“The Science of Scientific Writing,” by George Gopen and Judith Swan, explains some of the best practices writers can use to help readers comprehend scientific writing.

The authors acknowledge that while scientific writing can be difficult to read and write, writing with reader expectations in mind can bridge readers’ potential gap in understanding. They provide multiple examples of how tabular data and written prose can be presented clearly, discussing the role of structure.

Some highlights:

• Subject-verb positioning matters. When the subject and verb are separated by too many words, this causes an interruption that makes the content more difficult to understand.
• Material at the beginning of sentences should link and contextualize old and new ideas.
• Writers should place material they want to emphasize toward the end of their sentences in order to provide closure for readers (the stress position).

This resource was submitted by Dr. Sue Lowery from the Biology Department.