Notes from 48th International STC Conference
Chicago, Illinois, May 13-16, 2001

Scientific Writing

Session Description: This session identified techniques for writing about science and technology for newspaper and magazine articles, and for scientific publications. A focal area was how to identify and avoid specific pitfalls in creating scientific documents.

Writing About Science for General Audiences

Donald C. Samson, Jr.
Radford University

Don Samson teaches science writing, technical writing, technical editing, and literature at Radford University. He authored the textbook "Editing Technical Writing".

Note: For a hard copy of the presenter's tech paper in the conference Proceedings contact Dan Voss.

• Scientific writing refers to writing for the general public, through newspapers, periodicals, books, and the like -- as opposed to scientific communication within the scientific community.
• Students write to show how much they know, for an audience that knows more (their professors). Scientific writers write for an audience that knows less, with the purpose of informing them. In training students to be technical communicators, we need to prepare them for this radically different purpose.
• Definitions: Science writing vs scientific writing vs technical writing
• Writing tasks:
   
• Learn about new developments and interpretations
• Identify subjects of interest to readers... this is a critical consideration in trying to get published
• Choose subjects you are interested in
• Research the subject
• Identify experts (local experts if you're publishing in local media; national/international experts if you're publishing in national/international media)
• Create interest in the article (human interest is a good way...especially if you are eschewing--as you should--the path of sensationalism)
• Control pace and level of complexity (not an issue in scientific communication, but a major issue in scientific writing for the general public)
• Strategies:
   
• Use human interest. Samson cited a superb article about treating cardiac arhythmia that had a human interest angle via a real case history.
• Limit technical terms.
• Clarify concepts and abstractions.
• Use shorter, straighter sentences; simpler, straightforward illustrations (much different than articles in technical journals).
• Use a slower pace.
• Identify the purpose
• Motivate readers by appealing to their needs and values... also to tap into their natural curiosity
• Observe customary formats
• The cover letter is very important in trying to get published.
   
• Convince the editor in the cover letter that the article is worth publishing: indicate the slant, clarify how the article differs from others that have been written on the subject... show how this article will help sell the publication.
• Indicate the appropriate section within a publication where you article should appear, and state why readers would be interested.
• Explain your qualifications, identify the most significant sources, identify the reviewers.
• Keep learning
   
• Examine other writers' approaches
• Discover concepts for illustrations
• Identify sources of information
• Identify topics of future interest

Careful Scientific Writing: A Guide for the Nitpicker, the Novice,
and the Nervous

Elaine R. Firestone
SAIC General Sciences Corporation

Elaine Firestone works for SAIC General Sciences Corporation at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She is a board-certified editor in the life sciences.

Note: For a hard copy of the presenter's slides and/or a hard copy of her tech paper in the conference Proceedings contact Dan Voss.

• BELS = Board of Editors in the Life Sciences... offers certification in scientific writing
• What is different about scientific writing? Why is it different from other types of writing?
• Sloppy writing can indicate sloppy science. Precision and exactness are very important.
• Poor grammar and mechanics can cause scientific papers to be rejected by journals, even if the substantive content has merit.
• Know your audience. Minimize technical jargon when writing for lay audiences.
• Style changes: why are they made? Style manuals provide guidelines, not rules in the sense of grammatical or mechanical correctness.
• Third person vs first person. Some journals will not accept first person.
• Consistency is important when dealing with changing word forms (e.g., data base vs. database; data set vs dataset...it's database and data set); British vs. American English (but don't change proper nouns), etc.
• Simplified spelling vs traditional spelling: pediatric vs paediatric; pheophytin vs phaeophytin; fetus vs foetus (Web searches need to use both spellings)
• Spell out dates, do not use // format..the meaning reverses in the UK, for example.
• Don't use abbreviations in text, only with values.
• Be careful! (e.g., nmi vs nm)
• Clarity: Use simple words and phrases. Write what's correct, not what sounds right.
• Precision overrides conciseness. "Grain-fed cattle are generally accepted to produce more tender meat." Cannot eliminate "are generally accepted" for conciseness; it changes the statement materially, from probability to fact
• Commas can be critical. Witness: "The authors wish to acknowledge their co-workers, Superman and Batman." vs "The authors wish to acknowledge their co-workers, Superman, and Batman."
• Hyphens can be critical. Consider: "The child created artwork" vs. "The child-created artwork."
• Maintain consistent terminology throughout...avoid changing terms, introducing synonyms, etc. (this plays hell with XML)
• Verb tenses CAN change in a scientific paper--this is NOT wrong!
• Avoid subjective judgment words: "obviously," "clearly," "arguably," "it is intuitively clear that."
• Acronyms: Don't create one if the phrase isn't used a lot, unless the acronym is better known than the definition.
• There are different styles of typesetting for acronyms.
• Avoid using URLs for references; they change too fast.
• Web-published papers don't have the same status as journal-published articles, and they tend to be ephemeral, not permanently archived, indexed, and retrievable. Furthermore, they are unlikely to have been edited or peer-reviewed unless they have also been published in a journal.
• Solidus or slash: use it only in equations, not in writing. Avoid and/or.
• Do not use cliches. Do not create cliches through overuse of a phrase.
• Use dates rather than seasons... to avoid confusion between boreal and austral winter and summer.
• Commonly confused words and phrases:
   
• "From...to" vs "Between...and"
• "Due to" means "caused by" not "because"
• "Since" vs "because"
• "Comprise" vs "compose"
• "Impact" vs "effect"
• Past vs past perfect
• "Input," "output," and "throughput" are collective nouns... no "s."
• Affected words and phrases
   
• "Utilize, utilizing, utilization"
• "In order to" (avoid except at beginning of sentence)
• "Upon" vs "on"
• "Methodologies" vs "methods"
• Reference books
   
• Scientific Style and Format, Council of Biology Editors (a.k.a., the CBE Style Manual)
• ACS Style Guide, A Manual for Authors and Editors, American Chemical Society
• Three steps to science: pose a hypothesis, collect the data, defend the results publicly (at a conference before peers and in the scientific literature)
• Accurate English is critical to accurate translations.
• Science is international and interdisciplinary.
• Scientific literature is often available electronically in addition to in printed media.
• Excellent written communication in the sciences is more vital now than ever before in history.