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Disrupting the inheritance of poor writing habits: a new approach to scientific writing in the life sciences. Charles Frink Frink Communications frinkcom@xs4all.nl Founding Member of ProSciCom www.proscicom.nl.
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Disrupting the inheritance of poor writing habits:a new approach to scientific writing in the life sciences Charles Frink Frink Communications frinkcom@xs4all.nl Founding Member of ProSciCom www.proscicom.nl
The problem: 500,000 new publications per year in the life sciences — almost 1 per minute.Poor writing habits add to this problem: “There is no form of prose more difficult to understand and tedious to read than the average scientific paper” (Francis Crick)
From the reader’s perspective • Easy-to-read articles are scarce • The credibility and relevance of the study are not immediately clear. • Reading is hard work!
From the perspective of journal editors and peer reviewers • Originality of the research is dubious • Its relevance cannot be seen • Has this research has made any contributions? • Why is this work interesting?
“Generations of editors, reviewers and readers have struggled to understand complex, exaggerated and often pompous prose that does little to enhance the reader’s understanding but aims to demonstrate the scholarly prowess of the author.”Amin Bredan (2013) • Bredan A, Inheritance of poor writing habits, EMBO reports (2013) 14, 593-596
This style has its origins in academic writing, which often aims “to impress, not to express"
From George Orwell1 to Steven Pinker2, scholars have pointed out the problem and suggested solutions • “Politics and the English Language” (1946) • “Why Academics Stink at Writing” (2014)
Teachers of scientific writing have focused on the linguistic “nuts and bolts”… …but the quality of much writing in the life sciences is still below par. Why?
Specialization! Increasing specialization means that published research is increasingly difficult for outsiders to understand. Authors must focus on readability for the non-specialist
Who are these non-specialist readers? Members of multidisciplinary consortia Policy makers in health care Members of grant assessment boards
Readability = credibility Jargon, passive voice, embedded expressions and complex sentences obscure meaning — even for readers in the same discipline
Poor writing habits are inherited Ineffective writing is transmitted by senior scientists to junior ones. Amin Bredan, scientist and journal editor
Disrupting the inheritance of poor writing habits Begin with the “meta-structure” of a manuscript • Focus on core concepts first, then support them with details. • Tie the core concepts together as a story, with a beginning and an end.
Expert communicators use core concepts Experts organize their knowledge around core concepts—"big ideas that guide their thinking about their domains.” (John Branford, How People Learn, NAP, 2000)
Structure has priority over language • When core concepts are clearly presented and solidly connected, linguistic aspects become less crucial and easier to improve. • Peer reviewers can focus on the actual scientific content, even if the linguistic aspects are below par.
Tell a story We are hard-wired to tell and understand stories Build your story on core concepts Start from common ground
The first sentence of an introductionfrom a novice “Basal ganglia is a term to denote subcortical nuclei, consisting of the striatum (putamen or PUT and caudate nucleus or CN), the pallidum (internal and external globus pallidus or GPi and GPe), subthalamic nucleus (STN) and substantia nigra (pars compacta or SNc and pars reticulata or SNr).”
The first sentence of an introduction from an expert: Influenza threatens the lives of many patients—especially the elderly and the very young.
General aspects of a scientific article Author’s aim
General aspects of a scientific article Logical flow
Core components of an article Title Problem definition and strategy Research question/hypothesis Methods/study design Results Discussion Conclusion
Example of a title “Local meteorological data predicts malaria epidemics in Ethiopia”
Example of problemand general strategy “Most deaths from malaria in Ethiopia could be prevented if adequate medical facilities and medicines were available at the beginning of an epidemic. This, however, requires predicting epidemics.”
Example of research question (1) What local meteorological factors, and what combinations of factors, correlate significantly with the occurrence of subsequent malaria epidemics in Ethiopia? (2)To what extent do the factors explain the variance of occurrence of subsequent epidemics?
Example of study design “In a retrospective study, we collected meteorological data on rainfall, temperature, sunshine... as well as data on malaria epidemics for 10 local areas in Ethiopia. This data covered the years 1963 to 2006. We analysed the data by means of …”
Example of results “Local meteorological factors AAA, BBB and CCC correlated significantly with subsequent malaria epidemics. The combination of CCC and DDD correlated significantly and explained 30% of the variance in subsequent epidemics.”
Example of Discussion Answer the research question: “Our results suggest that malaria epidemics correlate significantly with rainfall and temperature, but not with sunshine and humidity. The combination of temperature and sunshine may explain 30% of the variance in malaria epidemics ” Support that answer: “Previous studies showed significant correlation of epidemics with the rainy season.”
Example of Conclusion Relevance: “Our pilot study demonstrates that local meteorological data can be used to predict malaria epidemics in Ethiopia.” Limitations: “We could not verify the accuracy of older meteorological data.” Future research: “Our predictive model could also be tested in other regions.”
Contact me for more information or to order the above book by my colleague Ed Hull. Thank you for your attention.
