Writing Science in Plain English

Anne E. Greene

May 2013 · University of Chicago Press

About this ebook

Scientific writing is often dry, wordy, and difficult to understand. But, as Anne E. Greene shows in Writing Science in Plain English,writers from all scientific disciplines can learn to produce clear, concise prose by mastering just a few simple principles.
This short, focused guide presents a dozen such principles based on what readers need in order to understand complex information, including concrete subjects, strong verbs, consistent terms, and organized paragraphs. The author, a biologist and an experienced teacher of scientific writing, illustrates each principle with real-life examples of both good and bad writing and shows how to revise bad writing to make it clearer and more concise. She ends each chapter with practice exercises so that readers can come away with new writing skills after just one sitting.
Writing Science in Plain English can help writers at all levels of their academic and professional careers—undergraduate students working on research reports, established scientists writing articles and grant proposals, or agency employees working to follow the Plain Writing Act. This essential resource is the perfect companion for all who seek to write science effectively.

Ratings and reviews

I have been procrastinating writing/editing my reviews. I guess destiny was beckoning. This was a great read.

Although I only read the sample pages, I found the author indeed figures out the crucial ideas on technical writing and the book itself is the best illustration.

The knowledge to write or what written in Audience, informal register, popular Register, abstract register and a tone. I would recommend this book.

About the author

Anne E. Greene is a biologist by training and teaches scientific writing in the Wildlife Biology Program at The University of Montana.