The Science of Scientific Writing (1990) | Hacker News Reader

The Science of Scientific Writing (1990)

americanscientist.org

74 pointsTomte9 comments

This is the single most influential article on ALL my professional communication. Before reading this article I used to consider my emails/documents/etc finished as soon as they included all of the content I wanted to cover. This taught me empathy for the reader in writing. And if writing can help the writer clarify their ideas, then clarifying your writing can even improve how you organize your own thoughts.

George Gopen hails from the same school of writing as Joseph Williams[1] and Larry McInerny[2]. He has also written a book that dives deeper into things[3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style:_Lessons_in_Clarity_and_...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM

[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3393233-the-sense-of-str...

Unfortunately, [3] is a bit tedious, IMO, go for [1], which is the best book about writing, bar none.

Second best in principle is Thomas' & Turner's "Clear and simple as the truth", but it is hardly applicable to scientific (or technical) writing. If you're thinking about writing essays, get T&T.

> Larry McInerny[2].

*Larry McEnerney

(I, too, recommend his talk.)

I love this list.

An additional resource I would add to it is Steven Pinker's "Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century"[0].

Pinker's book advocates for the same classical style as Williams and Thomas & Turner. But Pinker also offers a deep dive into grammar, linguistics, and word choice (Pinker is a member of the American Heritage Dictionary's Usage Panel[1])

One other note: Joseph Williams's "Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace" is available in roughly infinite editions under similar titles. PDFs of some of those titles are available for free online.

[0]: <https://stevenpinker.com/publications/sense-style-thinking-p...> [1]: <https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/usagepanel.html>

Just wanted to add another vote for "Sense of Style." In addition to exploring the subject matter in the posted article in more detail, it also exposed me to the concept of the "curse of knowledge" which has been instrumental in helping my approach toward communication.

I have Williams' book and endorse it. Also worth picking up is William Zinsser's On Writing Well https://www.harpercollins.com/products/on-writing-well-willi...

How to write science: many years ago, this piece has transformed my scientific writing. It's one of those vital skills that are mysteriously never taught in college. In a gist, by understanding the reader's expectations, you can write text that the reader will immediately get.

How to write science by Michael Hochberg?

This is a good document. I remember receiving it from my boss at NIST when I got there as a postdoc.

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