style
Be clear and brief
Editors of journals all say that the most important thing when writing is: be clear. You should keep this idea in your head as you prepare, as you write, and especially as you rewrite a paper. Always remember the reader will be seeing your results for the first time, so you should make it as easy as possible for them to understand.
The first step towards being clear is to be brief. You should use the minimum number of words to make your points.
Avoid giving too much introductory material; all references to other work should be directly relevant to your results. Do not repeat descriptions of results or ideas. By careful organisation you can avoid unnecessary repetition of text in different sections. Many phrases can be replaced by a single word, and many commonly used phrases can simply be deleted. Use of the active voice is usually shorter and clearer.
This course aims to give many simple examples of how to make your writing clearer and more scientific.
Albert Einstein once said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”.This is a great guiding principle for anyone writing a biomedical paper.
1. Avoid long phrases that may be better said with one or two words:
avoid | better |
in view of the foregoing circumstances |
therefore |
are found to be in agreement | agree |
has the capability of | can |
in an adequate manner | adequately, |
2. Avoid tautology:
avoid | better |
consensus of opinion | consensus |
fewer in number | fewer |
exact duplicate | duplicate |