definition of the word generality. Look for generalities in your report. Can you make those sentences stronger by adding specific details?
11. Do you make any specific statements that carry so much information that they might confuse the reader? Think about what you are actually trying to say. Does the detail aid in this? If not make the sentence more general.
12. If you have a sentence packed with specifics, perhaps it would be better to break it up into smaller sentences.
13. When presenting details choose the most important details so that the reader will be informed and interested.
14. Read chapter 5 in Alley's book using the techniques from Lessons 2 and 3 from the Self-Study course.
15. Read your report. Are you using needlessly complicated words in your report? Can you think of simpler ways to say the same thing?
16. Are you using needlessly complicated phrases? Do these phrases say what you intend them to say? How much is left ot the reader to know already? Does the average reader for your audience know this?
17. Are you using needlessly complicated sentences? Try breaking them into smaller sentences. Does this make it more understandable? A sentence should contain only one idea. Try to figure out what you want a sentence to say before you write it. What details are really important to the reader?
18. Are you including excess writing? Phrases that do not need to be there? In short, is your report "overwritten?" You should write as though you were talking to someone sitting in front of you.
19. Is your writing ambiguous? Do you have sentences that can have more than one meaning? Are you explaining the things you need to explain? If not, you must provide sufficient explanations to remove the ambiguity. Are you choosing words that have many possible meanings? Can you chose a word that is better for what you want to say? Is the ordering of phrases within a sentence saying what you want it to say? Perhaps reordering the sentence is the answer. When you refer to something with a pronoun have you appropriately assigned that pronoun in an unambiguous way? Could someone be confused about what thing the pronoun refers? If such an assignment needs to specified, then specify it.
20. Are you misusing commas? This is an extremely common mistake in writing. Fix the use of commas in your report in accord with Alley's suggestions.
21. Are you using pretensious wording in your writing? If so, be sure to clean them out and replace them them with simpler words or phrases.
22. Do you use arrogant phrases like, "It is well known that...," or other phrases that will have the effect of insulting the intelligence of the reader? If something is obvious, you don't need to point it out! A corollary to this statement is that if you feel the need to point it out, it isn't obvious.
23. Have you used clichés? Get rid of them. You are not writing tripe, you are writing something informative.
24. Read chapter 6 in Alley's book using the techniques from Lessons 2 and 3 from the Self-Study course.
25. Are you using weak nouns or verbs? Replace them with strong nouns and verbs. Make sure that you maintain your voice. I prefer to have an active voice. I am not informing you of anything if you fall asleep while reading this. But don't jump around between voices. If you start passive, stay passive.
26. Read chapter 7 in Alley's book using the techniques from Lessons 2 and 3 from the Self-Study course.
27. Are you using terms that the reader you are directing your report to would not understand? Do you explain each of these terms? If not, do so. Make sure that you explain something first and then name it. For example, "The rate of change of an objects position from a previously determined reference point with respect to standard units of time is called the velocity of the object." This serves two purposes; it is unambiguous, and it reinforces the notion that the underlying principle is more important than the word that describes it. When defining something it is useful to give a specific example of it. Just make sure your example is correct. Always include a statement of why the example fits the definition. It might even be good, where it seems appropriate, to include an example of something that does not meet the definition, such a thing is called a counterexample. You can also use analogies, but you must be very careful with these, a lot of people have trouble making good analogies and it takes a lot of practice.
28. Read chapter 8 in Alley's book using the techniques from Lessons 2 and 3 from the Self-Study course.
29. Can you identify any redundant statements in your report? Fix them.
30. Can you identify statements that mean nothing, writing zeros? Eliminate them. Can you reduce your sentences to their simplest form? Do so.
31. Read chapter 9 in Alley's book using the techniques from Lessons 2 and 3 from the Self-Study course.
32. Identify the sentence openers that you are using. Can you see how varying them might improve the flow of the report? Try it.
33. Are all of your sentences of uniform length? This will make the report seem dull. Try changing the length of your sentences occasionally; every two or three sentences.
34. Identify the sentence structures you are using. Try varying them. Does this improve the report?
35. Are all of your paragraphs uniform? Are they too short? Too long? Try varying their length occasionally. Does this help?
36. Are you making sure to actually connect ideas that should be connected? Make sure you have done so. Are you making assumptions that your reader is unaware of? Correct this.
37. Are you needlessly using abbreviations? Can you justify the use of each abbreviation? Change those that are are not justified.
38. Are you needlessly using capital letters? Try not using them and see if this makes things better. Of course, proper nouns always start with a capital letter.
39. Are you using numerals correctly? Try writing them out.
40. Do you use equations? Have you described each symbol being used? If not, do so now. Have you explicitly stated any assumptions required to understand the equation in the current context? If not, do so now. Have you given an example of how the equation does its job? If not, try doing so. Have you given a statement about the meaning of the equation within the present context, its significance? Try doing so.
41. If you carry out a derivation have you included enough detail so that the reader can follow along with every step? If not, do so.

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