21 Writing Tips
21 Writing Tips
21 Writing Tips
Scientific and technical writing can almost never be 'general purpose'; it must be
written for a specific audience. For the kinds of writing addressed here, that audience will
generally be the community of ecologists who read a particular journal or study a
particular subject. This community is represented by your professor for class papers. In
all cases, you must adopt the style and level of writing that is appropriate for your
audience. Stylistic conventions and acceptable jargon can vary tremendously from one
field to another, and to some extent, from one journal to another. If you are unfamiliar
with the conventions of a field, study them as they are manifested in a selection of highly
regarded papers and in
the "Instructions for Authors" for key journals.
2. Your supervisor/professor is not here to teach you basic grammar and spelling.
The more time and emotional energy she or he spends on correcting basic English
usage, the less remains for issues of content or fine-tuning. You are responsible for
mastering the basics of the language; save your supervisor's time for more substantive
issues. A few glitches and non-parallel tenses will sip through your own careful editing,
but there is no excuse for frequent ungrammatical sentences. Similarly, with word
processors and spellcheckers having become standard writing tools, typos or other
spelling errors should be very rare. Use a spelling checker before submitting anything for
anyone else's reading.
If you find you are about to submit a paper that you know contains poor writing,
consider why you are doing so. If there is a writing problem with which you are having a
hard time (for instance, organizing the structure of an argument in its most effective
form), it is legitimate to submit this for someone else's review with the problem
highlighted as a focused request for assistance. Otherwise, submitting a piece of writing
with
known errors or problems means either: (1) you do not consider your writing worth
improving, (2) you do not respect the reader enough to present writing that is as good as
you can make it, or (3) you are incapable of improving the writing. Every piece of
writing, at some point, is as good as its writer can make it without outside review. That is
the time to give it to your supervisor.
10. Captions should not merely name a table or figure, they should explain how to
read it.
A caption (figure or table heading) should contain sufficient information so that a
reader can understand a table or figure, in most cases, without reference to the text. While
very simple tables and figures may require only a title for clarity, and exceptionally
complex ones may require reference to the text for explanation, these circumstances are
rare. Captions are often most effective when they briefly summarize the main result
presented in the table or figure. Do not leave caption writing to the end of the project;
write captions when you organize your Results section and it will help you write the text.
11. When citing a reference, focus on the ideas, not the authors.
Unless the person who reported a result is an important point in a statement,
literature citations should be parenthetical, rather than in the body of
the sentence. For instance, in most cases, it is preferable to write a sentence of the form
"Though mean growth rates in Idaho were < 1 0 cm per
year, growth rates of > 80 cm are common in populations in Alberta (Marx 1982)." rather
than "Though mean growth rates in Idaho were < 10
cm per year, Marx (1982) found growth rates of >80 cm to be common in populations in
Alberta.' Sometimes the identity of the writer is
important to the meaning of a statement, in which case emphasis on the citation is
appropriate (e.g., "While Jones (1986) rejected this hypothesis,
Meany's (1990) reanalysis of his data failed to do so.').
13. Write about your results, not your tables, figures, and statistics.
Confusing and disjointed Results sections often arise because the writer does not
have a clear idea of the story she/he intends to tell. The frequent consequence of this is a
Results section consisting of a long, seemingly unrelated sequence of tables and figures.
We often go through a lengthy and convoluted process in understanding the content of a
data set; your paper need not document all the twists and turns of that process. Expect
that you will produce many more figures and perform many more statistical tests than
will be included in the final written product. When preparing to write your results, decide
on the elements of the story you wish to tell, then choose the subset of text, figures, and
tables that most effectively and concisely coveys your message. Organize this subset of
tables and figures in a logical sequence; then write your story around
them.
Novice writers of scientific papers frequently pay too little attention to discussing
the content of tables and figures. They sometime merely present a list of references (e.g.,
'Table I shows this result, Table 2 shows that result, Figure 1 shows the other result.").
When writing Results sections you should use the tables and figures to illustrate points in
the text, rather than making them the subject of your text. Rather than writing,
"Figure 4 shows the relationship between the numbers of species A and species B," write
"The abundances of species A and B were inversely related (Figure 4)." Distinguish
between your scientific results and the methodological tools used to support and present
those results.
14. Focus on ecological hypotheses, not statistical hypotheses.
Most students have learned the importance of having and testing clear hypotheses.
