5 Tips For Scientists On How to Not Write Like Scientists

Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - 15:31 in Health & Medicine

Dusty Academic Journals Mace Ojala via FlickrA Stanford professor is trying to teach doctors and scientists how to write manuscripts that aren't dusty and jargony. Reading through scientific papers can be a terrifying experience, and not just because of the jargon. Take, for example, this string of words: "We classified injuries as initial or subsequent injuries. An initial injury was defined as the athlete's first injury incident during the season. Subsequent injury was defined as any injury that occurred after the initial injury, including re-injury to the same body part or a subsequent new injury to a different body part. Total injuries included all injuries recorded, initial and subsequent." Eyes bleeding? It should be so much simpler than that! Stanford University epidemiologist Kristin Sainani is on a mission to improve matters, turning scientists into people who can communicate their research in actual English. "Academia has a way of writing that can...

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