Writing Science

As a scientist, you are a professional writer: your career is built on successful proposals and papers. Success isn't defined by getting papers into print, but by getting them into the reader's consciousness. Writing Science is built upon the idea that successful science writing tells a story. It uses that insight to discuss how to write more effectively. Integrating lessons from other genres of writing with those from the author's years of experience as author, reviewer, and editor, the book shows scientists and students how to present their research in a way that is clear and that will maximize reader comprehension. The book takes an integrated approach, using the principles of story structure to discuss every aspect of successful science writing, from the overall structure of a paper or proposal to individual sections, paragraphs, sentences, and words. It begins by building core arguments, analyzing why some stories are engaging and memorable while others are quickly forgotten, and proceeds to the elements of story structure, showing how the structures scientists and researchers use in papers and proposals fit into classical models. The book targets the internal structure of a paper, explaining how to write clear and professional sections, paragraphs, and sentences in a way that is clear and compelling. The ideas within a paper should flow seamlessly, drawing readers along. The final section of the book deals with special challenges, such as how to discuss research limitations and how to write for the public. Writing Science is a much-needed guide to succeeding in modern science. Its insights and strategies will equip science students, scientists, and professionals across a wide range of scientific and technical fields with the tools needed to communicate effectively.

I grew up in New York City, loving the outdoors but thinking I wanted to be a chemist. I only discovered soil science after I graduated from College and was working as a technician in an ecosystem ecology lab. I'd never liked biology but I'd never realized that it could let you do chemistry with a view out the window that wasn't looking over the East River to Brooklyn, but over Toolik Lake and the arctic cottongrass south to the Brooks Range, and the world. It's even more fun when the snow's flying and the mosquitoes are not. I became a Professor, first at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and now at UC Santa Barbara, as well as journal editor, Program Chair, and other jobs that need doing to keep science and Academe running. But the real fun in being a scientist will always be the rush of a new data set. There is nothing like the "Huh!?" of a "What an Idiot" moment, when something that had been puzzling suddenly becomes clear, leaving me wondering how I'd been such an idiot not to have seen it before. Somewhere along the line I became interested in communication and how we tell the story to explain our results; marrying an aspiring writer didn't hurt either. I put together my first workshop on writing science when I was spending the summer in a lab in Montpellier, France; that morphed into a full-blown graduate class back in Santa Barbara. I started writing up notes from class and thought I might flesh them out in a few columns for the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. Everything was going smoothly until the "What an Idiot" moment: I wasn't writing a few essays--I was writing a book. Huh.