Unfortunately, many focus their writing on statistical hypotheses, not ecological
hypotheses. Statistical hypotheses are generally a trivial consequence of standard
approaches to statistical inference, such as the null hypothesis of no difference between
two populations. They rarely have inherent ecological significance and are meaningful
only in the context of the specific test being performed. Focus your writing on the
ecological hypotheses underlying your research (e.g., that species A is influenced by
processes X and Y in a specific way, resulting in different growth rates in habitats S and
1), not the statistical null hypotheses required to test specific predictions of those
ecological hypotheses (e.g., there is no difference in growth rates among populations of
species A in
habitats S and 1).
16. Introductions and conclusions are the hardest parts - plan on spending a lot of
time on them.
Many technical writers prefer to write their introductions last because it is too
difficult to craft that balance of general context and specific focus required for a good
introduction. Often it is easier to achieve this after you have already worked through
writing the entire paper or thesis. If you need to write the introduction first to set the stage
for your own thinking, resist the temptation to perfect it. The introduction will likely need
substantial modification by the time you have finished the rest of the paper. The same
concerns apply to conclusions, abstracts, and summaries. These components of the paper
are all that many people will read, and you must get your message across in as direct,
crisp, and enticing a manner as possible. Plan on taking your time and giving these
components several more drafts than the rest of the paper.
17. Break up large projects into small pieces and work on the pieces.
Don't write a thesis; write chapters or papers. Many thesis writers have a hard
time starting to write because they are intimidated by the huge
project looming ahead of them. As a result, their first few months' efforts are often
awkward and disjointed, as well as sparse. The thesis should
be separated into small discrete sections, ideally distinct publishable papers. The overall
organization of ideas should be done during the planning
stage so that when you work on individual sections you can concentrate on them.
Don't wait until you think you have completed all your analyses to start writing.
'Parallel processing' of writing one chapter while you complete
the analyses for others and make presentation quality figures is a good strategy for
avoiding writer's burn-out. Writing and analysis for any given
chapter or paper is often an iterative process. Writing the results section of a paper is
often the best way to discover the analyses and figures that
still need to be done.
19. Use word processors effectively and back up your work religiously.
Computers have improved tremendously the ease with which we can edit, shuffle,
rewrite, and spell-check a paper. To do this efficiently requires investing time in learning
about your tools. You need not learn how to use all the more exotic features of your word
processor, but learn the options that are available and how to find out the details when
you need them. Minimally, be familiar with basic requirements for document formatting
(character and paragraph formatting, how to make lists with hanging indents, page
organization, etc.) and basic operating system requirements (copying and saving files,
doing directory searches). The same comments apply to the use of statistical packages,
graphics programs, and spreadsheets. It is often possible to get the job done with little
finesse in manipulating your software, but you will usually do a better job more
efficiently after some investment in technical skills.
Almost everyone seems to require their own personal disaster to convince them of
the need for backing up important files regularly. The frequency of 'lost file' based
excuses for late papers is remarkable. I save files to my hard drive frequently during
working sessions and at the end of each session I make a back-up copy of any file that I
would mind losing. The working memory of your computer is transitory and easily
purged of its contents. Individual hard and floppy disks are little better as permanent
storage forms. Redundant copies dispersed in space and time are your main hope for
avoiding disasters. When you have invested a lot in a writing project such as a thesis that
is nearing completion, keep at least one at school at all times - in addition to your
working copy on a hard drive. Keep sample hard copies of recent drafts until you
complete
the project.
20. Take editorial comments seriously.
It may be clear from an editor's comments that they did not understand the point
you were making. If so, that is a clear indication that you need to improve your writing.
Also, an editor, no matter who they might be, has invested their time to help improve the
quality of your writing. Respect their investment.
21. One last style suggestion: limit the use of prepositional phrases at the start of
sentences and limit the use of 'the.'
It is very easy to start a sentence with a prepositional phrase, however, it often
causes the main point of the sentence to be lost. Reread a sentence that starts with a
prepositional phrase but place the phrase somewhere within the sentence, even at the end.
You will often find that the sentence reads more clearly with the prepositional phrase
buried within the sentence or that you do not need the phrase at all.
“The" is probably the most overused word in the English language. When
rewriting your first draft, think about whether or not the placement of every "the" is
necessary. For example: "The samples were taken using a Ponar dredge" reads Just as
well when written as 'Samples were taken using a Ponar Dredge." The only difference is
the latter sentence is neat, tidy, and to the point.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The materials presented are taken, with permission, from an article by Ken Lertzman
(Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 1996). I have made some additions and
modifications; however, credit for this work should be given to Dr. Lertzman.
Literature Cited
Williams, J.M. 1990. Style: toward creativity and grace. University of Chicago Press,
Chicago,
Illinois, USA.