Writing Corner

Scientists are writers

Writing is the one thing you will never see a scientist doing on film or TV.
In reality, the more senior a scientist you are the less time you spend doing experiments and the more time you spend writing.

Why is writing essential for scientists? Your entire career depends upon:

Your ability to clearly communicate your research results
Your ability to convince prospective employers your work is important
Your ability to convince those who fund your work (sometimes your employer, but more often government agencies and philanthropic foundations) that they should pay for your work to be done

There are other reasons to be a good writer, but if you fail in the three areas above, your career will end before it starts.

You've been misled

In your life as a student, you have almost certainly been misled about writing. This has not been done purposely but as a symptom of standard education. By high school you have already done a fair amount of writing. By college graduation you may have written more essays than you will ever do later in life (unless you become a writer, or a scientist). Where does deception fit in?

For most of your life as a writer, people (your teachers) have been paid to read your writing.

That circumstance is opposite to how the real world works - unless you become a novelist and are successful enough that people pay you to read your writing.

Your beautiful lab reports, flowing essays, and personal stories are usually read by people whose job depends on reading your work (see the video link at the end on the craft of writing effectively to which I credit this insight). Even if your writing is poor, your teachers will still read it and hopefully give you useful feedback. Why does this make you a victim?

When people are judging you by your writing, and when they have the option to stop reading your writing they are in a far different position than your teachers.

If your writing is confusing, redundant, hard to follow, etc. your readers will simply stop reading

Having your writing discarded is devastating if your reader is a college admission officer, an employer, or a science funding agency. It's also something to remember when you are given instructions for an assignment (e.g. a format, font, word limit you are asked to follow). If you violate those rules you can usually guarantee it will be counted against you (I can't tell you how many time students have asked if they can exceed a word limit - don't!). These instructions are usually given by people who need to review 10's - 100's of essays/applications/etc. and they are looking for ways to reduce their workload (not to mention maintain impartiality and fairness towards those who did follow the rules).

Don't be ashamed or feel insecure if your writing skills are poor at the moment. Writing is a skill, and can be learned and improved by practice.

Practicing this skill is worth it. Good writing enables a scientist to succeed. Even if you don't plan on being a scientist, this advice will benefit you.

How to become a good writer

The best advice: the more you write, read other's writing, and (importantly) edit writing, the more natural good writing will be for you. Good writing skills are a long-term self-improvement project that's never too late to begin.

I'll admit up front that this article cannot make you into a good writer. While you still need to get to that destination, no single step will take you there. Instead, I have assembled a few resources to help. I have also taken a perspective, the one taken by the book The Longman Guide to Revising Prose - we will focus on good editing skills rather than writing.

Why focus on editing?

I'll answer in two quotes (I hope the sources correct, but the ideas are valid)

"All writing is rewriting" - John Green, Author
"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Blaise Pascal, Philosopher/Mathematician

You are smart, creative, and original. But like most human beings, it's more than likely that what you first write on the page is not the clearest expression of what you want to communicate.

It is said that we often judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions. What that aphorism means in relation to writing is that we usually know what we mean to say when we write something down. What we have actually said is what our readers may interpret - which is usually full of differences we didn't expect.

Although gap between author and reader sounds like a recipe for frustration, there are some easy ways to overcome most of the problems caused by this dilemma. The first and easiest solution is to put distance between yourself and your writing.

Have you ever read something you wrote a few days or weeks ago and found things that were unclear or errors of some sort? By reading your writing after some time has past, you become a more objective reader, and can often find and fix mistakes. This is the best argument for making sure that you give yourself as much time as possible for writing assignments. Work out how much time (including days away from writing) needed to write a first, second, and perhaps even a third draft. Rushed, last-minute writing will almost certainly cost you.

As you become a better writer you will also become a better editor of your own writing. The next thing suggestion for editing is to follow a method. The method suggested below will not correct every type of writing difficulty, but provides clear guidelines for revising writing.

Paramedic Method

Below are a handout and video that explains this method (which is detailed and elaborated on in the above mentioned Longman Guide book). I will not ask you memorize this method or demand that you always use it. I do hope that if you take a little time to understand it, you will apply in revision assignment below.

This method has a few versions and I'll list a few steps at its core:

Circle/highlight prepositions (of, in, to, etc.) - You will be looking to reduce or eliminate prepositions.
Circle the "is" forms of verbs (where possible you will want to eliminate the verb to be)
Circle the action (you will want to replace "is/to be" verbs with action verbs)
Simplify actions and avoid compound verbs
Start sentences fast - get to the point and avoid filler
Read the writing aloud with feeling and correct sentences that sound awkward

These 6 rules may sound a bit intimidating, but as I said you don't have to memorize them. Instead, watch this video that explains how this method works:

This method is a first step to writing clear sentences. Besides clear sentence structure you must also think about how you develop logical arguments and how your voice makes it easy for the reader to understand your meaning. These edits go beyond sentence structure and we can cover them in a future assignment.

The final step of improving writing is to actually have someone else read your writing. A good editor should return to you a document covered in red ink. Your obligation is put aside any pride and getting upset. Instead, you should be grateful for anyone who gives a critical assessment and strive to use suggestions to improve your result. Never take editing personally. Even the most skilled writers will always face the editor's pen.

One more piece of advice

Here are some rules by Orson Welles on writing well. They've stood the test of time:

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. (i.e avoid cliche)
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. (This rule will bend for science writing)
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Assignment

You were asked to write a short essay about the scientific method. Now you will be sharing that essay with a classmate. You will need to pair with one classmate and agree to edit their work. If there is an odd number, a group of three can be formed.

Here is what to do depending on weather you are the author or the reviewer:

Step	Author	Reviewer
1	Share your document with reviewer via. Google docs
2		Write your name at the top of the document to indicate you are the reviewer. Turn on the suggestion mode for Google docs Read through the document and do one of two things: 1) Leave comments on sentences or phrases you don't understand or which you think need improvement. You may want to ask specific questions of the author; 2) suggest changes or rewordings that you think would help When you have completed your review, let the author know you are done.
3	On a new page in the same document, rewrite the essay; DO NOT ACCEPT CHANGES SUGGESTED BY THE REVIEWER OR DELETE COMMENTS leave those so that I can see the review work that has been done In your new version, attempt to apply the paramedic method to improve your sentences
4	Beneath the revised essay, LIST and ANSWER the following questions: How many words is the revised essay, is it shorter? What were two example sentences that got better upon revision (write out the old and revised sentences)	Beneath the revised essay, LIST and ANSWER the following question: Did the author address your concerns and is the revised essay better? How?
5	When you have completed the revision and questions, please email me that you have completed the assignment

Two more videos worth watching, but for your own enrichment (you aren't responsible for watching them now):