Scientific_Writing

Threads of Scientific Writing 1. Avoiding Ambiguity twitter.com/Sci_Writing_En… 2. Grammar twitter.com/Sci_Writing_En… 3. Sustaining Energy in Scientific Writing twitter.com/Sci_Writing_En…

“e.g.” and “i.e.” are not interchangeable. e.g. means “for example,” while i.e. means “in other words.”

• A career in science requires a substantial and sustained pace of writing. • Techniques for sustaining discipline in writing include quotas, scheduling, writing at productive times, setting up a distraction-free writing environment, and many other “commitment devices.” • “Binge” and “snack” writing can each be unhelpful if used exclusively. However, frequent short writing sessions can be surprisingly productive. • For most writers, “swooping” (rapid production of a first draft, even one of low quality) is far better than “bashing” (revising and polishing as you write). • Most writers experience “writer’s block.” Effective ways to overcome it involve deliberate changes to writing behavior, but only temporary interruptions in writing. - Stephen Heard #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

You can ease into any writing task, not just a new paper you're starting from scratch: a section, a figure, a paragraph. You can even ease into a sentence; Perhaps it seems unvirtuous to start with the easy stuff—but it's anything but, because you're using the easy stuff to get you to the hard. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

The advantages of early writing are most obvious with respect to a Methods section. First, there's no easier time to write up your methods than when you're planning or executing the work (and haven't yet forgotten any details). Second, writing the Methods can strengthen your experimental design by alerting you to ill- advised features before it's too late. Writing out your methods for an unfamiliar reader will shine a spotlight on gaps in your logic, mismatches between hypotheses and data, or missing observations that would make your story complete. In particular, watch for features of your methods that are difficult to explain. If you find yourself writing a convoluted explanation, or defending something more than explaining it, these are strong hints that you haven't chosen quite the right procedure or analysis. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

Successful writers write what they need to write, when they need to write it. In doing so, they discover that writing when you don't feel ready is a valuable aid to rigorous thinking. Putting words on the page does something for you that won’t happen inside your head, no matter how long you wait for it. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

If you ask intentional non-starters (writers that procrastinate) what they're waiting for, you'll hear two very popular answers: “I don't have all the data/analyses yet.” “I don't know what I’m going to say yet.” #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

We all know we shouldn't procrastinate, and yet we all do. So what keeps us doing it, and can we change our behavior? #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

Behavioral self-awareness is easier suggested than achieved. It’s possible to use some simple tricks to help bring your own behavior periodically to mind. • Reminders. Put a little sign above your writing station that says “How are you writing?” • Writing logs. Reminders work in the moment; another approach is to force yourself to think retrospectively about your writing behavior. Writing logs can help focus this thinking. One approach is to document an individual writing session. • Cooperate with a friend. Agree to discuss (regularly) writing behavior with a friend or colleague. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

It is surprising how many writers overlook the obvious: you can’t write more or write better without changing what you’re doing as you write, and you can’t change what you’re doing unless you know what you’re doing. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

The ear you develop from reading (especially with conscious attention to writing) is worth more than a thousand writing rules. As a writer, you are part of a community stretching back thousands of years, and what's been written before you can be thought of as a long series of experiments in writer- reader communication. Reading, whether of science, literature, or cereal boxes, gives you access to the results of those experiments and lets you apply them to your own writing craft. So read: read often, read broadly, and read deliberately. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

If you're asked to provide peer review by a journal or granting agency, accept: you'll do a service to the profession, you'll build a relationship with an editor, and you'll have a chance to engage with someone else's (good and bad) writing. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

Take written notes (or annotate the PDF) on examples of effective or ineffective writing and save them in a folder for later reference. When you write, think about your reading experience, imitate what you liked, and avoid recreating what you didn't. Actually, doing this deliberately is just an extension of what you’ve been doing subconsciously ever since you learned to read. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

Your reactions to what others have written are exactly what your writing self needs to know about. You can learn the most from yourself as a reader by paying deliberate attention to your reactions as you read. If you find a paper particularly easy or pleasurable to read, what made it so? What wording, structure, or graphics did you think were effective? If you found a paper hard, what elements made you struggle? Can you imagine a change that would have made the writing clearer? #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

Two elements of scientific writing: 1) The first element is a relentless focus on the goal of crystal-clear communication: nearly every decision you make should be made with that in mind. Should you include a detail of methodology, or leave it out? Should you write in the active voice or the passive? How many decimal places should you give for the numbers in a table? Should your data be in a table at all, or in a figure? In each case, the route to an answer is the same: the better choice is the one that lets the reader more effortlessly understand the story you have to tell. 2) The second element is deliberate attention not just to what you write, but also to how you write. Many new scientific writers simply sit down and expect writing to happen. Such writers can profit by consciously considering their own practices and behavior as they write. Engaging with yourself this way will let you write more, write more easily, and write better—although it does require honest discussion (even confrontation) with yourself about how you write. #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter

Most writers struggle. I didn’t realize this because I had been seeing their writing product, not their writing process, which led to finished work that was clear, smooth, and easy to understand.

• The most important goal for scientific writers is to write clearly. • Clear writing benefits the progress of science, the reader, and most of all, the writer. • Writing that isn’t clear risks being unpublished, unread, or uncited. • Writing skills learned to improve scientific writing are transferable to almost any career.

If your paper isn’t clear they will turn to another. When they do, it’s you as the writer who suffers most.

You are writing because you have some information to transmit, and your goal should be for the reader to receive that information without even being aware of the process.

This view of writing is badly misleading. For most of us, writing is hard work, a source of stress and frustration, and so it deserves the same kind of deliberate consideration we give to experimental design. What is it that you’re trying to write, and why do the standard scientific forms you use have the structures, styles, and other attributes they do? What belongs in a manuscript, what doesn’t, and why? What are you actually thinking and doing as you sit at the keyboard writing (or, perhaps, not writing)? What’s the relationship between the writer and the reader, and how can deliberate thought about that relationship make your writing better? #scientificwriting #AcademicTwitter