Tips for science writing

Formality

This includes not writing in the first person and avoiding emotionally charged language. This contributes to your credibility as a writer.

• Room for improvement: “My patient is really sick and I feel bad. I’m gonna give them antibiotics to make them feel better.”
• More effective: “Based on the 4/5 Centor Criteria, the patient has a good likelihood of having strep throat. A rapid strep test should be used to confirm these findings.”

Objectivity

Never make any claims that can’t be supported by research that is current and peer-reviewed, if possible.

• Room for improvement: “I read an article online that said you can use bee venom to cure bee stings.”
• More effective: “Clinical trials show that homeopathic methods have little to no effect outside of functioning as placebos.”

Concision

Get to the point. Write in a manner that is clear and concise. There’s no need for colorful language or metaphors. The purpose of your writing is merely to convey information.

• Room for improvement: “As I examined Staphylococcus aureus on my Agar plate, I shuddered. The overwhelming grace of this pathogen enveloped me. It was a very beautiful microbe, round and golden like the sun itself.”
• More effective: “Colonies of Staphylococcus aureus have a round and golden-yellow appearance. The cells appear in grape-like clusters when observed at 400x magnification.”

Voice

Unlike more persuasive or humanities based courses, scientific writing tends to prefer a passive voice. The passive voice takes the spotlight off the researcher and helps to narrow the focus to the research itself.

• Room for improvement: “My colleagues and I performed the titration experiment successfully.”
• More effective: “The titration experiment was successful.”

Audience

Regardless of what you’re studying, every writer should know who they’re writing for. If you’re trying to share your work with people outside your field, you should be cautious with using jargon and try to provide detailed explanations. If writing for a group of experts, these explanations may not be necessary.

• Expert audience: “Using APC Petrfilm, it was determined that the number of aerobic bacteria present in the sample was 1.8 x 107 CFU/ml.”
• General audience: “APC (aerobic plate count) Petrifilm is a thin plate that a diluted sample is added to via a pipette or a dropper. Then, after an incubation period, the Petrifilm is observed and the number of colonies that appear are counted to estimate the number of bacterial colonies.”

Formatting

Proper formatting shows that you’re serious about your field of study and are familiar with its conventions. Most scientific fields will use either APA or AMA, so be sure you’re using the right style.